by Patty Jansen
Els looked like she was going to say something. She opened her mouth, but closed it again. Her eyes grew wide.
“I bought some juniper berries,” she said, her voice soft. “The next day, a man came in here, demanding that I pay him so much or he’d go to the guards.”
“Did you pay?”
Els shook her head. “I don’t have that much money. I expect the guards to turn up any day. Without Gisele, there’s not much point in carrying on with this business. I can’t do it all by myself, and they know this when they threaten me. Maybe I should follow Mistress Julianna’s example.”
“Where is she?”
“Word is that she fled town, but no one knows if that’s true.”
People believed that those who had fled town were somewhere in the surrounding cities, but Nellie knew that wasn’t true. The mercenaries outside the city had the grisly task of killing everyone who tried to leave.
The full horror of the situation depressed her. Every time she thought things were improving, they got worse. They couldn’t rely on any help from outside, because anyone who left the city never came back.
How could they break the spell of magic? All the herb sellers were gone; all the shops that sold non-magical food were gone. If the palace banquets took care of the nobles, Zelda did the same for the rest of the people: the merchants with her special tea, and the citizens with her cakes. And the church looked after the poor with the food given out from the stores.
She asked Els, “Could someone from the Science Guild possibly help me?”
Els shook her head. “They aren’t meeting any more. After the raid where Madame Sabine was arrested, they thought it was too risky. I’ve heard that some of the merchants have left town, but I don’t know all of them, because I never went there very often.”
So it seemed like the secret guard guild was one of the very few places where the truth still held out. Nellie didn’t know where else she might buy the herbs that she needed, and with dread she realised that the only place left to get them was the nunnery next to Lord Verdonck’s estate.
She realised it was a risk to speak to Els about getting these herbs, in case Els was captured for her illegal gin making and questioned. So she asked about where to buy the best clothing and where to buy some of the other items they needed.
Els told her that the shops in the street that sold second-hand clothing were far too expensive. “Really, those things are worth very little any more, because there are no people who want to buy fancy clothes. Most of the clothing is not very practical, and would be more useful if you wanted to start a circus.”
Well, then, wasn’t that a coincidence?
Els sent Nellie to visit a family who had collected a lot of the nobles’ abandoned wardrobes and were preparing to export them.
They lived in a dingy old house with paint peeling off the door and the window frames. The windows were grimy, the curtains dusty and faded.
After her knock, she heard sounds on the other side, but the door remained closed.
“Please open the door. Els send me.”
The bolt was driven back, and slowly the door opened.
For some reason, Nellie expected an old woman like Juliana, but the person who opened the door was a handsome young man who was quite well dressed.
He lifted his eyebrows. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Els sent me here. I would like to buy some nice clothes, but I don’t have a lot of money. Someone told me that you could help me.”
“Come with me.”
He took her through the hallway to a room at the back of the house that was packed with clothes racks, crates and boxes.
They held all sorts of luxurious clothing: ruffled dresses in the latest fashions and colours, including ones with scandalously low necks, and garishly coloured men’s trousers and jackets and shirts with ruffles of lace.
“Wow.” It was cold in the room, and Nellie’s breath steamed in the pale light.
He explained. “These clothes all came from houses of families who have left. I’m not sure how much you’ll find that’s practical, but you’re free to have a look.”
Nellie wasn’t looking for practical clothing. In fact, she was looking for the most garish and outrageous outfits she could find, the type of clothing that turned heads, and there was plenty in this room.
It seemed like the young family had emptied the wardrobes of all the noble ladies and their families. The room was full of beautiful dresses as well as servants’ clothing.
Nellie chose a stack of glamorous dresses in different sizes. She picked out ridiculous hats and veils. She found some masks in the shape of bird faces, with long beaks. And she selected men’s outfits: long trousers, cloaks and hats.
A big box in the corner contained all manner of powders and lip paints, so she selected the most ridiculous colours from that.
All the while the young man watched from the door. Once, a toddler boy came for a curious look, half-hiding behind his father’s legs.
“It looks like you’re dressing a crowd for a noble ball,” he said, when Nellie dropped another dress onto the pile, this one for Koby.
“We’re staging a play,” she said, because that was what they had agreed to say if someone asked.
“That’s a brave thing to do in this hard time.”
“It will be free, and we hope to cheer up the citizens.”
“An admirable goal. I might have something else you like.” And then he climbed on a ladder and pulled some hatboxes off the top of a wardrobe. They contained the most outlandish hats, with ruffles and huge bright-red feathers.
“Yeah, I like those.”
He then pulled out all manner of things, from belts made of leopard skin to bright yellow shirts and long sheer veils and gloves with so many beads that the wearer couldn’t possibly pick up anything while wearing them. And corsets that were supposed to be worn on the outside of the dress, with little bells that tinkled when the woman walked.
Quite coquettish, Nellie thought. All of those things went into the pile.
Then the moment came that she had to ask how much he wanted to be paid, and he didn’t want anything.
