The weeks for Milyenka had introduced her to strenuous labor. She recognized the fact that she was getting it easy. And she had a bit of good fortune. She was doing the reckoning, as she was good with numbers. This was a surprise to Rasvetchick. Women were not encouraged to study maths. Milyenka had a natural propensity, and her brothers did not. So as her brothers struggled with it, she excelled quietly. She was able to have several sums in her head, which stood her in good stead when the reckoning came due. She swiftly became the chatelaine of the dining room.
In the seven weeks she lived at Rasvetchick's she quickly established herself through her rapid intelligence. She quickly learned the job, and she learned to get it done. Over the six weeks she became indispensable. She even grew to like it, especially the keeping track of the money.
The job that was she quickly became tired of, because it seemed almost never ending, was the making of cider. There was a large orchard, and there were apples every day. Before she had thought that an orchard was a lovely place. Now she had grown to dislike the hundreds of apples that fell from the trees every day, which were turned into cider. This was a pity, because she formerly loved apples. Finally, the apples were all turned into cider or into dried apples. This was another enjoyable part of the job, especially the sound of the fermentation. She wondered why all the cider had been put into relatively small barrels.
After six weeks there was a harsh freeze, harder than the usual frost in the morning, Rasvetchick called Milyenka earlier than usual. They went into the cider storage, where she discovered there was more to be done with the cider. They had to take the ice out of the frozen cider from last year, that had all fermented. Milyenka was mildly confused by this.
The first thing she noted was that the cider had been allowed to freeze. Rasvetchick pointed out to her that the frozen cider was almost entirely water. What was not frozen was very concentrated spirits. The ice was taken out of the cider barrels and was stored away in the ice house, another surprise for her. And an explanation of the small barrels. About ¼ of the small barrels had been water, and all the small barrels was poured into large ones. The small barrels made transferring all that cider easier.
Finally all the cider was stored away. Rasvetchick came to her late one evening as she was doing her evening spinning. Her sister's nurse still grumbled at the quality of her spinning, but she was getting better at it by degrees. "Tomorrow we go to town to sell the cider. I am going to take you with me because you are so good at figures; And because you are good cover for me. I need a woman next to me. The rest of the servants wont do"
She looked concerned. "Won't I be at risk? I still the posters see."
"You are a different woman now" he said. "You are no longer a princess in disguise. You are a middle woman with an attitude. Your hair is in a bun now, and when it does come out, it is no longer in those ridiculous curls, and is darker. Also, we are going to a part of town you have never seen before, and has never seen you. You are also the brightest person here and the only person here who can do the maths so I don't get robbed. Having you with me will be very important because I am going to be taking so much with me this time. I usually only take two or three. This has been a banner year, I will be taking 8 barrels this time. We might be doing three or four trips this year. You will be invaluable."
"When do I get ready?"
"You will be getting up at the usual time, but I have a whole list of different chores for you. I will also have a set of different clothes. I will dressing you up as a grenullian. You will look a bit more conspicuous, but will fit your conversation. " With that he took his leave.
When she got up in the morning, she saw a new dress hanging for her. It was different enough to be uncomfortable in myriad ways. The bodice was cut extremely low. There was a covering for her hair that covered it entirely. the dress reached the floor, as opposed to dresses allowed to view the ankle and a hand. The bodice bothered her tremendously. She covered it up with a shawl and went out.
She found Rasvetchick out in the yard supervising some men putting the cart next to the barn where the cider barrels were. Telling the men to wait, he took her into the office, and showed her the paperwork. "You have to fill out these forms very carefully, as they are on stamped papers" he explained. "The city requires three forms for every barrel of hard liquor brought in. I have filled out the first one for you. They have to be absolutely correct, or the form isn't valid I won't be too hard on your copying. I wrecked six sheets of stamped paper to get this one right. Up here, the sheets refer to each barrel, one of eight, two of eight, etc. I have budgeted the whole morning for this." Then he left. She gave him a sour look, and got to it.
This was a form of school drudgery she hated, but got good at. Copying complex grenullian, when countess Neftchika found out how much she hated doing it, became one of her favorite punishments. Filling out the forms was relatively easy. The forms were long, but nowhere as bad as some of her schoolwork had been. She had all 23 forms done in ¾ of an hour, with only one wrecked stamped paper. When she gave him the forms, after finding him talking with some soldiers, he was shocked. Finding she had only spoiled one stamped paper he was even more surprised. He took her to the office, took down the ledgers and opened them. "Now I think you can, maybe should, learn about the books to this place. I loathe this work. It seems you might even enjoy it. We have about four hours, and I think we can either have a class in bookwork, or you can play with your brother and sister. I won't force you to do it."
