Polonaise

by Jane Aiken Hodge

  But she had still not spoken except for an essential yes or no when they reached Warsaw at last. ‘I’m going to take you straight to the Princess’s house,’ he said as they crossed the Vistula. ‘And, remember, all that happened to you was a bad fright.’ He felt her shudder. ‘A very bad fright, Miriam. Paul Genet promised me he would tell everyone that he arrived just in time. So, for both our sakes, and for the child’s, if there should be one, try to behave as if that was really all that happened. What is it?’ She was shaking her head.

  ’No child,’ she said.

  ‘Thank God.’ He was relieved, too, when they reached the Ovinski Palace and learned that the Princess was at Rendomierz, though his first act was to send an urgent messenger warning her of the danger of the advancing Russian army. The expurgated story he told of the destruction of Vinsk was dramatic enough to get Miriam the sympathetic attention of the women, who carried her off and put her to bed while he went to pay an essential call on de Pradt.

  He found him ostentatiously busy, and only the note Paul Genet had scrawled for him got him admission. At first, de Pradt refused to take him seriously. ‘An army in the south? Nonsense. Everyone knows the Tsar is involved in Turkey still, and he’d never divide his main army. A tale of a cock and a bull.’ But he looked frightened. ‘I’ll report it to Schwarzenberg who commands the forces here in the Duchy, but I have no doubt he’ll think no more of your rumour than I do. As to Vinsk, naturally, I’m sorry to hear about it, but you know the old saying about the omelette and the eggs. Lucky for Princess Ovinska that her Rendomierz estate is in an altogether safer part of the country. Talking of the Princess, there have been the most extraordinary rumours going around about her, here in Warsaw. Imagine! That she might be going to marry her son’s tutor. A nobody of an Englishman. And that her son was so outraged by the prospect that he let fly with some joke fountain or other and drenched the pair of them. Together they were, mind you! Which does give one a little to think.’

  ‘I never heard such nonsense,’ said Jan roundly. ‘Well, I’ve given my warning as I promised Genet, now I must set about making arrangements for journeying to Paris with my wife.’

  ‘I must congratulate you.’ His tone was dry. ‘The Princess Ovinska’s Jewish stewardess, you said?’

  ‘My wife, sir.’

  The Cossacks had stopped shouting. They paused, resting their horses, staring at the line of boys, who sat their elegant little ponies easily, resplendent in their Polish uniforms, one of them carrying the eagle standard Jenny had made. Glynde, watching, helpless, still had no breath to hold.

  Casimir pushed forward a pace, raised a hand in greeting and challenge: ‘I am the Prince Ovinski. What are you doing on my land, and what can I do for you?’ He had spoken in his fluent Russian and Glynde breathed a long sigh of hope.

  ‘Let us pass,’ said the Cossack leader. ‘We don’t fight with children. Put your toy swords away; tell us where your horses are stabled and maybe we’ll let you keep those pretty little ponies, and your Polish chicken, good for running away!’ His contemptuous gesture was for their flag.

  ‘We don’t run.’ Casimir held on to his temper. He was playing for time, Glynde realised, must have sent a message to the palace and was doing his best for his friends. ‘But your being here – it’s war then?’

  ‘It’s war, young cockerel. Our little father the Tsar is going to teach you snivelling Poles a lesson you won’t forget.’

  An outraged stir among the boys. Casimir’s hand went up to quell it; too late. A shot rang out. Karol? ‘Damn you!’ As he spoke, the leader swayed, fell in slow motion from his horse and his men screamed their war cry and charged.

  Glynde was praying and cursing under his breath. He saw Casimir kick his pony forward, sword gleaming in evening sun, and go down like corn to the sickle. Tears streamed down his face. He took one last, helpless look at the melee, which was almost over, boys down everywhere before that swift professional onslaught, and turned to run for his life. For Jenny’s. For all their lives. For what Casimir had tried to save.

  Herr von Stenck had been busy. Every carriage in the stables had been fetched, formed into a barricade eked out with odd bits of furniture from the house. There were marksmen ready at the downstairs windows. Not enough of them.

