Page 65 of With You Here
She braced the muscles in her middle. Prepared herself for his response.
“Even if given a lifetime, I would not take back words spoken with conviction and conscience.” His voiced resonated around the room.
Her father waited a minute before answering. “So be it.”
The two landsknechte warriors that had dumped Nikolaus upon the cold ground seized Lorenz.
“You seem to have forgotten your daughter, Prince Ernst.” Kampff regarded her with malice.
Her gut twisted then hardened.
“Christyne.” Lorenz said her name. In his voice, in that tone, the two syllables were enough. As with the night past, he did not attempt to dissuade her from her course but offered his own strength so that she not stumble along the way.
“My daughter is not a heretic, Kampff.” Her father’s voice was steel upon steel.
The duke clicked his tongue as if he were chastising a child. “My witness says she received a second baptism last eve.”
“Then she recants,” her father ground out.
“Does she?” Kampff walked his fingers along her shoulder and then pinched her skin hard.
Familiar gray eyes stared at her. “Daughter,” he commanded.
But she was not one of his men that he could order her about, nor could she obey him in this regard. “I am sorry, Father, but my life is Christ’s. I cannot and will not deny my faith in Him alone.”
Shouts arose from all around Christyne. So many voices that she could not make out the words that passed lips. But she heard Bishop Wilmer’s low timbre in outrage and the distinct cry of a woman.
Hands seized her upper arms in a painful grip and dragged her backwards. Her heels slid across the floor as her feet sought purchase.
Where were they being taken? Bright light burned her eyes and she blinked. Out of the great hall, across the courtyard, and through the portcullis the hands upon her pushed and prodded. A songbird perched on a nearby branch at the edge of the forest lifted up its beak and let out melodic tune before extending its wings and soaring into the air.
Would the breath of life within her breast be released from her body and fly to the heavens to be returned this day to the Lord?
The press of bodies jostled her, but she kept her focus on the small bird. A symbol of the hope she clung to. For though she would return to the dust from which she was made, she would but sleep for a time. There would come a day when Jesus would return, His breath and her body reuniting, and she would arise, resurrected, and meet Him in those heavenly clouds.
She stumbled to a halt and blinked her eyes into focus.
The lake. Its crystalline waters appeared serene, sunlight reflected as diamonds atop its surface. Blue and clear, it offered life to the creatures of the forest. She used to come and rest at the shore, mesmerized by the falling water at the far end of its edges.
Now this watery sanctuary would become her final resting place.
A landsknecht approached with a length of rope, and she offered him her wrists as she looked about. Where was Lorenz?
There. His back was toward her, but he appeared to be speaking with someone. Her father?
Hurt sliced at her heart. Only moments left upon this earth and her sire did not wish to offer her a farewell but used the waning time to speak with another.
Fingers gripped her chin and yanked her head around. Kampff’s hard gaze bore into her. “Say the word, and I will put an end to this. I can save you.”
She wrenched her jaw from his grasp. “I have already been saved.”
He growled and stepped away. Nodded his head to another. In seconds she was hauled off her feet, carried into the water, and placed within a small boat near the shore. Lorenz slowly walked into the water toward the boat. He smiled at her as he boarded the vessel, his hands tied in front of him. A man holding an oar shoved the boat off the bottom of the lake and pulled himself into the wooden skiff. He rowed them to the middle of the lake and then stopped.
Without a word, he reached for more rope that lay in the bottom of the boat. He tied the rope first around Lorenz’s neck and then attached a large rock to the end.
Lorenz peered into her eyes as the man repeated the process on her. The fibers of the rope scratched her skin and bit into her neck. The stone lay heavy, pitching her forward.
“Fear not, my love,” Lorenz whispered before he stood and looked out at the crowd gathered along the shore. He moved to the side of the boat, caught her gaze, and then fell with a splash into the water.
