Birds of Prey - Smith Wilbur (версия книг TXT) 📗

"The thought of having sucked on those great fat tits makes me want to puke." Katinka lashed out at them, and Zelda whimpered. and covered her chest with both arms. When you leave I will have your baggage searched so that you take with you nothing that you have stolen from me. There will be not a single guilder in your purse, I shall see to that. You thieving, lying crone."

The threat transformed Zelda from a pathetic wriggling fawning creature into a woman possessed. Her arm shot out and her plump fist seized Katinka's wrist as she was about to strike again. Zelda held onto her with a strength that shocked her mistress and she glared into Katinka's face with a terrible hatred.

"No!" she said. "You will not take everything I have from me. You will not beggar me. I have served you twenty-four years and you will not cast me off now. I will sail on the galleon, yes, and nothing will give me greater joy than to see the last of your poisonous beauty.

But when I go I will take with me all I own and on top of that I will have in my purse the thousand gold guilders you will give to me as my pension."

Katinka was stunned out of her rage, and stared in disbelief at her. "You rave like a lunatic. A thousand guilders? More likely a thousand cuts with the whip."

She tried to pull her arm free, but Zelda hung on with a mad strength. "A lunatic you say! But what will his excellency do when I bring him proof of how you have been rutting with the Colonel?"

Katinka froze at the threat then slowly lowered her whip arm. Her mind was racing, and a hundred mysteries unravelled as she stared into Zelda's eyes. She had trusted this old bitch without question, never doubting her complete loyalty, never even thinking about it. Now she knew how her husband always seemed to have intimate knowledge of her lovers and her behaviour that should have been secret.

She thought quickly now, her impassive expression masking the outrage she felt at this betrayal. It mattered little if her husband learned of this new adventure with Cornelius Schreuder. It would simply be an annoyance, for Katinka had not yet tired of the colonel. The consequences would, of course, be more serious for her new lover.

Looking back, she realized just how vindictive Petrus van de Velde had been. all her lovers had suffered some grievous harm once her husband knew about them. How he knew had always been a mystery to Katinka until this moment. She must have been naive, but it had never occurred to her that Zelda had been the serpent in her bosom.

"Zelda, I have wronged you," Katinka said softly. "I should not have treated you so harshly." She reached down and stroked the angry weal on the maid's chubby cheek. "You have been kind and faithful to me all these years and it is time you went to a happy retirement. I spoke in anger. I would never dream of denying you that which you deserve. When you sail on the galleon you will have not a thousand but two thousand guilders in your purse, and my love and gratitude will go with you."

Zelda licked her bruised lips and grinned with malicious triumph. "You are so kind and good to me, my sweet mistress."

"Of course, you will say nothing to my husband, about my little indiscretions with Colonel Schreuder, will you?"

"I love you much too much ever to do you harm, and my heart will break on the day that I have to leave you."

Slow John knelt in the flower bed at the end of the terrace, his pruning knife in his powerful hands. As a shadow fell over him, he looked up and rose to his feet. "He lifted his Hat and held it across his chest respectfully. "Good morrow, mistress," he said, in his deep melodious voice.

"Pray continue with your task. I love to watch you work."

He sank to his knees again and the blade of the sharp little knife flickered in his hands. Katinka sat on a bench close at hand and watched him in silence for a while.

"I admire your skills," she said at last, and though he did not raise his head he knew that she referred not only to his dexterity with the pruning knife. "I have dire need of those skills, Slow John. There would be a purse of a hundred guilders as your reward. Will you do something for me?"

"Mevrouw, there is nothing I would not do for you." He lifted his head at last and stared at her with those pale yellow eyes. "I would not flinch from laying down my life if you asked it of me. I do not ask for payment. The knowledge that I do your bidding is all the reward I could ever want."

The winter nights had turned cold and squalls of rain roared down off the mountain to *-batter the panes of the windows and howl like jackals around the eaves of the thatched roof.

Zelda pulled her nightdress over her ample frame. All the weight she had lost on the voyage from the east had come back to settle on her paunch and thighs. Since moving into the residence she had fed well at her corner in the kitchen, wolfing down the luscious scraps as they were carried through from the high table in the main dining hall, washing them down from her tankard filled with the dregs from the wine glasses of the gentry, Rhine and red wine mixed with gin and schnapps.

Her belly filled with good food and drink, she made ready for bed.

First, she checked that the window casements in her small room were sealed against the draught. She stuffed wads of rags into the cracks and drew the curtains across them. She slid the copper warming pan under the covers of her bed and held it there until she smelt the linen begin to singe. Then she blew out the candle and crept under the thick woollen blankets.

Snuffling and sighing, she settled into the softness and warmth, and her last thoughts were of the purse of golden coins tucked under her mattress. She fell asleep, smiling.

An hour after midnight, when all the house was silent and sleeping, Slow John listened at the door of Zelda's room. When he heard her snores rattling louder than the wind at the casement, he eased open the door noiselessly and slipped through it with the brazier of glowing charcoal.. He listened for a minute, but the rhythm of the old woman's breathing was regular and unbroken. He closed the door softly and moved silently down the passage to the door at the end.