Romantic Road

by Blair McDowell

  Then they turned a corner in the drive and Max’s house came into view. “That’s your little vacation house in the mountains! This is a…” Lacy was stumped for a word. Before her was a large three-story log house with balconies stretching across the two upper levels. In typical Austrian fashion, flowers brightened every window and tumbled over all the balcony railings.

  The house sat nestled into the hillside, surrounded by a flower-strewn alpine meadow backing onto a forest.

  “Who looks after all this when you’re gone? Someone must water all those flower containers on the balconies.”

  “Hans and Sylvia, his wife, look after the place for me when I’m not here.”

  Max brought the car to a stop before the front door. “Come in. We’ll get settled, and then we’ll think about some dinner. We never managed lunch, and I’m starved. Sylvia will have stocked the kitchen.”

  Lacy got out and followed Max into the house. Just inside the door she saw a rack with skis.

  “It’s good skiing country in the winter,” Max explained. “There are times when skis are the only way we can get in and out.”

  He headed for the stairs. “Come on up. The living quarters are on the upper two stories. The ground floor is just for storage and for the necessary electrical panels and heating unit, like in your basements. At the back we have a pile of logs, split and stacked for the fireplaces. We need them when winter storms knock out the power. I often spend Christmas here. It’s beautiful in the winter.”

  “I think it’s beautiful now.” Lacy looked around her at the main living level, a large open area with comfortable looking chairs and a deep sofa facing the view. A dining table that could easily seat eight was surrounded by carved wooden chairs with red-and-white checkered cushions. A huge stone fireplace flanked one wall, and bookcases lined another.

  She walked through a doorway into a surprisingly modern kitchen.

  Max smiled. “A bachelor’s kitchen. I redid it when I took over the house. My grandmother didn’t even have a proper refrigerator. She shopped every day, and didn’t see any need for one. Me, I like my beer cold.”

  The fridge was large, the stove, a modern one. Pots hung from a rack above a counter.

  “I think I might enjoy cooking in this kitchen,” Lacy observed.

  “We’ll do it together. I’m a passable cook.”

  “Really?” Lacy was skeptical. “Igor never set foot in the kitchen except to open a bottle of wine.”

  “I’m not Igor, Lacy.” Max’s voice was flat.

  Startled, Lacy looked at him. Was there a trace of anger there?

  “I’m not Igor, and I’m not willing to be an Igor substitute,” he continued.

  The suggestion shook Lacy. “You know I don’t mean that, Max. Of course you’re not a substitute for my husband.”

  But in a small corner of her mind Lacy wondered if he’d hit the nail on the head. Is that why she’d enticed him into her bed? Because she missed Igor?

  She thought only briefly before continuing. “No. You’re not just a convenient man. I’ve never been into casual sex. That hasn’t changed with my husband’s death.”

  Max pulled her into his arms and kissed her deeply. “It’s a good thing, because my feelings for you are anything but casual.” His hands moved down her back and one of them somehow found its way between her legs.

  Lacy gasped and pulled away. “No, you don’t. We’re not going to make love on the kitchen counter. We’re not doing anything until I’ve seen the rest of the house and had some dinner.”

  Max sighed. “You drive a hard bargain. Come on, then.” Taking her hand, he led her up a steep flight of stairs to the third level of the house. “Three bedrooms, two baths. Take your pick.”

  “Which is your room?”

  Max surprised her by indicating the smallest and simplest of the three rooms, at the back of the house, with a single bed. “This has been my room since I was a boy.”

  “You grew up here?”

  “My parents were killed in a plane crash when I was seven. My grandmother raised me.”

  Lacy felt a sudden rush of sympathy for the boy who had lost his parents at such a young age. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. My grandmother is an awesome woman. I love her, and I had a wonderful boyhood in this house with her. But once I was grown, she decided to move back to Vienna. She always preferred life in the city. She transferred title of the chalet over to me.”

