There is little that can be done, she wrote, not when a great lord acts against one without such a high position. No one can prevent an attack, and though prosecution may ensue against an attacker, and a trail found that will lead to the instigator, that will be scant comfort to the victim.
My lord will speak to the Chancellor, or to her majesty if he can, to point out that Stayne now takes advantage of the mercy granted him by her majesty. At the very least a warning might be sent that the Crown knows of his plans. But if Stayne chooses to continue in this mad course, I fear your life may remain in the hazard.
I can offer you the hospitality of our house, but I fear it would become a prison for you, for you could not leave without danger. Perhaps the best course of action is to absent yourself from the capital.
I wonder how it is that you can make so many enemies. Perhaps you should restrain your impulse to hurl yourself so wholeheartedly into situations fraught with ambiguity. . . .
There was more along these lines, as gentle a reproach as I could imagine. In my current situation, I could not help but take the remonstrance to heart.
I wrote to thank her grace for her advice, and wrote that while I would regret being unable to enjoy their hospitality once again, as I planned to take her advice and take an immediate voyage.
But though I had no occupation to keep me in Selford, neither had I business anywhere else. I thought of returning to Ethlebight, and set in motion the ornaments and inscriptions of my parents’ tomb; but I felt that if I were to return to my native city, it should be in something like triumph, and not flying from a threat like a miserable hound.
If Meteor were in harbor, I would join Captain Oakeshott, but Meteor was cruising against the enemy; and if it took a prize, it would go to Amberstone, because the special prize court in Selford was for the two large galleons only. Royal Stilwell was still being repaired in Longfirth, and when it returned would be caught up in the legal business of the court, and would afterward be leased into the navy, so unless I wished to serve under the Crown, I could not use either ship as a base for any further adventures.
Even Sea-Holly was away, which removed any temptation to plod the ocean in a slow merchantman.
I paced the deck for two days, relieving my boredom by watching the life on shore through a long glass. I saw ships busked and boun for the sea, and royal galleons flying Berlauda’s long pendant, with its red horse on a white field. I saw the puffs of gunsmoke, and heard the distant thump of gunfire, as the Companie of Cannoneers tested new artillery at their emplacement down the river. I saw young folk dancing to pipers in front of taverns, sailors reeling drunk through the streets, soldiers with their pikes and hackbuts drilling on the Field of Mavortis east of the capital, whores leaning from windows and beckoning to customers below. The whole world seemed in motion, marching on to some great destiny, while I walked in circles on the quarterdeck of a near-deserted ship that swung pointlessly with the tide.
On the third day, I could bear inaction no longer. A boat carried me and my belongings up the river to Mossthorpe, and from there I took a carriage north to Blacksykes, two days on the road and a night sleeping on bedstraw at a wretched inn. On the second evening, I found the encampment of cavalry outside the city, and there sought out Lord Utterback, who I found in the stables, discussing seedy toe with a learnèd farrier. Utterback looked at me in some surprise as, stiff with two days in a carriage, I came lumber-legged into his presence.
“Quillifer?” he said. “You bring news?”
“I bring your slinkskin gloves,” said I, and produced them. He took the gloves and looked at them with a bemused smile. “As for news,” I added, “I report only that I have decided to follow the Knight Marshal’s advice, and become a soldier.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Is it my troop, then, that will be blessed with your presence?”
“Only if the post of secretary is still open.”
“It is.” He frowned at me. “But tell me, have you run out of bandits to fight?”
I waved a hand. “It proved such an unequal contest I decided to give them a rest.”
He bowed gravely. “In that case,” said he, “I am happy to welcome you into my band of recreants, rudesbys, and runagates. And may the Pilgrim save you, for the tender-hearted Lance-pesade Stringway will not.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Perhaps strangely for someone about to join the cavalry, I had not thought to provide myself with a horse, & so my lord Utterback arranged for the veteran Lance-pesade Stringway to take me into Blacksykes & view the latest of the horses that Count Wenlock had purchased for his son’s troop. One horse is not enough, it seems, & so now I have two bay chargers, with the charming names of Shark & Phrenzy. Their names provided an apt foretaste of their collective temperament, but Lance-pesade Stringway approves of their violent, belligerent behavior. “You ride these to war, not to a lawn party,” said he. To achieve mastery of these beasts, Stringway advised me to carry a full leather water bottle when I ride, & at the first sign of disobedience use it to smash my mount between the ears. He assured me that when the horse recovers its wits, which may take a few minutes, it will be more compliant, at least for a while.
My riding teacher in Selford never mentioned this method.
I acquired a third horse to ride when not fighting battles, a gentle-natured mare named Daffodil. She is far more tractable, & I expect I will not have to use the water bottle method when riding her.
Horses, as you may imagine, require a good deal of work to feed & maintain, & I had no wish to do this work myself. I have now acquired a groom, a local boy named Oscar, with bushy dark hair that looks like brushwood growing from his scalp. He is country-bred & claims to be good with horses, so we will see. But of course I had to buy a fourth horse to mount Oscar, so now I have a whole string of the beasts.
As for battles, it seems I am expected to fight along with the rest of the troop. I had thought that as secretary I would manage Lord Utterback’s correspondence, keep records of horses & men, & perhaps involve myself with matters of pay + supply—but it seems I am to do this, & fight as well. As the whole purpose of my enlistment was to avoid violence directed at my person, I must count myself as among the disillusioned of the world.
Daily we apply ourselves to our evolutionibus—those movements by which cavalry maneuver on the road & in the field. We practice advances, and retreats, and wheels, and changing to the flank. We form column, and from column form line. We practice inversions of the lines, and passages of the lines, and movements by twos and threes. All this under Captain Snype, a thorough soldier, who all but runs the troop himself, with Utterback as his amiable figurehead.
We have not dared to practice the charge, for there is much danger to horse & man in a mass of men galloping across country, even when there is no enemy to fight. I am hoping that there will be no occasion to charge at all, for my own position in any fight is v. sadly exposed.
Lord Utterback commands, of course, so in a battle he will be right in front, some ten or twenty paces before the main body. He must be so far in advance because, if he were in the line, he could not see anything but what is directly in front of him, & therefore could not maneuver his command.