Fostering Faust

by Randi Darren

  Mary had slowly wandered over to Alex as he’d been talking to Andrew.

  She looked rather calm and collected.

  Coy, even.

  As if they hadn’t spent the entire night together trying to break her bed.

  Or each other’s hips.

  “Count,” Mary said, stepping up to him.

  “Baroness,” Alex said, inclining his head deeply to her.

  “I’ll have your colors up as soon as you finish up with Ridge. In the meantime, I’ll be going through the proper process for the king, since this will transfer me at a ducal level as well. I’ll send your letter to the duchess on for you as well, along with your writ of approval to war with Ridge,” she said. “I admit I’m surprised the duchess approved your war on the count.”

  “She didn’t; I went through the king. The writ is from him alone,” Alex grinned. “I have a valid claim against her as well, if I want to push. I don’t, but she’ll be accommodating for a while, I think.”

  Mary’s eyebrows rose at that, and then she grinned at him.

  “You’re much more than the playboy everyone says you are,” she said. “Do be a dear and don’t get yourself killed. I’m not sure what you see in this barren dumpy widow, but I do appreciate the attention. Even if you are a married man. I’ll be sure to send your steward a letter with the news, back in Brit.”

  With a curtsy, Mary left him there, heading back towards her own people.

  Her inability to have a child really hurts her self-confidence. If she’d been given just a modicum of the attention people give houseplants, I wouldn’t have been able to twist her to my designs.

  Alex turned and headed over to his Numbers.

  “She looks rather well tousled,” Valeria murmured.

  “She even has a limp now,” Nannie said with a chortle. “I think he broke her.”

  Carla nodded her head, grinning. “And I thought he was rough with us. Apparently it goes to an entirely different level if it lasts longer than one round.”

  Riley nodded her head, blushing furiously.

  “You’re all welcome to try me. I’ll even give you a decent deal, if that’s what you want,” Alex said, grinning at them. “Group rates and everything. I bet between the three of us, Two, Five, we could break a room.”

  Carla shook her head at that, grinning.

  “Five would break it all on her own as you chased her around the room. I think she has a maiden’s heart in secret and frets over you finally cornering and bedding her,” Carla said.

  Nannie snorted at that, her teeth starting to pull back in a snarl.

  “As for you and I… maybe. I think we’ve already tried to break a desk and a table, with me as the hammer.

  “I wouldn’t be averse to trying to break a bed going forward, though. Probably considerably more comfortable. Please?”

  “Huh… yeah, that’s fair. I’ll try to make the next time a bed,” Alex said, a little guiltily.

  Carla put up with a lot of his crap, and her complaints were almost always entirely superficial.

  “Thanks,” Carla said. She gestured at his horse with her chin. “Now mount up, unless your hips are too sore from seeing if you could turn the baroness inside out. We need to get moving.”

  Chapter 31

  Max saluted and trudged off.

  Alex and the entire army had camped just around the edge of the ridge.

  It was a blind spot to the defenders, and it’d give Max and his men time to get ready and then charge.

  It’d be a very long charge, however.

  Powell’s cavalry was ready to take the lead. Their job was to hit the ground fast and sprint straight toward the keep.

  “I’m not so sure about this, Master,” Valeria said. She was dismounted with Riley at her side.

  A temporary base camp had been established here for all the non-combatants and the supply group.

  “It’ll be fine,” Alex said, holding tightly to his reins. “Besides, I need to be able to see what’s going on. This isn’t a stand-up fight I can see from across a plain.

  “And don’t worry about that. Worry more about Coffin. You think she can handle the gates?”

  “Yes,” Valeria said with a sigh. “The larger concern is how many she’ll kill before she feels like she’s accomplished her goal.

  “She was already mostly trained before I picked her up.”

  Alex clicked his tongue. “Off we go then. Max, Drew, make the call.”

  Max barked an order, and his entire regiment set off at a trot. Dave’s own group followed Max’s out, the vast majority of Alex’s foot soldiers now deployed.

