Kane & Abel (1979) by Jeffrey Archer Read Free Book Online Page A

built up his arms with press-ups, and hung by the tips of his fingers from a beam in the bedroom in the hope that it would stretch him. But Leon continued to grow ever taller, and Wladek was forced to accept that he would always be a foot shorter than the Baron’s son, and that nothing, nothing was ever going to produce the missing nipple. Leon, who adored Wladek uncritically, never commented on any difference between them.
    Baron Rosnovski had also become increasingly fond of the fierce, dark-haired trapper’s child who had replaced the younger brother Leon had lost when the Baroness died in childbirth.

    Once Leon had celebrated his eighth birthday, the two boys began to dine with the Baron in the great stone-walled hall each evening. Flickering candles cast ominous shadows from the stuffed animal heads on the walls. Servants came and went noiselessly with great silver trays and golden plates bearing geese, hams, crayfish, fruit and sometimes the mazureks that had become Wladek’s particular favourite. Once the table had been cleared, the Baron would dismiss the servants and regale the boys with stories from Polish history, allowing them a sip of Danzig vodka, in which tiny gold leaves sparkled in the candlelight. Wladek begged as often as he dared to be told once again the story of Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
    ‘A great patriot and hero,’ the Baron would respond. ‘The very symbol of our struggle for independence, trained in France …’
    ‘… whose people we admire and love just as we have learned to hate the Russians and Austrians,’ volunteered Wladek, whose pleasure in the tale was enhanced by his word-perfect memory of it.
    ‘Who is telling this story, Wladek?’ The Baron laughed. ‘… and then after Kosciuszko fought alongside George Washington in America for liberty and democracy, in 1792 he returned to his native land to lead the Poles in battle at Dubienka. When our wretched king, Stanislaw Augustus, deserted his people to join the Russians, Kosciuszko came back to the homeland he loved, to throw off the yoke of Tsardom. He won the battle of where, Leon?’
    ‘Raclawice, Papa,’ replied Leon. And then he marched on to liberate Warsaw.’
    ‘Good, my child. But alas, the Russians mustered a great force at Maciejowice where he was finally defeated and taken prisoner. My great-great-great-grandfather fought with Kosciuszko on that day, and later alongside Dabrowski’s legions for the mighty Napoleon Bonaparte.’
    ‘For his service to Poland he was created the Baron Rosnovski, a title your family will ever bear in remembrance of those glorious days,’ said Wladek.
    ‘Yes. And in God’s chosen time,’ said the Baron, ‘that title will pass to my son, when he will become Baron Leon Rosnovski.’

    At Christmas the peasants on the estate would bring their families to the castle for the celebration of the Blessed Vigil. On Christmas Eve they fasted, the children staring out of the windows for the first star, which was the sign the feast might begin.
    Once everybody had taken their seats, the Baron would say grace in his deep baritone: ‘Benedicte nobis, Domine Deus, et hie donis quae ex liberalitate tua sumpturi sumus. ‘ Wladek felt embarrassed by the huge presence of Jasio Koskiewicz, who tucked in to every one of the thirteen courses, from the barszcz soup through to the cakes and plums, and would surely, as in previous years, be sick in the forest on the way home.
    After the feast Wladek enjoyed distributing gifts from a Christmas tree, laden with candles and fruit, to the awestruck peasant children - a doll for Sophia, a forest knife for Josef, a new dress for Florentyna - the first gift Wladek had ever requested of the Baron.
    ‘Is it true,’ asked Josef of his mother when he received a gift from Wladek, ‘that he is not our brother, Matka?’
    ‘No,’ she replied, ‘but he will always be my son.’

    As the years passed, Leon grew even taller, Wladek grew stronger, and both boys became