Three days of luck. That was a lot - and it was far too little.
Chapter 3 - The Wedding Night
Hasse understands little of what is happening to her at the moment, but Jan tries to explain to her in what war he’s going to fight and why. (Personally I don’t think he’s doing a very good job, since I only sort of understand it since a couple of years, and that is mainly thanks to other books.)
However, Hasse is fairly happy at the moment. That is, until the following happens:
“He had forgotten her name, the name of which he had said: That sounds like the wind is blowing through the reed.”
Because, while her meeting with Jan had been an important moment for Hasse. (For the first time she had met a person who was kind to her, just because it is the right thing to do.) It wasn’t an all to big moment for Jan.
Jan does however manage to comfort her by telling her that he’s very grateful that she saved him. He says that he’s totally not sorry to be losing his freedom.
(I find it interesting that Hasse immediately worries about how he would find it to be losing his freedom. It really shows that what I noticed in chapter 1, that she cares a lot about being free.)
However, later on:
“Jan van Schaffelaar was sitting in the broken sheepfold, staring in the flames and wondering if he should be happy or desperate. (...) On the other side: he had lost his freedom!”
It appears that Jan is not so happy with Hasse as he told her. I do however think that he would never tell her that, because he really is grateful that she saved his life. Moreover, he knows that she has been unwanted for almost all her life already.
In the meantime, Hasse is hunting and Jan notices that he starts to worry. This also shows that he does actually care for Hasse, even if he doesn’t know it himself yet.
The next night they arrive in Zutphen where Jan meets his company. In this part we also see more about Jan’s respect for Hasse. He tells everyone that he’s married with a special person, he threatens his soldiers when they’re disrepectful about Hasse and he buys way too expensive clothes for her, just because it might make her happy.
The last night before Jan leaves they dine at his employees place, where Hasse embarrasses herself at first, because she never had to use all that cutlery. Jan does however stand up for her. This amazes Hasse, because nobody has ever taken her side before.
Later, we have Jan telling everyone how great Hasse is at archery:
“She hunts like Diana, with arrow-and-bow.”
But Hasse doesn’t know that Diana is a Roman goddess, so she later asks Jan to explain himself. However, he is pretty tipsy and doesn’t explain right away, which gives Hasse the impression that Diana is a real person. Jan thinks that’s funny and laughs at her.
We do know however that Hasse cannot stand hypocrisy and while she clearly likes Jan and cares about him, she’s not afraid to tell him what she thinks. He quickly explains after this and Hasse forgets her anger.
That was their last night together and the day after, Jan leaves to go to war.