“Children, I need to speak to you immediately,” Menders said behind her, making her heart jolt in her chest. She looked over her shoulder and saw that he was pale and grim faced. Borsen and Hemmett rose immediately as Menders helped her from her seat.
Just then a group of young soldiers rushed in, talking loudly. They clustered around the bar, crowding the tavern. The young man with the dreadful jacket couldn’t move and was shoving at people trying to get them out of his way.
They slipped out the side door into an alley, where Menders explained.
“War has been declared between Artreya and Mordania. A Mordanian patrol boat fired on an Artreyan fishing fleet. We have to get back to the house, pack and leave immediately. I have a boat ready to take us to Samorsa.”
“Do I have time to let someone know I’m leaving?” Borsen asked.
“I’m sorry, son. This was so sudden that it may already be too late for us to get out,” Menders replied, taking Katrin’s arm, hurrying toward a carriage waiting at the end of the alley. Hemmett handed Katrin his cromar and ran ahead of them in his capacity as guard, Borsen at his heels. Willem joined them at the carriage.
Behind them, Katrin heard shouts of “War!” in the tavern, accompanied by cheering and singing. Borsen held the door of the carriage as she leapt in, followed by Menders, then swung up beside her while Hemmett climbed to the driver’s seat, took the reins from Willem and shouted to the horses, urging them to a gallop.
The Shadows, Mordania
26
All The Birds Fly Home
“I
’m getting a sword!”
Flori’s voice echoed through the entryway, staircase and hallways of The Shadows. Immediately, various of Menders’ Men erupted from doorways to quell whatever might be endangering her.
Menders, laughing delightedly, waved them back as Flori snatched a sunshade from the umbrella stand and charged back toward the kitchen. From the sounds of things, mayhem had broken out amongst “The Knot”, freshly home from their unexpected detour of some months in Samorsa while they waited for Mordania and Artreya to stop sinking each others’ ships.
Luntigré and her daughter had come back with them for a visit and that had inspired Katrin to suggest a “Samorsan Night” dinner. All of “The Knot” had spent time at Chetigré’s cooking school while they waited for the war to cool. Cook was wild to see the techniques they’d learned and Luntigré claimed some recipes she kept secret from her mother.
Menders followed Flori, who brandished her “sword” and took Hemmett on. He was using a whisk to fend off Katrin’s feints with Cook’s Second Particular Spoon.
“I’ll help you, Aunty Katrin – he’s a terrible old pirate!” Flori cried, thrusting the sunshade at Hemmett’s aproned belly like a spear.
“Ho there, child, delete that adjective!” Hemmett ordered, disarming her before she did real damage.
“Yes, you should only call him an old pirate,” Katrin told the child. “He isn’t terrible, he’s incorrigible.”
“See if I beat any more egg whites for you then, Your Very Most Highest of the Highnesses,” Hemmett retorted, giving her a light swat with the whisk. He raised his voice to a falsetto. “Oooh, Big Brother, please whip these egg whites for me, my poor twiggy little arms can’t stand the strain.” He turned back to the enormous bowl he’d been belaboring with the whisk.
Before Katrin knew what was happening, Flori, over-excited by the horseplay, grabbed Cook’s New Particular Spoon and whacked Hemmett across the backside with it with all her might.
“Oh, well played!” Borsen laughed from where he, Varnia and Willem were grinding and measuring spices for Samorsan Seven Spice Soup.
Hemmett turned and gently took the spoon away from Flori. Looking for more weaponry, she picked up a double handful of shelled walnuts, giggling.
“No, my girl, no flinging of food in this kitchen!” Cook said briskly but kindly. “Never waste food.”
Hemmett left his project and held a bowl for Flori to drop the nuts into. Then he picked her up and held her close, speaking to her softly, calming her.
Menders noticed all the women watching closely and then smiling at one another. That blow from the Spoon must have stung, would probably leave a mark and had startled Hemmett badly, yet he reacted calmly. It was the adults’ rough play that had led to Flori’s over-excitement, after all.
