The Mercenary's Claim (8 page)

* * *

Later that night, as they lay entwined and spent on the bed where they had moved once the bench had proved too hard, Kirsten tapped Gustav’s chest with an accusing finger. “The lake.”

“What?”

“It’s the lake, isn’t it? That’s what you’re hiding.”

“You’ll have to explain. I’m not yet thinking as clearly as I would like.”

“You just spent all evening distracting me so I wouldn’t figure out what you’re really up to.”

“Now, Kirsten! I really am going south to bring back a vintner.”

“Oh, yes, I’m sure you are, but that’s not what you’re really hiding. I got that out of you too easily and then you were very careful to make sure I got nothing else out of you at all.”

“I wouldn’t call this nothing! And if you thought I only gave you a night of burning passion in order to distract you, then why did you go along with it?”

Kirsten gave him an incredulous look. “Because you were giving me a night of burning passion, silly man!” She hit him lightly and he let out a reluctant chuckle.

“I suppose I earned that.”

“Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.”

Gustav, laughing, recited the end of the sentence with her then continued, hopefully, “Well, if that’s so, then you could try on me what I did to you.”

Kirsten blushed deeply. “Noble ladies do not do such things. At least not before midnight. And not with only one glass of wine in them.”

Gustav gave a shout of laughter. “Then let me pour you another!” He suited action to word.

They both took sips of the rich red liquid. “The lake is well watched these days,” she commented.

Gustav, not missing a beat or acknowledging any change of subject, replied, “It’s dangerous at any time.” He began stroking her hair.

“The king makes his pilgrimage to the abbey every Yuletide.”

“That’s the worst kept secret in the kingdom.”

“And he has the area cleared and made doubly secure every year just before he goes.”

“That’s the second worst kept secret.”

“But this year, it’s Count Ulrich who has the duty. All the high nobles take it in turns.”

Gustav’s hand stilled. “I see.”

“And Count Ulrich is uncommonly lazy.”

Gustav commenced stroking her hair again. “All the better for… anyone who might be doing something on the lake that, while not illegal, might be frowned upon by the powers that be.”

“Just so, my lord,” Kirsten observed in the playfully respectful tone she used when she wanted Gustav to pay particular attention. “But he does like to hunt, so he combines any task he may be set with something he actually likes. For example, he always hunts pheasant by the south end of the lake this time of year. Then he works his way northwards around the lake, taking in the grouse and then the deer that my father takes pains to attract to his summer home on the north end.” She ended by emphasizing each phrase separately, giving special attention to the directional words.

Gustav seemed to understand. “He does this every year?”

“For as long as I can remember. I feel sure he will combine this duty with the security patrol, or rather, he’ll order his guards and at least a small regiment of soldiers from his private forces to do so. They’ll do the clearing and he’ll appear to be taking a personal hand in it.”

“Hmmm. Being so predictable is not good strategy, as Varin is always quick to remind me. It would be a wonder if he caught anyone doing anything they shouldn’t, or even things that might be misunderstood.”

“Not so much of a wonder when one considers it’s too early for anyone to expect a sweep. The last time he was in charge, his troops put down several people. It may be that he caught some innocent ones in with the guilty, but his men are not known to be overly cautious about such matters. They tend to kill anyone they don’t like the look of and pay the blood money later if they have to.”

“He’s a count. Who’s to object?” His look and tone of disgusted sarcasm had new meaning to Kirsten now that she had lived among the common folk and begun to see them less as tools and more as people.

“I’m not saying it’s right. I’m only saying it’s true,” she added defensively.

“It’s also bad for business. Your father isn’t so cold nor so foolish.”

“But Count Ulrich is and he has the king’s favor.”

Gustav got out of bed. “It seems to me that a visit to the public house might be in order after all, my sweet.”

“I thought it might.”

“I won’t be gone long. Take a short nap, or better yet, drink another glass or two of wine, and I’ll be back before you know I’m gone.” He had his clothes on and was strapping on his boots.

“If you come back and tell me what you’ve done, we might have a talk about sauce.”