Milenka looked at all the confusing ledgers. Numbers, acres of numbers. It looked fun to her, for some reason. "Tzvetina is teething and spends most of her waking hours crying. Vanya is being a royal pain to deal with " she said. "I think I would prefer to deal with the ledgers"
Three hours later she had his system and was working on it alone while he napped. There was a lot that needed being caught up on. Two hours more, and Rasevtchick and Milena were called for. The cart was loaded and the oxen ready. He told her to put away the ledgers and get on the cart while he got one last bag from his room.
Milenka sat in the cart with a bit of trepidation. This would be her first trip anywhere of any distance, and the first trip to the capitol after her flight. She would get to see the view, as opposed to the inside of a barrel. So the trip would hold a lot of new. Racvetchick, carrying a bag very carefully, got on after her. He put the bag between his feet and the journey began.
They began the trip in silence. Mileneka was enjoying the view around her, and thinking about what she had learned today. Anything new with numbers always delighted her, which her brothers and now Rasvetchik considered perverse. She stretched out happily. This had been a very nice day, though cold. There were clouds drifting across the sky slowly. She knew this usually meant a rainstorm in the next day or so. She didn't care. She didn't have to get water from the well, or do any spinning. And she got to play with numbers. That was one on the joys she missed of her old life she got to enjoy with the new. A very nice day so far.
They got to a quiet place in the road where there were no farmsteads and no other traffic when Rasvetchick said "I want you to be careful of that bag. It contains some of the jewelry you three were wearing when you arrived."
Speaking in the vernacular, which she still had problems with, she said "We do not look like jewel sellers. Will we not suspicion arouse?"
"We will not be going to standard jewel buyers" he explained. "Your jewelry might arouse suspicion among the watch who supervise the trade. We are going to meet some men who will cheat us abominably, but will remain silent. You will be with me, but I hope you keep silence for both our sakes when you meet up with him Also, since this is your jewels, it would be good for you to see what I had to do to sell them, so later on you would see how badly you will be cheated in the exchange, and realize it is not me who is cheating you."
Milenka looked in the bag. "You ripped them out of their clothes! All the beautiful clothes they had been!"
"All the horrible deaths for you and your brother and sister you mean. We need to dispose of them quickly and quietly" he said.
She tossed the bag beneath his feet again. "Part of me knows that. But I remember it too, and how it looked and sparkled and how it felt. The intelligent part of me want to toss it down the well. But part of me wants to run it through my fingers again. Lets get it done quickly. The intelligent part of me is very tiny and the the foolish part of me is oh so very great. "
Rasvetchick laughed, and after a moment she joined him. "Your intelligent part is far greater than you give yourself credit for" he said. "It is greater than mine, quite frankly. " She gave him an arch look. "I still have more experience, my dear. And that counts for a lot in survival in dangerous places"
She looked at the river as it flowed past them. "Its so pretty" she said. "And the ships look so pretty too. Why are they so far away?"
"Here the channel is on the other side of the river" Rasvetchick said. "It is on this side of the river on the other side of the inn, which is where the palace dumps its chamber pots. The river is also narrower closer to town. "
Milenka nodded and tucked her feet under herself. "I like this so much better, the apple trees and the innyard. Not the carrying of water, but I have to admit I prefer that to Neftchika. She always brought me to tears. Carrying 16 buckets of water is a lot more pleasant. I miss my mom and my dad, but I really prefer this. I like the birds, the squirrels, even the pigs, providing I don't have to deal with them."
"You still prefer it like last week when we had the sleet storm?"
"Yes. The sleet isn't malicious, doesn't hurt so much, and the water I am carrying makes me stronger. I'm also a lot less bored. I only wish they had survived."
"The new king couldn't do that " Rasvetchick noted.
"I know that. A reason for me to hate him, which means one more reason I would have to die if he could catch me." She stretched out. "I am going to enjoy the view and not talk politicks. It is too nice. Besides, we are approaching the gate, and silence is golden."
They remained quiet as their cart negotiated the narrow streets as they went through the lower town, then went up the steep streets to the upper town. All the while Milenka watched the crowds and the shops. It was all new, so she looked fascinated. They arrived at an inn yard near a gate at the further part of the town. It was substantially larger than Rasvetchick's, being 5 stories tall and with a huge stable attached. Rasvetchick stopped the cart near the kitchen and said "Come. You need to see this" as he hopped down from the cart. He stood for a moment and put the bag of jewels in his coat pocket and marched into the kitchens with Milenka scurrying behind.
