Chapter 4: Another Day at Skalitz

Henry sat down at the table after he had sent Divish and Radzig on their way home with a stern warning to avoid the spot near the abandoned house that saw frequent battles between Talmberg guards and all kinds of rabble, or often even just bandits and Cumans among themselves.

“You surely know how to dump a lot on your husband-to-be,” he playfully admonished Theresa.

“It wasn’t me who enjoyed Lady Stephanie’s gratitude so eagerly,” she teased him and put two tankards of ale on the table that she had drawn from the little keg in the corner. She sat down across from him and casually pushed down the upper half of her dress, baring her torso.

“Hm, and you know how to take my mind off things, woman,” Henry leered and ogled her shamelessly.

“Like what you see?” she challenged him.

“Definitely,” he said, and never took his eyes off her while drinking his ale. “I guess it was a good thing I made the fence impossible to see through. Your sun tan tells me you have been frolicking around in the garden without clothes, and all that without me being there to watch you.”

“There is ample time to watch me, man-of-mine,” she teased him. “If you would only stay at home for longer than a day or two.”

“Why don’t you just remove the rest of that pesky dress and wait for me in bed, my lovely wife-to-be?”

Humming contently, Theresa shrugged off the rest of her attire, swaying her hips as she walked into the bedroom, stark naked.

“I yield!” the guardsman called out after he had taken a hefty combination of strikes from Henry’s bludgeon.

Helping him back on his feet, Henry thanked him for the fight and left the arena. Nothing was more invigorating than an early morning training fight to get his body going.

On his way back to the Rathaus, he collected to tankards of thin ale for breakfast from Adam at the Inn. It was common knowledge that the water from the well, even if very clear, could still give you the runs on some days, so everyone drank ale instead, but of course during the day people couldn’t afford to get themselves bladdered, so Adam’s brewery also produced a much less potent variant that was even suitable for children.

He put the two tankards on the table that was already prepared for breakfast, but the absence of his better half could only mean she was still busy with her morning hygiene. He entered the garden through the alchemy lab, the only way to get there.

Theresa sat in a large tub, washing herself.

“Isn’t that, you know, a bit cold?” he said with a chuckle and pointed at her well shaped bosom, which showed definite signs that the water was positively frigid.

“Not everyone is such a ninny and goes to the bath house every morning,” she challenged him while getting out of the tub. “Now rub me down, will you? Or I will really get cold.”

Always the helpful husband-to-be, he grabbed the large towel and enthusiastically rubbed her gloriously naked body dry.

“There you are,” he proclaimed and held out her dress for her.

“So what are you going to do about Lady Stephanie?” Theresa asked as they ate their breakfast.

“I’ll have the guest room prepared in the Presbytery today and tomorrow or the day after I’ll take a few men and bring her here. Are you sure this won’t be awkward?”

“Haven’t you forgotten something, or someone?” she challenged him with a smile, completely ignoring his question.

“Of course not,” he said. “I will of course take you as well, after all you are to become Sir Divish’s daughter before we leave Talmberg.”

“And that answers your question, genius. What awkwardness should there be between my adoptive mother and me?”

“Other than that she carries her future son-in-law’s child?” Henry asked back.

“From what I learned talking to your father before you came home yesterday, this isn’t even the weirdest arrangement in this part of Bohemia,” Theresa answered. “I know you don’t like this whole Lord thing, and for all it’s worth, neither do I. But would you rather go back to being half-dead at uncle Peshek’s mill? Life has gone this way, now let’s make the best of it.”

“You’re probably right,” he sighed. “I think I’ll visit my parents’ grave to get some peace. Can you meanwhile oversee the work on the chamber for Lady Stephanie?”

“Of course,” Theresa answered and kissed him on the cheek as she started to clear the table. “And you better wear heavy armour. The Captain told me the fighting in Skalitz has started up again over the last few days. Maybe you should take some men with you.”

“They can use the training,” Henry agreed. “I’ll get to it. I’ll collect some armour from Zach. He should have some of my pieces repaired by now.”

They arrived at Skalitz and the Captain’s reports proved true immediately when battle noises could be heard from inside the village ruins. He had heard this sort of noise often enough to know this was a fight between heavily armed bandits and cuman marauders who continued to use the ruins of Skalitz as temporary bases.

Henry indicated the men to go for maces or axes and quietly instructed them to go for any combatants with pole weapons first. These diabolical weapons did horrendous damage, but they also left their bearers limited in movement, so it was always a good idea to go for these first and either kill them or force them to drop their weapons and switch to short-range melee weapons instead.

Closing the lid of the helmet, Henry ran into Skalitz through the only gate that wasn’t obstructed by debris. With the trained eye of someone who had been in such fights more often than was healthy, he quickly homed in on the one heavily armed footpad with a Luzern hammer.

Not bothering with any formal introduction, he let his heavy mace impact the bandit’s helmet, who staggered back. Being too busy pummelling a Cuman foe the footpad had not noticed the arrival of additional combatants.

Henry didn’t give him time to realign his deadly but cumbersome weapon. Instead, he drove his mace into the mid-section of his opponent before yanking it upwards into the helmet of the bandit. A sickening crunching sound made it clear he had broken the man’s neck through the whiplash of his hit and the footpad sunk to the ground – dead.

Spinning around he saw that the bandits and his guardsmen had already dealt with all but one of the Cumans. The lone survivor, trying to sneak away, ran into the business end of Henry’s mace and was made short work of.

One of his guardsmen was accosted by two bandits with axes, so Henry knocked one of them over the head to get in on the conversation. The mace won the argument easily as he dispatched both bandits one after the other.

The fight was over, but one of his guardsmen was obviously wounded.

“Radomir,” he said to one of his men. “You make sure to collect anything that Zach can hammer back into shape. The rest of you make sure that Jaček gets back safely to Pribyslavitz. Have the sawbones and Rosa take a look at him.”

His men left with only Radomir staying behind to check which pieces of equipment of the slain bandits were still salvageable.

“I’ll be back in half an hour,” Henry said. “Wait for me here. And don’t forget to check the Cumans. Their armour is worthless, but they often have quite some Groschen on them. Collect what you can find and share it with the other men.”

Radomir, knowing where Henry was headed, gave him an accepting nod.

The surroundings of their old home in the inner bailey had not changed much in the year since Sigismund’s army of mercenaries had sacked Skalitz. They had not burned down their old home, like they had done with the rest of Skalitz, although they had properly searched it for anything valuable. Over the months since he had been appointed Bailiff of Pribyslavitz, he had put the shelves back up, and repaired the damaged furniture. The house now looked like his parents had just left to visit the market.

Even though bands of marauding Cumans often used the still usable parts of the ruined buildings in Skalitz as places to spend the night or as temporary bases, they had stopped to go anywhere near the inner bailey. Word had apparently gotten round among the shadier parts of the realm’s population that the inner bailey of Skalitz had a haunted house in it, with a grave next to it.