there is an almost sinful luxury in being read to in bed before getting up, which can be addressed by the Raven-like level of casuistry that it's work because it's the proof of Mikolaj and therefore essential.
Chapter 10
“Or we could share the bed,” said Helena.
“No!” said Faustyn, going almost as red as his boots. “I ... there is no way I could share a bed with you and manage to behave as I should. You will have the bed, and I will have the floor.”
“The Raven way is for one of us to be inside the bed and for the other to have bedclothes and lie on top of it,” said Helena. “I believe my brother survived a couple of weeks of doing that with Mariola.”
“The fellow is made of iron,” said Faustyn. “Oh no, we did not bring night gowns.”
“I have a spare shirt in my saddle-bag,” said Helena. “I can turn my back while you get undressed and into bed, and you can turn your back while I strip to my shirt and I will wear the clean one tomorrow.”
“How can you take this so calmly?”
“Because if I don’t make myself be calm I would be begging you to kiss me and touch all the places you make me feel nice,” said Helena.
He groaned and pulled her into his arms.
“If I don’t kiss you, I’m going to explode,” he said. She put up her face for his kiss, and he felt her shiver in pleasure against him as his lips met hers. He made himself step away.
“It is more than lust, you know,” he said. “I liked how you worked things out about me, but I still want to know you better. But it’s damnably hard being close to you and not ... not touching you in any way. Perhaps now we’ve assuaged that a little ...”
“Yes,” she whispered. “I had no idea kissing was so wonderful!”
“Nor had I,” said Faustyn. “Tell me about yourself.”
“Well, believe it or not, I ... I’ve always been the reserved, quiet, shy one,” said Helena. “But ... but you do things to me which rather overwhelms that.”
“And I know you like horses,” said Faustyn. His voice was shaking slightly.
“Oh, the whole family like horses,” said Helena. “I also like reading, and making things, papercrafts and so on.”
“I haven’t had much opportunity to pursue avocations,” said Faustyn. “I am interested in collecting old folk tales, when I hear them, I play the violin badly, and I sing in the bath. Somewhat better than I play the violin.”
“Do you enjoy playing the violin?”
“Yes, but I don’t have time to keep in practice, so it is a most indifferent skill. I play it to relax.”
“Well if you enjoy it, that is a good reason to play. I am insufficiently musical to be daunted. I expect Mariola would have a cat.”
He laughed.
Somehow they got through the night with no worse mishap than waking up wrapped around each other.
Helena decided not to mention how far his hands had strayed.
***
Konrad took Marcjanna to what was now the Bystrzanowscy residence, with the page Lew in attendance.
“Strip down and we’ll get you kitted out,” said Mariola. Marcjanna blushed.
“My lord, you might not be old enough to feel urges, but I am embarrassed to strip in front of a boy,” she said.
“Oh, didn’t anyone tell you? Lew the page is a convenient fiction, I’m Mariola Bystrzanowska,” said Mariola. “Being Lew enables me to work better with my Kazik. Like Florian is Floriana and Leon is Helena. I do hope she’s gentle with Lord Szadurski, but Helena is the phlegmatic one, so hopefully he will return undamaged.”
“Un ... undamaged?”
“Figure of speech ... unless he gets unduly fresh with her, when he’s likely to discover that a sabre is also a good chaperone. We’ll have to teach you sabre drill. Right let’s get you bound up tight and boy-shaped, which is also nice and comfortable, and then you can wear a shirt with trousers after taking off your kontusz and żupan to fight a duel, or whatever.”
“Er ...” said Marcjanna.
“Well, you’ll be learning sabre drill at school, and if you want to be Konrad’s page you should learn enough to stand up for yourself and make the sort of showing a young szlachcic does,” said Mariola. “Well, you do want to be Konrad’s page, don’t you? I thought I saw an admiring look in your eyes.”
“Is ... is that the lord who brought me here? He is kind and gentle.”
