Yesterday Was Long Ago: Part One
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Karl patted an elated Benedict’s shoulder, grateful also to him. “Let’s go!”
“Godspeed to all of you!” Otto said, teary eyed.
“I pray nothing will go wrong!”
“Don’t worry, Mother. We are seven against those two, and the servants pose no problem, as Madeleine has made sure of that,” Karl vowed.
“Their masters should not be difficult either, for they had double of what the servants got,” Madeleine assured.
“Tell her we love her,” Stephany called in elation, anticipating Christina’s return.
“Tell her we always have!” Otto added, cheerfully now.
“She’s always known that. Why do you think she wants to come home? Where love is.” Karl smiled closing the door.
“What a blessing to have a son like him.”
“Yes, Otto,” Stephany answered, already feeling much more at ease as they returned to their unsuspecting guests.
“Otto had to rest a bit,” she told the professor casually, not feeling guilty for lying. Her daughter’s returning home would warrant even greater lies, if necessary.
∼
“I don’t like this! I can see your sister’s bedroom door wide open!” Madeleine whispered to Karl fearfully.
Karl had just remarked how lucky they were not to have to use a lantern because of the bright moonlight.
“Maybe she went downstairs and is hiding somewhere, knowing we are on our way,” Karl whispered back confidently, reminding everyone of his or her positions.
Madeleine was the first to run up the back stairs leading to Christina’s bedroom via the balcony, promising to give them the signal when to come up. Nothing short of a cannon shot or even the ringing of the church bells from the nearby villages could awaken anyone. Von Walden and Altmann were laying in their bed in an embrace, both snoring noisily.
“Good Lord, stand by me!” Madeleine ran to the window, waving frantically for them to come up. Benedict and Egon remained at the sleigh, peaking through its cover and waiting for their sign.
“Oh my God! Oh no!” they moaned and wailed at the frightful sight of Christina’s body.
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Her mouth open, arms and legs slightly apart, the frozen nightgown barely covering her exposed body, Christina lay stretched out on her bed and all knew at once that she was beyond help. They found her bed cover neatly arranged on the floor, and were immediately convinced that their worst fears of her being murdered by a well-calculated and carefully arranged scheme had come true. They also knew who had carried it out, and now lost no time in confronting the two murderers. Madeleine motioned them to their suite, cautiously checking her red wig so that it was still in place. Karl and George went to the side of the bed where Thomas was sleeping with Mark and Ulrich positioning themselves on the other.
Madeleine noticed the little bottle with a label marked CHCI3 Chloroform, which had been placed on the tray next to the half-empty lead crystal brandy decanter. Trembling, she handed the bottle to Karl, exclaiming, “This is the way Christina has been put to death!” She looked aghast at all and waited for them to confirm her find.
Karl, pale with fury, screamed, “What did you do to my sister?” He was pulling Thomas up, gripping his hair and shaking his head back and forth, while George just stood there not able to move. Mark and Ulrich were standing over at Rudolf’s side, ready to restrain him, should he wake up from Karl’s screams.
“I ask you again! What have you done to my sister?” Karl shouted, still shaking and pulling at Thomas.
Thomas, his eyes blinking slowly and drowsily, looked at him in disbelief, not sure if this was really happening, or still part of his dream. He tried to speak, but no words came out. No drill or training in his Emperor’s army had prepared him for this situation. It seemed to him that the brassy redhead was holding up his special little bottle, which they had forgotten to put away after their passionate lovemaking, and instead had fallen asleep. Still perplexed by Karl’s screams, he tried his utmost to rub his eyes and form a word, but was, thus far, only able to stare blankly at them, listening to Karl and George’s accusations. They were telling him he would pay dearly for this and all other crimes he had ever committed. He could also hear other voices joining in.
