Castle of the Wolf

by Sandra Schwab

  The Holy Week saw her go to the Villa Wolfenbach. There she helped boiling and coloring eggs, while Cook and her kitchen maid were busy baking Easter pretzels. The Gräfin showed Cissy how to apply delicate patterns of wax on the fragile eggshell before letting the egg slide into some liquid color. Best of all, Cissy liked the shades of dark pink that birch bark produced. She loved rubbing a sheen of grease over the eggs and making the colors more brilliant.

  And she loved the beautiful mass at St. Margaretha’s on Easter night, when the whole church was immersed in darkness before the procession of the priest and the servers carried light into the darkness and heralded new hope for the world.

  But, of course, there was no hope for the Castle of Wolfenbach.

  Cissy sighed while the church rang with the Hallelujah. But then the flame that was given from candle to candle ignited the candle she was holding, and she felt as if the light also blossomed inside her heart. By the time she stepped outside and found the blazing bonfire in the churchyard, a smile lit her face.

  The crisp, fresh night air stung her cheeks, and she watched the sparks from the bonfire shooting up toward the stars in the sky. All around her the churchyard hummed with the happy chatter of the people of Kirchwalden talking to their friends and neighbors. For a moment the German voices all blended together, an unintelligible buzzing, swelling up and down in volume. It was like the song of the sea. The song of the forest.

  Cissy searched the crowd until she found the familiar figure on the other side of the fire doing his best to blend into the shadows. She watched how the firelight flickered over that face she had kissed and caressed, how it lent him a diabolical appearance. With the fire between them, they stared at each other.

  So near, yet so far apart.

  She could not avert her eyes. Instead, she drank in the sight of him, tall and lean, black hair slightly tousled by the breeze.

  She remembered how she had woken up beside him long before dawn, when the world had been rendered a gray, colorless place. A place where all boundaries had blurred. She remembered the feeling of his skin against hers, the rasp of his springy body hair. How good he had felt. How right it had been to take him in her arms.

  What would he do now if I hugged him? Cissy wondered bitterly. How naïve she had been to believe a single night could redeem the beast and break the spell.

  I found the whole experience utterly boring.

  A dagger into her heart.

  And he had known it.

  Determined, she turned away and went over to her mother-in-law to help hand out colored eggs and pretzels.

  Children ran squealing around the fire. One of the innkeepers produced a pot of hot mulled wine to go with the pretzels and eggs. A festive, happy air seized the gathering. Lent was finally over.

  Suddenly, another figure separated from the crowd. The firelight glinted on his golden hair, and his green eyes twinkled merrily as he stood before her.

  “Happy Easter, Liebchen,” Leopold von Wolfenbach said, his thumbs thrust into the pockets of his waistcoat. “Happy to see me?” He didn’t wait for her answer, but leaned over to greet his mother and kiss her on the cheek.

  “Where have you been, Leo?” The reprimand in the voice of the Gräfin was unmistakable.

  He just shrugged and grinned. “Here and there. There and here.” Casually, he cast a look around. “And where is my big brother, so happily married? Ah, there he is.” He raised his hand as if in greeting, then abruptly focused on Cissy once more, his eyes boring into hers. “Why is he not at your side, Liebchen?” He gave her a knowing smirk. “Trouble in paradise already?”

  When Cissy refused to answer, he shot a look at his mother, who was busy giving more pretzels to the children. Obviously reassured that she wouldn’t notice, he leaned toward Cissy and trailed a familiar finger down her arm.

  She jerked away. “Stop it!” she hissed.

  Leo just chuckled. “Have you ever wondered if you might have married the wrong brother?” Ever so slowly he turned his head, willing her to follow his gaze and look upon his brother on the other side of the fire.

  Fenris stood very still.

  And he was watching them intently.

