Mad Mikolaj and the Austrian Infiltration part i

 

Chapter 7 1753

I

 

“Frydek, my pet!” Mikołaj flung his arms around the Prussian monarch, and kissed him heartily on both cheeks and on the lips. “I came to your majesty’s command, and I brought my jewel, my honeyed intoxicant to meet you at last, sire, because she needs a bit of cheering up,” said Mikołaj, turning to smile in total adoration at Gosia.

Friedrich the Great saw a short, somewhat plump, woman, with blonde hair, darker, greyer blue eyes than Mikołaj, and a pale face which was pleasant but not what he would consider beautiful.

She bowed to him, Polish fashion, and the twinkle in her eyes lit up her face for a moment to be sweet and gamine. She also hugged him and kissed him on each cheek, eyes dancing.

“Ah,” said Friedrich, softly. “Your wife is indeed a jewel beyond price. I didn’t see it, at first.”

“We had twins,” said Mikołaj, shortly. “Paweł and Dorota; they lived two days. It was not an easy birth nor pregnancy. Aunt Dorota is caring for Milena and Seweryn, and I thought a trip would be good for my beloved. We nearly brought Seweryn, but he’s old enough to be a real little tyke and into everything, and we didn’t want him putting on wings and collecting Brandenburg when we aren’t looking.”

Friedrich laughed.

“I don’t think I’d dare let him loose in Sans Souci. However, rules are made to be broken, and if I swear you to secrecy on the matter, just for once, I’ll break my rule and permit Towarzysz Gosia to visit, because anyone who can ride sixty miles a day is worthy of respect.”

“Sire! You’re adorable!” said Mikołaj.

“I confess, I have had an urge to see it, from Mikołaj’s descriptions,” said Gosia. “I have male garb with me if it makes things easier, and I will pay my way by playing for you.”

“Ahhh, I look forward to it,” said Friedrich. “I mourned Bach when he died.” He brightened. “I can pay you to play, and then you are an employee not a visitor.”

“Isn’t that sweet, he’s caught casuistry from Ravens,” said Mikołaj. “I didn’t hear of Bach’s death until he’d been gone nearly a year.”

“I was a little tied up producing our heir, and Mikołaj was then tied up with a small haidamak problem and the Harrogate dog-sheep,” said Gosia.

“Now that sounds like a story, if you are able to tell it,” said Friedrich.

Mikołaj chuckled.

“I don’t think it violates any secrecy oaths, though you must be charitable to our dear little friend, Paweł, who was nicely fooled, and I suspect he let himself be fooled, too, out of friendship,” said Mikołaj. “Now, what can we do for you?”

“It’s an internal problem,” said Friedrich, taking Gosia’s arm and leading her to a seat. She gave him a grateful smile, and Mikołaj touched his arm in that gesture that would be an impudence from most, but from Mikołaj was more profound than kneeling to the king. Friedrich gestured to Mikołaj to sit, and smiled that he did so without waiting for Friedrich, who rang the bell for a servant.  Friedrich covertly studied Gosia as the servant brought in refreshments, noting that as a girl, hardly out of school when Mikołaj had married her, she must have been a pocket Venus, with a sweet, pretty face, and he marvelled again at how deep Mikołaj was, to have seen in her a kindred spirit, more than choosing her on her looks.

Gosia caught him looking and obligingly presented profile, three-quarters, and lifted her head up, and dropped it forward. Friedrich laughed.

“How did you two meet again?” he asked.

They shared a look which was almost a kiss.

“I was sent to escort some Prussian wench to school, the daughter of the ambassador,” said Mikołaj. “I got to the house, and looked up into smoke-blue eyes. I fell in and drowned. And the naughty minx had sabotaged the coach she was travelling in, and so had to mount up on her horse, and led me a merry dance riding cross country until she caught me.”

“Oh ho, a very clever snare,” said Friedrich. “And the rest is history.”

“More or less,” said Mikołaj. “You said you had an internal problem. Gosia usually recommends either peppermint or ginger.”

“Mikołaj!”

It was a rebuke from both.

Freidrich turned, laughing, to Gosia.

“My lady, had you been a few years older, and had I seen you before I was married off, I might have been a father instead of a fugitive from my wife,” he said.

Gosia blushed.

“Considering I know what bad looks I am in, I am much flattered by the compliment,” she said.

“Oh, you are cleanly and do not smell as so many court women do, and you do not titter, nor.... well, in short, you are a towarzysz,” said Friedrich.

“I wish you had known a good towarzysz of the Raven Banner in your youth, sire,” said Gosia.

“Well, what is done, is done,” said Friedrich. “Mikołaj – and Gosia, I am sure you help him – I have a spy close to me, who is passing secrets to Austria.”

“Hasn’t Von Frettchen got any ideas?” asked Mikołaj, missnaming the king’s spymaster, Von Distelkamp, having nicknamed him ‘the Ferret’ when he had first met the man.

“Let me explain, here,” said Friedrich. “I suspect either one of two men. One is Eduard,  Graf Von Eschenhalz, who has an Austrian mother; and the other is Wilhelm, Graf Von Blommenlage, who has an Austrian wife.”

