One is bad, the other is

The window overlooking the courtyard was easily big enough for her to climb through, but after that it led only to ****. The drop from her window was over eighty feet. Although she had tried to throw herself from this very ledge, now that the immediate threat to her virtue was passed out on the bed, she was no longer willing to give up this easily. Her parent's suite was only one story below, but on the other side of the tower. If they had been directly under her she might have considered fashioning a rope out of the bedding, but she couldn't figure out how to get around the tall tower even with a rope.

The only other way down was through the privy hole. Christine had never even considered the possibility of crawling through the small hole where she relived herself, but she knew that a boy made the climb once a week with brushes to keep the stench from becoming too overpowering. The other factor that made this plan worth considering was that she had heard her father's grunting as he used to necessity in the morning. That must mean that both their garderobes were connected to the same downward shaft.

With a grimace of disgust, she lowered her feet through the hole and with a little wiggling, first her hips and then her chest squeezed through the tight opening. Her small feet swung around as she hung there from her arms, and thankfully, found a foothold before she had time to consider what she might do if this plan didn't work. It took a little more wiggling, but she found herself in the shaft that led to her escape. It wasn't all that bad (except for the smell), the footholds she found were cut into the rock at regular intervals for her hands and feet and she was able to make her way downward into the blackness with relative ease.

About twenty feet down she saw a faint light coming from the side of the shaft. It wasn't so much a light as a patch of darkness that wasn't quite as black as everything else around it. Christine reached up and found a hole much like the one she had just crawled through and with a burst of determination she pulled herself up into what she hoped was her parent's privy chamber.

From the adjoining room she heard the muffled sound of somber conversation, moving the velvet curtain to the side she saw her father's solid frame kneeling by her mother's bed. Her brother was curled up on the same chair that she remembered sleeping in as a girl before her mother's condition had deteriorated.

"Father!" She saw him stiffen when her low whisper reached him. "Father, is it safe?" The look of pride and wonder in her father's eyes was reward enough for all her hard work.

"C-c-christine!" He stammered. "How?"

"I came through the privy." She explained unnecessarily.

"Prince Henry ... he let you go?" She could see the pain in her father's face, "unharmed?"

"Unharmed, Father. He drank Erik's sleeping draught," Christine explained softly, "he passed out before anything happened." Not exactly before anything happened, but it was true enough for what her parents needed to know. "Can you call your guards?"

Her father's fists tightened when he shook his head. "All the loyal ones are locked in the barracks; I heard the Bastard Prince tell his men to burn the building if they tried to get out." After what she experienced, Christine didn't doubt for a moment that Henry was capable of just that kind of atrocity.

"We have to get away." Again, her father shook his head. "His men are just outside, and your mother cannot travel even if I could overpower them."

"What can we do?"

Her father glanced towards where Erik lay curled up on the chair. With a grimace her twisted off the heavy signet ring that had resided on his right hand for as long as Christine could remember. The heavy gold ring studded with emeralds had belonged to the Baron of Gerard for at least the past five generations, it was the ring each and every man and women who swore loyalty kissed when they took Bartholomew's hand, and now her father was passing it to her. There were no clearer words her father could have spoken that indicated just how dire the situation had become.

"Take this for Erik." He placed the ring in her palm and closed her delicate fingers over it. "Do all you can to help Erik become a squire." The words were like a commandment biding her to her brother. "Others may help you with this task. But I lay this charge on your slender shoulders -Erik must become a knight."

Chrirstine stared up at her father's eyes without hesitation as he set out the path she must follow. "Take Erik and get away." Baron Gerard placed all the hopes of his bloodline in the hands of his tiny daughter. "Go to Oldchester and find the Notary Merthin on the Street of Gold," at his desk he carefully wrote out a short note on parchment and sanded and folded it before handing it to Christine, "give him this. Merthin has money that he is holding for me; thirty guineas. It's not a fortune, but it should be enough to get you to France; your brother has friends there from the crusades, find them and tell them what has happened." The pair spoke for a few more minutes about finding a knight to take Erik on as a squire, and the importance of remaining undiscovered until her brother was old enough to challenge Henry. "When he is ready, and not until then, give him this ring. He will know what to do."

"Now, say goodbye to your mother." He laid his hand on Christine's, "Don't tell her what has happened, she doesn't know." Christine looked at the slight woman lying on her bed, her face drawn and pale. She knew that this would be her final farewell, even if Prince Henry had not turned on her family, her mother was not long for this world." As she made her way to the bedside her father rested his hand on her small shoulders. "I will wake Erik and help him get ready."

Less than ten minutes later she was leading her brother down the shaft and into the culvert that drained the human waste into the castle moat. By the time they paddled their way to the other side and scaled the slippery side of the moat they were soggy and miserable, but free from Henry and his men.

For now.