“He’s learned the Samorsan way of gentle discipline for children,” Luntigré said softly to Menders. She was compounding Samorsan rolls, her long-fingered hands almost a blur as she encased a sautéed savory filling in one finely rolled square of raw pastry after another.
“He’s going to have a Spoon shaped bruise, I fear,” Menders replied before he opened his mouth for the spoonful of filling she offered.
“He’s a husky boy, he’ll survive,” Luntigré giggled. She and Hemmett exchanged a smile across the room.
“I just can’t call it Seven Spice Soup when there are nine spices going into it!” Cook declared, looking over the little bowls that held the spices Willem and Borsen were grinding.
The entire “Knot” looked up and responded with Chetigré’s battle cry.
“Pah! Salt and pepper are a given!”
Katrin had finished off the egg whites, which now mounded in the bowl like a captured cloud. She raised her eyebrows at Hemmett. He whispered to Flori and set her on a stool to watch as he began spooning the meringue into crisp pastry shells, telling her how they would be browned in the oven and then drizzled with melted chocolate. Luntigré joined them and Katrin walked over to Menders.
“Care to take a walk with me, Papa?” she asked.
“I would be most delighted, Very Most Highest of the Highnesses,” Menders smiled.
They could hear Cook still arguing the Seven Spice Soup question as they strolled out into the Rose Garden. Katrin cupped a hand under one of Menders’ cultivars, a glowing pink and gold rose named Princess Katrin.
“Your family are all blooming,” she smiled, looking over the bed that was home to the roses he had named after each person close to him – Eiren, Captain Greinholz, Borsen and Princess Katrin were grouped together, flanked by Baronet Shvalz and Mister Trantz. From the bold and brassy orange Captain Greinholz to the elegant and small red Borsen, from tawny amber Eiren and the vibrant red hearted white Baronet Schvalz to the huge multi-petaled yellow Mister Trantz, each rose was an accurate summation of the person for whom it was named.
“I have some more roses to create,” Menders smiled, rapidly deadheading some spent blooms. "I was thinking a single petaled copper for Flori, a yellow with an orange heart for our Moon Tiger while Willem Robbins will be a pink-hearted light yellow.”
“How lovely. You’re a poet.”
Menders smiled, pitching the deadheaded blooms onto a nearby compost heap.
“Glad to be home?” he asked.
“So much. I had a wonderful time – most of it, but we’ve been away for a long time. When I saw the house, all shined up with new paint and the sun touching it, my heart leapt.”
“Yours too,” Menders said with satisfaction.
“While we were waiting in Samorsa, I spent a lot of time touring orphanages and schools – as you know,” Katrin continued. “I also talked to Aunty Glad a great deal and exchanged a lot of letters with Fahrin.
“I don’t want to drift any longer because I’m the Princess,” she continued, standing straight and looking into his eyes. “I want to take a definite hand here at The Shadows – and I want to make some changes.”
“I’m listening,” Menders said, sitting on the Rose Garden bench and patting the place beside him. Katrin settled there.
“You and Aunty Glad told me that the orphanages in Mordania are terrible places,” she began.
Menders nodded. “They are. Horribly overcrowded, little funding. Often the buildings are run down. A frail or sick child isn’t likely to survive a stay in one.”
“What happens to those who do survive?
”
Menders shook his head.
“There are already many unemployed people in Mordania. They might be able to find low paying work, but I’m sure many of them end up on the streets. Prostitution, theft. Many of the nighthawks – paid thugs – in Erdahn are the products of orphanages.”
Katrin nodded slowly before she spoke.
“There is a great deal of unused land on The Shadows. I would like to open an orphanage here, properly run, with training for older children so they can find a job when they leave. It’s healthy out here in the country. Of course there would be enough food and their medical needs would be met.”
