Chapter 11
"We're not going to get away before sundown, are we?" said Jurko to Jan.
"No, but as it's moving a criminal I think we could ride on a Sunday," said Jan.
"Send your lad to find the nearest priest, and ask him to come and hold an early service for us before we leave," said Jurko.
"Good compromise," said Jan.
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Helena was going in to dinner when Jurko and Jan both came into the room and bowed to her.
"Jurko!" cried Helena, gladly. "You surely did not travel on a Sunday?"
"We had dispensation from the priest near Rozłogi, as we were on duty bent," said Jurko, bowing his deep bow to her. Jan made his leg in the western fashion.
"My lord Skrzetuski, welcome," Helena did not forget her manners. "Jurko, did you take winged hussars?"
"Yes, and some of them are not the pouter-pigeons I always thought them," said Jurko. "Indeed, I have misread them sadly. I might enjoy wearing wings one day, just because it holds one straight and makes one look magnificent."
"Oh, like my most horrid busk," said Helena. "It is a thing of torture to hold me straight; but Jancia said you might carve it to be lighter with pierced work, and thus more flexible." She took the busk from her gown front, making Jan blush.
"Mother of God!" said Jurko. "Truly an instrument of torture. I will see what I can do to make it less so; though carving is not something I know well. Would you be satisfied with a pierced piece of ivory reshaped from some of the treasures I have?"
"Certes, if it is more comfortable," said Helena. "I am not happy with something so stiff and hard between my breasts, it does not feel comfortable."
A comment died on Jurko's lips before it was made; one day perhaps he might demonstrate to her something she would like more. And that made him glad he wore Cossack trousers not tighter ones.
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"The boys were happy to comply in return for knowing that their mother was well-cared for, father," said Jurko. "I passed her over to your escort to her comfortable prison, having more of a cat than a pride of lions, and with so many flies in her nose that Beelzebub would want to woo her."
Jeremi laughed, but crossed himself.
"Now that's a truly frightening picture," he said. "And very graphic! Helena, are you satisfied?"
"Yes, my lord prince, but I should like to meet the steward."
"And so you shall, my dear, Onufry Zagłoba knew your father and last saw you to bounce you on his knee when you were a babe in arms. He is ready to do anything for you. You need not fear his drinking; he is a man with a capacity to be still standing when all others have succumbed. He can outdrink a Cossack."
"That takes some doing," said Helena. "Why, Jurko had a glass of mead at every inn in Kijów, and could still sing in tune and walk a straight line when he returned from getting to know Lord Skrzetuski."
"And what sort of state was poor Jan in?" Jeremi asked his son. Jurko grinned.
"I put him to bed as tenderly as if he were a maiden, at which point he voided himself everywhere it is possible to do so, and bravely I left him to it. But he has forgiven me." He raised a glass to Jan.
"Aye, I did, for we had a merry time ere I left consciousness," said Jan.
"A great-hearted man indeed," said Jeremi.
"We have become quickly as brothers," said Jurko. "And we have a pact, sweet Halszka, that whoever you choose, of us, or another, we will stand ever your friend and protector."
"My knights!" said Helena. "I think I will not change my mind, but who knows what time brings? I think I am not inconstant though."
"Art young, my cuckoo," said Jurko, trying not to think of her meeting someone who suited her better as she grew older and more knowledgeable. "Hast known none other to romance thee, and art perchance ready to spread thy wings and find sophistication."
If Gryzelda was dismayed when Jurko used the familiar in so affectionate a fashion, she was beyond dismayed when Helena giggled, and said,
"I have heard it said that sophisticated is another word for 'not a virgin' and I think I will eschew that until I am married."
"Helena!" said Gryzelda.
"Yes, princess?" asked Helena.
"Such things are not for the dinner table," said Gryzelda.
"She has a point, though," said Jurko. "I've been told by a young lady that I might long for more sophisticated company, and it was pretty plain what she meant." He paused, and Helena was pleased to note Malwina flushing slightly. Jurko smiled, and it was not a pleasant smile. "I asked her if she would sleep with a man for a pile of costly brocade and a chest of gold and jewels, and she said, 'Oh yes!' so I asked her if she would sleep with a Cossack for three grosze, and she said 'Oh, my lord, what sort of girl do you take me for?' so I said, 'Well, I thought we'd already established that, and we were just haggling over the price.' She flounced off at that point."
"Jurij!" said Jeremi, but his eyes laughed.
Gryzelda shot a look at the lowered face of Malwina, red spots of mortification on her cheeks.
"Well, if a girl is foolish enough to open herself to such pointed teasing, she deserves the humiliation," she said. Malwina went, if anything, redder. She knew that the princess was aware who the dashing young captain had meant. And that he should prefer a provincial like Helena over her! It was mortifying.
"So who was this girl?" asked Jeremi.
Malwina hoped that Jurko would have enough tact not to point her out.
Jurko's eyes ran dispassionately over Gryzelda's ladies without pausing on Malwina at all.