  “But as to bedrooms,” he continued, “I think perhaps it’s time I left my boyhood behind me and moved into the large bedroom in the front. My grandmother always kept that one for important guests. You’re the most important guest I’ve ever had here, so perhaps you’ll share it with me?”

  Sleeping in the same bed with him every night for the next two weeks? Or not sleeping? He seemed to have an insatiable appetite for sex. Would she live through it?

  “I’d love to share it with you.” She realized she was speaking the simple truth.

  They walked into the bedroom and across to the double doors, out to the balcony. The lake stretched before them, a distant vista, all the way to St. Gilgen.

  “This is the only room in the house with a lake view,” Max explained.

  “I love it.”

  He encircled her with his arms and coaxed her gently back into the room. In moments she found herself sprawled on the bed with Max on top of her unbuttoning her shirt, nibbling his way down to her erect nipples, ignoring her small moans and yelps.

  “I don’t think we need to start dinner just yet,” he said between nips. “I think an appetizer is what’s called for.”

  What had she unleashed when she set out to seduce Max Petersen only twenty-four hours ago? She squirmed on the point of intense arousal and then gave in to the sensations swallowing her, one after another in dizzying progression.

  Dinner was late that night.

  ****

  The next morning Lacy awoke at dawn and opened the doors to the balcony. Chilly morning air swept into the room. Ignoring the cold, she stepped out and looked at the lake, silver in the morning light. The sun was just rising, and the peaks of the surrounding mountains were reflected in its mirror-like surface. She looked down. A buck with a full head of antlers stood motionless in the meadow. Then, as if sensing someone was watching him, he bounded off, into the dark green of the forest.

  Had she ever seen anything quite so beautiful?

  Max’s arms came around her, and she leaned back against him. “I’m so happy you brought me here,” she murmured.

  “When I’m fed up with my work, when I begin to think there’s no hope for mankind, I come here.” Max sighed. “This place always gives me a sense of peace.”

  They stood together gazing out at the lake and the mountains. Then Lacy shivered.

  “Come inside. I’ll build a fire, and we can have our breakfast in front of it.”

  “Odd to think of building a fire in September.”

  “We’re in the mountains. It’ll warm up by mid-day, but a fire will be pleasant while we have our breakfast. You go shower first. I’ll have the sitting room warm by the time you come down.”

  Lacy did as instructed. After showering she realized she had no clean clothes to put on. Draped only in a towel, she went to the small room that had been Max’s as a boy. Shirts and underwear were neatly folded in bureau drawers. She pulled on a shirt and opened the tall painted wooden chest. Lederhosen? Did anyone actually ever wear short leather pants with suspenders embroidered in flowers? Surely these couldn’t have been Max’s when he was a boy?

  Smiling, she pulled them on. They almost fit.

  Max burst out laughing when she came into the kitchen. “I see you’ve been exploring the possibilities.”

  “Don’t tell me you actually wore these things.”

  “I did. And so did every other boy I knew. Don’t knock them until you’ve tried them. They’re very comfortable. But if we’re going to leave the house, I think I can do better t
han that by you.”

  “Like what?”

  “My grandmother’s clothes. My grandmother doesn’t come here very often any more. She much prefers her apartment in Vienna. But she keeps clothes here, just in case.”

  Lacy had immediate images of a plump matronly woman in long full skirted dresses and huge aprons. Her doubts must have shown in her expression.

  Max hastened to add, “My grandmother is a very stylish woman. And she’s about your size. Knowing her as I do, I think she’d be happy to have you borrow anything you like.”

  “Can we look now?”

  “After breakfast. I’ll go shower now. Can I leave you to scramble the eggs?”

  “I think I might be up to that.”

  Sylvia Hallstinger had left a loaf of heavy dark bread and rich Alpine butter. There were three kinds of cheeses and good Austrian sausage to accompany the eggs. And rich heavy cream for the coffee. Lacy had the table set and the food prepared when Max reappeared.

  They sat in front of a blazing fire to enjoy their repast. Afterwards, Max carried dishes to the kitchen and dried as Lacy washed. Lacy’s thoughts returned briefly to Igor, who would never have thought to dry a dish. Of course they’d had a dishwasher. Still…

  “Ready to look at some clothes?” Max asked.

