The Kadin - Bertrice Small [8]
Under her grandmother’s guidance, she gradually began to take over the task of running her father’s house. When she became the reigning duchess of San Lorenzo, It would be her duty to oversee the housekeeping and provisioning of the castle. She would become responsible for seeing that the servants did their work well and for the feeding of the entire household—family, retainers, servants, and soldiers. She must learn how to order the provisions, which meant studying many recipes, and she must learn the difference between ordinary wines and those fit for the palates of the nobility.
However, the matter of servant discipline was the hardest lesson of all By nature Janet was softhearted, and the servants knew it One day Janet overheard two young kitchenmaids discussing the desire of one of them to go to the carnival with a butcher’s apprentice.
“Just tell her,” said the first, “that you want to go home to visit your sick mother. She will be all sympathy and will not question you.”
Janet seethed. She did not like being made a fool, but her anger quickly died, and her good Scots common sense took over. When the kitchenmaid requested leave to visit her ailing mother, Janet was all sympathy. Of course she must go and, continued Janet, she herself would accompany the girl with a basket of delicacies to speed the poor invalid’s recovery.
The little maid was terrified. Unable to shake her mistress’s good intentions, she finally burst into tears and confessed the deception. Janet sent for the other kitchen-maid and then pronounced punishment
“You,” she said to the weeping girl, “will receive five lashes for lying to me. It is little punishment but the soreness of your guilt will be greater than the soreness of your back. I know you will not lie to me again. Had you asked to go to the carnival, I should have allowed it provided your work was done.”
The girl fell to her knees and kissed the hem of her mistress’s dress.
Janet turned to the instigator of the plot “Your crime is far worse,” she said sternly. “You encouraged your friend to deceive me. You will receive ten lashes at the end of this day’s work. Then you will spend the night in the chapel praying to Our Blessed Lady Mary to help you mend your ways. I will pray with you so you will not be tempted to sleep. If any servant should lie to me again, I will dismiss him or her immediately.”
The servants learned their lesson well, but so did Janet She never again indulged them Only the blackamoor, Mamud, was spoiled.
He had turned out to be a wonderful gift His command of Italian increased daily. He kept Adam amused by the hour, telling him stories of his native land, showing him how to track and trap small animals, and even teaching him a smattering of Arabic Janet joined him in these lessons, for she loved the study of languages and was quite adept at it
Mamud was also an excellent sailor, and one sunny afternoon in early February, Janet unable to sleep during the customary siesta, called to him to go sailing. Passing Adam’s room, she looked in and observed the boy sprawled sleeping across his bed. Kissing his russet head, she walked on. She stopped a servant on the terrace steps and told him, “Tell my grandmother that I have gone sailing with Mamud and will return by sunset” The servant nodded, and Janet walked down to the beach where Mamud waited ready to push the small craft into the surf.
The afternoon was balmy and breezy. The sea, a clear azure green capped with white foam, sparkled and danced in the sunlight Janet noted that Mamud had set a basket with white bread, a small yellow cheese, some fruit and a flask of wine in a corner of the boat She complimented him on his thoughtfulness, and he flashed her a smile, his teeth blindingly white against his black face.
Sailing into her favorite cove, Janet motioned to Mamud to lower the sail, and the little boat scudded up onto the sand. Taking the basket she leaped out and walked up the beach,
“Do you wish to swim, my