Chapter 3: Conundrum

The rest of the journey had gone without a problem. Now back on familiar terrain, Henry knew where the usual ambush spots were and had navigated around them, even though it meant to take the longer route from Sasau via Samopesh and Ledechko. After the long ride from Moravia these extra miles didn’t make much of a difference. At the Neuhof windmill he bade farewell to Hans and the men, sending them on their way to Rattay, while he veered left towards Talmberg and then home to Pribyslavitz.

Thankfully the usual brawling spot near the Talmberg charcoal burners camp saw no action that day and he could make it a straight ride home instead of having to bail out some Talmberg guards again. He had really had his fair share of fighting the last two weeks and wasn’t too keen on more violence.

The first thing he noted when he came across the bridge was that the labourer’s camp was gone and a sturdy large worker’s house was standing in its place. It looked like Marius had finished up the job neatly and had probably already gone on to new projects by now, which would also mean that he and Theresa would finally have their place to themselves now.

But his desire to spend the rest of the day with Theresa engaging in decidedly non-lordly activities was cooled when he saw that there were two well-known horses in front of the Rathaus. It appeared that both Radzig Kobyla and Sir Divish had invited themselves. Considering the attention their ride through Sasau had garnered, it was only to be expected that word had gotten around about their return.

But first he took a left turn towards the bath house. There was no way he was going to greet his wife-to-be with three days worth of dust and dried blood on his attire.

Pribyslavitz was the only village to have two bath houses. The western one, between the guardhouse and the woodcutters camp was a bath house in the literal sense. People could take a bath, have their clothes washed or get a haircut, that was it. There was a second one, offering the ‘more advanced’ services, further upstream way behind the armoursmiths workshop and Adam’s Inn, far away from the village green so that playing children would not hear any noises they were not supposed to hear.

Since his desires were well taken care of by Theresa, Henry had never had any reason to even visit that second bath house, only the one he was currently headed to. He was met with a bright smile when he walked towards the proprietor of the ‘bath only’ establishment, but that soon gave way to a concerned look, as she got a good look at him and noticed his slight limp.

“You’ve been in a fight again, Master Bailiff.” she stated the obvious.

“Actually, more than one, Rosa, but what can I do,” he answered and shook her hand. “And how often do I need to tell you that my name is Henry, and not ‘Master Bailiff’?”

“I have to keep decorum up in this place,” she insisted. “And you need to learn too that not everyone can be a close friend. You are a person of authority, after all. Remember how hard it was for you to hand down that last warning to Matthew and Fritz, just because they are good friends of yours?”

Henry smiled at the elderly woman and sighed. “You are right, as you always are Rosa. I just can’t get used to being called Master, or Sir or even My Lord. I don’t like it.”

“We all have our cross to bear,” she said with a smile. “Now come in. The tub is ready and there is no way I let you go home this filthy.”

Properly groomed and clad in one of his freshly washed civilian outfits, of which at all times at least one was always in storage at the bath house, he entered the Rathaus’s upper floor via the stairs. Entering their home, he saw Sir Divish and Sir Radzig in conversation with each other, while Theresa made sure they were well served with meat and wine.

Seeing him she flashed her beautiful smile and wordlessly hugged him tight. Thankfully she wasn’t the type for hysterical reunions. For a while they just stood and basked in each other’s embrace, oblivious to the scrutiny of their two guests.

“You’ve been fighting again,” she finally said as she released him from her clutches. “You are limping.”

“I took an arrow to the leg,” he admitted. “The Cumans in Rosenberg’s estate are much better equipped than the rabble we deal with over here.”

“He attacked you?” Radzig asked and Henry could clearly hear the anger in his voice.

“Sirs,” he said with a nod towards them by way of greeting and joined them at the table. Theresa quickly brought him a plate and a cup of wine, sealing the delivery with a kiss.

“He had a Cuman encampment just a 15 minute ride from the castle. He asked us to demonstrate how we deal with Cuman camps, either to get rid of us, or because he didn’t want to admit that he couldn’t handle them himself. So I showed him.”

“You went in alone?” Sir Divish asked incredulously.

“He always does,” Theresa joined in with sigh. “I’ve told him time and time again that he has trained his men well enough. But any camp with less than a dozen...”

“If it had been my men, I would have taken them with me,” Henry defended himself. “But you can’t go into a fight with Hans dragging along. He’s so clueless he got his arse shot when we tried to infiltrate Talmberg castle. If Sir Hanush continues to keep him in that gilded cage of his, he’s going to get himself killed by a bunch of peasant bandits with reforged scythes one day.”

“I think I should talk to Hanush about it,” Radzig agreed. “If that boy is one day supposed to take over in Rattay he must learn how to fight properly.”

“So what brought the honour of your visit to our humble home,” Henry asked, taking a swig from his wine.

“It is about a delicate matter,” Sir Divish answered. “One that requires a confession of mine.”

Henry was confused, even more so since Theresa sat down next to him and took his hand.

“I know already,” she said calmly. “Hear him out please.”

Henry nodded, not liking the sudden change of atmosphere in the room.

“About four months ago, you helped my wife with several errands to prepare Sophie’s wedding, did you not?” Divish asked, and Henry now definitely didn’t like where this was going, considering that this particular episode had ended with him bedding Divish’s wife, Lady Stephanie.

“I did, yes,” he said carefully, and hid his abashment by taking a swig of his wine – a mistake as it would turn out.

“I know that Stephanie seduced you that night, and I had encouraged her to do so,” Divish admitted bluntly.

Henry launched into a violent coughing fit, as some of the wine went down the wrong pipe. Theresa immediately thumped his back with her fist as he kept hacking and wheezing.

He looked shocked first at Sir Divish and then at Theresa, who had said ‘she knew’. Then it dawned on him. Oh Shit!

“Lady Stephanie told me that you had no luck having children. I suppose her circumstances have changed?”

Divish nodded and suddenly a cold rage boiled up inside Henry. He jumped up from his seat, his hands balled into fists.

“With all due respect, Sir, you’ve used me like a stud? She didn’t even bother to ask me if I had a girl. I didn’t, I only started courting Theresa after that, but neither of you gave a damn about how it would affect me? For four months I’ve felt like an utter shit whenever I met you, knowing that I had taken your wife to bed, that I had betrayed you because I thought a lowly blacksmith couldn’t deny a noble lady. And all the while you knew that and even orchestrated the whole thing?”

He furiously turned towards Radzig.

“And what is your role in that ‘father’,” he said, emphasising the last word as if it was an expletive. “Did you offer my stud services, knowing that I was your son, not Martins? So Sir Divish could at least have a half blue-blooded child instead of going commoner like you? If that’s how you Lords deal with things, I want fucking nothing to do with it!”

With that he pivoted and stormed out.

“I told you this would happen,” Theresa said dryly, but also a bit angry, after Henry had stormed out. “You’ve put him in an impossible situation. He didn’t know yet that he was of noble blood himself. How was he supposed to tell a noble lady to stuff it?”

“And I think, I deserved every word he said,” Divish said with a sigh. “He is right. I never gave any thought to how it would affect him. Stephanie told me that he actually tried to talk his way out of it, but not knowing who he really was, in the end he didn’t dare deny her advances.”