Death On A Pier (Part 6)
Ch. 6 Dinner
Brynhild brought an armful of daisies into the dining room of Meiser Castle. Udit and Rudi had dragged the table in the middle of the room and spread a snow-white tablecloth over it. They were putting brown furs over the benches. A pewter pitcher steamed at the end of the table.
A bowl in the middle of the table was full of water. Brynhild laid the daisies in the bowl. She looked around the room and nodded.
Udit fluffed her skirts and turned it to the door. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning.”
Rudi and Brynhild waved to her. “Good night.”
She whistled to herself and slipped out the door. She passed Hildebert as she left. He narrowed his eyes at the tablecloth and benches as though he was scanning for a defect.
Brynhild curtsied low. “Good evening, Ministeriales Hildebert. Please, don’t wait on the bell. The water is just now the right temperature for washing.” She held up a steaming ewer.
He wrinkled his nose. “At Hansea, you can hear the bells from the dining room of the burgher’s hall.”
“Can you? How lovely.”
As the words came out of her mouth, a bell peeled. They both raised their brows to the window and the white light blurring its edges.
Brynhild smiled and motioned her guest to the seat. Rudi ducked out, calling for Liesl and Magda. This time Hildebert inched into the room and approached the table.
She sat facing the door and pointed to the pewter salt cellar in the middle of the table. “It’s fortunate our table is malleable to our guests, isn’t it? We can both sit above the salt and not yell at each other. So, how was your trip?”
Hildebert let himself onto the fur-covered bench with care and scanned the table. “It was invigoratizing. The summer rains kept me cool enough. But taking the roads is never my preferred route.”
“No?”
“I was born and bred to water.”
“So is my man servant. You lived your whole life in Hansea then?” She put the ewer in front of him.
Hildebert nodded. “You have been there?”
“Once or twice. It’s a charming port.”
She was saved from saying anything further when Liesl arrived with a towel. Hildebert took his time washing his hands and scrubbing them dry before handing the ewer to Brynhild to take her turn. She put it back in the middle of the table just as Liesl brought out a silver platter of bread.
Brynhild waited until the girl scooted out of the room before cocking her head to the side. “I’ve seen Hansea’s defenses too. The walls are rather impressive.”
He nodded and swallowed a chunk of bread. “They only work on the city. It’s a defensifying position that I theorize to be in accordance with military planning.”
The walls of Hansea had too many chokepoints to be helpful in anything but wasting money, but they did look impressive. Brynhild chewed her bread slowly and waited for him to explain himself further.
When he swallowed down half a loaf in silence, she gave up her wait. “Burgravine Giselle told me you wrote to her first about the pier. I’m rather pleased she gave me the managing of it, truthfully. I find it cuts out the expense of parchment.”
“It might cheapify the endeavor, but it doesn’t make the river safer.”
Her ears twitched, but she kept her expression neutral. “A river is one of those equivocal gifts from God, giving prosperity at the same moment it takes lives. What does Hansea want from it now that it wasn’t giving before?”
Hildebert cleared his throat. “The Arundel empties into the Itty Sea where Hansea port stands and it goes right by Meiser-”
“Ah, is that why you needed to cartographize the lay of the land.”
“What?”
“You didn’t know the geography of the river.”
“No, I know the river. I’ve lived on it my whole life. But it’s gotten more dangericifying ever since the death of the king.”
“Again, a river is always dangerous.”
“There have been bandits keeping cogs in shallows and attacking merchant ships as they come down to Hansea. One cog was robbified of a hundred ells of linen in June. The captain was beaten to a pulp and left rudderless.”
“That’s distressing. We hadn’t had such problems in Meiser, but I can’t in conscience send the good tradesmen coming through Meiser to dangerous waters. A warning would be in order, of course. Perhaps-”
“The river needs defensifying, and Meiser ought to have hired guards to patrol it.”
“Guards are patrolling Meiser.”
“The bandits attacked halfway down the river. Guards need to be there, not just at both ends.”
Brynhild tensed. “That’s an interesting proposal. I don’t see how river pirates can be escaping two chokepoints, nor how guards will be stationed there at a reasonable cost. I hope you haven’t paid overmuch for the ships.”
“No, you need to pay for the ships.”
“Excuse me?”
“Meiser is on the river, so we demand that Meiser pay an army to patrol the whole river and mark the sandbanks.”
Brynhild’s nose squinched up. Fortuna pessimi, how much did he think an army cost? There was no way the toll fees could cover such an endeavor without jerking up the price and emptying the savings for the pier upkeep. Also…Hansea is on the river. What did he think, that he could demand someone else magic away his problems for free?
The set of his brow said emphatically that he did indeed think this was a reasonable request.
Liesl came in with the turnips and pig balanced on each arm. She eased the wide silver platters next to the salt cellar and backed up.
Hildebert whipped around to scowl at her. “Where is the footman and dining room maid? We haven’t even finishized the bread here.”
Liesl paused and bowed her head. “Sorry.”
Brynhild put her hand on Liesl’s shoulder. “It’s fine. She was anticipating our needs. Thank you.”
“Actually, I was trying to bring out the platters early so I can go fishing with Vatti.”
“Rudi needs help for night fishing? I thought Magda had his torches out already.”
“The fur guilds are meeting by the pier and Vatti wants help netting as many pikes and trout as possible before the noise from the guild scares them away.”
Brynhild’s ears twitched. “Why are they out by the pier?”