“He’s one of our gentle souls, yes. But there’s nothing wrong with his swordplay. He’s a good warrior; Ulan trained.”
“Is ... is that important to you?”
“Of course; we’re szlachta. Being warriors is part of what we are.”
“Do you count me?”
“Of course. And you’ll be properly educated. Your brother will go to school, and he won’t be the only bastard. My brother-in-law Władysław took on the lands of a traitor who spread his seed about.”
“Oh, some of the current children in training are Marcin’s; He thought it would be a good idea to sire apprentice thieves with the superior heritance of szlachta.”
“It isn’t, necessarily, just usually better trained,” said Mariola. “So the oldest are ... five?”
“Yes, and some have just started learning,” said Marcjanna.
“This will end,” said Mariola. “Kazimierz said this is your job, but I plan to be there to raid him when we have more evidence. Dawid and Florek have gone to Warszawa to collect the ones in prison there. We’ll wait on Faustyn and Leon to rescue those in brothels. It’s a good job that Tatar raids for slaves have reduced so much or I wouldn’t put it past him to sell those who fail or those who get too old to the Ottomans.”
“Do you think ...”
“No, I don’t, because Ewcia has been seen in Warszawa. If she’s a pretty girl and your brother did not take her virginity, Marcin didn’t think to sell her outside the country. Which as nobody has ever been able to get any slaves back is one good thing.”
“How horrible! Though being killed ...”
“There are worse things than dying, and going to God,” said Mariola soberly.
“If Paweł is dead, he will be long in purgatory for stealing.”
“Less time than if he did it for his own selfish reasons rather than to support you and Andrzej,” said Mariola. “If he is dead, we will pray for his soul. Now, go without preconceived ideas, and if you ride sedately you should get there as it gets dark, so you can sneak about unseen. Your hair is already short.”
“He said that plaits took too long to care for and could be grabbed.”
“They can. But I’ll neaten you up and make you more of a boy.”
Dressed as a szlachcic, Marcjanna could pass as a twin to Andrzej.
“The natural name for you to take as a page would be Marcin, but I can see that the name would not be pleasing to you,” said Mariola. “You could be Jan or a variant, from the second part of your name.”
“I ...will go as Dyzma,” said Marcjanna. “It will remind me what I am and what I have to atone for.”
“A brave choice,” said Mariola. “You look a regular little boy; let us show Konrad.”
They went out to where Konrad waited, with a cup of tea and sweet cake, the maids making eyes at him and vying to bring him things. Mariola grinned. He was a handsome boy with his sleek, butter-coloured hair and matching neat moustaches, grown straight, and if she had realised it, in imitation of her brother Seweryn. He was also totally unaware of why the maids were so helpful.
One at least of the maids realised she had no chance, on seeing his eyes light upon the former girl, shock in Konrad’s eyes.
“Why ... she looks like Andrzej!” he said.
“Meet Dyzma,” said Mariola. “She’s going to need a horse. Uh ... can you ride, Dyzma?”
“After a fashion,” said Marcjanna. “Papa did teach us. Andrzej knows least.”
“Well, he can catch up at school, where many of the others had not been given much instruction. And the other szlachta from your band will be going.”
“But where will the rest go?” asked Marcjanna.
“I’m hoping my brother-in-law will set up a sister school to teach them more appropriate and less taxing skills,” said Mariola. “As a szlachcic, Andrzej must learn sabre, and mathematics, more Latin, grammar, logic, history, geography, horsemanship, how to get artillery pieces up a mountain and drop shot on anywhere that needs it, how to bridge a chasm and so on. I doubt most of your fellows would thank you for wishing them into such study!”
“No, probably not,” said Marcjanna.
“Should I saddle her a horse in the stables?” asked Konrad, a little diffidently.
“No, you’ll talk her through saddling a horse in the stable,” said Mariola. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
“I think so, but will you run through it?” said Konrad.