"I really have no idea, Father; I never got her name, but she was undistinguished. I doubt I'd recognise her again if I saw her. Some minor szlachcianka."
"Oh there are plenty of those from szlachciura families who see a man who is successful and becoming famous and long to get out of their rut of rural poverty," said Jeremi. "Well, you have Helena's aunt as an example of a man ruled by his cods more than by his head in choosing a wife. She was said to be very lovely in her youth, but like most of such pushing women ended up a raddled old harridan."
"Yes, those women who are discontented get the lines to show it; whereas those like Helena remain beautiful as they age, for their faces are gentle and sweet, and attain serenity," said Jurko. He raised his glass to Helena. "Don't become too sophisticated, Halszka; it would spoil you."
"I have no intention of being sophisticated at all," said Helena. "I think it's over-rated."
"Well, a modest innocence will do you no harm at court," said Jeremi. "Jurko, you and Jan have time for one more raid, if you wish it, before we leave for Warszawa. You'll be part of the escort."
"Yes, Father," said Jurko. "Father, might my Cossacks give displays of dancing and Cossack weaponry in Warszawa? I was thinking that if the Poles understood Cossacks more, we might more readily find the opportunity to solve the interminable problem of unrest through negotiation not uprising? My children like to show off, and it would be good for relations. And perhaps then, the king would enforce the promises he has made to Cossack landowners."
"You think I could do more?"
"I... yes, sire," said Jurko. "It would be a simple matter of reigning in the more rapacious, like the son of Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski. The younger Koniecpolski is openly derisive towards respected people like Bohdan Chmielnicki and has declared intent to seize lands from 'dirty Cossacks.' It'll cause trouble. I know your father wished to dissociate himself from his sire's Cossack origins, but just think how you might use it to increase your political standing to rival the Radziwiłł."
"I... will see what I can do," said Jeremi.
The boy had more understanding of politics than he had realised; and it had been to avoid being the butt of condemnation by the Radziwiłł and their like that he and his father had dissociated themselves from the Cossacks.
Perhaps it was time to magnanimously champion the cause of the complaints of land-owning Cossacks.
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"Take care while you are raiding the Ottomans, if I am not there to watch your back," said Helena to Jurko, in the relative privacy of a walk in the gardens.
"I shall, my cuckoo," said Jurko.
"You may kiss me now; and we shall take our leave now, so I do not embarrass you by crying tomorrow."
"I would that I was taking you with me, but they won't stand for it," said Jurko. He took her hands in his and slowly kissed each finger. Helena found her breathing rather tight, and lifted her mouth to his. He feathered kisses all around it, teasing her lips until they parted, panting.
"Oh, sweet Halszka, I may not possess your lips with all the passion I feel, for they are not mine to take, nor press my tongue to invade your sweet mouth, and run kisses down your body, my tongue tasting and exploring you," he said. "Alas, you are not mine, and I must be circumspect."
"Oh Jurko! Wh... where else do you not yet own that you would like to?"His eyes were laughing and she caressed his face. "Your dimples are teasing me!" she added accusingly.
"Of course they are; they adore you," said Jurko. "As to where else... why, your delightful bosom, which is too much on display to other men in these fool western gowns, but I may look only, and not touch..." he ran a hand down each side of her breasts almost touching the fabric of her gown, but not quite doing so, his thumbs hovering over her nipples. Helena gave a little gasping moan and her body arched.
"Jurko!"
"Your pretty belly too is off limits, and fortunately I cannot even reach your legs through your gown, or anything between them," said Jurko. "I own nothing, my sweet."
Helena smoothed his moustache.
"Mine," she said.
"Yours," he agreed.
She stood on tiptoes to kiss each eye, the tip of his nose, each dimple, and the sensitive bow of his mouth.
"Mine," she said.
"Utterly," said Jurko.
She ran a hand down his chest, feeling how fast he was breathing, feeling the rapid beating of his heart, and shyly hovered her hand over the area below his kontusz sash where his kontusz parted.
"Mine?" she asked.
"Yours, all yours," he groaned.
She reached forward to touch his arousal.
"Oh my, and so generous," she said.
"And for you, and only for you," said Jurko, savagely. "Leave it now, my cuckoo, or I will forget that you are not mine."
"Jurko... I understand that men have needs... and that it means nothing... if you need a woman... I will understand."
He seized her hands and pressed passionate kisses into her palms.
"Ah, you are a jewel of a woman!" he cried. "But I will not; I may pleasure myself, sweet Halszka, but I am spoiled for all women."
"You can pleasure yourself?"
"Aye, and you can do so too, by touching such places as you might wish to be touched," said Jurko.
"Then in the night when we are alone, we can each imagine the other..." she whispered.
"Saints and Angels! That is almost too much for me to imagine with any kind of equanimity... you are enough to drive a man to madness, my adorable cuckoo. And I will leave you, ere my heart fails in my chest, and I either carry you off with me, or kneel at your feet and refuse to go."
"I will count the hours until you return," said Helena. "And you will be blessed by the slaves you free."
"And by my sire for enriching him with loot," said Jurko.