“All these things are just a burden to us. They take up space, but no one wants them. We get the occasional merchant lady wanting to buy a dress, but it has to be something that she can wear in the street without creating a scandal. That’s why we’re preparing to take all of this to Burovia, where hopefully the mindset allows women to wear these things. But we can’t take everything, so I’m happy to be rid of the most outrageous items. I wish you good luck with your play. Do tell me when it’s on.”
“I will, and thank you so much.”
Chapter 19
* * *
NELLIE ARRANGED FOR the items to be packed up—she would send someone around with the cart later in the day—and then made her way back to Master Thiele’s house through the misty streets. Some people were out, but it wasn’t very busy.
Nellie crossed the markets and passed the palace gates, which were still closed. A number of bored guards stood in the guard box.
After she went into the street that led from the market to the harbour, she had the feeling that someone was following her. It was as if a dark spot moved in the corner of her eye. She stopped walking and looked over her shoulder.
It was a dog, a mangy beast with a dark grey coat of matted hair. Once she stopped walking, it came closer, sat on its haunches and whined.
It wore a collar.
Poor thing. It looked like it had been abandoned. She wondered who looked after it now.
But at the same time, she realised: Bruno and the dragon were under siege in the palace. That was why the gates were closed, after all. But if she’d doubted those rumours, here was her proof. The dragon’s presence attracted animals, and this poor scruffy dog was one of them. Being a dog, with a dog’s nose, it might even be able to smell the dragon on her. She held out her hand to the dog, but that was too much. It got up a
nd scooted away.
In Master Thiele’s back yard, the men had brought in the cart and Nellie and Henrik’s two horses, so she asked them to pick up the purchases.
Inside the house, Master Thiele’s men had collected packs and weapons from their homes and stacked them in the corner of the large downstairs living room.
Nellie went to make tea and found a large kitchen that reminded her of the palace. She filled a kettle from the pump and set it on the stove.
“What disguise did you get for me?” Henrik had come into the kitchen after her.
“Oh, you gave me a fright. I was just thinking that this kitchen looks like the one in the palace.”
“This used to be a guesthouse,” he said. “Master Thiele retired from the guards when he became injured and started a series of ventures for retired or wrongfully dismissed guards. He tried to clear their names. He was head of the King’s Guard when they existed. Their job was guarding the guards to make sure that they behaved according to the king’s law. When the king died, he was forced to go into hiding, and that’s when he opened the guesthouse. It was for ordinary travellers, but anyone in the guards knew that if you ever got into trouble for standing up for the right thing, the doors here were always open. Still are, even if the guesthouse has closed.”
“A man of extreme honour,” Nellie said.
“Definitely. More honour than me.”
“Don’t talk yourself down. You acted with a lot of courage.”
He sat down on one of the chairs at the table. “I remained loyal to the Regent for too long, even if I knew how much he took from the citizens. I couldn’t kill the magician and had to settle for leaving two boys orphaned. I was dumb. I was rash. I was too keen to make it up to you.”
The kettle produced clouds of steam. Nellie took it off the stove and poured the hot water into the teapot.
“I got you a nice suit,” she said.
“Some silly colour?”
“No, it’s black, and there is a hat as well. You can be the circus magician, with a pink silk handkerchief.”
“That’s a silly colour.”
They both laughed.
“You should clip your beard.”
“I should shave.”
“No, I like it. And you didn’t have a beard when you were in the guards so it’s a disguise.”
She found a pair of scissors, and a comb, and proceeded to cut the straggly hairs on his chin all the one length.
It was very stiff, a lot of it was white and some of it still sandy-coloured. Having his beard neat made him look much younger.
When she finished, he looked at the reflection in the window.
“I’m almost handsome man again. It’s funny how we don’t appreciate when we’re young how good we look.”
“I always thought you looked good.”
“I thought you looked good, too.”
“I did not. I was a horribly skinny mousey thing, and I acted like a mouse, too.”
“I thought you were pretty. Not too loud. You didn’t too obviously try to get my attention just because I wore a uniform.”
“So why did you never talk to me?”
“I was the oldest son. I had to set the right examples.”
“And my father was not the right example, I’m guessing.”
He blew out a breath. “I don’t like to speak ill of people, but he was so . . . severe.”
“Scary?”
“Yeah.” He chuckled. “He was like: if you want my daughter, you better be worth it.”
“And you didn’t think you were?”
“I think he just didn’t want to lose you.”
And he reached up to her and pulled her onto his knees.
“Nellie, I think you are the craziest woman I have ever met. I never thought that in my grumpy old age I would ever find someone like you.”
“You’re making me all embarrassed now.”
“Listen to me, Nellie. When all of this is over. I want to share what’s left of my life with you.”
Nellie giggled. “Henrik, are you really asking me to marry you?”
“I guess I am. Once we’re safely through this time. Will you?”
“Do you think you’re going to get away with such a lame effort? I want to be asked on your knees.”
