Guy pulled himself upright and rubbed his head to clear away the cobwebs of sleep. “No one waits for us, my love, least of all time. Who has left us now? Did Alyssa elope?” he added hopefully. His last unmarried daughter had been giving them a great deal of worry lately.
Celeste laughed as she settled herself on his lap. “Nay, ’tis a letter from Sandor. I must congratulate him. His writing has much improved.”
Guy became instantly alert. “What’s the news?” he asked, thinking of the young couple now settled on a modest farm at the far side of the moorlands where Sandor bred and trained horses. A very easy dowry to pay, Guy thought, and the only one that his stubborn son-in-law would accept. “Are they coming sooner for the Christmas revels?”
Celeste giggled. “Nay, they will not come for Christmas at all.”
“What?” Guy roared. He looked forward to having all his children around him during the holiday season. “Doesn’t that Gypsy celebrate Yuletide?”
Celeste kissed him on his nose. “Oui, he does, but they will keep closer to home this year. Their babe has come—a month before its time.”
“What?” Guy clutched her arm. “Is Tonia well? Is the child healthy?”
Celeste laughed again. “Oh la la! My husband is such a brave knight, yet he turns into a cream pastry when he—”
“Peace, peace, woman! You are killing me with suspense. Is it a boy?”
She eyed him over the top of the letter. “So what is wrong with girls?”
Guy snorted. “Nothing! I have three of them! Is it a girl? Do not tease me, Celeste! What is it?”
“Hold your tongue, mon cher, or else you will never hear the news. Sandor writes, ‘In the early hours of the seventh of December…”’ Celeste paused. “Why do babies always come before breakfast, I wonder?”
Guy snapped his fingers. “Ask God, not me. Read on, I beg you.”
“Let me see, ah… ‘Tonia was safely delivered of a…”’ Pausing again, she giggled.
Guy blew out his cheeks. “Of a what? I am a dying man, sweetling. What did Tonia have?”
“‘Of a boy—’”
“A boy,” Guy mused under his breath. “Thanks be to God and all his angels.” Having never had the pleasure of spoiling a baby boy, Guy thought himself in paradise.
“Sandor goes on to say that…hmm. Methinks he says that he wrapped his son in red flannel—”
Guy nodded. “A wise precaution against fever. My mother always did that.”
“And laid him within a…a horse’s collar?”
Guy snatched the letter from her hands. “Did you read that aright? Did Sandor misspell ‘cradle’?” He reread the letter with particular care. “’Tis true—a horse collar, for Sandor writes that all Gypsy children sleep their first nap in this fashion. He says ’tis for good luck.”
Celeste smoothed her hand over her husband’s silver and golden hair. “’Tis a novel idea to be sure, but not a dangerous one. You did not give me time to finish the letter. Does the child have a name yet?”
Mumbling “horse collar” under his breath, Guy scanned down the ink-blotted sheet. When he spied what he was looking for, he grinned broadly. “Aye, they have named the little one Thomas—for my father, God rest his soul—Cavendish Visconti Matskella. ’Tis a mouthful to pronounce, methinks. But, Sandor goes on to say that they will call the child Cavi. Sandor ends by promising to have our grandson baptized ‘seven times over.’”
Guy glanced up at his wife. “Now what do you suppose he means by that?”
Author Note
If you refer to your father as “dad,” if your good friend is your “pal,” if you protect yourself on the streets by carrying a “shiv” (“chiv”), if something is sweet as “sukar” (sugar), if you call a wild dog a “jakel” (jackal) or if you knock someone over the head with a “kosh”—you are speaking in the tongue of the Gypsies.
The Romany language has its origins in ancient Sanskrit, though it was not a written language until the mid-twentieth century. Today, the same Romany word is often spelled in several different ways. Scholars now believe that the original Gypsies came from northern India and not Egypt, as was commonly thought in the sixteenth century. In fact, the term “Gypsy” is an abbreviated word meaning “Egyptians.” The Gypsies themselves much prefer to call themselves the Rom, meaning “the People.” While the majority of modern-day Rom live in Eastern Europe, over a million reside in the United States, mostly in the warmer climes of California and Florida.
Tarot cards have long been associated with Gypsy fortune-telling since both tarot and the Rom appeared in Western Europe at nearly the same time in the early fifteenth century. Tarot cards were originally used to play a game akin to modern-day bridge, a game that is still played in northern Italy. Fortune-telling with the cards became very popular throughout Europe before the 1500s. A tarot deck consists of seventy-eight cards. They are divided into the Major Arcana of twenty-two face cards depicting allegorical figures, and the Minor Arcana of fifty-six cards divided into four suits: cups, wands/staffs, pentacles/coins and swords. Modern playing cards are an outgrowth of the tarot deck. The cups become hearts, the wands are clubs, the pentacles are diamonds and the swords are spades. The original court cards were four: king, queen, knight and page. Modern decks have only the king, queen and the jack who replaced the knight. The page disappeared.
The Fool card that is featured in my story is the only one of the Major Arcana to be found in modern playing cards. He has become the Joker—and the Joker is always unpredictable.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-6020-0
THE DARK KNIGHT
Copyright © 2002 by Mary W. Schaller
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*The Cavendish Chronicles
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