“How large a facility are you considering?” Menders asked.
“Aunty Glad says best to start small,” Katrin answered. “I was thinking a group of ten to fifteen to begin.”
Menders nodded in approval. “Good. I was hoping you weren’t planning to bring a hundred needy children here at first, though in time that may be the population of our orphanage. I know you’ve taken many notes and have letters from Abbot Fahrin – we’ll need to plan, of course. Shall we start tomorrow and have Varnia join us? She’s gathered a great deal of information about orphanages as well.”
“Yes! I’d also like to talk to Doctor about establishing a little hospital here. Whenever anyone is injured or sick and they’re brought to the big house, there’s this huge flurry while we’re running around getting a room ready. Then they’re trying to recover with a hundred people living under the same roof. What do you think?”
“Excellent. So far you’re impressing me,” Menders laughed. “Franz will be delighted. Anything else?”
“My first idea, the one I had after being in Fambré when I wrote to Fahrin and he told me about the assistance they give to old people at the Temple. That old tenant farm house that no-one has taken in a while – it would need some refurbishment, but it’s sound. I’d like to have a place where the retired tenant farmers and other elderly people could live if they wished. They would have help with meals or dressing and bathing. They wouldn’t have to try to keep up a house, do repairs. No-one would have to go there, but if they wanted that type of support, they would be welcome.”
Menders stood and looked down at her. He took her right hand and kissed it.
“It’s wonderful to see you’ve found your way,” he said softly.
“We start tomorrow,” Katrin smiled.
***
Hemmett, excused from clean-up duty after Samorsan Night, sauntered out onto the wide front steps of The Shadows. Flori was running about on the lawn with several of the tenant farmers’ children, their shadows long in the sunset light. It was now early autumn and there was a delicious tang of burning leaves in the air.
He sat on the middle step, his favorite perch, and lit one of the small, fragrant cigars Luntigré sold in her stall. They were rolled from tabak like regular cigars, but she included a number of herbs and spices, making them particularly flavorful.
Between puffs he began to whistle, a sweet little tune that had been in his head all day. He couldn’t place it, but seeing the children holding hands and dancing in a circle on the lawn had brought it to his mind once more.
“I haven’t thought of that song in years,” Katrin said behind him.
“Willow, you’re as silent as Menders,” he laughed, craning his head backward to look at her.
“When you do that you look like an owl,” she answered, sitting down next to him. “What brought that song to mind?”
Hemmett shrugged. “It’s been in my head all day, but I can’t remember where I learned it or the words to it,” he answered.
“Don’t you remember when we tried to play circle games with just the two of us?” She watched the children as they broke out of the circle they’d made and started playing a game of tag. “It’s one of the songs we sang.”
“That’s it! What were the words… ‘soldier, sailor’. Something about what we will be? I can’t remember.”
Katrin smiled and started to sing.
“Soldier, sailor, farmer, tailor
When I’m grown, which shall I be?
Teacher, lady, nursey, maidey,
When I’m grown, which shall I be?
And in time wedding bells will chime,
Husband, wife, forever be!
Father, mother, sister, brother,
I’ll have little ones like me.”
Hemmett grinned and gestured for her to repeat the song, chiming in immediately. Menders had taught both of them and Borsen to sing, as he was a fine singer himself. They could harmonize spontaneously and for most of their lives, having a singsong was one of their favorite evening pastimes. Now Hemmett’s voice was a ringing bass baritone instead of a boyish contralto. It blended well with Katrin’s soprano.
Borsen’s tenor joined them halfway through, sliding a moment and then fitting into the harmony. He found a seat at Hemmett’s feet. He was rapidly joined by Varnia – it was obvious the cleanup crew was finished and heading out to enjoy the evening.
It took Varnia a moment to find her confidence, but soon her alto was singing along with the tune and venturing into harmony. Rapidly Willem chimed in, settling behind Katrin and letting her lean back against him. They now had a choir singing the old Mordanian children’s song.