  Drew pulled his heels back and clucked. His horse started to gallop off, the rest of the cavalry falling in behind their captain.

  “Dan, go ahead and start your ranging. See if you can’t harry anyone who tries to reinforce the keep,” Alex said.

  “Aye sir,” Dan said, wheeling his horse around. His light cavalry would be used as a screening force and to keep the opponent guessing.

  Carla, Nannie, Rudolph, and Alex’s personal guards remained around him.

  Waiting quietly, Alex tried to give enough time for his people to take the focus. It wouldn’t do any good for him to catch an unexpected arrow just for being too eager.

  Ten minutes of silence stretched out before Alex signaled his command group forward.

  “Be safe, Master,” Riley called out at his back.

  “It’s her turn tonight,” Nannie said, pulling her horse in close to Alex’s side.

  “You the keeper of his bed or something?” Carla said. “Or are you that eager to get your own name in there, Five?”

  “Knock it off,” Alex grumbled. “This isn’t the time or place.”

  “Yes, Master,” they said in unison.

  They left the safety of the shadows and headed out at an angle, practically running parallel to the keep.

  Alex wanted to get much closer to the wild lands. He’d have a much better opportunity to see the whole thing from there.

  Turning his head to the north as he rode, Alex watched as the keep’s soldiers panicked and ran about.

  They were rushing to and fro on top of the battlements, a number of them clearly yelling at one another.

  “Looks like that crazy bitch did it,” Nannie said. “That or they’re pretty fucking stupid.”

  “She did it alright,” Alex said. “I just hope she didn’t overdo it. We’ll need to get that gate closed later.”

  Drew’s heavy cavalry stormed onto the scene and barreled into the keep itself.

  “This’ll be where we pick up casualties,” Alex said. “They’ll be shooting down at him and his men from above.”

  Alex felt like he could just barely hear the sounds of combat.

  Time passed, and it felt like forever to Alex.

  By the time he’d gotten to a spot he felt would serve as a valuable vantage point, he could just barely see the lead elements of Max’s people.

  Then they were hustling through the gates, swarming into the keep like a flood.

  Dave’s soldiers fanned out through the town that had grown around the keep, overwhelming the small local garrison as if it didn’t exist.

  “They were really unprepared,” Carla said. “Is the threat from the wilds that minor?”

  “No… it’s actually fairly serious,” Rudolph said. “I think… I think the count stripped his resources for the duke’s war. This might be much better, and worse, than we thought.”

  “Both?” Carla asked.

  “Better in that we’ll be able to conquer it quickly,” Rudolph said.

  “Worse in that our entire duchy is at the mercy of Gaelis,” Alex finished. “Let us hope the duke decides to leave us be for a time.”

  “You think he’ll attack?” Nannie asked.

  “I think he’d be a fool not to. This isn’t the end; it just comes down to what the duchess is willing to give to get Gaelis to leave.”

  Suddenly the flag started t
o drop. The colors of Ridge vanishing below the walls.

  Then the Brit family crest was raised.

  “And there’s that,” Alex said. Turning his head to the east, he looked at the large garrison house near the border to the wilds.

  “Time for Dave and Drew to go hit the garrison. With any luck, they’ll surrender. Without any luck, we’ll starve them out,” Alex said with a sigh. “Alright. We should head toward the keep and go see the Ridge family manor house.”

  “Manor house?” Carla asked.

  “They moved their family home out of the keep. Apparently safety and security outweighed living in a drafty stone house.

  “Fools. Max sent some men to hold it for me so anyone home couldn’t escape,” Alex said.

  “You think anyone was there?” Nannie asked.

  “With any luck, Ridge himself. But that’s unlikely. I’ll settle for his family for now. Maybe we can barter them back to him.”

  Alex snapped the reins, getting his horse moving.

  Dave and Drew were halfway to the garrison by the time Alex passed the keep.