“Well, that would be the day!” he thought. For the time being, he was incapacitated, but far from crazy. He and Rudolf would dish out any punishment! The Reinhardt and Auersbach names did not guarantee them exception, they should know that much by now. His eyes caught a glimpse of Mark and Ulrich Wiland, standing over Rudolf. Was his vision gone too? He could see, where before, he had only heard voices.
“We’d better get the police at once, now that Christina is dead and our plan has become void,” George muttered.
“We must think fast and clearly now. What about someone from the military? I don’t mean a mere sergeant. We need to get this to an authority! No matter what anyone thinks, I know the military is responsible for the actions of these two!” Mark insisted.
“These two scoundrels in a military court? Not with me around! I’d rather give my last Gulden to get them tried in a regular court; to get justice for my sister!” Karl shouted, still holding on to Thomas, not letting him get up. “In a military court, they would be able to lie and deceive everyone as usual, causing my poor parents even more grief than they already will have to sustain now that their daughter is gone. And probably get away with their crime!” he added firmly.
“You are absolutely right in your assumption. But this doesn’t change a thing,” Ulrich stated bleakly.
They were still deliberating at length and in detail, not really having grasped the death of Christina yet, when Benedict and Egon appeared with Madeleine calmly walking behind them.
“We were just informed about this sad outcome, sir.” A distressed Egon offered his hand, with quivering lips uttering how sorry he was.
Suddenly, having recaptured his voice, Thomas screamed at the top of his lungs, “Get those two idiots and that whore out of here! And get me my uniform! I’ll have all of you savages shot without a trial! Get me my uniform, and fast, slut! And just so you know it, I’ll get your lover too. No need for me to have a shabby lawyer who keeps company with one of your kind!”
“Pardon me, Major von Walden!” she taunted him. “My lover, as you call him, and your shabby lawyers, along with Reinhardt’s lawyers, have put me in this house for very good reasons!” she continued, taking off her wig to everyone’s amazement, and glared at him, indifferent to his screams.
Dumbfounded, and realizing their fiendish plan had gone awry, he called, now panic-stricken and slightly foaming at the corner of his mouth, “Rudolf! Wake up! Wake up! I need you! Rudolf, I need your help! We were set up!” He continued his screaming and shouting, when Benedict, who had slipped away to take a last look at his dead mistress, suddenly rushed back into the room like a wild animal and, pushing himself between Karl and George, he dragged the unsuspecting and flabbergasted Thomas out of bed, shoving and kicking him until he landed near the stairway.
Before Thomas von Walden saw a chance to escape, he was savagely lifted up and thrown down the stairs, Benedict running down after him with the outcries of a deeply wounded heart. Arriving on the lower floor, Benedict picked up his victim, rushed to the open door, and threw his lifeless body out like a piece of rotten meat for the vultures to devour. Meanwhile, Rudolf had finally come to, doubtlessly due to Benedict’s guttural cries and all the turmoil. He looked around, not yet aware of what was happening, but seeing Mark and Ulrich, who had never left his side since they had noticed the two Barons’ guns on the nearby nightstands. They were now trying even harder to counteract any other unexpected episodes.
He scowled at them, and said uncertainly, “Hey, you two! You are not our lawyers! What are you doing in our bedroom?” he screamed more daringly.
“Taking you to the police, or having them come here, whichever you prefer, Captain Altmann,” Mark answered calmly.
“Your sister? You’re a bastard. You never had a sister!” Rudolf smirked. “The Reinhardts found you on the sidewalk somewhere. You are probably the son of—” He stopped abruptly, seeing all the others running into the room who had heard the outburst from across the hall.
The otherwise mild tempered Egon had been the first one to enter and now made his way over to the bed. With a polite, “Excuse me, Mr. Reinhardt,” he jumped on top of Rudolf, hitting him in the face with his big fists, yelling, “No one, not even the dear Lord calls my master a bastard!” He kept on pounding, now not only the face, repeating, “You understand? No one!” Continuing to take punches at the seemingly lifeless body of Rudolf, Egon looked heavenwards asking God to understand and to forgive him.
