The Noble Ladies' Orphanage

Chapter 22

The students at the Noble Ladies' Orphanage soon settled into a comfortable routine. They studied in the morning, worked on projects in the afternoon or went outside when the weather was nice, and practiced their play after dinner.

Susana usually visited Caspar after lunch. She enjoyed spending time at Anna's house, and Peter often gave her a ride home as he was working as a hostler at the Noble Ladies' Orphanage in the afternoons when the noble girls went riding and in the evening when they received visitors. About a week after school started, Susana asked Zdenka if she'd mind going for a walk with her late in the afternoon before dinner.

"Of course," Zdenka said. "Where are we going?"

"The debtor's prison," Susana said. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about Filip Timko. I wonder if he's there."

"How will we find out?" Zdenka asked. "I don't think the guards will just tell us."

"We'll have to see."

Tree leaves blew across the cobblestone street as they walked up to the debtor's prison. A feeling of dread slowed Susana's steps and spread through her chest as she remembered her last time here.

The guard stood with a long spear, but he seemed to use the spear as a resting stick rather than as a weapon.

"Can I help you ladies?" the guard asked.

"My father was here," Susana said. "Master Loboda. Do you remember him?"

"I do," the guard said. "My condolences. He seemed like a good man."

"Yes, he was," Susana said. "I'm here today to find out if there's a man in the prison by the name of Filip Timko."

"Why do you want to know?" the guard asked.

"His mother is worried about him," Susana said.

The guard nodded and scratched at his beard. "Yes, mothers do that," he said. "Filip Timko, Filip Timko," he repeated the name and looked in the distance as if he were trying to remember something. "I don't recall hearing that name, Miss," he said.

"Could we go in and check?" Susana asked.

"You want to go in?" She nodded. "In there?" he pointed to the prison's entrance. She nodded again.

"Very well," he said.

"Thank you, Sir," Susana said. She gave a slight curtsy, which Zdenka awkwardly imitated, and the girls walked into the prison. They both instinctively began holding their breath once inside. The stale, dusty, urine stench hit them like blast. Susana gave weak smiles to the prisoners on both sides of the narrow hall between their cells.

"Do you know Filip Timko?" she asked each person. They looked at her with hollow, watery eyes and shook their heads. Down at the end of the hallway, Susana and Zdenka turned the corner and walked down the other hallway. They asked each of the prisoners, but none of them knew of Filip Timko, so the girls went back out to see the guard.

"He's not there," Susana said to the guard.

"Sorry to hear that," the guard said.

"Thanks for letting us look, though," Susana said.

"You're welcome," he said. "And I hope you find what you're looking for."

"Where could he be?" Susana asked as they walked back toward the orphanage. "I don't even know where to look now. That was the only place I could think of."

"Well, that was the debtor's prison," Zdenka said. "Aren't there other kinds of prisons? Maybe he isn't in prison at all. Maybe the Hapsburgs took him to work for them and they don't want him living among the Czechs anymore."