A Spy Is Caught

It is a cold winter night in Franconia as our eyes turn to a little apothecary shoppe in Bamberg. The store is closed and the window shutters are fastened tight so that nobody can see inside. Down in the basement, the muffled cries of a man, bound and gagged, fail to escape detection outside of the basement. The prisoner has iron shackles around his wrists and two men, wearing the uniform of the Black Hussars, hoist the prisoner off the ground so that his feet hang a foot from the floor.

There is a knock at the basement door. The hussars stop their taunting of the prisoner and all is quiet. Even the prisoner stifles his cries for the moment as his eyes glance over towards the door, waiting to see who will walk through the entry. The door creaks open with a sound akin to screaching chalk on a blackboard.

The door opens and the prisoner's eyes grow wide in terror as he sees the woman in black step into the cell. He tries to scream, but nary a sound comes from his throat. The woman steps into the light and gently lowers the hood covering her head. Yellow-gold curls of hair tumble out from the cape as the prisoner looks at the woman. She is very beautiful, but the only thing that the prisoner notices are her ice cold eyes. He knows that he is doomed. It is Milady de Winter.

She removes a long hat pin from her hair and runs her finger tips over its sharp point. She looks at the hat pin, smirks, and then stares straight into the eyes of the prisoner. She runs the hat pin under the prisoner's chin, first gently, then with a little more pressure, and as she traces a fine line under his chin, the razor sharp hat pin draws a thin red line of blood.

"So Herr Bauer. Just who exactly are you working for?"