Out of the Darkness

Or did he? I know that, with his hair as it is, he will not have an easy time in your kingdom. During the war, some Kaunians tried to disguise themselves as Algarvians by dyeing their hair red. Going in the other direction might serve the child well here, at least for a time. Later, when passions have cooled, people may be better able to accept him for what he is.

“Hmm.” Krasta read that over again. It wasn’t such a bad idea. Oh, certainly, people who knew her also knew she’d had an Algarvian bastard. But, with little Gainibu’s hair dyed a safe blond, she would be able to take him out in public. She’d never before imagined being able to do that. Her free hand touched the curls of the wig. Before too long, she would be able to shed her disguise. Her son might have to keep his up his whole life long. “And that’s your fault, Lurcanio, yours and nobody else’s,” Krasta said, as if Gainibu hadn’t come forth from between her legs.

If the boy has your looks and my wit, he may go far in the world, given any sort of chance at all, Lurcanio wrote, arrogant to the end. I hope you will give him that chance. My time is over. His is just beginning. The squiggle he used for a signature sat under his closing words.

Now Krasta did tear the letter into tiny pieces. Once she’d done so, she put them down the commode, as she’d put the sheet in her brother’s writing down the commode while the redheads still occupied Priekule. Then she would have got in trouble if Lurcanio had found Skarnu’s words. These days, if anyone found Lurcanio’s. . She shook her head. It wouldn’t happen. She wouldn’t let it happen. She watched the water in the commode swirl away the soggy paper. Gone. Gone for good. She sighed with relief.

A moment later, almost on cue, little Gainibu started to cry. Krasta gritted her teeth. As far as she could see, a baby’s cry was good for nothing but driving all the people within earshot out of their minds. Her first impulse, as always, was to turn around and get out of earshot as fast as she could. This once, though, she resisted that and went into the baby’s bedroom instead.

Gainibu’s wet nurse looked up in surprise. She was changing the baby’s soiled linen and wiping his bottom. Krasta’s nose wrinkled. Gainibu had done something truly disgusting. “Hello, milady,” the wet nurse said. She deftly finished the job of cleaning and changing and picked up Krasta’s son. The baby smiled and gurgled. The wet nurse smiled, too. “He’s not a bad little fellow, even if. .” She caught herself. “He’s not a bad little fellow.”

“Let me have him,” Krasta said.

“Of course, milady.” The wet nurse sounded astonished. Krasta had hardly ever said anything like that before. “Be careful to keep a hand under his head. It’s still a little wobbly.”

“I’ll manage.” Krasta took her son from the other woman. He smiled up at her, too. Before she knew what she was doing, she smiled back. He tricked it out of me, she thought, almost as if realizing a grown man had seduced her. When she smiled at him, Gainibu laughed and wiggled. “He likes me!” Krasta said in surprise. Because she had no use for the baby, she’d thought he wouldn’t care for her.

“He likes everybody,” the wet nurse said. “He’s just a baby. He doesn’t know anything about how mean people can be.” She held out her hands. “Let me have him back, please. I was going to feed him after I got him cleaned up.”

“Here,” Krasta said. The wet nurse undid her tunic and gave the baby her right breast. Gainibu sucked eagerly. Krasta’s breasts were dry again, though they still seemed softer and slacker than they had before she gave birth. Not till now, hearing the small, happy noises Gainibu made, had she wondered whether nursing him might have been a good thing. She shook her head. When he came out with hair sandy, not blond, she’d wanted him dead. Nurse him herself? No, no, no.

As casually as she could, Krasta asked, “Do you suppose he’s still too young to dye his hair?”

“Dye his. .? Oh.” The wet nurse blinked, then saw what Krasta was aiming at-what Lurcanio had been aiming at, though she wasn’t about to admit it. The other woman said, “I don’t know, milady. You might ask a healer about that. But when he gets a bit bigger, I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt. And it would make things easier for him, wouldn’t it?”