  Smiling, Leopold caressed Cissy’s cheek. As she tried to turn her head away, he held her fast, her chin caught between his thumb and forefinger. “You don’t want to make a scene, sister dear, do you?” he whispered into her ear. “Think of how it would ruin the atmosphere.” He rubbed his thumb over her skin. “What a pity it would be. Now, tell me: if my dear brother is over there, and you are here, and I am here with you, don’t you think that says you must have married the wrong brother?” He lowered his voice to an intimate purr. “Don’t you think so, Liebchen?”

  Anger choked Cissy. “I would have rather given the castle to the vultures of the Altertumsverein than marry you!”

  Laughing, Leo let his hand fall away from her face. He threw another look at his brother and his lips lifted in a smirk. He was undeterred. “Tomorrow evening they will light another fire and they will dance around it.” His voice was a soft, disgusting caress against her ear. “Does your husband dance well, Liebchen?”

  For a moment she simply stared at him, too angry for words. His smile widened, widened, until he gave a short cough of laughter.

  “Leopold!” his mother suddenly hissed. “Behave yourself!”

  The people standing around them stared, then smiled good-naturedly. The youngest son of the Graf, the town’s golden boy—he was back, and that was reason to rejoice.

  Cissy cast a look at her husband. Shadows danced over his face and made his expression impossible to discern. In all likelihood, his features were frozen into stone as they always were when he didn’t want people to know his thoughts or feelings.

  Come to me, my wolf, she summoned him silently. Oh, please, come to me!

  But of course, he did not budge.

  Wiping his eyes, Leopold chuckled. “It’s not as if I didn’t warn you,” he continued, clearly not caring that his mother and half the town could hear what he was saying.

  Did he feel so sure of himself that he thought he could slight his brother in public? With all the world to hear and snicker? A hot wave of anger rushed through Cissy and made her forget all caution.

  “Oh yes.” Steadily she advanced on him until they stood toe to toe. “Yes, you warned me. You warned me what a von Wolfenbach could be.” She cocked her head to the side, then switched to English. “You’ve shown me perfectly what a sniveling little bastard you are.” She gave him a pleasant smile. “You’ve shown that your brother is much more of a man than you could ever be.” And with satisfaction, she watched the dull color rise in his cheeks, how his triumphant expression changed to a sulky pout.

  “You want to make me believe you’re happy with my brother, that cripple?” he snarled in English. “For what kind of fool do you take me? Tell me, have you yet found out how much more they shot off than his leg?”

  Shaking her head, she stepped back. “You are disgusting.”

  “Yes? Well, my dear brother’s first fiancée obviously thought the same about him. When he came back from the war”—his eyes glittered maliciously—“all shot to pieces. And how could anybody fault her for it—that she would want a real man instead of a cripple?”

  Everything in Cissy went cold. Her basket with the pretzels fell to the ground. “His first fiancée?” she whispered.

  Leopold laughed, a hateful, triumphant laugh. “So he hasn’t told you about her either?” His laughter became louder, wilder. “She did the only sensible thing, ran off to marry another man.” Wearing a satisfied expression, he stroked his thumb along his jaw. “I have to say that she did well for herself…” Abruptly he turned and gave his brother a wave. “Hey, Fenris,” he shouted, falling back into German. “Greetings from the Contessa Czerny. She said to give you her congratulations on your nuptials.”

  At his shout, the whole crowd fell silent. Their gazes moved back and forth between the tw
o brothers—one with a shining golden halo like St. George about to slay the evil dragon; the other looking like the devil himself, dark and menacing.

  A grin split golden Leopold’s face, and he licked his lips as if he were a cat who’d just swallowed all the cream. “Yes, greetings from the Contessa Czerny. And I have to say…”—the grin widened—“she’s just as lovely as always.” He let his tongue curl suggestively around his lips once more, before laughing and walking away.

  “God, what has gotten into the boy?” the Gräfin moaned. Her husband put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

  Cissy, however, kept her gaze trained on Leo. She saw how a young girl timidly stepped into his path and touched his arm. With a snarl, he twisted and continued to stride off into the night. Clearly miserable, the girl clasped her hands around her elbows. When she turned, she caught Cissy watching her. She blushed a painful red and hastily disappeared into the crowd.

