The Noble Ladies' Orphanage

Chapter 23

After dinner, while Maria and most of the other girls got ready for their play rehearsal, Karolina and Zdenka slipped out the back door. They carried food in a basket.

"Why didn't you eat this?" Zdenka whispered. It was dark, and people carried lanterns with them out in the street.

"I'm going to sell it," Karolina said.

"Sell your dinner?"

"If I can," Karolina said. "I'm not used to eating so much anyway."

"Why did you need me to come with you?" Zdenka asked.

"It's against the rules to go out alone," Karolina said.

"I'm sure it's also against the rules to sell your dinner," Zdenka said, but she gamely kept up with Karolina.

They turned the corner and soon found the hollow near the church where the street urchins gathered.

"Pork, potatoes, and bread, still warm for ½ crown," Karolina said. "Anybody want it?"

A small huddle of boys peered into the basket. One crouched down so he could sniff the food.

"I'll take it for thirty hellers," one boy said, pulling the small coins out of a pocket strapped to his waist.

"Forty hellers," another boy said. He held his filthy palm out and showed her the four coins.

"Anybody else?" Karolina asked. The rest of the boys just watched her restlessly.

"You said it's still warm?" another boy asked.

"A little warm," Karolina said.

"I'll take it for half a crown," he said.

Karolina held her hand out and accepted the coins. She inspected them before she took the food out of the basket and gave it to the boy.

"Maybe I'll come back again tomorrow," Karolina said loudly so everyone could hear. They nodded and murmured and several of the smaller boys crowded around the one who'd just bought the food.

The girls hurried away and slipped through the back door just as Susana said, "Where are Karolina and Zdenka? We've got to get started."

"I just need to run upstairs and put something away," Karolina said. She put the basket away in the kitchen where Cook was washing pots and pans, and took her precious coins upstairs. She pulled a handkerchief out from beneath her mattress, unfolded it, carefully placed the coins inside, and wrapped them back up. Then she went back downstairs for play practice.

Mariana sat on the divan embroidering, holding her work as close to the oil lamp as possible because Maria had turned down most of the lights in the parlor.

"Okay, tonight we're going to work on the beginning of Act 2 when Romeo is talking to Benvolio and Mercutio. Who did we say would be Benvolio and Mercutio?"

"Aw, why are there so many boy parts?" Elizabeth whined. "It would be so much more fun if there were a bunch of girl parts."

Maria ignored Elizabeth and continued. "Hedvika, weren't you going to be Mercutio?"

"Yes," Hedvika said.

"And who's Benvolio?" Maria asked.

Nobody responded.

"What? Say it slower," Karolina said in German.

"Who. Wants. To be. Benvolio," Maria said in slow, stilted German.