After a brief search they found the landlord fuming in the cider store to some of his staff. Some of their cider from another vendor proved bad. They listened quietly as he lamented the state of his cider store, even naming an exorbitant price for someone who could get him 16 barrels of the stuff. At that moment Rasvetchick stepped up....and complained about the weather. The landlord extended greetings, and said the weather was very cold, unseasonably cold. Milenka was irritated and mystified about their strange conversation, which meandered through the weather, the problems with apple trees, the quarrelsomeness of servants, the perfidy of merchants selling watered merchandise, the perfidy of other merchants raising their prices to astronomical levels. The conversation meandered for the better part of an hour, when finally the landlord asked "How much do your got, and how much do you want for it? And how soon can I have it?"
Rasvetchick quoted a price for 16 barrels, the other eight being delivered in a week. Milenka gave him a sharp look. It was substantially more than he got for his cider. The landlord expostulated, calling the price robbery. They went back and forth for half an hour, finally settling on a price a little higher then was normal, but not substantially so. The walked to the inn yard chatting amiably and they supervised the unloading. Then Rasvetchick supervised the placing of oxen in the stable, came out and said "That was an enjoyable and profitable afternoon."
Milenka had been quiet the whole time. She looked at him with irritation. Speaking in Grenoulian she asked "Enjoyable! Productive! We spent so much time talking with him to no purpose. How was wasting my time enjoyable or productive?"
"It isn't a waste of time. It is a good way of establishing a good working relationship." Milenka made a face. " Now now young lady. I have been doing this for quite a while. This conversation was worth a quarter of the price, and he enjoyed it, and so did I. Lets go upstairs. We need to discuss a few things."
They climbed up three floors to a small room on the far side of the inn from the stables. There were two beds, He sat on one and directed her to the other.
As for you jewelry... We are going to sell about a third of it, the safest to sell. I will take you with me, but I don't want you saying anything. I just want you seeing what he is offering. He is going to cheat us horribly. The trouble is a lot of what you had was easily identifiable. The best pieces just can't be sold. At least to anyone I know. And we can't sell too much at one time. It would raise questions. There are too many in the trade who would shop you if they suspected. And we aren't going to sell it all to the same customer."
Milenka said "why don't we sell it now?"
"He doesn't keep hours like an honest merchant. Neither do his customers. We wait till twilight. Which will be in about ¾ of an hour. I propose going down for dinner. It is quite good here. You will like it"
They went downstairs and ate very good dinner. they discussed the dinner and why Rasvetchick couldn't offer anything comparable. They discussed the rumor that the king wouldn't pay the Neftichka bonds. Milenka said she felt sorry for those who had been compelled to buy them. Then they discussed the problems of stamped paper. It was Rasvetchick's contention that the paper was deliberately made complex. At eight doxies per sheet it made taking cider into town prohibitive. He said if she could do another 24 sheets with no errors he could bring in cider at with a good profit.
They went down a series of streets, avoiding the palace. They went past the ghetto with its high walls. Rasvetchick noted that the gate was open after dark, denizens going to and fro. He said that in former days the gate was locked and bolted and if anybody from it was outside after dark they would have been killed. They saw lamplighters going lighting lamps everywhere. He told Milenka that lamplighters were formerly only to be seen near the palace. Finally in a mean street near the docks they came to a dark street with a borded up doorway. He stood there for a long moment and said "The new king.. he listens to the Lord Treasurer?"
"I only saw him for five minutes, if that. How well he will take advice I do not know. He was listening better than my father ever did"
"I know that the Lord Treasurer does not approve of the rumor that I heard today that the king is not going to pay the Neftichka bonds. "
She nodded. "He was always very insistent on paying those bonds. Father wanted cut the payments which would cause tears and rage from the lord Treasurer."
He ruminated for a while. "Do you want to gamble that the king will listen to the Lord Treasurer?"
"I feel like gambling. I will put all my money on the table. He has survived all this time, and his fingerprints are all over this administration. The jewels no longer interest me." she looked at his incredulous expression. "Very much. I think it is a safe bet. Safer than carrying coins. It is a safer bet than going through that door"
He nodded. "Very well then" He moved a bit of lumber ane pulled a cord that deep within rang a bell.