“Making a reconnaissance over Marcin Podolski’s lands and see if there’s any obvious place he might have put inconvenient bodies. See if you can get a look at the layout of the building and what thoughts you have on snatching the children he has there at the moment. When you get back, the two of you will be building a model of the place from pasteboard so we have a good idea how to hit him without him using the children as shields or hostages. Don’t do anything to draw attention to yourselves, don’t go getting too clever, unless you have a reason you can justify to Kazimierz, and Lord Młocki, my father and Władysław Sokołowski. You’ll be explaining your motives to all of them if you mess up.”
“Yes, my lord, uh, I mean Lady Bystrzanowska.”
“Under the circumstances, ‘my lord’ is appropriate,” said Mariola. “Let the child have a cup of tea first and if you haven’t pigged all the cake, a piece of cake.”
“The maid said cook was making another,” said Konrad, looking like a guilty schoolboy.
“Just feed your whelp and get on your way,” said Mariola.
Dawid and Floriana were riding to Warszawa. They had letters to transfer the juvenile pick-pockets to Większy-Bydlin under the auspices of Starosta Młocki with the blessing of Faustyn Szadurski.
The substarosta they spoke to looked over their papers.
“It all seems in order,” he said. “You’re surely not planning to return tonight? I know the nights are long, but I’ve orders here to send them by coach with you as outriders, and it may be three hours on horseback to enthusiasts, but it’ll be five hours by coach.”
Floriana opened her mouth to say that Mama Raven had not taken so long bringing a wounded Mariola back after her report of treachery to the king, and then shut it. The king had loaned his best coach, six horses, and Ulan outriders. It made a difference. The law enforcement budget did not run to such luxuries.
“One forgets that some people go by coach,” said Dawid.
“Oh, well, if you don’t mind sharing a room, you can stay in my house overnight,” said the substarosta.
“Thank you, my lord; most generous,” said Floriana.
“I can’t share a room with you; you’re a girl!” hissed Dawid as they saw to their horses at the substarosta’s house.
“My lord, I’m too tired to take advantage of your youth and innocence,” said Floriana.
He stared, then laughed.
“I confess, I’m not lively myself,” he said. He produced a pair of dice. “Highest takes the bed, lowest the floor?”
“Seems fair,” said Floriana.
“We can sleep in underwear and worry about not smelling when we get home,” said Dawid. “When you’ve been on the march for a couple of weeks, everyone smells and nobody notices.”
“Same if you’re on a cattle drive,” said Floriana. “No point being fussy when working; we can wash one at a time tomorrow if there’s water to be had.”
***
Konrad and Marcjanna rode in the same direction in which Dawid and Floriana had gone, but crossed the Wisła before it became so braided as it was further down its course, and rode on the road to the east of the river, noting the villages they passed through until Konrad said,
“I think we are close.”
“I ... you will think me stupid; I have only been taken places in a closed coach. I recognise city streets because we are made to learn maps, but ... if I was on the lands I might know...”
“Did you never go to market with your mother or ride out with your father?”
She put her head in her hands.
“I must have done ... my lord, can we stop and dismount, so I may think?”
“Of course.”
He helped her down.
“The nearest market is Józefów,” she said. “It’s a short walk.”
“We just came through Józefów,” said Konrad.
“Oh! We take a track to the left, down towards the river,” said Marcjanna. “I ... I am sorry, I .... sometimes it seems that life before is a dream which I can only reach when I am asleep, too beautiful to be real.”
Konrad put an arm around her.
“We’ll try to make things right for you,” he said.
She leaned against him, then straightened.
“I’d like to leave the horses,” she said.
“We’ll go back to Jósefów and take a couple of rooms in the inn,” said Konrad. “We’ll want to bed down after our reconnaissance anyway, and it’s early yet, so might as well be done now as later. The horses will be well cared for there, and we can go on foot.”
She nodded.
She was hoping that some questions would be answered by this covert return to home.
