He didn’t answer, but merely nodded. The Green Lady’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“A significant reason?”
He was about to nod again but restrained himself in time.
“Indeed, m’lady. But I’d prefer not to talk about it. With respect. But if I offend, I apologise and beg forgiveness.”
“I forgive you.”
He stole a glance at her again and she caught him again in the snare of her eyes, the expression in which he could not decipher.
“I felt and still feel like a tête-à-tête. I meant only to use questions to coax you towards garrulousness. For, in any case, I know the answers to most of the questions.”
“Indeed?”
“You are giving yourself up to Sir Jan to make a point. Endeavouring to convince him that you have a clear conscience. In the case of Kasia Biberstein, naturally.”
“You astonish me, m’lady.”
“I’m aware of it. I’m doing so deliberately. Let’s return, though, as my confessor often says, to the meritum. Your efforts won’t impress Sir Jan, believe me. Quite disagreeable procedures await you at Stolz Castle, I think, which are likely to end wretchedly. You ought to have fled while you had the chance.”
“Escape would confirm the legitimacy of the charges. It would be an admission of guilt.”
“Oh. Then you are innocent? With a clean conscience?”
“You’ve heard plenty of rumours about me.”
“I have indeed,” she admitted. “There were plenty of them. About you. And your exploits. And conquests. I listened, whether I liked it or not.”
“You know, m’lady,” he cleared his throat, “how it is with gossip. It makes a mountain out of a molehill—”
“I also know there’s no smoke without fire. Don’t quote any more proverbs, I beg you.”
“I didn’t commit the crime I’m accused of. To be precise, I didn’t attack and rob the tax collector. And I don’t have the stolen money. If that interests you.”
“It does not.”
“What, then?”
“I already said: Katarzyna Biberstein. Are you innocent with regard to her? Your conscience isn’t burdened by any sins? Or even peccadillos?”
“I’d rather not converse on that particular subject,” he said through pursed lips.
“I know you wouldn’t. Świdnica’s ahead of us.”
They entered the town through the Strzegom Gate and left through the Lower Gate. As they passed through, Reynevan sighed several times, seeing and recognising familiar and well-liked places—the Golden Lindworm apothecary’s shop, where he had once trained; the Crusader Tavern, where he had once drunk Świdnica March ale and tried his luck with the local girls; and the vegetable stalls which he visited to try his luck with the maids bringing their goods from the countryside. He looked longingly towards Kraszewice Street where Justus Schottel, an acquaintance of Scharley’s, had printed playing cards and dirty pictures.
Although preoccupied by his memories, he kept furtively glancing at the Green Lady riding on his right. And when he did so, he suffered pangs of conscience. I love Nicolette, he repeated. I love Katarzyna Biberstein, who bore me a son. I’m not thinking about other any women. None at all. I should not.
Yet he did.
The Green Lady also gave the impression of being lost in contemplation. She kept silent. She only spoke after they passed through the village of Boleścin, when the thudding of the party’s hooves had quietened after crossing the bridge over the Pilawa.
“In around a mile,” she said, “we’ll come to Faulbrück. Then the town of Rychbach. Then Frankenstein. And after Frankenstein, Stolz Castle.”
“I know the area a little.” He allowed himself a slight teasing tone. “The villages of Kopanica and Koziniec lie between Rychbach and Frankenstein, I believe. Is that of any great significance?”
“None at all to me.” She shrugged. “But in your place, I’d devote more attention to the route. Every mile we cover and every town and village we pass through brings you closer to Sir Jan Biberstein and his righteous indignation. If I were you, I’d be on the lookout for a chance in each of them.”
“I’ve already said I don’t mean to escape. I’m not a criminal. I’m not afraid of standing before Biberstein. Nor his daughter.”
“Well, well.” She fixed him with a piercing gaze. “What a sincere outburst. What would you have me think, my boy? That you’re as pure as a babe in arms? That there was nothing between you and Kasia Biberstein? That though they flay you and break your bones, you won’t own up to the plump child hanging on to Kasia’s skirts at Stolz?”
“I do feel…” Reynevan felt himself blush and it annoyed him a little. “I do feel responsible. Yes, that’s it: responsible. Not guilty. But as I said earlier, I’d rather not talk about that. We may converse on other topics. The landscape, for example. That small river is the Pilawa and those are the Owl Mountains.”
She laughed. He sighed softly, having feared a different reaction.
“I am trying,” she said, “to understand the motives of your conduct. I’m curious—why, it’s a foible of my female nature. I like to know, connect cause to effect, comprehend. It gives me pleasure. Give me pleasure, Reinmar. If not out of sympathy, then at least out of politeness.”
“Madam… If you wouldn’t mind…”
“Just one thing, one matter, answer one question. How can it be you don’t fear the dungeons of Stolz? Biberstein’s fury? After raping his only daughter?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Righteous indignation again? You took Katarzyna Biberstein by force. Against her will. Everybody knows that.”
“Everybody?” He swung around in the saddle. “Meaning who?”
“You tell me.”
“I didn’t start this.” He felt the blood rushing to his face again. “With all due respect, it wasn’t me who started this conversation.”
She was silent for a long while.
“The facts are as follows,” she suddenly began. “Two years ago, on the fourteenth of September, in the morning, you and your comrades attacked a party in Goleniowskie Forests, in which Lady Katarzyna of Biberstein, the daughter of Jan Biberstein of Stolz, was journeying with Jutta of Apolda, daughter of the Schönau Cup-Bearer. You seized the reinforced wagon the maidens were travelling inside. The pursuers who set off a few hours after you found the conveyance. There was no trace of the maidens.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“The two maidens had vanished, I said.” The Green Lady fixed him with a piercing glance. “Do you have anything to add? Any comments?”
“No. Nothing.”
“The pursuers followed your trail, but they lost it near Nysa and it was already afternoon. Only then was it decided to send a rider to Stolz Castle. The news arrived in the evening. Sir Jan Biberstein sent out a call to arms to his vassals but couldn’t take any concrete measures before dawn. Before the soldiers had gathered, the Cistercians in Kamieniec were already ringing the Sext. And when they were ringing the Nones, the two maidens, Katarzyna and Jutta, suddenly appeared at Stolz in the convoy of an Armenian merchant. Both in one piece, healthy and at first glance inviolate.