  “Let me go first, sire,” Rudolph said, muscling his horse ahead of Alex’s as they neared a large walled mansion.

  “Fat lot of good the wall did,” Nannie muttered. “I bet our people just scaled it.”

  “Probably. Then again, I don’t think being nobility guarantees any sort of intelligence,” Alex said, pulling his horse up short of the entrance.

  Rudolph and another man passed through the gate set in the wall and vanished inside.

  Feeling every bit of “hurry up and wait,” Alex drummed his fingers against his thigh.

  “Sire,” called someone from behind him.

  Looking over his shoulder, he watched as a messenger passed through his guards.

  The runner hurried over to Alex and held up a letter.

  “From Max, sire,” said the courier.

  Taking the paper, Alex scanned over it quickly.

  “What’s it say?” Carla asked.

  Handing it to Carla after he’d finished, Alex let out a relieved sigh.

  “You know your basic letters, Carla. I know your reading level and I think you can get through that, though a bit slowly. How about you start working your way through it? We’ll read it together later,” Alex said, turning to Nannie.

  “She can read?” Nannie said, her face turning into a scowl.

  “She can now. I’ve been teaching her. Usually after we retire to the bed. Now, do you want the news Five, or are you more worried about Carla’s education?”

  Nannie frowned, then nodded her head.

  “Grand. Minor casualties in the keep, none of the stores were destroyed, and the gate is intact. Apparently Coffin killed all the gate guards and stacked their corpses in front of the door overnight.”

  “Uh… does that mean she slept there?” Nannie asked.

  “I imagine so. With the decomposing bodies of her kills.”

  Nannie shuddered at that. “I’ve killed my share of people, sure. Men, women, whatever. But never stayed next to a corpse. Let alone slept in a room with one.”

  Alex shrugged. Coffin seemed insane, but she was indeed a very useful tool.

  “What’s this word?” Carla asked, leaning over to him.

  Her shoulder pressed into his as she held up the paper, pointing to a word.

  “Ah, deranged. It means unhinged,” Alex said, looking down.

  “Oh. Yes, she is,” Carla said, going back to reading.

  “Will you teach me?” Nannie asked.

  “What, reading?”

  “Yes… I’d like to try.”

  “Sure, I could do that. But it comes with a price,” Alex said.

  Nannie’s face darkened.

  She was interrupted by Rudolph before she could get rolling, however.

  “Sire, the building is secure. We captured several members of the Ridge family, but not the count,” said his guard.

  “Anyone useful?”

  “Ah, his sister, his mother, and his nephew.”

  “Any of them an inheritor for his claims?”

  “The nephew, my lord.”

  “Drop the nephew into the darkest, deepest cell in the keep; put the mother in a suite. Put his sister in my room with restraints, but be gentle with her.

  “Sack and board up the manor otherwise. Send all the coinage you find to my pay-wagons, and let the men take whatever else they can carry that they want,” Alex ordered, turning his horse back around toward the keep.

  “Surprised you didn’t kill him,” Nannie said.

  “What, the nephew? I probably will. For now, he’s a bargaining chip.

  “Back to the keep then, for now. We’ll send Max, Dan, and their troops to go wipe out the other garrison in Northern Ridge,” Alex said. “Dave and Drew should be able to hold everything down here.”

  “And what are we going to do?” Carla asked.

  “Meet with the locals. Probably several bailiffs, sheriffs, and headmen, or whatever the hell constitutes for leadership of the peasantry,” Alex said. “Then I’ll meet with his sister and see if I can’t secure a deal out of her. If she swears to me over him, that’ll make my conquest all the easier.”

  “Would you have to marry her?” Nannie asked. “Nobility marriages are confusing.”

  “I don’t think so. We’ll see how it goes. I wouldn’t want to agree to anything like that without Anna signing off on it.”

  ***

  Alex sat down at the table and looked around quickly.

