gown told him that she must have arrived by coach, although he had not heard one draw up. He bowed low, greeted the guests, and presented his wife.
“Our luggage has been delayed,” Sir Wulfgang announced. “I believe we could use a supper, a fairly substantial supper. Right, my dear? What is on the table tonight?”
“Roast boar, honored sir? And partridge pie. Well hung, very delicious. Ham, trout, a fine selection of cheeses.”
The prince’s latest favorite glanced at his companion and received a smile of acceptance. “That will be excellent. Send up a couple of flagons of your very best wine, right away, and the food as soon as possible. Aprinceter that, we are not to be disturbed, even if King Konrad himself arrives at the head of the Royal Hussars, understand?”
“Indeed, I do, sir. A linkboy…”
“Just give me that lantern and we’ll light our own way,” young Magnus said, with the impatience of youth.
Oldrich obeyed. “The wine will be ready in an instant!” He sighed as he watched the couple trotting up the stairs, being rewarded for his attention by a glimpse of Lady Magnus’s divine ankles. Some men were just born lucky.
“I thought we had to sup with the prince tonight?” Madlenka said as Wulf escorted her along the corridor.
“Plans have changed. Cabbage Head had a harrowing interview with Cardinal Zdenek today. As a result, he has already drunk himself into oblivion. His cronies put him to bed. You will have to wait until tomorrow for the joy of being presented to His Highness, but then the sight of your beauty will at once cure his hangover and arouse him to avid anticipation of reunion with his darling wife, a lustful eagerness second only to my own present state.”
“Your fingers are trembling.”
“I may need some guidance.” He unlocked the door of the Horse Room.
Madlenka went in. “And Otto will be the next count of Cardice, I suppose? He is the eldest.”
“Vlad,” Wulf said. “Otto won’t want it, and no one can do a better job of modernizing Gallant’s defenses than Vlad.”
“Can you really arrange things like that?”
He closed the door and turned to face her. For a moment the shifting lamplight seemed to shine through a crack in his facade of wedding-night joy and excitement to illuminate the dread inside. “ I must!” he said. “It is my duty, plain and simple. For three hundred years the Magnuses of Dobkov have served the House of Jorgar without cavil or stint, and more than half its sons have died in that cause. My service will be different, but to be true to my ancestors, I must do my utmost to keep King Krystof on his throne as long as I have breath in my body. You won’t,” he added with sudden alarm, “forbid me this, will you, my darling cadger?”
“Of course not,” she said. “My family has held the northern gate of the kingdom for even longer, and many a Bukovany has fallen defending it. We’ll serve together.” Then she couldn’t resist adding, “And God save the king!”
Wulf exploded in laughter and pulled her into an embrace.
HISTORICAL NOTE
The corruption in the Church in the Early Renaissance is well documented and was no secret at the time. As an example, Pope Sixtus IV was deeply involved in the “Pazzi Conspiracy,” a plot to murder two leading Florentines, Lorenzo (“the Magnificent”) de’ Medici and his brother Giuliano, planning to replace them with Girolamo Riario, one of his own nephews. The two de’ Medici were assaulted in front of the altar of the cathedral during Mass. Lorenzo was wounded, but escaped; his brother died. Sixtus also established the Spanish Inquisition and confirmed the notorious Tomas de Torquemada as its grand inquisitor. He was one of the bad popes. Some of his successors were even worse, and yet it was almost fifty years before Martin Luther launched the Reformation.
