The Paper Crown

28. A Sentimental Trinket

I never manage to apologize to Mariusz for calling him a drunken incompetent. It always feels like bringing it up again will only stir up trouble for us both. Besides, however much I regret what I said, I can't be displeased by its effect. Whenever Mariusz and Celina are together now, he treats her with the same distant, faintly embarrassed civility he treats me, and she barely speaks to him at all. In fact, I think she may be trying to avoid him. While Barany and Valery spend many hours idling away the time with Mariusz in the sitting room, Celina never even comes to see our new quarters.

So I am surprised when, one afternoon as I am reading a book alone in the sitting room, there comes a knock at the door and Countess Celina enters.

"Mariusz is not here," I say.

"I am not here to speak with Mariusz. I am here to speak with you." She sits without being invited."Mariusz's name day is at the end of December."

"It does." I try to keep my voice flat and pretend this is not new information to me.

"And have you bought him a present yet?"

I had not even thought of it. Mariusz is one of those unlucky people born on Christmas Day, which I had taken to mean as freeing me from the responsibility of finding him a birthday present. For a Christmas present, however, I had already sent for a set of Goethe's novels. It had taken me a great deal of thought and much scouring of his bookcase to determine what he might like that he did not already have. It is an unexpected nuisance to have to come up with a second present as well.

"I am still thinking about it," I say. "It is a way off yet."

"Well, you will need to buy him one. It will be part of his name day festivities. As his master of ceremonies, I arranged the celebration. It will begin with a sort of play. Mariusz will be kidnapped by fairies — paid actors — and taken on stage. People will offer the fairies gifts for his rescue. It is a sort of game. Everybody, almost everybody, will go up on stage and offer the actors a coin or some kind of small token to free Mariusz. It saves Mariusz from receiving gifts he does not need or want from people who wish to curry favour with him, and whatever money the actors raise will be given to the church."

"I have coin, if that is all that is needed."

Celina shakes her head. "Mariusz's friends and family will of course be expected to give him real presents. The actors will reject such gifts and take them to Mariusz instead. So you will need a present to give him."

There is a hard glint in her eyes and her voice is stony. I am sure the idea occurred to Celina not to tell me about this game, to let me be publicly embarrassed by giving him nothing. I wonder if she was persuaded against it by a wiser friend, or if she decided to be decent of her own accord.

"What else will happen at this celebration?" I ask. "Dancing? Music? Champagne?"

"Champagne, certainly. And fireworks at midnight, since it is the new year as well. The actors will play music after the play, no doubt, so probably people will dance, but it is not a ball. I think if you get bored, you can run away after the fireworks and no one will notice."

"And how many people are coming?"

"Some two hundred, I believe."

"I think I will be missed in a crowd of only two hundred. You might have to think of something more entertaining."

A cold smile curves across Celina's lips. "You could always join in the conversation. Oh. I forgot. You can't, can you?" She adds something in rapid Selician after that, which I know is an insult without trying to translate it.

"You are right. I am quite mute here." The worm of a malicious idea occurs to me. "I don't even know how I will manage to buy him a present. I need an interpreter to shop. You are not busy now, are you?"