“Here. Your money.”
Hedwig accepted it. “If you want, you can take off your wet things and hang them up. You can find something else over there in the chest to change into.”
“That’s very kind of you, my lady. Thank you.”
“Just call me Hedwig.”
“Thank you, Hedwig.” Madlen smiled. She went over to the chest and took out a piece of clothing. “Can I wear this?”
“Go ahead.” Hedwig waved her hand as if swatting away an insect. “And then spread your wet things over there.” She pointed at two shelves with a thin rope stretched between them. “They’ll dry soon.”
Madlen took off her wet clothes and swiftly pulled on the dry ones. She didn’t feel comfortable exposing herself to a stranger.
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know exactly. In the direction of the Rhine.”
“Why the Rhine?”
“I have relatives there. But here”—Madlen swallowed hard—“I have no one.”
“Why not? Is your husband dead?”
“Not my husband,” Madlen corrected. “My father. I lived with him until a couple of days ago,” she lied, feeling guilty. In reality, she wanted to wring her father’s neck.
“So where do you come from?”
“Speyer,” Madlen spit out quickly; it was the first city that came to mind.
“A truly noble city,” Hedwig said appreciatively. “But then you’ve been on the road for days. Did you sleep outside the whole time?”
“No, just one night. Other than that, I always had shelter.”
Madlen’s blood spiked from hot to cold. This Hedwig asked many questions. Madlen had to be careful with her answers. After all, it was still possible that the sheriff had sent men after her. Revealing too much, even to an old lady, could be her undoing. But it was as if Hedwig could read her mind.
“Oh, forgive my questions. I just don’t have visitors often.”
For a moment, Madlen felt sorry for the old woman. She seemed lonely. But Madlen still had to keep up her guard. “I know how you feel,” she said sympathetically. “I was often alone even when my father was still alive. I enjoy chatting with you, my lady.”
“Hedwig,” she corrected.
“Hedwig. Right.”
Hedwig seemed happy. A smile scurried across her face as she filled a bowl with soup and put it on the table. “Here. This will do you good. Enjoy.”
The two women talked for several hours. Hedwig told Madlen that she had been a farmer’s wife, living just a short distance away until her husband was killed by someone in a dispute. After that, the feudal lord refused her the right to continue cultivating the land. They took away her farmhouse as well as all her fields. She had to sell her oxen and her cow just to survive for a little while.
Finally, she found a job with a butcher’s wife, helping her in the house and also assisting the butcher. As she explained to Madlen, she seemed to have done all right with this work, and sometimes she was even rewarded with a pot of lard to take home.
Madlen hung onto Hedwig’s every word. What a woman! After her husband’s death, she didn’t compromise her dignity and sell herself in a brothel, as Madlen had so often seen in these cases. She refused to become despondent over the obvious injustice meted out to her by the feudal lord. Rather, she’d looked to the future and made the best of a terrible situation. Her stories gave Madlen hope. She wanted to do the same thing. She pumped Hedwig for advice without hinting at the real truth behind her own situation. She admitted only that she was focused on being a healer. Hedwig seemed skeptical. The profession wasn’t considered proper for a woman. She advised Madlen to find some other way to make a living if her relatives on the Rhine could not support her.
“Don’t rely on a man. Even though he may be the best match for you in the entire world, believe me, at some point you’ll regret it.”
“My father wanted me to marry shortly before he died. I would have been taken care of then.”
“For a little while, yes. Thank God that you chose another path. Now you will learn to take care of yourself. There is no greater gift.”
“So you wouldn’t consent to another marriage?”
Hedwig looked down. “If someone came along who was blind enough to take me as I am, I would probably agree. But give up my work? Never. I wouldn’t share my money either, even if he beat me.”
Madlen gazed at her. “I wish I was as strong-willed.”
“You can be, believe me. The Lord has given that to you. Just ask him; he’ll show you what you’re capable of if you want it bad enough.”