KNIGHTS AND SOLDIERS ON THE PATH

The further from home that Brownlea took me on his strong back, the more upset I became that they had taken my dear father way as if we were a slave. Probably they would make him into a slave, I thought. I just had to do something to stop them! ‘Please God, please help me…” It washed over me again, that perhaps I was being foolish. ‘I’m just a little girl’ – yes, and those men out there, the kidnappers, they were all like giants. More than just one goliath!

Oh, no, a company ahead. Two knights riding towards me with a large company following them.

I yelled at Brownlea to halt and pulled back on his reins. He skittered and I struggled to control him, wanting to keep him right there on the road. It didn’t occur to me at the time that they could be some, or all, of the kidnappers. I’m glad they weren’t.

The two knights rode close to me, one on either side.

I blurted, “Sir Tristan ... did he pass this way? And about twenty soldiers? ... They’ve stolen my father… Baron Chatelain ... he’s their prisoner!”

The men lifted the visors on their helmets and one said, “We met Sir Tristan but there wasn’t a prisoner with them… but…”

The men turned their horses and yelled at the whole company to turn around.

It was strange.

They all rode back the way they had come.

There was nothing to do, but to follow… 

Jobyna

Riding alone, yet not alone

I came to some cross-paths and hesitated, or at least I think so. It's strange what you remember when you think back. A lot of this chase was a blur, trees, bare and leafless, some evergreens, the brown muddy road, rocky in some places. Fresh dung, horse dung. Steaming in the cool air.
And I remember being alone, feeling alone, my heart racing within my chest as if it would leap out. Trying to catch my breath and sometimes wishing that Brownlea were Rainbow, but I would have needed Rainbow with wings. Not that slow old mare who has been so faithful, step after step. I tried to keep my mind on catching up with my father's kidnappers, but with the galloping race of Brownlea's hoofs, I found my mind dashing over a dozen different reasons not to be doing what I was doing. My mother's anger. She would be SO angry, I told myself. And I think Papa would be mad with me, but I could not stop myself. I just had to find my father and even if I could not rescue him, as if I could, I thought, even if I could not, it would be enough, just to be with him.
Then, I realised that I was not so alone after all. I believed in my Heavenly Father. Tears blinded my eyes but I knew I could go on. I was not alone, no not at all, and if David had truly killed the giant, then I knew that I could somehow rescue my father, even if it cost me. What would it cost? I wondered. I hoped it wouldn't hurt too much, or that I wouldn't have to part with Brownlea. Kidnappers would steal horses too...

Jobyna - "On my way to rescue my father..."

I ran from the woodshed, around to the stables, but all the horses were gone! Only my first horse, if you can all it a horse, was there... 'Rainbow' ... I had called the small mare by that name because she was a rainbow of colors. I should have run to the village, but somehow, in my racing mind, a horse would get me there faster...
Upon arriving at Reeve Gauzier's house, and waiting for a servant to fetch him, I blurted out the sorry story, only to hear him asking, "This is some kind of game you are playing, isn't it?"
"You must believe me," I pleaded, "I wouldn't lie about my father being taken away, or about Sir Felix asking me to tell you to send men with axes and battering rams. Please... it's true..."
The Reeve raved on about the past and the pranks we used to play...
I bowed my head in despair.
“I’ll have to call some men from their places of work to check it out. All the knights and soldiers who guard the village keep have gone to Frencberg. I won’t have the bell run, not until I prove such an action to be justified. You’ll be in big trouble if you ARE making up this story, Miss Jobyna! You forget. But I don't..."
"Thank you, Sir, thank you," I said, and I hurried around to Hedy's house. Hedy was kind of a friend... anyway, her father, whose name was Norman, was the carpenter in Chanoine. Father had commissioned him to make a number of the wooden screws for the invention.
I could see that he didn't believe me. . “They’ve taken the printing press too, Norman. I saw them putting it in saddle-bags... please, you have to help..."
I was getting desperate for my father's sake.
Norman called two of his workers to go with him. I was so pleased to see him taking an axe with him. Hopefully Mother and my brothers and sister, and everyone else, would soon be freed from the woodshed.
But what about my Father. There was nobody here to help him.
Hedy started asking all kinds of questions. 
I saw a little carving knife on the bench among some tools that had obviously been in use. I pushed it up my sleeve, between the layers. I was thinking of the leather ties that had been around my father's wrists which were behind his back. How could he ride like that?
I ignored Hedy and hurried to where I had left Rainbow and climbed on.
Rainbow could not go far, she was so old, so I dismounted and walked up the slope to where I had left Brownlea. 
All I could think of was my father and how far away he would be. Brownlea would have to gallop for as long as he could... they had gone south, I was sure of that.

Soon, I was riding south...


 

When my father was taken away...

I was only about 9 years old when my father was taken away. They call it 'kidnapping' even when it is an adult. Sometimes, it is 'abducted'. I learned later that it was because of my father's invention - you see, he was working on a printing press. Yes, way back in early medieval times. People were fascinated by inventions, especially something that seemed impossible. But long before my father began inventing a printing machine, people in China had been printing with movable wooden letters.
Papa had made another one when he lived at Kings Castle, and this one had been sold and taken away to another Kingdom. But they couldn't get it working and now, bad men had come back to take my father away with the partly finished printing press he had been working on in a building at the back of our manor house attached to the wood-shed.
So, while Luke and I were out riding, having a bit of a race to the cliff-top where we could look down on the village and manor house, my father was taken away. Everyone was locked in the wood-shed. Luke was taken there, and when I got back home, I was locked in there too.
Because I was the smallest one in that room, I was lifted to climb out and get help.
I told the Reeve in Chanoine village what had happened and while he took care of it, I decided to ride my new horse, Brownlea, in the direction the kidnappers had gone because I could not just let my father be taken off like that, could I?
Everything happened so fast, but I know my heart was full of prayers for my father. How could we be a family without Father?  I so wanted to do something to rescue him...

The Manor House where I live in Chanoine, Frencolia

This is the Manor House where I live.

FAMILY is the BEST!!-- oh, that is, next to God.

Jobyna Chatelain
THE FRENCOLIAN CHRONICLES

Introduction to 'me' - Jobyna Chatelain (aka Chanec) of THE FRENCOLIAN CHRONICLES

My name is Jobyna Chatelain and I was born near the end of the Dark Ages, in very early Medieval Times. I am the fifth child of Elissa and Louis Chatelain. When I was born, my father was second in line to the Frencolian Throne and spent most of his time in Frencberg with King Leopold, living in Kings Castle. My oldest brother was named Louis, after his father, but we called him L.J. as he was known as Louis Junior.
My mother had twins next and my father named them Marcus and Elissa. Marcus was a very brave knight who was killed before I was born, and of course, Elissa was named after my mother. The next born was Luke, my dearest brother as we have always been very close. He's a bit bossy but I find ways to deal with him and to him. He can be nasty sometimes, but Father dealt to him when that happened. Luke thinks he is teasing me, but as everyone knows, teasing can be like torment when you're the youngest in the family.
I'll try to write something every day, and please let me know what you most want to hear about. In my life there were lots of drama and tragic happens as well as amazing times and as a family, we made beautiful memories to cherish.
People think my parents are dead, but they are not. I still don't know where they are.
But I won't start there, I'll begin at the time when I saved my father's life. I think that is one of the most amazing and best of all the memories I have and next to that is Luke becoming King of Frencolia...
I'll be back tomorrow.
Jobyna