by Guy Antibes
Sara showed Meldey into the sitting room and took the flowers into the kitchen and gave the maid instructions on arranging them.
“There,” Sara said rubbing her hands. “Now you’re to be my trainer. Wonderful. I had a shoulder wound at the Battle of Obridge but now I think it’s sufficiently healed so I can begin to make more progress.”
“I misunderstood and didn’t make the connection.” Meldey relaxed a bit. “You are Sara Featherwood, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
Her harsh demeanor softened as she laughed. “I was told to train a Countess. I didn’t know you still lived here. I thought I would be dealing with a noble with no skills. You came up in a few discussions I had with Choster before he left.”
Sara grimaced. “You knew him? He was a great man.”
Meldey shared her expression. “Indeed. So you won’t be starting from scratch and you’re certainly battle-tested. I will be the first to admit I’m not an expert with a sword, although I could defeat Choster regularly. I work with more diminutive weapons. Knives, thrown and handled, garrotes, hand to hand combat, handbows. I can get you more fit than you thought possible, if you’re willing to work. However, perhaps you can probably show me how to use a gun. I understand they are superior to handbows.” She smiled. “You have a reputation among the Duke’s people and it’s all quite admirable.”
A reputation among Yanna Silverthread’s people would be high praise indeed from the more aggressive side of the Duke’s minions. “I would like to be more fit. I experienced certain limitations during my Shattuk Downs trip.”
“Campaign is a more apt phrase. Terminating with an exciting escape freeing the Duke himself! Good work.”
“I had help.” Sara didn’t feel comfortable with all of this praise from a stranger.
“We all have help, if truth be told, but most times the job won’t get done unless we do it.”
Sara nodded and her hand went to the carriage whistle around her neck. Without Klark and Willa’s help, Northcross and she might still be guests of the Grand Duke.
“Do we start today?”
Sara pursed her lips. “Yes, but we’ll spend it planning out what will work best for me. I have a house guest and I’ll invite her to join in.”
“Good. So what did you have in mind?”
“We need to get into shape. My arms began to ache and I lost strength too soon when I fought. Can conditioning help?”
“It can. You’re very tall and healthy enough. I must warn you, to achieve sword-strength, your body will change and you’ll lose some of your feminine fat.” Meldey pulled up her sleeve. Just as Sara thought, her arm wasn’t skin and bone, but skin and muscle that seemed to flow in cords beneath her skin as she flexed.
“Maybe not that much, but we’ll see,” Sara said.
“Very well. Do you run?”
Run? Sara had never run before as exercise. Choster concentrated on limbering exercises. “Choster had us do a few rounds of the courtyard as part of our exercises.”
“We’ll run in the streets of Parth. You’ll have to dress as a lad and bind up your chest, but running will give your body strength and build up your breathing. A woman often has to rely on speed rather than strength.”
“Choster told me that. I have speed.”
Meldey laughed. “Not enough, Countess, not enough.”
~
Dressed in a brand new sheath dress, currently fashionable in Parth, Lily came down for physical training.
Sara could hardly keep her jaw from dropping. “Exercise, Lily, means you have to wear clothing that permits free movement. The only free movement you can do is to shuffle your way around the courtyard.”
“But I must remain fashionable since I am in Parth.”
“No you don’t, Miss Evertrue,” Meldey said. “Sara wears an exercise outfit of trousers and a linen blouse. I suggest you change into something similar.”
“But I don’t ride. I don’t see the need.”
Sara laughed at her friend. “I do. You said you needed to be able to defend yourself. A child can push you over, wearing that dress.” Sometimes Lily acted in odd ways and Sara hadn’t been able to see a truly predictable pattern to the woman’s actions.
Lily arced her eyebrow, “I will do as you say.” She turned around and in a few minutes returned to the courtyard dressed much the same as Sara except she wore a red silk blouse. “This is better?”