  ‘The boys?’ Von Stenck was directing operations at the front of the house.

  ‘Dead.’ Glynde was hardly aware of his tears. ‘Not a chance. The Prince was holding them, but young Karol fired on their leader. I had to watch … nothing I could do but come and warn you. They may be busy for a while sacking the school. Or they may come straight here.’

  ‘Is it true you’re a crack shot?’

  ‘I’ve killed a pheasant or two.’

  ’We need a man in the church tower. It commands every side. The Prince’s sporting guns. You can use them?’

  ‘Yes. The women?’

  ‘Making bandages. And ready to pass us ammunition when it begins.’

  ‘You got a message off to the Princess?’

  ‘At once. But whether she gets it …’ He turned to hurry away.

  Glynde stood for a moment, facing their desperate case, saw Jenny come running from the palace door.

  ‘You’re safe!’ she exclaimed. ‘But – where’s Casimir? The boys?’

  ‘Dead.’ He took both her hands in his. For comfort. His, or hers? ‘I couldn’t save him. All of them …’

  ‘Dead? The little boys? The hope of Poland.’ Silent tears ebbed from her eyes.

  ‘I could do nothing. Too far away. Had to watch it; leave them to their fate.’ He must not tell her about the part her eagle had played. ‘I’ll never forgive myself; never forget it.’

  ‘But it may save the rest of us.’ His wild look frightened her. ‘If you break down, we’re all lost, I think. The serfs trust you as they don’t von Stenck.’

  ‘Thank you.’ He released her hands, reached gently to wipe away her tears. ‘You’re right. No time for tears. Come round with me and talk to them? No need to take my place in the tower until we see them coming. Von Stenck knows his business; he’s placed his lookouts well.’

  They found him arguing furiously with a group of outdoors men whom he had ordered to destroy the Princess’s beloved orangery. ‘It’s got to go.’ He turned to them, ‘But the fools are frightened of what the Princess will say.’

  ‘You’re right, of course. It would provide cover from the shrubbery right to the palace. Have you explained to them?’

  ‘Explained! To serfs! Anyway, I don’t speak their damned lingo!’

  ‘Miss Peverel, make them understand?’ Glynde took von Stenck’s arm to draw him away and was rewarded a few moments later by the crash of breaking glass.

  The sentinel’s shouted warning came just as he was beginning to wonder if night might not save them at least for the time being. He turned to Jenny. ‘Come and load for me? You know how?’

  ‘Of course.’

  They reached the narrow parapet of the tower just as the Cossacks emerged from the shrubbery beyond the ornamental water, and Glynde was glad to see that they were riding, as before, in a solid mass, loaded with what must be booty from his house and the school. He breathed a prayer for the tutors, the servants … Not hopefully … But nothing could have happened to suggest to the Russians that the palace might be defended. Hoping this, he and von Stenck had agreed to hold their fire to the very last moment for maximum effect on the swift-moving targets. He waited, holding his breath, until the Cossacks had cleared the yew walk and swung round to take the palace from the front. His first shot and those of the other defenders sounded almost at the same moment. Four Cossacks slumped in their saddles and one horse fell under its rider. He took the second gun from Jenny and fired again as the attackers massed on the drive in front of the house. Another volley of shots from the defenders. Two more horses down, and one man. So far, the leader had escaped. The one Karol had hit, he wondered, or another? He took careful aim, fired, and got him. That did it.
The rest of the depleted band conferred hastily, turned and fled back the way they had come, taking their wounded with them. With one last shot, Glynde got the rider of a dead horse as he tried to leap up behind one of his fellows. ‘I hope he’s only wounded,’ he told Jenny, handing her the rifle. ‘We need to know what to expect.’

  ‘We most certainly do.’ She was sitting on the heavy slates of the church roof, her grey dress filthy with dust and oil, a great smear across her face where she had wiped it with a blackened hand. She look up at him. ‘You killed – how many?’

