Chapter 10
Helena worked hard at her lessons, trying not to worry about Jurko and his new friend, and whether they would have to fight her cousins. Simeon was level headed and sensible, but the rest ... well, hopefully Jurko would not be hurt.
She was called early from her lessons to try on some of the clothes.
"Why, it is miraculous, that you should have finished a gown already," said Helena.
"Lady, my girls and I worked all night as the princess desired us to do," said the mantua-maker.
"But that cannot be good for your eyes; why, if I had known I would have asked you not to risk your sight, for something as trivial as clothing," said Helena.
"I am used to it, lady, and I will continue to work overnight tonight," said the mantua-maker, with a timid look at Gryzelda.
"Of course you will not! Why, the Sabbath begins at sundown, and you must not work on a Sunday; I would not wear any clothes sewn sinfully," said Helena.
"You had better wait until Monday," said Gryzelda. "It would be a shame to waste your industry and she's quite capable of refusing to wear them."
"Yes, your highness," murmured the mantua-maker.
"You are stubborn, Helena," sighed Gryzelda.
"Yes," said Helena. "And it is wrong to take the Lord's day of rest from anyone."
The little mantua-maker managed to smile at Helena.
Helena smiled back as Gryzelda turned away, and tried on the gowns she had been brought.
"Oh, my, you have been busy!" she said. "They are very pretty. But I think they are a little tight."
"Nonsense, my love, when you have been laced into your corset you will find they fit very well."
"And you can always loosen the strings on the bodices, lady," said the mantua-maker.
"She doesn't need any more encouragement," said Gryzelda.
"I don't have to go to court, you know," said Helena. "I could just marry Jurko and move back to Rozłogi, and not be a trouble to you anymore ..."
"You are no trouble, child, and of course we shall go to court," said Gryzelda. "You may yet marry Jurij, but you should meet other people."
Helena suppressed a sigh.
In a way it should prove exciting, but she wished it did not have to be uncomfortable as well.
"The little princess has a slenderer waist without a corset than many do with it cinched tight," volunteered the mantua-maker. "Highness, if she pulls it too tight, she might look emaciated, and that would never do."
"Oh! Dear me, no! You must adjust it to look just right," said Gryzelda.
The mantua-maker busied herself with loosening things, and managed to wink.
Helena found herself slipping another vail to the woman. She was very grateful!
The costumes which had been made first were able to be somewhat interchanged; the mantua-maker had made up a brocade of green and amber flowers on a cream ground as a top petticoat, which Helena discovered was called a 'modeste' over a linen 'frippone' over another linen 'secrete'. There was another 'modeste' in green and cream damask, and three gowns. The gowns were in two parts, bodice and skirt, one in green moiré silk, another a rich dark amber silk shot with silver thread, and a cream silk with gold threads and white threads in it to make it shimmer more. The bodice of this had green and amber embroidery on it as well. The bodices had tassets, mimicking men's doublets.
"The cream must be for Sundays so I do not soil it," said Helena.
"You are a lady of leisure and should not be soiling any gown," said Gryzelda.
"I cannot be idle," said Helena. "It is not in my nature."
"Well, child! Put on the amber for now; it is very pretty on you," said Gryzelda.
"Oh, yes, and Jurko will see me in it," said Helena. "When he returns."
"I doubt he will get back today," said Gryzelda. "There, child, you may run away now, and admire yourself, and you can have your gown laundered."
"Silk is very difficult to launder," said Helena. "I don't know how and I don't know if Jancia knows how either."
"She will learn," said Gryzelda. "I will have my own maid show her."
"Thank you," said Helena, and escaped. At least the greater part of the dirt from sweat and body oils were caught upon the linen shift, which might be boiled, and the hair oils on the wide collar of linen and lace, and the lace cuffs too were linen where it was hard not to pick up dirt. But she had managed to get mud on the gown she had been wearing.
It was so very hard having to be a lady. But she might escape down to the stables for a while and talk to her horse.
.
.
.