“Much,” Meldey said. “Now we will begin to loosen up.” She took the two women through a few warm-up exercises. Sara felt invigorated. It had been too long. However Lily had a hard time and could barely catch her breath.
“Enough, enough,” she said. “I’ll be down tomorrow.” Sara sensed the determination. Lily didn’t like being shown up and Sara could see it bothered her friend.
Two weeks later, Lily could make it through a full warm-up session and had learned how to handle a knife.
“Some women love to learn physical moves and others,” Meldey looked at Lily’s retreating back, “learn just enough to defend themselves.” She didn’t need to say anything further. “I’m sure she has other talents.”
“She doesn’t lack courage. Without her I wouldn’t have been able to get into the palace at Stonebridge.”
Meldey nodded. “Oh, she’s the lady who got you captured.”
“No,” Sara laughed. “I got myself captured by straying away from her. I’m glad I did. Her talents lie in less active pursuits, but she’s very intelligent.”
“That just gives me more time to make a swordswoman of you.” Meldey grinned. She went to a shack on the side of the courtyard and pulled out two wooden swords. “Now we’ll see if your speed has improved and then we’ll go for a run.”
By the time Meldey finished with Sara, Willa jumped off of a carriage. “To work! To work!” Willa rushed inside.
“I’ll be out of Parth on assignment for the next week,’ Meldey said as she left the courtyard. “Continue the exercises with Lily and work on your forms. Try increasing your speed while retaining control of your arm.”
Once inside, Sara turned to Willa. “What work?”
“Get Lily, the first onslaught has begun and we need to silence a professor who has been throwing around lies, calling the College, the King’s Brothel, for one. I’ve already sent a summons for the Royal Genealogist.”
Sara went into the kitchen and brought out some fruit punch. “Into the study,” she said.
Lily entered a few minutes later. “What brings Willa to our humble house?”
“Time to go on the offensive.” Willa gave Lily her squint. The two still had no love for one another. “Our target is Professor Pravel. He teaches Geography at the University. Obed is still finding out who his associates are. Banna and I think we need to neutralize this as soon as possible.”
“I agree,” Sara said. “Show the men that they can’t get away with snide comments.”
Lily left and then returned bearing two large satchels. “Pravel.” She pulled out a portfolio and dropped it on the desk, read a few pages and then began, “We know this isn’t a very sophisticated group. Professor Pravel has much to account for. He’s married with children, mistresses and he’s a gambler. We can take our pick of what to get him for.”
The doorbell rang and a moment later Obed Handy rushed into the room.
“There are five men. Four professors and a bursar. This is what they are spreading.” He threw a printed paper on the desk.
The picture of the upper half of a woman with disheveled hair and wearing some garment with one shoulder bare. There were two lines of print.
WARNING! Proposed Women’s College is Really a Royal Brothel!
Write to the King’s Council to Have Their Charter Revoked!
“Willa says it’s a Professor Pravel,” Sara said, shuffling through the papers.
“Indeed. Professors Pravel, Hornbelt, Winterburn, and Yellowleaf. We have seven bursars and the one involved with this handbill is Garr Flickerw
ing. Flickerwing had them printed up and Pravel’s been distributing them at this point. I talked to Hornbelt and joked with him about your college and he quite openly informed me of their wonderful idea.”
“The Dean doesn’t think it’s so funny,” Willa said. Her face betrayed her anger. “We only heard about this!”
“It is rather juvenile,” Lily said. “The idea of women going to a College to do physical work is appalling.”
Sara looked at Lily and broke out in laughter. Lily curled one side of her lip upwards. It was a joke. The woman has a sense of humor. Was her first appearance at the exercise session in a dress a joke? Sara squinted her eyes and looked at Lily in a new light. Now she’d have to pay more attention to Lily’s words and deeds. Her cynicism might be hiding some very dry levity.
“I don’t know what’s funny, Sara.” Willa said. “Lily’s right.”