  ‘I don’t rightly know.’ He reached down a hand to pull her to her feet. ‘Or care. We’re safe for the moment, I think. We’d best get down before it’s too dark to see.’

  ‘Look!’ She was pointing south to what he had unthinkingly dismissed as an afterglow from the sunset. ‘Fire! The school. Your house!’

  ‘My books!’

  ’Everything. Do you think there is any hope Casimir is still alive?’

  ‘We have to face it. None.’ There had been no time, before, to tell her what had happened. Now, as they made their way cautiously down the spiral stairway in the half dark, he described the moment of disaster when Karol fired on the Cossack leader. ‘I think Casimir might have held them. After that, there was no hope. If only …’

  ‘Oh, I know,’ she said. ‘So many ifs … Now it’s all over. All our hopes … You’ll go back to England now, won’t you? Take me with you?’

  ‘I intend to,’ he told her.

  Reaching Warsaw still in a very bad temper, the Princess was more surprised than pleased to find Jan Warrington and Miriam installed in her house. It was Jan, greeting her at her own front door, who broke this to her. ‘You did not meet my messenger?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you. Your palace at Vinsk has been destroyed.’

  ‘Destroyed? But why? Who?’

  ‘French stragglers.’

  ‘Brutes! Completely?’

  ‘I’m afraid so. I got there next day. It was burnt out. The survivors had taken refuge in the forest. I managed to find Miriam …’

  ‘I should never have left her in charge. A woman! A man would have defended it, kept better watch! I’ll never forgive her, never! Where is she? Why is she not here to greet me?’

  ‘She’s ill, Princess. It’s been a terrible shock to her.’

  ‘It’s a terrible shock to me! My poor Casimir, his main estate. And all those serfs! They’re gone, you say? Into the forest?’

  ‘Many of them died trying to defend themselves. And your son’s palace. But it happened too fast; no warning; no reason to expect it.’

  ‘Where were the Russians?’

  ‘Gone. The Tsar withdrew his army when Napoleon crossed the Niemen. But, Highness, if you have not had my messenger, best send another. There’s talk at Vilno of a Russian army in the south, commanded by Tormassov. If it comes here, against Warsaw, Rendomierz will be in its line of march.’

  ‘Dear God! Rendomierz too. And my son. Casimir! I must go to de Pradt, to the government, to Schwarzenberg, get them to send help!’

  ‘But first send for your son.’

  The wounded Cossack refused to speak. Von Stenck wanted to torture him, and he and Glynde were arguing furiously about this when Lech arrived to report the village destroyed, but the villagers safe and back there, trying to pick up the pieces of their lives. There was more news from the Brotherhood. The Russian army was still in Volhynia, on the other side of the border, it was only its Cossack screen who were operating here in the Duchy. ‘No one knows which way they are going to move, whether for Warsaw or north to join the main army.’

  ‘So what do we do?’ Glynde had interpreted for von Stenck, who was proud of speaking no Polish. ‘Which is more dangerous, to stay here and defend the palace, or to try and get through to Warsaw?’

  ‘The Princess would wish the palace defended.’

  ‘I suppose she would.’ He cared nothing for the Princess or her wishes. How strange it was. All he wanted was to get Jenny Peverel to safety. And himself? He had a future now, in England, a whole hierarchy of responsibilities awaiting him there. There had been time, in the quiet watches of the night, to decipher all of his aunt’s closely written letter. It told a sad story of an estate gravely neglected by two sick men, who cared nothing about its heir, or its tenants. But then, why should they have considered him? He was surprised that they had not tried to invalidate his claim. He could only think that when it came to the point, he must have seemed a less undesirable successor than the remote cousin who was the next heir. No wonder his aunt urged him to come home as soon as possible. All very well, but how?

  He found Jenny trying to comfort Lech, who had taken the news of Casimir’s death hard. ‘We have to think what’s best to do.’

  ‘Yes.’ She had been crying again, but managed a travesty of a smile. ‘What can we do?’

  ’Stay here and help defend the palace; try to get to Warsaw; or try to join the Russian army.’

  ‘The enemy?’

