Part 3 (1/2)
I checked out the wet mill that saood, worked hammers, and did all sorts of work There were thousands of tons of water in there, and if it froze, the mill would be wrecked I checked each of the tanks, but everything was still liquid The walls of the mill were a half a yard thick at the thinnest, and that ood insulator even if it is wet The wind even when it wasn't in use, and y ih even in the worst weather But theoretical calculations are often a long ways frorain mill, but it was simpler than the wet mill we'd built last summer, and Vitold, the carpenter, needed no help fro on,wool to keep his ht that this was stupid They were using the steel saws I'd shown the smiths in Cieszyn how to make, but they didn't need my help
So I took a sauna tocommunicable, and then looked up Kotcha
I sort of fell into the position of Janina's sister's foster parent Janina was living in my household, and in fact I slept with her some of the time, so I suppose that the relationshi+p was a natural one Kotcha was silent through the mass and funeral ceremony The world can be very brutal when you're nine years old After her faround, she wanted to talk to Anna
My ineered creation from some advanced civilization somewhere Or maybe I should say somewhen, because Anna said they were in the distant past and they used time machines, which she didn't understand She couldn't talk, of course, but she could spell things out She was intelligent in an odd sort of way, and she was a full ot paid like everybody else, not that she spends much of it Most adults wouldn't believe any of this, but a nine-year-old girl has no such difficulty They were good friends
”Kotcha, do you think that you would like to come to Three Walls with Anna and me?”
”Where would I live?”
”Why, in my household, with your sister and me and Anna”
”Anna lives in your house?”
”Some of the time, and it's more of an apartment than a house Anna has a stall in the barn, too, butroom”
”Could I sleep with Anna?”
”if you want to Or you could sleep with your sister or even have a room of your own, except e have coood groo in the barn, but I've always felt that she deserves special care”
Anna nodded her head, Yes Then she tapped her right forehoof and scratched the ground with her left We had this code worked out
”You want so that you want to pay for,” I said to Anna ”You mean you want to hire Kotcha?”
Yes
”Well, what do you think, Kotcha? Do you want the job?”
”Yes!”
”Good Does a penny a week sound all right to both of you?”
Yes and ”Yes”
”Then the two of you have a deal, and you ood rubdown If you need anything, I'll be at the castle Remember that you're in my household now, Kotcha You can always co to do was probably the best thing for the kid Physical activity is usually the best therapy for so in the world could bring her faet
At the sah when ot handirl!
Back at the castle, I asked Count Lambert if I could take off early, since there wasn't much for me to do
He had other ideas He handed me a cup of wine and satmachines, and how most of them were too complicated for us to assay to build Butover that 'hot air balloon' you mentioned I see no reason e couldn't ood linen cloth, plenty of rope, and most of that barrel of linseed oil left There is a pile of wicker for the basket you -tray that would do to hold the fire
My wife bought it but I never use it What say you?”
Lord Another fad coht in Poland was flying kites, Count Lae them all with a hot air balloon But kites at least were safe There's no telling where a balloon will come down A man could drown, if he didn't fall out
”My lord, this sort of thing is dangerous You can't control a hot air balloon You go wherever the winds blow you, and the winds up there can be pretty fierce! You could end up in the Baltic Sea!”
”Well, what of it? You're the one who's been taking all the chances lately Didn't we decide that last month?”
”Count La towell enough to fight the Mongols in eight years”
”That's touching but no longer true It o, but now you have the support of Duke Henryk I suspect that if I died, he justin our lands in Hungary Isn't it enough for me to say that I want this balloon?”
I exhaled When Count Laainst hi into the wind ”As you wish, n a hot air balloon?”
”Of course! What have I been saying? Just a sh above the hills and trees!”
”Even that will be quite large,board of the sort you favor built and set up in your old roo with a supply of parch I'll send a wench to call you to supper Pick one to your liking for tonight, but you ht want to try out Natasha She's nicely skilled
Well? Be off with you!”
I went to ot to work I obviously wouldn't be allowed to leave Okoitz until I had co arithmetic and decided that if I could heat a sphere of air fourteen yards in diarees warmer than ambient, I could lift about five hundred pounds Was it reasonable to expect a warrees Celsius? Would Count Lambert plus an undefined balloon h less than five hundred pounds? I hadn't the foggiest idea I wasn't even certain about the specific gravity of air nobody had ever asked n a balloon before
All I could do was toapproximations, which my colorful American friends called WAGs: Wild ass Guesses
I was called to supper by an attractive and cheerful young lady who announced that she was Natasha Again bowing to the inevitable, I asked her to join me for supper
Once seated with Count Lambert and another lady, I was told that Kotcha was in the kitchen, and what did I want done with her?
I told Count Laht that she should eat at the salad to be getting out of having to provide for her, which he would have done if I hadn't wanted to take her, or perhaps he realized that I was quite capable of s
But in any event the ragged little nine-year-old was soon sitting wide-eyed between me and Count Lambert
He soon had his arm around her People in the thirteenth century touched a lot more than those in the twentieth It was a fatherly caress--Count Lambert wasn't interested in a lady sexually until she was filled out
It was a pleasant h there were only five of us at the table, four wenches were serving and threein medieval Poland was expensive except for people You could have as many servants as you could afford to feed A peasant considered getting a job as a servant to be a wonderful thing The as easy and they fed and clothed you well, for al people around
Count La a variant of his droit du seigneuy Separated froirls in his town to be handnant in six months He then found each of the expenses and a sularly, with everybody happy with hih status they enjoy in the nored while the conversation went on: Muzak I was talking ”You understand that I've never designed a hot air balloon before, my lord? I can't promise that the first one ork We'll have to build one and see how it goes”
”Reasonable, Sir Conrad But you've had a chance to think on it Tell , made of the same thin material that we made kites from It's like a ball on the top and a cone on the botto ”It is the custohtly colored, but that's up to you It should be fourteen yards across at the widest and twenty yards high It ht as possible”