"Frankowski, Leo - Stargard 3 - The Radiant Warrior" - читать интересную книгу автора (Frankowski Leo)

УMost assuredly, my lord.Ф

УYes, that would solve the problem nicely. Only, what would we do with all the coal?Ф

УWell, heat your houses with it, for starters! Later on, IТll show you lots of things you can do with it.Ф

УNow, Sir Conrad, I know that wonТt work. I know a man who tried to burn coal in his firepit. It stank up his house so badly that they all had to run out into the snow! That house stank for years!Ф

УIn an open firepit, youТre right my lord. It takes a special kind of a stove. I hope to be making potbellied stoves by next summer, at a price that a peasant can afford. They'll bum anything.Ф

УExcellent! ItТs getting to be a long walk for firewood, and the peasants will see the need for coal. You will be able to show my people the way of digging this mine?Ф He took my rook and knight in rapid succession. All I got out of it was his bishop.

УOf course, my lord.Ф

УThen itТs settled. I'll have work speeded up on the grain mill. It should be done by spring, so have your plans ready right after spring planting.Ф

УAnother thing I wanted to discuss with you. I like that blacksmith you sent me. I donТt think he's as good as Ilya, but he doesn't make me mad enough to kill twice a day. What say I trade you, Ilya for the new man?Ф I lost my queen.

УFine by me, my lord, if both men are willing.Ф

УThey are. It was them that brought the matter up to me. They also both wanted to leave IlyaТs wife here, but I don't see how we can allow that, The Church would not be pleased, and it's never been too happy with me.Ф

УThe Church is not pleased because you are separated from your wife, my lord. Why canТt you grant the same privilege to Ilya?Ф

УWhy? Because IТm a nobleman and he's a commoner, that's why! The commons don't have the brains or the ability to regulate their own lives properly. That's why they serve us, and why we serve them. I may not be the pillar of marital fidelity, but my wife has not taken another husband and I have not taken another wife. What these smiths are proposing is nothing less than that the one should step into the bed of the other! That is clearly against the laws of the Church. Without the influence of the Church and Christian morality, we'd have nothing but chaos on our hands! The Church must be maintained and its laws enforced!Ф

УI suppose youТre right, my lord. Well, what's a few more mouths to feed?Ф I lost my last knight and my position was terrible. I knocked over my king. I had lost two out of two. Damn. When we first started playing, a year ago, I'd won the first two dozen games.

УGood. Then shall we go make an appearance at the festivities?Ф

They started the gift-giving when we returned. The gambling pot IТd won in the course of surviving my Trial by Combat had a fair amount of jewelry in it, which made gift-giving pretty simple. I started with those nobles least important to me, Sir Vladimir's sister and her husband who had come down from Gneizno. I'd never met them before and would likely never see them again, so a small gift was appropriate. I took out a sack of my least valuable jewelry, poured it on a tray and asked each to choose what he or she wanted. They were delighted.

As I went up my guest list, I periodically noted when the pile was growing small and added another sack of jewels, a step up from the first batch, but nobody knew that but me. My own ladies were near the end, and after Annastashia took her choice, I added to it the purse of silver I had denied her a few days before.

УI hear youТve been acting properly, daughter!Ф I said, and the crowd cheered. The rumor was out that she had thrown Sir Vladimir out of her bed once I'd adopted her and she was no longer a peasant wench.

IТd saved Count Lambert's priest, Father John, and his magnificent French wife until the end. Lady Francine was easily the most beautiful woman I had seen in this century. She chose a heavy gold pendant and chain with some sort of green stone in it. It might have been an emerald, but who could tell? It was polished smooth and glassy, since the cutting of facets hadn't been invented yet.

УFather John, last year I was ignorant of local customs and didnТt realize that I owed you a gift, so the best I could do at the time was a poor one. This year, I notice that your altar furnishings could use some improvement. Would this be acceptable?Ф

I held up one of the stranger things IТd found in my booty from the Crossmen, a large and ornate glass goblet. The crowd's reaction surprised me. Gold and silver jewelry they had taken in their stride, but a piece of glass got a chorus of УoohsФ and Уaahs.Ф

Father John stood up. УLast year I gave you some of my carvings. This Christmas I hadnТt expected to see you alive! The truth is that I have nothing to give you in return!Ф The crowd laughed.

УWell, you wonТt get off that light!Ф I said. УWe've just built a big church at Three Walls that is bare of all carving. I'll take it out in trade!Ф The crowd was in a good mood.

The other nobles distributed their gifts. I collected quite a lot of nicely embroidered garments, and Sir Vladimir and his brothers had clubbed up to buy me a magnificent goldhandled dagger, with all sorts of stone and inlay work.

Count LambertТs gift to me was to publicly appoint me his Master of the Hunt, a job that I didn't want. I tried to take it with good grace.