“Sauce?”

“For the gander.”

His laughter followed him into the dark hall.

Chapter Five

Kirsten so enjoyed travel. When she looked out of the carriage, she could see the lake on one side, blue and icy depths reflecting towering pines and clouds like bits fraying from a bedspread. On the other side, those same trees, along with the shorter, stumpier holly and dogwood and the majestic oak and ash stood sentinel over a silent sea of sapphire stems.

Wern, sitting at the front of the carriage with the driver, leaned over to address the wife of his friend as if he were placating some expected complaint. “Won’t be too much longer now, my lady, and we’ll stop for another rest. There’s a nice spot up ahead.”

Kirsten detected the defensiveness in the man’s tone and resented it. She didn’t think she had been unreasonably demanding on this trip. “Have I asked for a rest?”

“Not in the last hour,” came the sarcastic reply.

“Then why are we stopping?”

“The horses need a rest and I’ll need to scout ahead. The road afterwards is handy for an ambush.”

Kirsten grimaced, but acquiesced. “I suppose I could get out my needlework. It’s just that I’m anxious to get to the lodge.”

“And I’m sure Gustav is more than ready for you to arrive. Otherwise, why would he have invited you to travel so far with only me when he wouldn’t risk you taking the journey with him? He’s probably getting pretty desperate.”

“Wern! When will you learn? You don’t talk about your liege that way. You call him ‘my lord.’”

Wern let out a bark of laughter. “As if! My lady, I’ve seen that man in every situation imaginable. When you’ve found a man in the gutter and hauled him out of a pool of his own puke, it’s hard to call him ‘my lord.’ You’re lucky I don’t still refer to him as ‘Goofy Gustav’ like we did when we were lads. I know he’s a brilliant man, and has come a long way, but that’s mostly due to him surrounding himself with all the right people. As you’ve so often observed, he’s not a nobleman.”

Kirsten sat back to ponder Wern’s words. Soon after they passed over a particularly muddy place on the road, the carriage driver directed the vehicle beneath a large oak and came to a stop. Kirsten could see that soon they would leave the edge of the lake and enter an area of thicker forest. As Wern helped her down, Kirsten asked him, “Then why do you stay with him?”

“What?” Wern turned to face her.

“If you don’t respect him, why do you stay with him?”

“I never said I didn’t respect him. I only said he wasn’t a nobleman.”

“But you said he only uses other people to better himself.”

“
My lady
, I did not,” said Wern very clearly, as if he were offended. “He doesn’t use people. He brings out the best in everyone. That’s a true leader. And if you want an example, look in the mirror.” He stalked off, back up the road.

In her astonishment, Kirsten forgot to be angry that he walked away without being dismissed.
Is he right? Does Gustav bring out the best in me? Look at all we’ve accomplished, at the house and on the manor. I never would have thought that I could have done half of what we’ve achieved
. Kirsten stared after Wern, but she was thinking of her husband.

Without really paying attention, Kirsten saw Wern examine the road and then follow several different directions a few paces, before returning to the mud. Before she could hear him, she could see him suddenly and forcefully motioning with his gauntleted hand for her to get away from the road and behind the tree so that she would be hidden from view.

When he reached her, he hissed, “That letter Gustav sent. He definitely told you to take this road?”

“I showed it to you,” Kirsten whispered back. “You know it did.”

“And you know I can’t read.”

“Then you’ll have to trust me on this.”

“It’s not you I don’t trust. It’s that letter. Tell me again what it said.”

“The letter said to take the lake road.”

“Gustav was that specific? That’s not like him, to give such detailed instructions. He gets the right man for the job, then lets him do it.”

“Maybe he wanted us to avoid having to cross the river further south. He must have passed that way on his way to warn Varin about Count Ulrich’s patrols.”

“You know about Varin’s smuggling?” Wern sounded astonished.

