Russka - Edward Rutherfurd [65]
That damned peasant’s probably made a fool of me, he thought as he returned that afternoon to the fort. And when Shchek appeared a few hours later, he was ready to be angry with him. But the peasant promised him: ‘We go out at dawn tomorrow.’ And so he waited one more night.
Then, while the sun was still low in the sky the next morning, Ivanushka discovered the secret treasure of Russka.
All that spring and summer, Ivanushka was busy.
He served Vladimir, as required; but because there was always a slight friction in the air whenever Ivanushka and Sviatopolk were at court together, the prince often let Ivanushka know that he was free to go to Russka to inspect his estates where, it was said at court, the eccentric young man had even been seen working with the peasants in the fields.
In the early summer, Prince Vladimir went west to help the Poles in a campaign against the Czechs, staying some four months in Bohemia and taking Sviatopolk with him. Reports of his elder brother’s valour came back to Ivanushka at Pereiaslav, and although he was proud of Sviatopolk, he could not help being a little sad. ‘I fear, in the girl’s eyes, I must cut a sorry figure beside him,’ he admitted to his mother.
He saw little of the girl during these months. She spent most of her time with her mistress, who was now pregnant.
But the work at Russka continued apace.
All through the summer, lord and peasant tended the precious honey forest. It consisted now of a thousand trees: one hundred oak and nine hundred pine. There were well over a hundred swarms and Shchek kept the hives occupied at a rate of roughly one in seven.
He had also built a stout store house in Russka for the beeswax.
Shchek now had two men to help him guard the place, for word of it had reached as far as Pereiaslav and, as the peasant assured Ivanushka: ‘If we don’t protect it, people will come and rob it.’
Already, Ivanushka was sure the forest would easily give him the required income. But what of the girl herself? Would he win her?
The truth was, he had no idea.
He had managed on various occasions at court to snatch a few words with her, and he thought – no, he was sure from her look – that she liked him. But he had to confess, there were many suitors, including Sviatopolk, who were far better matches than he was.
‘And you’re sure you want her?’ Shchek asked curiously. The ways of these nobles often seemed strange to him.
‘Oh, yes.’ He was sure.
Why was he sure? He did not know. Was it just her magical appearance? No, it was far more than that. There was a kindness in the sparkling blue eyes; there was something in the way she walked behind the princess, something indefinable, that told him she had suffered. And this was very attractive to him. He thought he could imagine her life: an orphan, left to wander with a dispossessed princess; a proud girl who had nevertheless had to learn the humility which is forced on those who are dependent. In their brief talks he had sensed in her an understanding of life and its difficulties that he had seldom seen in the proud but protected daughters of the boyars.
‘Yes, she’s the one,’ he nodded.
The harvest was good that year, the production of honey an outstanding success. Ivanushka’s income was assured. In the autumn, he managed to speak to the Saxon girl several more times. But as the Christmas season approached, he had no idea where he stood with her.
When the great day came therefore four suitors appeared before Vladimir Monomakh for the hand of the Saxon girl. Two were the sons of Igor.
The whole court had been astonished at the good fortune of Ivanushka.
‘While his brother fights, the sly young fellow gathers honey,’ some cruel