Benedict had returned, looking to see if he could be of any more help. Seeing Egon beating the lifeless body, he scrambled over, picked up Rudolf, took him out to the hall, and threw him over the banister, his body landing face down on the lower floor of the house, as if he had jumped to his death. This had been so spontaneous, both of them reacting with a fierce vengeance to vindicate Christina’s death, as well as their master’s honor.
George, Karl, Ulrich, and Mark stood there looking on as if in a trance, barely comprehending what they had been witnessing. Madeleine had been spared the last episode, sitting next to Christina, caressing her hand and crying bitterly. “I wish I had known what they were up to! If only I had had the foresight to warn you! I believe we could have been friends,” she whispered, leaving the room.
The others were still standing around in a semi-circle, motionlessly trying to evaluate the awful tragedy.
“Like it or not, we must go and involve the police in this,” George restated his position, ready to finally leave this dismal place. At the same time, he was preparing a story for himself, not implicating anyone else.
“Just a moment!” Karl demanded firmly. “Let’s put our minds to work and figure out what the best strategy should be.”
“At the moment, I certainly have no mind left,” Mark answered, looking at his brother soberly, trying to get a sign from him as to how he felt about the present situation.
“We have to agree on a story that is believable. I will not have those two fellows involved,” Karl pointed at Benedict and Egon.
“I’ve already taken that into consideration! So let’s put everything into perspective,” George said calmly, with all nodding in agreement.
“Those drunkards downstairs are spread out all over the place! They slept through the whole ordeal, even with being kicked, they gave no indication of waking up within the next few hours,” Egon commented. Madeleine was the only one reacting, a slight smirk on her face showing her satisfaction at her contribution to their oblivious state. The other harried faces, their arms bolted in front of them, were still discussing what would be the best and the worst to be done.
Egon, observing their debate, saw a flash of his parents’ frequent remark in front of him. “Highly educated people mostly lack common sense, as they hardly ever have to use it!” Having been with the Reinhardts from birth to death, his late parents had always believed in solving simple matters in a simple manner, which often had proved to be prudent in many respects, and had earned them the admiration of their masters, which eventually paid off in their gratitude and life-long employment for themselves, as well as their offspring.
“I am going to the police alone, sir,” Egon stated in the same manner as though he were telling him that he would now go to saddle the horses. He knew better than to involve Benedict, who would be unable to fend for himself, and not being in a position to make himself understood, in addition to being looked upon as the village idiot, would therefore certainly have the most problems with the authorities.
“Oh no, you won’t!” Karl commanded sternly. “We have to think of poor Benedict! Can’t you hear him crying in my sister’s room?”
“Why shouldn’t he? He loved her so much that he even put up with those two devils. He took all of the abuse they could think of, making his life here nothing less than a constant hell! He may also feel that he could have done something else….or something more to avoid the tragedy. He might be deaf and mute, but he is no fool and he has all the understanding of right and wrong as well as the feelings of any man, and probably more than any of the rest of us; forever enclosed in his cell of deafness, only being able to emotionally express himself.” Egon was not accustomed to being so verbose. It had simply poured out of him, not in the finely accentuated language of the nobles, but just as clearly as if his mother or father were here once more offering a sample of their commonsense solutions. All looked up in astonishment, as if not able to grasp what they had heard, and from whom.
“This is just too true!” Ulrich supported Egon’s tirade. “We all may feel very, very sad, but on him, it must have had an even deeper impact.” Just then, a distraught Benedict walked straight over to Karl and held his hands out to be tied and brought to justice.
Egon, holding him back protectively, said, “This is exactly what I was trying to explain. Christina’s death and his guilt have gotten the best of him!”
“No Benedict! No….no….and no again! You poor, true soul!” Karl uttered, taking him by his shaking hands and putting them down. “Absolutely not!” he repeated, while Benedict watched Karl’s face, trying to read in its expression whatever his master was thinking. He could only think to himself that he was not willing to let anyone else take the blame for what he had done.