  “Oh, yes.”

  “I don’t know.” His eyes traveled up and down her. “I rather like the look of your long legs in those lederhosen.”

  An hour later Lacy had on all fresh, silk underwear, a comfortable tweed walking skirt and matching jacket over a silk blouse in a muted apricot shade. A soft felt hat with a feather covered her head. On her feet, low-heeled suede pumps. Even her shoe size was the same as Max’s grandmother’s.

  She looked in the full length mirror. Very much what the well-dressed Austrian woman might wear. No longer Hollywood musical. More like Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel.

  She reached into the pocket of the suit and found a small silver case. Opening it she saw cards embossed with the name Ilse Petersen, and a Vienna address.

  “My grandmother was wondering where that card case had gotten to. I’ll have to take it to her when we go to Vienna.”

  Absently, Lacy slipped the case back into the jacket pocket and fished around in the wardrobe again. There were slacks. Beautifully tailored wool slacks and sturdy hiking boots.

  “Wear the slacks with thick socks and hiking boots today. And a warm sweater. We’re going for a serious walk.”

  Lacy moaned. “I still have blisters from yesterday.”

  Max pushed her into a chair, pulling off her shoes to examine her feet. “Blisters can be serious trouble. And you haven’t had the best shoes for what we’ve been doing.” He examined one foot and then the other. Then he looked at her. “No blisters. Good try. Now get dressed. We’re going for a hike.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s what we do here. There are wonderful trails all through these mountains. To be here and not experience them would be a crime.”

  “Are you always this bossy?”

  “Always.” But he smiled as he said it.

  Chapter Nine

  The days followed one another in a glow of sunshine and fresh air. Every day Max selected a new trail for them to explore. They hiked through meadows of wildflowers and over rolling hills. Always above them were the Alps, their jagged peaks reaching to the sky.

  One day they drove to Steeg on the northern end of the Hallstättersee. There, they took a ferry to the little village of Hallstatt. Lacy was entranced with the quaint houses clinging to the cliff side as it rose steeply from the lake. Narrow lanes, mostly made up of steps, twisted their way up and among the houses. On a point of land over the lake was a small church, its steeple reflected in the still waters.

  Over a lunch of succulent pan-fried lake trout and local white wine, Max told her this little town had fewer than nine hundred year-round inhabitants and was Austria’s oldest town. “Excavations here indicate there was a settlement here as far back as four hundred B.C.”

  Drowsy after a morning of fresh air and a lunch accompanied by wine, they decided to hike the trail back to Steeg. As they rounded a bend, Max pulled Lacy off the path into the dark green of the forest.

  “Let’s rest a bit.” He sprawled on the ground on a bed of soft needles. Lacy sat down beside him, enjoying the clean fresh smell of the woods and the shade that gave respite from the now-hot afternoon sun. It was a quiet, magical place, far from the outside world.

  Max reached up and cradled her head in his hands. His lips when they found hers were gentle. There was none of the frantic urgency that had marked their earlier lovemaking. He kissed her lips, her eyelids, her cheeks, and then returned to her lips. “I don’t think I can ever have enough of you,” he said between kisses. “I’m afraid I’ve fallen in love with you, Mrs. Telchev, and I don’t know what to do about that. It wasn’t part of the plan.”

  Lacy sighed. “What you’re doing right now seems fine to me. And I’ve found life is no respecter of plans.”

  “But you don’t know me. There’s so much you don’t know about me, that I can’t tell you right now. I’m not what you think I am—”

  “Whatever you are,” Lacy interrupted him, “I know you’re a decent, honest man. And I care for you deeply, Max. Maybe I love you. I’m not sure. I can’t trust my feelings enough to be sure about that yet.”

  More could have been said, but it was lost as their need for each other overwhelmed them.

  The sun was low in the sky when they roused from deep slumber and tried to reassemble their needle covered clothing.