“There is no doubt that she’s right.” Sara could see a shine in Lily’s eyes. It was a joke. “Now what will we do about it?”
Lily pulled more papers out of their dossier. “What could we do that will stop all five men in their tracks?”
Sara found herself at a loss. She had never created traps and deceptions. All of her actions were pretty straightforward. “Complain to the King? Hurt them? I don’t like either of those alternatives.”
Lily’s face lit up. “Irony. We need to entrap them with ladies of the night.”
Obed laughed. “Oho! Delicious, Miss Evertrue. So we will have to get them all together and perhaps have the King discover them?”
“Have their wives be the ones,” Willa said.
Sara didn’t understand how that would help them. “If their wives catch them, how is that going to stop their behavior?”
Willa, Obed and Lily looked at each other. “It doesn’t,” Obed said.
“Isn’t it better if you have Banna or someone else discover them? Aren’t we supposed to blackmail them or something?” Sara only stated the obvious.
“Who would believe Banna? Who would believe any of us?” Willa said. Sara could hear the disappointment in her voice.
“Why not enlist Lord Northcross?” Sara said. “If we could enlist him to our cause, that would help us wouldn’t it?”
“Why would he…” Obed stopped, mid-sentence. “Of course he might.”
Sara didn’t really want to use Northcross, but the College meant so much to Banna and Willa. “I’ll get a meeting with him.”
“He may want something in return,” Willa said.
Sara nodded. “He might and if it’s something not too onerous, I think he’s the right person. He knows how to keep secrets and he’s feared.”
Lily shivered, “You can say that again.”
~
Her palms were moist with anxiety as she trudged up the many stairways to Lord Northcross’ apartment in the palace. The limping man showed her in. She thought of Klark leading her here and wondered how he fared at Stonebridge, helping his father make carriages.
“Sara, come in,” Duke Northcross said. A smile still seemed odd on his face and his demeanor showed no sign of relaxation.
He led her to a small dining room that had already been set up for dinner, which sat under metal domes.
“We can eat now.” The Duke wasn’t a thick man — tall, but not slender.
Sara removed the dome off of her plate and began to eat. After some small talk, the Duke said, “So you asked to meet me, so I would suppose that you have a request? Money? Something to do with the house?”
Sara laughed. “Now that you ask, I’d like access to your garden. I can look at it from my bedroom and I’d love to walk on your manicured paths, but we don’t have access.”
The Duke waved his hand. “There is an entrance from your house, but from the servant’s quarters. Ask them and then you can feel free to roam at will.”
Sara felt lightened by her request. “My purpose is something more serious.”
“Let me see,” he said. “It must have something to do with your trainer or the Women’s College. I’m not aware of any other pursuits you currently have.”
“Some professors have been spreading malicious lies about the College, calling it a Royal brothel.”
Duke Northcross pursed his lips. “I know. I’ve seen one of the flyers. But I just can’t demand that someone put a stop to that kind of thing.”
That was not the kind of reply Sara had hoped to hear. “Perhaps you can.” She couldn’t help but talk in a softer voice. “We’d like to blackmail them, so they will stop.” There. Sara spoken the request and she felt a bit relieved that she had gone through with it. She steeled herself for the rejection.
“Do I hear you just ask for my permission to blackmail? You certainly have my permission if it’s for an appropriate cause.”
“No. We want you to be the blackmailer. Lily, Willa and I would like to trap them in the act of carousing with prostitutes. Real ones, not College students.”
“That would be a trick since there aren’t any Women’s College students yet,” the Duke said, smiling gently.
Sara returned it. “I know, but we want the behavior to stop. Punishing them or threatening them with exposure wouldn’t work coming from us. They have no respect.”
The Duke stabbed at a morsel from his plate and waved it as he talked. “Blackmail seems like a form of punishment.”
Stammering wouldn’t do, so Sara paused. She felt herself break out in a sweat. “A punishment would be to have their wives catch them in the act. We want the behavior to stop and send a message to others.”