“May I say one more thing, please?” Egon said it loud enough for them to interrupt their newly arisen debate. “We found Miss Christina Reinhardt dead, and as it turned out, murdered, correct? Benedict and I went into the barons’ bedroom,” He emphasized ‘the barons’, “trying to fetch them in order to ask what had happened, and found them in bed together! They awakened, and seeing us two, both panicked. Rudolf Altmann ran out of the room and jumped over the banister, and as Thomas also tried to escape, he slipped on the icy stairs. It is believable, isn’t it? They still are wearing their nightgowns, and no slippers!” He looked around for any reactions or interruptions, but none came. Karl, along with the rest of them, just stood there staring woodenly, all of them looking like wax figurines. Karl finally replied with a deep sigh of relief, “Amen to all that, Egon!”
Mark and Ulrich Wiland looked out of sorts for not having thought of that themselves, but were equally relieved. George just nodded in approval, not being able to say anything. Watching their faces, Karl praised Egon’s plan, and hinted in jest that if he ever needed a lawyer, he would certainly call on him.
“But I am still the one who will go to the police!” George insisted now, also pointing out that the Auersbachs had had dealings with policeman Volker on some occasion, when one of their horses had been stolen. “In any case, it won’t harm us, or anyone,” he added. All could agree with that, and so another, a fourth plan, was being worked out.
“Egon, you and Benedict will remain here until a doctor or policeman arrives. George is riding to the next town to see Mr. Volker. It certainly would be easier if Lindenfels had a precinct. It surely could use one. The rest of us head back home. My parents must be terribly worried.”
“Your parents will certainly need the comfort of having you nearby. It’s going to be such heartbreaking news to them.”
“Yes, my poor, loving parents. Only one hour into the New Year and I feel as if I’ve lived through an eternity! What an awful way to start!” Karl had tears in his eyes, thinking of how he should break this awful news to them, not to speak of his own sorrow at the loss of his sister. Another night he would never forget in his lifetime.
“Do you happen to know why George is so eager to go to the police, even though the military would be the proper authori
ty for this?” Mark questioned, at the same time reminding his friends of the proper procedure.
“I’ll tell you why,” Karl replied solemnly. “He is just not able to witness the grief I will have to bring to my parents.”
“I can understand that. He has always seen them as his parents as well, more so than his own,” Ulrich sympathized.
Karl, reaching in his pocket for a handkerchief, brought out an elongated jewelry box. Looking at it, he handed it to Madeleine. “Madeleine, this was supposed to be Christina’s present. Would you please accept it? I would very much like you to have it. And I’m sure she would want it too.”
“I don’t know if I can accept this, Mr. Reinhardt. And I’m not at all sure that Christina would have wanted me to have it! She never really knew me. Not the way I truly am!” she added.
“Please do me the honor of accepting it. It would really make me feel happy to know that someone who was closer to her than any of us in her last few miserable days on this earth would wear it. Even if she didn’t like you then, she probably knows now how much you have endangered your own life for her.”
“If you see it in this fashion, I will take it with my most profound thanks. I’ll always treasure it.”
“Will you both be all right with their servants still downstairs?” Karl directed his question at Egon and Benedict.
“We’ll be fine, sir! If they dare to give us any trouble at all, they’ll end up just like their masters!” Egon answered harshly.
“Self-defense, of course,” Mark assured, waving goodbye, followed by his brother’s, “God bless you both.”
Madeleine looked around and gravely said, “We all know our story, don’t we?” Then she waved good-bye to both Benedict and Egon.
11
“To what do I owe this honor?” Policeman Volker inquired, taken aback by George Auersbach’s late visit. He immediately connected this with some kind of thievery and buttoned his jacket out of habit. “Happy New Year, Count Auersbach,” he added with half a salute.