  “We’d better make tracks,” Max said. “The lakeside trail is fine by daylight, but I wouldn’t want to try it in the dark.”

  “We could just go back to Hallstatt. I saw what looked like a lovely small inn there.”

  In the end that’s what they did. They had a light supper and then spent the night in each other’s arms in a room with a dormer window overlooking the lake in Hallstatt.

  It seemed to Lacy that each time Max made love to her, her capacity for sexual fulfillment increased exponentially. Never before had she known anything quite like being with him. When he brought her to climax, which he did with incredible skill and ease, her mind went blank—she existed on another plane, one of only sensation. She would hear her own cry of release from some distant place. Then she’d fall to earth exhausted, spent, only to be brought back again to another, higher level of tension and release.

  Whatever else her relationship with Max was, it was unlike anything she’d known before. And she wanted more. She wanted to see him as helplessly enthralled as she herself was. He was always so in charge when they were in bed. He dominated her completely. Just once, she’d like him to feel some of the helplessness she experienced each time her made love to her. Surrender was sweet. But to give such pleasure must be even sweeter.

  ****

  “Up for another little excursion before we head for home?” Max asked, as they returned to pick up the car after breakfast.

  “Always.”

  They followed the road to the south end of the lake toward Obertraum.

  “Where are we going?” Lacy asked.

  “You’ll see.” Max pulled over and parked at the entrance to a gondola. They went into the building and bought tickets, taking their place in a small line waiting for the gondola to arrive. Their fellow passengers looked like hearty types, wearing heavy jackets and sweaters and armed with heavy hiking boots and backpacks.

  “Are you sure we’re dressed for this?”

  “It’ll be fine. You’ll just need your sweater. It may be a bit cool where we’re going.”

  The gondola made several stops, and a number of the other passengers got off.

  Finally Max said, “We get off next. At the Eishöhle stop.”

  Lacy followed Max out of the car and up a steep trail. It was chilly at this altitude, but she warmed up as they walked in the sunlight. The views of the surrounding mounta
ins and the lake, when she stopped for a moment to catch her breath, were glorious. Twenty minutes later they were at the mouth of a cave.

  “You brought me here to see a cave? I don’t do caves. I don’t like being underground. I won’t even get on a subway.” Lacy crossed her arms and planted her feet obstinately at the entrance.

  “You’ll like this, I promise you. Come on.” He took her hand and pulled her into the cave, along with a handful of other people, led by a guide.

  Lacy followed, not very happily. At first it was just a large cavern, but as they wound deeper into the earth, the walls of rock became walls of ice. They were surrounded by fantastic translucent shapes, breathtakingly beautiful, all created by nature out of ice. Then the guide pulled a switch and lights came on, bathing the whole area in luminescent rainbow colors.

  Lacy caught her breath. “You’re right. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this!”

  On the drive home, she asked, “Why is this area called the Salzkammergut?”

  “Think about it, Lacy. You speak German. Salz.”

  “Salt. But why…”

  “Salt was the economic impetus for all the development in this area. For centuries the salt mines were a source of great wealth to the people who lived here.”

  “Of course. I just hadn’t thought about it. They’re near here, aren’t they, the salt mines?”

  “Sure. You want to visit them?”

  “No, thank you. I’ve had enough of being underground today to last a lifetime.”

  Max laughed.

  ****

  That night Lacy made her move. Pulling her silk gown over her head and tossing it aside, she pushed Max back on the bed and straddled him, pinning him down. “Humor me. New rules, just for tonight. You can’t touch me. You must lie still and let me be the one in charge.”

  “What?” Max flushed., His hands clenched briefly. “I’m not supposed to touch you?”

  “You heard me. No touching. No kissing unless I initiate it.”

  “If you’re sure that’s what you want.” Max sounded a bit uncertain.

  “I want.”

  Much later, satiated and drowsy in the aftermath of love, with Max in exhausted slumber beside her, Lacy smiled a satisfied smile and thought, it’s true. It is better to give than to receive.