“All right.” Henrik rose, took off his coat. Then he knelt on one knee and took her hand.
At that moment, the kitchen door opened and a group of people came in. Someone said, “I’m hungry.”
Someone else said, “Whoa.”
They were Master Thiele’s men, and they stopped at the door and fell silent.
Henrik said, “With these good folk as our witnesses, will you answer the question: will you marry me?” He looked up at her with his clear grey eyes, utterly sincere.
Nellie said, “I will.” Her mouth felt dry and her hands clammy.
Was this really what it felt like to decide about the rest of her life? Yet she wanted to do this, because she was sick of being alone.
The people at the door cheered.
Master Thiele came in, wondering what was going on.
“We’ll celebrate!” Adrian said.
“Not until everything is ready and packed. There are many spies in the city and we need to be out of here by tomorrow morning.” That was Master Thiele, focused on the job. He had never been married, Nellie heard when he had left the kitchen, and probably cared less about these things than everyone else.
So they packed up the clothes and hats when they arrived. Someone had gone into Yolande’s old shop and had retrieved some of the equipment from the back: two big blackened cooking pots and jars and trays and utensils for making sweets. The man who had promised the sugar had brought it, big heavy bags stashed away under oiled cloth. All those things were loaded on the cart and the cart went into the shed. The men brought a second cart and loaded an array of weapons and packs onto it.
When it got dark, it was time for the promised celebration, and Nellie was ashamed to say that she drank a bit too much gin and almost fell asleep at the table.
Henrik helped her up the stairs, because they had decided to stay in the former guesthouse corridor upstairs rather than endangering Henrik’s daughter any further.
They were not the only people staying overnight, as the small band of ex-guards who would travel to the Lord Verdonck’s estate were there, too. All the others were men, so Nellie had a small and very dark room in the upstairs corridor to herself. It was cold and smelled musty, and the mattress had seen better days.
On top of that, Nellie found it hard to sleep. The house was full of strange noises, and the gin churned in her stomach. Also, she worried about not having gotten the herbs. There were so many people involved in this plan, and it was up to her to get the most vital ingredients. What if she couldn’t get them at the nunnery either?
Somewhere in the middle of the night, she must have fallen asleep because a sharp sound woke her.
She thought everyone in the house was upstairs, but it seemed as if the sound had come from the kitchen. Was it time to leave already?
She lay still, listening. Somewhere in one of the other rooms a man was snoring loudly.
The sound came again, as if someone was walking around and tripped over a chair in the kitchen. That meant either they hadn’t lit a light or were unfamiliar with the room.
That couldn’t be any good, could it?
Nellie pushed herself up, found her shoes by the side of the mattress, pulled on her coat over her underclothes and slowly opened the door to her room. The floor in the hallway creaked something terrible, and she had to walk at a snail’s pace to keep it from making too much noise.
Very slowly, she crept down the stairs.
It was completely dark downstairs. She could hear someone breathing.
“Master Thiele?” she called out.
There was a huff of breath as the man got a fright. He knocked over or threw down a bottle that shattered on the floor and at the same time
burst into flames. By the light, she could see a young man, not part of their group.
Nellie froze for a moment, deciding whether to run after the man or to start putting out the flames, and then decided in favour of the second, and then decided that maybe she should go and warn the others first so that the could come down and help her.
She ran into the hall, almost tripping over one of the chairs, and yelled, “Fire, fire, please help!”
There were some stumblings and a door opened upstairs. Someone said, “What’s going on?”
“There’s a fire down here,” Nellie said. “Get the others.”
The glow from the kitchen was getting stronger.
She ran back into the kitchen, and found somebody’s cloak and tried to throw it over the burning flames. But the fire was too big now, eating into the floorboards, and the fluid from the bottle was spreading over the floor.
Someone came into the room after her, coughing with the smoke. “Get out,” he said.
It was Master Thiele. He carried a big square box made from dark wood.
“But your shop will burn down,” Nellie protested.
“Go outside to the cart. We’re leaving.” He gently pushed Nellie into the hallway with the box. “Outside. Save yourself.”
A few other people were coming down the stairs, and Nellie ran after them out the back door to where the cart stood.
Master Thiele came a moment later, with a thick fur cloak draped over his box. He set the box on the cart and pulled the cloak over his shoulders.
Nellie wondered what was in the box. It looked very heavy.
“I’ll get the horses,” Henrik said. He went to the stable and came back with the horses, both of them quite nervous. The fire had spread through the kitchen and was coming into the hall.
Master Thiele’s people were all in the yard, some carrying items out the back gate.
“Don’t we need to help put it out?” Nellie asked Henrik when he came with the horses. Her teeth chattered.
Henrik said, “The guild can’t afford the attention they’ll get. Yesterday’s activity must have given the guild’s locality away.”
He strapped one horse in the harness and held the other by the reins. Then he climbed into the driver’s seat of the cart.
