Heidi seized Jane’s hair firmly, pressing the already bloody knife against her neck.
Gabriel didn’t lower the gun. “You’re not going to hurt her.”
“I’m going to take her inside,” Heidi said, her voice syrupy sweet. “I will give you and Emmerich a head start so that you may run away.”
“You’re letting me and Emmerich go?” Gabriel’s green eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“Because I am kind and generous,” Heidi replied in a childlike voice. “We can all play a little game together. Hide and seek. If you hide well enough, Gabriel, maybe I won’t find you. That way you’ll have a chance to live.”
“I’m not leaving,” Gabriel said.
“I’m very kindly giving you a head start and you’re not taking it? Your allegiance to Jane is most nauseating,” Heidi said. “Run along now and you might live, gentlemen.”
“Do as she says, Gabriel!” Jane cried out. “Run. You and Mr. Ernst can still get away from here.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Gabriel said through gritted teeth.
“Enough of this,” Heidi said as she dragged Jane back through the entrance.
Desperate to think up some kind of escape plan, Jane wracked her brain for the answer. For the way out of this nightmare.
Heidi held the blade against her throat, shoving her towards one of the side doors Jane had spotted earlier. Quickly Heidi opened one of the doors, revealing the back of a tapestry. She shifted the fabric, dragging Jane out into the great hall.
“That door was there the whole time,” Jane said in shock, staring at the tapestry as Gabriel appeared.
“Let her go,” Gabriel said. “Take me instead.”
Heidi laughed loudly before throwing the blade at Gabriel.
He jerked back, slamming the knife away with the rifle, sending the blade clattering to the floor. “Now you have no choice but to let her go.”
Heidi laughed again and wrenched one of the medieval axes from off the wall. “You were saying, Gabriel?”
“This is insane, Heidi,” he said. “Release her.”
“You can’t tell me what to do!” Heidi shrieked, waving the ax over her head. The sharp blade glinted in the light of the great hall, the shiny metal a promise of pain and death. “This castle is mine now. The second I get rid of Jane, I’ll win.”
“That’s why you killed Otto,” Jane forced out as tears pricked the back of her eyes. “To win the castle.”
“Poor, stupid Otto,” Heidi said in a sing-song voice. “He had no idea that I was Friedrich’s when I first started working here. None of them did. Not even Friedrich himself.”
Jane started struggling to get free again. “Is that why you decided to work here? For revenge?”
“I never knew who my father was,” Heidi said, yanking so hard at Jane’s hair that Jane cried out in pain. “My mother wouldn’t tell me. Every time I asked she came up with some story. That he was a soldier. A diplomat. Her university boyfriend. All lies!”
“Let’s strike a deal here, Heidi,” Gabriel said. “Let’s come up with the best way to keep Jane safe. You can have the castle. It’s yours.”
“We won’t fight you on it,” Jane said in agreement. As much as she had dreamed of the castle, it wasn’t worth dying for. And it wasn’t worth losing Gabriel either.
“Liars!” Heidi shouted. “All of you are liars. Just like my mother. She lied for years until I found my birth certificate. Found the truth. I didn’t belong in some shitty little hovel in Geneva. I was a nobleman’s daughter. Me!”
“Heidi, please put the ax down,” Jane begged.
“I’m a nobleman’s daughter. You don’t get to order me around,” Heidi snapped. “But did my father want me? No. The old fool. All those years he was sending my mother money to keep her quiet. Not enough to get us out of that horrid little apartment. Only enough to eat. Daddy didn’t want his rich friends knowing he had a love child with some tourist he met so long ago. Well I’ll show you, Daddy. I’ll show you.”
Jane shoved herself off Heidi with all her might, wrenching free of the deranged young woman’s grip.
“Where do you think you’re going, you bitch?” Heidi swung the ax, the blade singing as Jane jumped away just in time.
“The castle is yours,” Jane forced out. “I’ll sign away my rights to it. I swear.”
“More lies!” Heidi let out a loud shriek that seemed to shake the entire castle. “I worked my way into the castle. Nobody knew that the meek little maid was a von Westen. Everyone ordering me about when they should have