Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [13]
That was close to being all right. Winters were spent in rough play and rough punishment. But when they were back home, and had broken the news to the two men’s wives, and had the bison taken off to be jointed, Benecke had got hold of Colà and sat him down by the stove and said, ‘Stop it, or get out. I’m not sick of life yet. Neither were my two lads.’
‘I’m culling them for you,’ Colà said. ‘I thought it was a tough life at sea.’
‘Some seamen need to be tougher than others,’ Benecke said. ‘He was a pilot, one of those boys. But I notice they’re all the same to you, anyway.’ He waited. Then he said, ‘Why don’t you want to go home, my big man? Perhaps you are more of a poltroon than any of us.’
A moment passed. ‘That’s unlikely,’ said the other man. His gaze had fallen on his own arms and hands: a bloody rut on one forearm ran into another similar gouge long-since healed. ‘The bolting Bonasus,’ he said thoughtfully, ‘whose fart can cover three acres, and set a whole forest on fire.’
‘What?’ said Benecke.
‘A classical allusion. Ignore it. I mean that I am staying; I wish to stay; I have no immediate plans to get rid of you, unless you start preaching three times a day, in which case your own men will drown you before I do. Is there no ale, or are you drinking nothing but buttermilk now?’
And from that time, although their pastimes had been wild enough, they had been tempered with some sort of reason. The ritual of girl-hunting played its part as the winter progressed, and days became heavy and dark. Then, the young gallants would assemble their sleighs and bowl their way over the snow in a sparkling chain, bearing pasties and sweetmeats and flasks from one great timber dwór to another, and bringing out pretty captives, smothered in furs, to be returned flushed at dusk. Every red-blooded man enjoyed that, and the homeward course through the snowfields by night, when flickering brands danced in the void, and the throb of deep voices in harmony was matched with the far, surfing trill of the bells.
Colà had, it seemed, learned some sort of lesson. And even today, although he had been reckless, it had not been quite without reason, the exploit he had proposed. The boy’s hurt could not have been avoided. Unless, of course, they had been more sensible still, and killed instead of bringing back their beautiful captive. But only Colà would propose to tame a live lynx.
The captain went to see him while he was at work in a half-empty warehouse. A cage had been made, and the big man was hunkered quietly outside it, speaking at intervals. He had some meat on a stick. His voice, of an exceptional richness, kept the rhythm and cadence of song; Benecke could not make out the words. When the speaker broke off at his step, Benecke gave way to a bellow of mirth. ‘Crooning, by God! Are ye taming it or giving it suckle?’
Colà jerked up his chin. Squealing, the animal flung itself back, its ruff stiff. The bars thrummed. Paúel waited, loosening his shoulders, his hand hanging close to his dagger. The would-be tamer, instead of whirling about, thoughtfully brought up the rod and, detaching the meat, dropped it inside the cage without speaking. Then he rose and turned mildly. His face, though manufacturing anger, held the vanishing trace of another, less likely expression. Behind, the cat glared, a growl in her throat.
‘A woman would be easier,’ Benecke pointed out.
‘Some women,’ said Colà. His composure, if lost, had returned. ‘What is it?’ Recently, he had become more observant.
The rest of the warehouse was empty. Benecke said, ‘Do you know