Jancia came running to find Helena as she hovered outside in the afternoon, hoping Jurko would arrive soon. She was beginning to fear he would not be able to come that day, and wondered if he was devout enough not to travel on the Sabbath. She was in two minds about what she hoped he felt about this! But she was beginning to resign herself to not seeing him until Monday.
Jancia interrupted Helena's reverie.
"The princess wants to introduce you to her women," Jancia said. "I've got your sewing bag for you as you are supposed to sew and make conversation."
"Oh dear," said Helena. "I met one and she was very silly."
"Oh, Lady Elżbieta; she thought you were a man when you were doing your sabre drill," said Jancia. "I have been listening to servants' gossip to help you, my lady; did I do right?"
"Oh, bless you!" gasped Helena. "Please tell me all you know!"
Jancia giggled.
"Well, lady, the Lady Elżbieta is a bit silly, but is reckoned good-hearted, polite and kind, and she goes out of her way for her own maid, so I befriended her, able to say my own mistress is kind and goes out of her way for me."
"Oh, Jancia! I will do, and I am sorry that I haven't," said Helena, conscience-stricken. "I've been so much in a whirl."
"But you did, lady! You made sure I had my own utensil in the dressing room, and asked for extra candles for me as well. Not everyone would think of that."
"Well, I don't call that going out of my way, but normal courtesy," said Helena.
"You'd be surprised," said Jancia, darkly. "Anyway, the girl Dziunia, who's a feckless piece and was glad of a bit of help, told me that the Lady Malwina is not trustworthy; she is all sweetness and light to your face and spreads tales behind your back so you should never share secrets with her. If she knew you had dressed as a boy, she would make sure to drop it into conversation at a social gathering in such a way as to damage your reputation. But don't worry, Lady Elżbieta is silly but not silly enough to share something like that, told to her in confidence. They say the Lady Malwina is sophisticated, and as far as I can see, that's an euphemism for 'not a virgin.' You want to be careful, lady, she'd the sort as would try to take Captain Bohun from you, just to show she could."
"She won't," said Helena, with certainty.
Jancia giggled.
"He might swive her just to put her down by screaming out your name when he reached completion," she said. "But it wouldn't mean anything to him, not a big deal like ... like even kissing you would be."
"Oh dear," said Helena. "I hope he does not, but I am glad that you have warned me. I should have thought ... well, it would have upset me."
"Well, I did hear the other Cossacks laughed that he would not swive slave girls, if they came on them, before he decided to rescue us instead, because he found even the most beautiful to be boring when thinking of you."
"Oh!" said Helena, blushing. "Well, perhaps he won't even try to teach her a lesson. How can it not mean anything, though?"
"Oh, for men it is something they need more than women do, but it only means something for them with their special woman. He'd have to have the will-power of a monk not to lie with anyone at all until you can get married."
"Oh, I see," said Helena. "I'd better tell him I understand."
"I reckon he'd be grateful to know; I'm glad I could explain that," said Jancia. "Oh, but I am rattling on and not talking about the other ladies. Lady Malwina is the Lithuanian lady, and she has similar colouring to you. Lady Elżbieta as you know is blonde. Lady Maryśka is a dark lady, older than the others, and she's bitter because with all her exotic looks she couldn't catch a man. And Lady Basieńka is the loveliest girl I've ever seen, all golden curls like a regular angel and big blue eyes, but there's nobody at home behind them."
"Poor girl," said Helena. "And poor Lady Maryska. Well, I expect I shall be bored, but I have sewing I need to do."
"I did your mending, lady," said Jancia. Helena looked startled.
"What then will I sew?" she asked.
"I cut out a shift for you to make up, lady. And inserts of lace to make it finer than the ones you have with you, even though they are of the finest cambric. I hope I did right?"
"Perfectly. And perhaps you will cut a shirt for me to sew for Captain Bohun? I can embroider that, I know all the Cossack symbols."
"Of course, lady, and I will get red, white and black embroidery silks for you."