“If the blackmailing is successful, then others wouldn’t know,” the Duke took another piece of meat and ate.
Sara didn’t feel hungry, but forced herself to eat a bite. The distraction settled her down. “Have you blackmailed people in the Kingdom before?” She forced herself to look him in the eye.
“I have and I do. What would I get in return for this favor, your admiration? I think I have a tiny piece of that already and I know rejecting your request wouldn’t destroy it.”
“Whatever is reasonable; I want the College to succeed and if I must pay a deserving price to make it so, then I will pay it.” Sara lifted her chin. The ground felt firmer as she declared her determination and felt her confidence return.
“During your first term at the College, I want you to go on a mission for Parthy. It’s dangerous and I’m a bit reluctant to send you on a perilous voyage, but promise me that you will go. It’s an intelligence mission to Belonnia and perfect for you. That’s all I can say at this point. ”
Something dangerous? Action? Sara longed for action and not the drama that the College had ended up becoming. He did say a voyage? Sara had never been on the sea, although she had visited the docks before. Belonnia couldn’t be a more dangerous place—not since the aborted takeover of Shattuk Downs. The price ended up something she might have volunteered for, but the Duke couldn’t know that.
“I’ll consider it. This is our plan, if I decide to go on your mission.” Sara began her rehearsed presentation. She delivered it as if she were teaching. The Duke asked the right questions and offered a few good suggestions of his own, especially regarding the timing, after all, he was the master at this sort of thing.
“I’ll do it. Obed could stand a little payback for how they treat him behind his back,” the Duke said.
He rang a bell and a servant arrived to take their plates away. Another servant brought a dessert that seemed like frozen sweet-milk but tasted so much better.
“Something good comes to us from Belonnia, Sara. This is iced cream. Enjoy it.”
~
Lily, Sara, Willa and Banna stood, huddled in a closet, as they heard the five men enter the large party room in the bordello. The ladies came a few minutes later and soon the conversation had turned into something unsavory in Sara’s view. The professors quickly dropped their dignity and acted like the students they taught, taunting and talking dirty to the women, who cooed and laug
hed. The women’s performances likely took place multiple times a night, but to Sara the entire thing was shocking and disgraceful.
They heard the door fly open and the Duke with others, including Yanna Silverthread entered. “Excuse me. We were to meet with our spies in this room,” he said. “But wait, aren’t you…” He called out each of the professors’ names. “You are all married men with families and positions. This is a disgrace. You could be dismissed from the University for lewd behavior.”
There were gasps of denial and then pleading.
“Miss Silverthread, take down their names and the real names of these ladies. Gentlemen, I may require your services in the future. If you don’t want your plunge into sin and degradation advertised, remember our little meeting tonight. Also, I understand you’ve all been responsible for some spurious information being floated about the Women’s College. My brother, the King, would be very displeased if he found one of your documents in his study. I suggest that you curtail that and discourage any such behavior on the part of your peers at the University. Otherwise…”
“The Women’s College is a travesty to the notion of higher education.” Professor Pravel said.
“I’m sure unemployment is a travesty to your family, Professor,” the Duke said. “I will notify the Royal Genealogist of this event. I’m sure there is a chance that it might not make it into the Parthy records. I would say that continued good behavior would ensure it doesn’t.”
“I’ll not be blackmailed!” Pravel said.
“Then proceed as you will. I have my eyes on each one of you.” The room silenced and the Duke left.
“What shall we do?” one of the professors said, breaking the silence.
“I’m not going to be cowed by Duke Northcross, even if he is the King’s brother,” Pravel said.
“Fool! What exactly will you do if you are dismissed from the University? You’ll be caring for horses in some stable, or dusting off books in some tiny bookshop. Ending our little campaign is a small price to pay for continued peace of mind. They don’t have a chance of succeeding with our help or without it,” another professor said. Sara only knew Professor Pravel’s voice.