Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 14 - The Knight

She turned around feeling calmer, and started.

A man was walking from the other end of the corridor. For a shocking moment she thought that it was him, but then she saw the white halberdier’s cross over the man’s chest. He was much thinner than Uncle Paul and walked faster, and she thought that he was much younger.

“Oh, it’s a little night angel,” a kind voice said.

Marina stood still. Could it be that he ...? Were all men like that? Would he ...?

Although her father had taught her that she needed to curtsey only for kings and queens and that her rank was higher than everyone else’s – well almost, and certainly higher than the King’s halberdiers – she dropped a frightened curtsey.

He had walked right up to her. He seemed kind. So did Uncle Paul, but he was obsequiously kind and not genuine. This man standing before her wasn’t like that.

“Did you have a nightmare?” he asked compassionately.

“No,” Marina whispered. “I was just so frightened that somebody might come.”

“But surely you could have locked your door?”

“I haven’t got a key.”

She had to be careful and not say too much. You never knew. Maybe he was the executioner who had dressed up as a halberdier? No, the executioner had cruel eyes. This one had eyes that looked sad. Kind.

He looked about. “Which is your room?”

Marina pointed at her door.

The man immediately walked up to the door and felt with his hand over the doorframe. Marina had a burning desire to throw herself into his arms and tell him everything at dizzying speed, ask him to slap Uncle Paul, ask him to stay by her side all through the night, ask him to say that everything she had experienced so far was just an evil dream.

But she stood quietly beside him.

“They did that when I was a little boy,” he explained. “The servant girls. They hid the key so that I couldn’t sneak in to Mum and Dad. I was so terribly frightened of the dark, you see. But I knew where they normally hid the key. They locked me in. But tell me: do they forbid you to lock your door? See, I thought so.”

He held a wonderful, comforting sight in the shape of a key before her eyes. “You have a perfect right to lock the door if you’re scared. They ought to be able to understand that. What is it you’re afraid of? Ghosts?”“No,” Marina whispered with her head bent. “A man.”

Oh, she was just so frightened! She shouldn’t have said that!

“A man?” the kind man said in surprise. “Someone you’ve seen? And who you thought looked horrible?”

She pressed her lips tight because she was afraid of saying more. With a quick “Thank you” she snatched the key and disappeared into her room.

Tristan listened to hear her turn the key in the lock.

Twice, three times she tried the door, but it didn’t open.

He shook his head in dismay and walked on. These lonely children, he thought to himself. These thousands of children living in castles and on grand estates! Brought up with an iron discipline that the grown-ups would never dream of exposing themselves to!

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