"Plenty. That'll be my coke and my copper. You tell that to any petty baron who tries to tax them. If he gives you any trouble after that, bring me his head! You can throw away the rest. I wouldn't want anybody that dumb in my service."
"Thank you, your grace. I believe we have an agreement."
"Done. You write this up and bring it to me tomorrow. I won't be around all that much longer, and I want this binding on both sides. Of course, the way you keep getting into fights, I just might outlive you. That was some of your judo stuff you used to break that Crossman's arm at your trial, wasn't it?"
"Similar to that, your grace. It's called karate. I didn't have any choice. He was really a better fighter than I was. My sword was stuck in his shield and I couldn't get it out. I had nothing but my bare hands to fight with!"
"Haw! Here I thought you were just playing with him! Then why did you throw away your shield?"
"Again, your grace, I had to. That first blow to the head he gave me would have killed me without this new plate armor. As it was, it twisted the helmet around and jammed it. I could only look over my right shoulder. I couldn't use my shield at all. I couldn't even see it! Fortunately, I once learned a style of sword-fighting that doesn't use a shield, but only a sword. It's a sport in my era called fencing, because in the interests of safety, the combatants originally fought on different sides of a fence. I used that on him."
"Hah! And you beat him with new tactics!"
"Not really, your grace. He was still better than me. I beat him mainly because his ten or twelve killing blows didn't hurt me. This armor I'm wearing defeated Sir Adolf."
"Interesting. Could you make similar armor for my men?"
"I intend to, your grace. But this armor cost me eleven thousand pence, a dozen times what chain mail would cost. In a few years, I'll have machines such that I can sell it for five hundred pence, and I'll be making suits by the thousand."
"Good. I'd like a suit of it myself, and one for my son."
"Well, your grace, there's no reason why we can't make a few more suits by hand. I'll have two suits made for you and the prince, as a gift, but please understand that they must be exactly fitted to your body. Plate doesn't stretch the way chain mail does. You'd each have to spend some time at Three Walls while they were being made."
"I wanted to visit you anyway, as much to see what new wonders you'd come up with as to get a good look at Lady Francine's tits! I'll be there in the spring."
"Wonderful, your grace. We'll all be looking forward to your visit. Be sure to bring your armorer along so that we can show him how to maintain it properly."
I left his chambers glowing. If I was right, Lady Francine had a near royal protector, so she needn't worry about any legal problems. The duke was the law. If he liked her, she was safe, Church court or no Church court. An old man is the ideal protector for a young woman. He has the wealth and power to keep her well, and lacks the ability to get her pregnant. Not many modem girls realize this, but their ancestors were wiser.
More importantly to me, the duke was going to finance the whole copper works! Oh, I'd have to make sure that he got a fair return on his — money, but if things got tight, the duke had no idea what a modern engineer can do with creative accounting. After all, I trained my accountant myself!
I went to the pleasant room assigned to me by the castellan and told the servant they gave me that I wanted a table, four lamps, parchment, ink, and pens. Once that was delivered, I told him that I wanted a pretty young girl for the night and after that he was free to go away.
It seemed that a lady would cost extra, unless I wanted one of the noblewomen who had bribed him to suggest themselves to me. He was completely open about it, and on questioning him I found that he had heard that I was a wizard who knew everything, anyway. He knew he couldn't get away with a lie, so he figured that his best chance of survival was to tell the absolute barefaced truth. There are certain advantages to having a strange reputation.
There hadn't been anyone at dinner that I found attractive enough to be worth the hassle, and none of the ladies mentioned was single. The last thing I needed was an irate husband challenging me to a duel. On inquiring about other ladies available, I was told that the cost was a penny or two. I gave him four and told him that I wanted someone young, pretty, enthusiastic, and obedient. I wanted her in an hour, and if she wasn't up to snuff, I'd take it out of his hide. I guess I was in sort of a manic mood. Ordinarily, I wouldn't say things like that, but when everything is going right, you get sort of wild.
He said that he would do what he could, and what did I want told to the ladies who had bribed him?
"Just say that I have killed sixteen men in the last year, and I don't want any jealous husbands on my soul. "
"That should do nicely, my lord." And he left.
I was close to completing the duke's contract when the servant returned with two young ladies.
"I wasn't sure of your tastes, my lord."
I glanced up and said, "The redhead will do." I gave the blonde a penny for her trouble and dismissed her along with the servant. I told the redhead to undress and get in bed, and went back to writing the contract. Once I was through, I blew out three of the lamps, undressed and joined her.
I was beginning to think that Count Lambert was right. The easiest way to treat subordinates was to give orders and expect them to be obeyed.
In the morning, the duke read the contract, said it was what we had agreed on, and gave it to a clerk to have some fair copies made.
I grabbed a bite in the castle kitchens, packed a lunch big enough for six and was pleased to see that the servant had Anna ready.
"There was no bridle, my lord, and you aren't wearing spurs!" he said, handing me my hefty new lance and shield.
"Anna doesn't like bridles and spurs. Tell the duke's servant that I may or may not be back tonight."
I took the south bridge from the island so as to be on the west bank of the Odra River. It was frozen over, but river ice can be treacherous, especially on horseback. Anna can do some amazing things, but I didn't want to risk drowning for no good reason.
An hour's run took us to Legnica. From there we headed northeast until we hit the river, then followed it upstream until it made a wide bend to the east.
I'd toured the mines once, and they were just off the river, I think at this bend. Of course, that was in the twentieth century, when most of the forests were gone, and this was-would be-a built-up industrial area. And rivers change course.
It was dusk when I thought I might be at the right spot. We hadn't seen any sign of human habitation for hours and Anna said that she couldn't smell anybody. Fortunately, I had brought my old backpack along and I had some experience with winter camping.
Anna said that she'd be just fine outside, and there was plenty for her to eat.
Sleeping in plate mail isn't all that bad. It's sort of like laying down in a well-designed contour chair and twigs and stones on the ground don't bother you in the least. The only problem was that I'd closed my visor to keep my face warm, and there was half an inch of condensed frost inside my helmet when I woke up. I had to remove the helmet (no easy job) and scrape it out. Even then I'd missed enough so that when it warmed up the next day, I had water running down my neck.
In the morning, I found that Anna had eaten most of a medium sized hazel tree!
This surprised me, and we talked about it. It seems that she could eat anything organic. Given her choice, she preferred fresh green grass and, after that, grain, but in a pinch, wood was just fine. Hazel was better than pine, and fruit trees were downright tasty. She didn't like coal because she didn't like the taste of sulfur, but coke was okay. "Anna, you never fail to astound me. Can you do anything about helping me find where we should put the mine? We're looking for copper ore. It will be copper sulfide, which is a black, heavy stone."