Helena took her sewing basket, heart hammering, to Gryzelda's sitting room. It was a high room with strapwork in plaster on the ceiling and jewel-and-strapwork carved panels and fireplace, the two big windows actually double doors, glazed, which opened onto a balcony, after the Italian manner. The furniture was at least comfortable, which relieved Helena no end when the Princess tenderly installed her in an armed chair. The other ladies had tambour frames.
"Helena, my love, you know Elżbieta, permit me to introduce you to Malwina Szyszkówna, Maryśka Dżyrittówna, and Basieńka Zamojska," said Gryzelda.
"Delighted," murmured Helena. She busied herself with her sewing basket.
Helena got out the shift pieces; Jancia had even basted them together for her, so they would remain intact bundled into her basket. Not that Jancia had bundled them in at all, thought Helena, ruefully, Jancia was neat and tidy.
"I could find you a tambour frame and threads so you can do some proper embroidery, my dear," said Gryzelda.
"Oh, I will have embroidery to do when I make a shirt for Jurko," said Helena. "But I need a few more shifts, and if I am supposed to sit and sew with you, it is an opportunity to get the work done, as my maid has already done all my mending."
"Surely you don't do your own mending ever?" said the one named Malwina.
"But certainly; such things help one retain a proper humility, especially as we approach the Sabbath," said Helena.
"How quaint," said Malwina.
Helena smiled, genially, hiding how she seethed.
"Oh, do you think so?" she said. "I consider the quite pagan ways some people have to be quaint."
"Helena, it would be improper to sew a shirt for a man," said Gryzelda.
"But why? Is it not a woman's duty and pleasure to clothe the men of her family?" said Helena, with her most fatuous of looks. She had practised it and was very pleased with it. "And Jurko has been family since I was permitted to sew for the boys."
"Your aunt did not observe the proprieties if she permitted you to sew for Captain Bohun as well as for your cousins," sighed Gryzelda.
"But highness! You said you looked on me as a little sister; does not that make Jurko my step-nephew?" said Helena, with big, innocent eyes. "I think I will not make him call me 'Auntie' however," she added.
"Oh Helena, you bad girl!" said Gryzelda, unable to refrain from laughing. "I suppose, as my husband's get, the boy is family to you in a way."
Helena beamed at her for that little victory.
Less pleasant was Malwina's sudden look of calculation when Jurko's connection to Jeremi was mentioned.
"You must tell us all about Captain Bohun; he is new to the household, and so mysterious!" she cooed.
"Oh, he is the subject of ballad, the blind ballad singers all have a song about him, for he is a consummate knight and warrior," said Helena. "A rescuer of slaves, an implacable foe of the Turks, courteous in all his usage to women and children, a fine musician, and as handsome a man as ever rode the steppe," she added. "His swordplay is a thing of beauty, it is like watching a wild dance, the sword as his partner. On his horse, he and the horse are as one, and it is more beautiful to watch them go through their paces than any human dance."
"I heard he is a wild young man," said Elżbieta.
"He certainly isn't tame," said Helena. "He is a steppe falcon, a predator and a wild creature, but like a falcon on the wrist he is tied by the jesses of duty."
"Beautifully put, my dear," said Gryzelda.
"I don't understand," said Basieńka. "How can he be a falcon if he is a man?"
"I employed allegory," said Helena. She bit off a sigh of impatience at Basieńka's apparent incomprehension. "He is wild like a falcon, and roams as he will, like wild creatures do, and like the wind."
"Oh," said Basieńka, not much the wiser.
"Yes, and he also has a reputation as a heart-breaker, so it is as well for anyone but Helena, whom he has known from childhood, to steer clear of him," said the princess. "Helena, love, why are you packing away your sewing?"
"Why, because the servants have come in to light the candles, as the light is going, so we have entered the Sabbath, and no work must be done," said Helena.
"You're going to insist on this, aren't you?" said Gryzelda.
"Yes," said Helena.
"Then you may go," said Gryzelda.
"Thank you," said Helena, and tripped back to her own room.