The Wandering Harlot (The Marie Series) Read Free

travelers in the tavern. That counselor of yours is a well-known attorney who has helped his father, Count Heinrich von Keilburg, many times with legal tricks in order to take away other people’s castles, land, and servants.”
    “Why is that so bad? The count only got what he was owed.” Marie was irritated that Michel was spouting the idle talk of drunken tavern guests. He was apparently so jealous of her fiancé that he sought her out just to slander him. Disappointed, she turned and resumed working on the neglected dough.
    Michel stormed away, but he got only as far as the kitchen door before he hesitated, turned around again, and walked back to the table. But Marie just waved him off and bent down even closer over her work. Clenching his fists, he searched for the right words to make her understand that she was headed for disaster if she married the notoriously crooked lawyer. The man had already brought misery to many people by doubling the possessions of his cruel father.
    Michel started to speak several times, but Marie’s grim expression told him he had no chance of convincing her. Now he was annoyed that he had bothered to lug over the beer keg instead of having one of his brothers bring it.
    “I’ll leave,” he said, hoping she would ask him to stay a little longer, but Marie just ignored him and energetically worked out the lumps that had formed in the dough.
    At the same moment, Wina returned, raising her eyebrows when she saw Michel.
    “I brought the beer,” he explained.
    “So where is it?”
    “Elsa and Anne took it down to the storeroom,” replied Marie, answering for him.
    “Those two are in the storeroom? I’ll go check to make sure those thieving magpies haven’t helped themselves to the smoked sausages.” Breathing heavily, Wina headed down the stairs and opened the trapdoor.
    Marie thought it unfair to call the two maids thieves just because they helped themselves from time to time to a mouthful of sausage or meat. But for the head housekeeper, it was a deadly sin that couldn’t be absolved even by the pope.
    Marie smiled to herself. Wina idolized the pope as a saintly figure, though that admiration was for the position in general, not for a particular individual. Idolizing a specific pope would have been hard, for at that time three princes of the church each claimed to be the head of Christianity. Marie didn’t know much about these things, but her father and his friends frequently talked about the holy church when they were sitting around drinking wine, loudly proclaiming their hope that the emperor would strike the priests down with a bolt of lightning, putting them in their places.
    Michel cleared his throat, bringing Marie back to the present. He was still standing there with pleading eyes, but she didn’t want to hear any more from him. The next day she would become the counselor’s wife and start a new life in which there would be no place for the insolent son of a taverner. From then on, her servants would deal with such people, as she would have to manage the household and devote herself to her husband. She didn’t know where she would live after the wedding. Counselor Rupert didn’t own a house in Constance but instead lived in Keilburg Castle, his father’s home. She wondered if he would take her there.
    Wina emerged at the top of the cellar stairs, shoving the scowling maids ahead of her. “You’re still here,” she snapped at Michel. Reaching into the leather purse she carried on a cord around her chubby waist, she pulled out a coin.
    “I suppose you’re waiting for your tip. Here, take it!” Michel thought Wina’s gesture expressed the great difference in status between a gentleman like Rupert Splendidus and himself, and he was tempted to throw the coin at her feet.
    Michel didn’t know what he had thought he might accomplish by coming here. Marie had clearly long forgotten him and was looking forward to becoming an important man’s wife. He knew she would