  It was a well-dressed suite and clearly unused. The smell of dust hung in the air.

  Now that it was getting much closer to evening, he imagined it’d been taken care of in the time he’d spent wandering around the keep.

  Servants must have cleaned it out quickly.

  Looking to the woman across from himself, he immediately saw the resemblance to her brother.

  The same cold blue eyes, and a similar shade of brown hair cut to shoulder length.

  She wasn’t very attractive and didn’t have much of a figure.

  “Hello, I’m Alex Brit. Count of Brit,” Alex said.

  “Amy, Amy Ridge,” she said in response.

  “Wonderful. So, we’ll make this rather simple. I—”

  “You’re going to rape me, or rape me and kill me if I resist? Be quick about it,” she said.

  Why does everyone assume that’s the first thing I’m going to do? Is it that prevalent in this world?

  “No thanks. You’re not really my type. Though I will make you a deal. Would you be willing to entreat with me?” Alex asked.

  Amy frowned at him, her fingers scratching lightly at the table.

  “What exactly did you have in mind?” she asked, her tone cautious.

  “I would have you swear an oath of secrecy, privacy, and that you won’t betray my secrets to others. On your life and soul,” Alex said.

  “I’m afraid I can’t,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “You would use that against me later on.”

  “As you like. Rudolph, put her in a cell, make sure she’s unharmed. Send in the highest ranking official next,” Alex said, dismissing Amy from his mind immediately.

  “What? You can’t—” Amy complained. Rudolph spared her nothing, pulling her out of the chair.

  “I don’t see the meaning of this. You don’t—”

  Rudolph kept her moving, right out the door, railing against the indignity the entire way.

  “What a twat,” Carla muttered from the right side of the table.

  “Even I’m better looking than her,” Nannie said. “No right to be that stuck up when you look like a sack of potatoes.”

  “You know, that’s a good question, Five. Are you made out of potatoes? Lift your shirt up and I’ll start feeling around and we can figure it out together.”

  Nannie made a face at him, showing her teeth.

  “Rotten meat and spite, I imagine,” Carla said.

  “Be nice, Two. Or
you can take care of me tonight instead of One.”

  Carla looked to the bed in the corner, then back to him. “That’s fine. Can we use the bed this time? And can we work on that letter from earlier, too?”

  Alex thought on that, then shrugged. “Sure. Tell One she lost her place tonight.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Carla said, looking back to the door.

  “Just like that, huh, bed warmer?” Nannie asked.

  “Just like that,” Carla said, not bothering to respond otherwise. “Call me the professional bed warmer.”

  Nannie looked confused and said nothing.

  The door opened and a man in his later years shambled in. He was leaning on a cane, his white hair slicked and smoothed back.

  “Master Brit,” he said, walking closer.

  “Good morning. Please, have a seat,” Alex said, gesturing to the chair across from himself.

  The older man grunted and made his way over. Sitting down gingerly, he laid his cane atop the table.

  “I asked for you because I wanted to make my intentions clear, and early. I plan on taking over the entirety of Ridge. I’ll hold it as my own domain and rule it in the same way I do Brit.

  “I’ll treat it no less, and no better,” Alex said, holding his hands apart in front of him.

  “Oh?” asked the older man. “Not quite what I was expecting you to say.”

  “And what was that? Color me curious.”

  “Serve me or die. That you’ll kill us if we disobey. Something like that.”

  “Well, treason will of course be met with an execution, but it would be warranted treason, not baseless claims or crimes.

  “I’ve prepared a list of changes that will occur once I solidify my hold over Ridge. I wished to share them with you in advance, so you could begin socializing the ideas.”

  “Socializing?” Nannie said, looking confused.

  “Ah, I want him to start talking to people about the changes before they become law. That way when it does happen, it’s not a surprise. The quickest way to get people to accept change is to tell them about it long before it happens,” Alex explained.

  “Oh. Oh, I get it. Ok,” Nannie said, nodding her head.