“And the ferret doesn’t agree?”

“He doesn’t. But he’s related to Von Blommenlage, and he does not feel that that he is qualified to investigate, as he has an interest.”

“And he thinks it a third party?” said Mikołaj.

“Yes, and he won’t say who,” said Friedrich, crossly.

“Ah.”

“Ah? What do you mean, ‘ah’ in that tone?”

“I mean he suspects someone you don’t want to suspect,” said Mikołaj.  “It wasn’t me, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Norbert. He has no interests in Austria. I have an Austrian title. I even have a Swedish title which I extracted as ransom for a warmongering little shit who tried to use your coastline to invade Poland. I sent you a report.”

“You should have let me intern him.”

“I wanted to safeguard my family by making sure of having lands and holdings in Sweden. You and I both know that our little Saxon triflers have led to a weakening of Poland such that Russia and Austria both feel comfortable that they can dictate terms along the lines of bend over and pretend to enjoy it.  I’m loyal to the throne, to you as far as I can be, depending on circumstance, and personally as a friend, but I’m loyal to my family too,” said Mikołaj, bitterly.

Friedrich nodded.

“I understand,” he said. “It was a pro-forma protest. And to be honest, it never occurred to me to suspect you or your steward. I asked you to come because... because I trust you. I trust you to find out without fear or favour, and to be honest.”

“And what if I find that it’s someone else?”

“I will have to believe you.”

“Thank you,” said Mikołaj. “I will do my best for you.” He frowned. “Can you invite them to a weekend at Sans Souci without it looking pointed, and we’ll make like I’m here as a secret representative of my king, in negotiations with you. If I make sure to let different people learn different things, and you close Sans Souci up tighter than a rat’s arse, intercepting all mail, checking for invisible ink, and so on, we might catch the rat.”

“What do you know about invisible ink?” asked Friedrich.

“Funny, Paweł was just as pained over the business,” said Mikołaj. “I learned as a schoolboy. And yes, I used it to write to Gosia when we believed all the bad stories about you and before I learned to love you. She was worried for me, so I kept her informed. Mind, I enjoyed writing ordinary sort of letters on top; I always like writing to Gosia and reading her letters to me.”

“You sex-mad young couple,” said  Friedrich.

“Oh, yes,” said Gosia. “It kept me warm.”

Friedrich sighed.

“I read the transcripts when I am lonely,” he confessed. “But there was invisible ink?”

“Lemon juice,” said Mikołaj. “I think the biggest secret I imparted was that I was afraid I was starting to like you. I told her about rescuing the unwilling bride in person in Wrocław.”

“Breslau,” said Friedrich.

“Wrocław,” said Gosia, firmly. “As I told that officious little idiot who wanted to count us. How can you have a name like Breslau, which is ugly, when you can call it Wrocław, which almost sounds like a dove cooing?”

“How can I argue, when you put it like that?” sighed Friedrich “No servants in or out without being searched, and their errand determined.”

“Rather, watch them, in case there is an agreed dropping place for messages,” said Mikołaj. “And if they go to their masters’ homes, those homes to be watched and any messenger or correspondence intercepted. You couldn’t do it in Poland without bleating about golden rights, but you have a right to avoid being infiltrated. Other than in a friendly sort of way.”

Friedrich flushed.

“I do have a lover,” he said, defensively. “A man has needs.”

“Understood,” said Mikołaj. “And a lover is also companionship.”

“Thank you for not judging.”

“It’s not my business. But your lover must be aware I have access to you at any time.”

“I will tell him.”

“He will doubtless be jealous of my perfect and lithe body, not knowing that I keep it for my honeyed intoxicant, my ruby beyond price, my treasure, my adored.”

“Your Jewel, the sun and moon of your existence, and she’s giggling at you,” said Friedrich.

“Oh, don’t stop him, any woman likes to feel so cherished,” said Gosia. “But he is outrageous. But of course, as you’re a comrade in this little investigation, you are also our love, our sweet, and our darling.”

Friedrich laughed.

“I enjoyed it last time,” he said. “But poor Hansel! He will be jealous, but he will have to put up with it. Johann Wurfel is his name. Nominally he’s a secretary. Uh, he’s a tall, blond man with blue eyes.”

“He won’t be as beautiful as me, though,” said Mikołaj. “Or as much fun.”

“Don’t rub it in, you irritating Pole,” said Friedrich.

“Sweetness,” said Mikołaj, seriously, taking the king’s hands, “Don’t tell him that I’m here as a ruse. Let him think, like everyone else, that he has cleverly ferreted out that I am in secret talks with you. You could even tell him that it’s diplomacy if he pouts. But a secret shared is no secret, and you don’t know if he might reveal something accidentally.”

Friedrich nodded.

“He’s an amusing companion, not a friend,” he said. “How did you know that he pouts?”

“Because he almost has to be the submissive, and some men who like that role are a bit... well, well, tarts.”

Friedrich sighed.

“I think that at least he’s faithful to me, but you do have a point. Hansel is fond of gossip. Though he has not been indiscreet about our relationship.”