“Klaus got permission to put out his table where they will have room and still play host.”
“Ah.”
Hildebert fluttered his hands in the air. “Well, I’m not rushizing so you can smell like pike. Do we look like we run on servant time? Next, you’ll be telling me you got all the guards for your fishing trip when they should be down river catching pirates!”
Liesl flinched. Brynhild patted her shoulder and whispered in her ear, “Get along to your father. I’ll see you tomorrow…or later.”
Liesl gratefully scampered out of the room. Hildebert jerked the platter of trout in front of him and jabbed it with his knife. “And don’t forget the sauce.”
Brynhild plucked a loaf from the platter and nudged turnips next to it with her knife. “My servants are not yours, my good man, and neither are my guards. As much as I appreciate your troubles, they are not Meiser’s. I fail to see why we should shoulder the full cost of defending your port.”
Hildebert reared back, nostrils flared. “All the river’s troubles are yours. Your father finagalized the toll booths from Hansea, and you can damned well pay for the privilege now.”
A retort scraped her throat, but she swallowed it back and fixed her eyes on her guest. “That is an interesting description of earning an honor through military service. As I recall, your master did the same finagalizing for Hansea, and my father has barely moved the line between our lands.”
“He moved it plenty.”
“Not to the mouth of the river, and certainly not past Meiser. So I am grateful that you would give me his honor without further fight. When you say you want me to patrol the whole of the river, you are saying that I should own the whole river down past the mouth, are you not?”
Hildebert’s eyes widened.
Brynhild smiled sweetly at him. “It would be a simple matter. Your master cannot take care of a simple port. Mine takes it over with the accompanying port fees to pay for this army that you seem to believe the whole river needs.”
“It does need it.”
“I haven’t seen it. The pirates attacked near your end. If you can’t patrol that part of the river, I will happily take it from you.”
“The attack was in a no man’s land, under no one. We have no call to defendize it.”
“Neither have we, unless you give us the second port.”
“I don’t need to conceedize any part of the river because the pirates are closer to you, and the pirates are clearly getting through your port to get to mine.”
She strained to keep her smile. “Nonsense. They can as easily come up from Hansea as down from Meiser, and they can equally slip in after Bergstaat. You have no proof where the pirates are getting in, nor do you have any proof of a serious problem. One theft should be prosecuted in your court and made an example of so others are discouraged from turning entrepreneurial in their theft.”
“I can’t catch them on waters you refuse to police.”
“Because it is your waters…until you want to concede them.”
Hildebert’s lips pinched together in a thin line.
Brynhild plucked up the turnip and nibbled it. Hildebert watched her eat with narrowed eyes. She had finished her bread and turnip before he scooped out his helping of trout and pushed over the platter.
She sliced out a mustard-sauce drenched bit of belly and transferred it to her plate.
Hildebert gulped down some beer and went back to squinting at her. “You can’t claim that no criminals are coming through Meiser. Someone was murdered here just this morning.”
“You think that is the act of pirates? And what exactly would Choegan of Luronia have to do with river theft?”
“The point is that you are not judicizing here in Meiser, so it is much easier for them to start on your end and steal from merchants coming down the river. This makes them your problem.”
“And your port is a crime-ridden pit. Come now, I did not want it to come to this, but if I must take on your river control, we must be honest, mustn’t we?”
Hildebert said, “You are the one with the dead body.”
“And you are the one with pirates. Surely, you see the fairness in my offer.”
“It is not an offer. It’s equivocating.”
“Ah, at last you use a real verb.” Brynhild forced her shoulders to relax. “But I’m sorry you don’t see the justice in my offer.”
Hildebert wrinkled his nose. “I can’t give up the port any more than I can giftize the whole river to Bergstaat. You know that.”
“Well, then I am powerless to patrol your waters with a force you refuse to pay for.”
“I see.”
They ate in silence, finishing the beer and trout with tiny bites. The sunlight faded, and Magda came in to light the fire in the hearth.
Hildebert eyed her out of the corner of his eye. “I don’t see why you won’t pay to protect merchants leaving your port.”
“Would you pay an army to accompany merchants through Fliedes because they cross the Itty Sea?”
“Hardly the same thing. You are already defensifying part of the river.”
She patted her mouth with a napkin. “Which raises the question of what you are doing on your part of the river.”
“I didn’t come here for Phaler-Graf to be giftized nonsensical obfuscations or insults. I came here for accommodationizing.”
“I could accommodate a reasonable request.”
“Your father has far too much road to quibble.”
She met his gaze. “He earned all that road, and he doesn’t entrust it to fools that can give away all of his fees.”
The fire caught and crackled in the wall. The orange glow stretched out to their feet. Hildebert pushed away his plate. “Phaler-Graf didn’t pick a fool to give away his port either.”
He stood.
Brynhild rose and curtsied to him. “Then he will make himself amenable to reason. I’m sure you want to help in that.”
“We’ll see.”
He bowed stiffly and left the room. Brynhild stared into the fire.
Magda twisted her mouth into an irritated frown. “Will he need warm water? Liesl and Rudi lit his brazier before they left.”
Brynhild nodded. “Thank you. Do you know if the fur guild meeting is still going?”
“It’ll be all night, from what Utta and Ingrid have been saying.”
“Leave a bucket of water on the fire for me tonight and I’ll let myself in later.”
Magda bobbed in agreement and trotted off.