“I do now,” Kirsten observed smugly, then relented when she saw Wern’s look of chagrin. “I knew it was something like that. I warned Gustav about Count Ulrich and suddenly he was gone, first for a night, then after a few days off on his trip south, alone, without me. I knew there had to be a reason for that besides fear for my safety on the roads. Varin is his best friend. Gustav doesn’t want to see him caught by Count Ulrich’s patrols.”

“Well, that may have been his main concern after all. The tracks I see in that mud show me that a large group of horsemen passed this way and not very long ago. What’s worse, they rode off in two different directions.”

“What does that mean?”

“Up ahead there is a place where a shelf of rock has fallen, forming a kind of long ledge. The road splits into upper and lower branches, one running along the old roadbed and one tracing the shelf of rock underneath. In several places the two branches run parallel and not very far from each other, one road maybe six or eight feet above the other. Perfect for ambush. One man on that upper road can jump down on an unwary group and take them all before they know they’ve been had.”

“Then we’ll take the upper road.”

“Didn’t you hear me? I said they’d split into two groups. They probably have both roads blocked. Facing one group is bad enough, but two… ”

“What will we do?” Kirsten searched his face and didn’t like the confusion she saw there.

“That’s what I don’t know. Gustav usually tells us what to do and Varin usually tells him. Lacking either of them… I suppose I could just do what we did the last time we were on this road and suspected a trap.”

“What was that?”

“Turned tail and ran. It’s the only way. We can’t just walk into danger.”

“But what’s to stop them from pursuing us? Men on horseback? Chasing a carriage? We’ll have no chance.”

“What do you suggest then?”

“Let me think. I’ve heard enough of your war stories over these last few months that I ought to be able to think of something. Say, I have it.”

After Kirsten explained her plan to Wern, he broke into a broad grin. “Gustav may have my hide for trying this with you, but it’s our best chance. Our only chance.”

* * *

The men waiting in ambush were getting restless. “The carriage should have been here by now,” they complained to one another. The minutes dragged by, their bloodlust up, anticipating an easy time and a large payoff, even divided as it would be between such a large group. The man who had employed them had insisted they not be fooled by the fact that they were attacking such a small group. Now it was beginning to look like he had been right to warn them.

The leader of the brigands signaled four of his underlings. “Ride back up the roads, two on the high path, two on the low, acting normal. Then once you’ve passed them circle off the road and get back here to report. They must have lost a wheel or decided to make camp for the night.”

When the first two riders came back they reported no sight of anyone. “They just gone and disappeared. Gone like smoke, they is. We gone out on the high road and come back on the low, then scrambled up the embankment in between just now to get back up here. Nothing and more nothing.”

“They’ve pulled off the road and are taking to the fields. We should be able to catch them easily enough.” They rode off in a group, but after only a short way the leader fell behind, hoping to find some trace of where they had pulled off the road. He finally located the place where he could tell by the tracks that a carriage had been diverted, but the puzzling thing was that it was toward the lake.

The leader quietly followed the tracks, intent on sighting the carriage before he circled back to gather his men for an assault. Spotting the carriage, something about the way the horses were just standing by the side of the lake drinking calmly by themselves made the leader curious. He rode up to the side of the conveyance. The last sight he ever saw was the empty driver’s seat.

* * *

“Where have you been?” Kirsten demanded when Wern rode up underneath the tree she was hiding in. “And where did this horse come from? I thought you were scouting the road.”

“I was, my lady. Your plan was good, as far as it went. Hiding up in the trees to let the bandits ride right under us worked a treat, but it wouldn’t put them off for long. And it left us on foot.”

“And now we’ve got one horse between the three of us. How is that going to help?”

“I’m sure a companion or two will come roaming along any time now. You just stay right here until I come back with a friend or two for this fellow.”

The driver spoke up. “Best get on with it, mate. Dark be coming on. Don’t fancy a night in these woods with naught but the two of us to protect the likes of her. I’d come with you, but… ”

“I know. Can’t be done. You stay here and guard her. I’ll be back before you know I’m gone.”

“Good thing,” the driver answered. “I ain’t the lad I was. Climbing trees at my age! Who ever heard the like?”