“What songbirds!” Luntigré smiled as she sat beside Hemmett. Flori, tired and aware that the other children needed to start for home, trailed over and joined them, leaning against her mother’s shoulder.
“One more round,” Kaymar demanded, coming out the front door, immediately picking up the male falsetto line. Ifor could sense a singsong from miles away and was right behind him, his huge basso profundo suddenly adding a foundation to their chorus.
The children’s song moved on to other favorites, with the chorus growing as people were drawn to the sound of singing and found themselves joining in. The sun was drawing down, the light going gold. It turned Eiren’s hair to amber flame as she sat at Hemmett’s feet and glinted on the frames of Menders’ glasses as he settled beside her and added his baritone to the music.
Luntigré requested they sing Sweetheart, Kiss Me Tonight, which Hemmett had introduced to her. The old soldier’s farewell drifted out across grounds.
Katrin looked up at the sky, where the three brightest stars were beginning to flicker through the twilight. She smiled.
Book Two
Out Of Darkness, Into Light
The Shadows, Mordania
The Palace, Erdahn, MOrdania
1
Spiderweb
K
atrin looked up at the sound of Demon galloping toward the orphanage building site. It wasn’t unusual for Menders to ride over during the day, but not at that pace.
As Demon grew closer, she could see Menders looked grim. She felt a twinge of anxiety and went to meet him.
He dismounted, settled Demon with a nosebag and then produced a letter with a very large seal.
“My dear, the Queen has commanded you to Court,” he said, trying to keep his voice level.
Katrin groaned. Right in the middle of all the building and organizing!
He handed her the letter.
Lord Stettan,
You are commanded by Her Majesty, Morghenna VIII, to deliver the Princess Katrin Morghenna to the Palace by the fifteenth of this month to be presented to her mother. Failure to do so will result in the Queen’s severe displeasure.
H.M. Morghenna VIII
“I wonder why now?” Katrin asked. “Curiosity, do you think?”
“It might well be,” Menders answered. “It has been nine years since she saw you and she knew you were abroad. It would be reasonable to expect that she’d wish to see you again, now that you’re grown.”
“What a bother, things are so busy here. The fifteenth is tomorrow, we’ll have to leave almost immediately,” Katrin said with some annoyance.
Hemmett, who had gone to the construction site with her, meandered over, looking casual. Me
nders knew it was anything but – Hemmett had just delayed his arrival to give them some privacy.
“Bumpy, we’ll need to go,” Katrin said. “I have to go to the Palace.”
Menders and Hemmett exchanged a glance behind her back.
***
At the house, Katrin went upstairs to get ready for the trip to Erdahn. Menders went to his study, where he had glimpsed Kaymar standing in the doorway as they came in. He’d been nosing around in Erdahn and must have set a speed record for getting back to The Shadows.
Kaymar was waiting, perched on the edge of Menders’ desk. His blue eyes had a gleam to them that signified intense emotion of one sort or another. Menders closed the door.
“Bartan sent a letter,” Kaymar said, handing him an envelope.
My dear Menders,
Katrin is being summoned to Court – my friend, do not fail to have her here or it will go badly for all of us. Aidelia has killed Lord Muran’s eldest son in a fit of rage and the Queen is considering altering the Line of Succession to make Katrin her Heiress. Kaymar will tell you the rest. I cannot trust any more of this matter to paper, even carried by such as he.
In brotherhood,
Bartan
As soon as Menders was finished reading, Kaymar spoke rapidly.
“Aidelia snatched a halberd out of the hands of one of the Palace Guard,” he said in a near whisper. “She hacked poor young Lauro Muran to death while the Guard stood there frozen – they didn’t dare touch her. The poor fellow did nothing. She just started screaming and attacked him. He was only seventeen and just come to Court.”
Love and Sacrifice: Book Two of the Prophecy Series Page 32