  ‘You’re forgetting, and no wonder. They are not our enemy. I imagine Britain and Russia are allies again by now; sure to be, with the French across the Niemen. And, don’t forget, I have many good friends in Petersburg and in the Russian army. I don’t know Tormassov, it’s true, but we’re bound to have friends in common. If we could only get to him, our troubles would be over.’

  ‘It’s a big if.’ She thought about it for a moment. ‘Too big. I’ve been a fool. I should never have asked you to take me with you. I hadn’t thought what it would mean. By yourself, you might manage to get across country and find Tormassov. With me, you’d not have a chance. It would mean death for you; worse, as they say, for me. Forget I asked you. Go without me. And God go with you.’ She would never have a chance to tell him that the Princess had lied in her hints about her and Paul Genet. Better like that?

  ‘No.’ He turned to Lech, who had been listening without understanding, and spoke to him in Polish. ‘Lech, we can trust you, the pani and I?’

  ‘Till death, lord. We were all the little Prince’s friends.’ He crossed himself. ‘May he rest in peace.’

  ‘He died gallantly. Now, tell us –’ He looked quickly round to make sure they could not be overheard. ‘The Brotherhood – does it still have links across the border?’

  ‘In Russia?’ He spat. ‘God rot them! But, yes, lord, I expect so. They have always had connections everywhere.’

  ‘And you are still in touch with them?’

  ‘I can be.’

  ‘Then ask them if they can help us across the border. To the Russian army. It’s not safe here for women.’

  ‘It’s not safe for anyone,’ said Lech. ‘But you’re right, lord, we peasants can hide in the forest. We’ve done it before; we’ll do it again. But, the Princess?’

  ‘Our duty to her died with the Prince,’ said Glynde, and got a strange look from Lech.

  ‘You saved my life once, Pani Jenny,’ he turned to her. ‘I owe it to you. You want to do this mad thing?’

  ’Yes, Lech, I do. If you can help us …’

  ‘I can try. But, pani, will you take Marylka with you? My sister.’ He said it proudly. ‘There’s no life for her here; not with her blood. It’s all right for me; I’m a man; men make their own lives. I’d meant to speak to the little Prince about her, when he was older, when he could understand. But now … Take her with you, pani. Find her a life in your England where you are all equal. And I’ll help you.’

  Chapter 35

  The news of Casimir’s death broke Miriam’s icy calm. ‘Oh, the poor little boy.’ Tears streamed down her face at last, and Jan, in a shock of his own, was still relieved to see them. She reached out half blindly and took his hand. ‘Your son,’ she said. ‘Your promising little son.’

  ‘You knew?’

  ‘Anyone who loved you both would have known. He was so like you, Jan.’

  ‘You’ll have to give me another.’ He had
her in his arms now, crying quietly. ‘A little American, my darling. Soon.’ She was beginning to shake again. He leaned across her and blew out the light, then, very gently, very lovingly, as so often before, began to take off her clothes.

  The Princess went from blind rage through hysterical tears to a cold calm that was more frightening still. Jan had whisked Miriam away from the first crisis, so they knew no more until next morning, when they emerged to find her, all in black, issuing a string of orders to a messenger. Von Stenck was to hold Rendomierz for her or never cross her path again. ‘As for my son’s tutor and governess, who have so signally failed in their duty, they may consider themselves dismissed as of this moment and lucky to get off so lightly. I do not wish ever to see either of them again.’ She looked up and saw Jan in the doorway. ‘I leave for Spa today. You will be so good as to make other arrangements for yourself and your –’ she allowed a significant pause: ‘wife.’

  ‘Isobel!’ He could not part from her like this. ‘You must let me say how sorry I am. How I grieve for him!’

  ‘You?’ She looked at him coldly. ‘What business is it of yours? Goodbye, Mr. Warrington.’

  * * *

  Her messenger reached Rendomierz safely and found the palace still in a state of defence. The rumour was that Tormassov’s Russian army had moved north towards Brest Litovsk, and no more had been seen of its marauding bands of Cossacks.