  Cissy frowned.

  Marie, her maidservant?

  Whatever did Marie want from Leopold von Wolfenbach?

  ~*~

  On the drive home, her husband broodingly lounged on his side of the carriage and didn’t spare Cissy a glance. Silence surrounded them like a shroud, with the clacking of the horses’ hooves and the crunching of the wheels on the road the only sounds.

  “I didn’t invite your brother to talk to me,” Cissy finally said, when she couldn’t stand the silence any longer.

  Fenris just continued to stare out of the window. Not even a flutter of his lashes betrayed that he had heard.

  She tapped her foot on the floor. “You must have seen that.”

  He still gave no answer.

  Cissy crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at him. She snorted. “You must have seen that even from where you stood.” Narrowing her eyes, she remembered how she had wished he would come to her aid. But no, she had been forced to deal alone with his brother. “Like a pillar of salt,” she added nastily. “Stonestruck, as if you’d seen Medusa herself.”

  She waited another moment, then she threw up her arms. “Gad, what is with you? Your parents are such sweet people! Whatever have they done to produce such sons? One is a cad, the other a dunderhead! How wonderful!”

  That, she saw with satisfaction, finally got to him—his jaw tightened and a muscle in his cheek jumped. She gave another snort for dramatic effect and, arms crossed, leaned back and watched what her husband would do next.

  For a moment he continued to smolder in silence. Then he snapped around so abruptly Cissy started. “Don’t you think I know what I am, what I have done to my parents?” he hissed. Fury and frustration sparked from his eyes.

  Instant remorse tightened Cissy’s stomach. “That’s not what I meant,” she said. Imploringly, she leaned forward. “That’s not what I meant at all, Fenris.”

  “I know what you meant,” he snarled. Angrily he knocked against the front of the coach. “Perhaps you married the wrong brother!”

  Cissy gasped with outrage. “Do you really think I would have wanted to marry your creepy, spoiled brat of a brother?”

  The carriage came to a squeaking halt. Fenris reached to open the door. “I saw the way he looked at you,” he threw at her over his shoulder.

  “The way he looked at me?” Cissy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “And what about me? I would have happily pushed the lout into the fire, if you must know.” She watched him get out of the carriage. “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just leave in the middle of an argument!”

  He threw her one of his stony glances. “I am going to ride on the box seat.” And the door clicked shut.

  Angrily, Cissy shot forward and fumbled with the window. She pulled it down and thrust her head out. “You’re such a crack-brained dunderhead, Fenris von Wolfenbach!” she yelled in English. “I hope you freeze your behind off on your beloved box seat!” And with an unladylike curse, she shut the window and fell back onto the seat, just as the carriage rumbled into motion once more.

  “He’s such a buffleheaded bumpkin! A daft bugbear, that’s what he is!” She sniffed.

  Yet slowly her anger evaporated. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and hung her head. When had her life become such a mess?

  God, how tired she was! How she yearned for the safety of an embrace! She yearned to walk into her father’s study and bury her head against his housecoat, while his heart thumped steadily against her ear as if in reassurance. She yearned for the feeling of his hand stroking her hair, for the scent of pipe smoke, for the deep rumble of his laughter…

  A dark wave of grief washed over her. She pressed her lips tightly together against the sobs that rose in her throat.

  She was alone.

  All alone.

  By the time the carriage rumbled into the courtyard of the castle, Cissy had managed to regain her composure and to dry her tears. The carriage door opened, but surprisingly, it was Johann who helped her down. “Are you all right, gnädige Frau?” He gave her a look full of concern.

  “Yes. Yes, I am.” Distractedly, she gazed around the courtyard.

  “He has already gone upstairs,” the valet said softly.

  “What?” She stared at him, felt her eyes widen.

  “My master. He has already”—he cleared his throat—“retired for the night.”

  Cissy blinked. “Yes. Of course. He would.” What else had she expected? And still, this repeated rejection stung bitterly. She took a deep breath and forced a smile onto her lips. “Thank you, Johann. And happy Easter.”

  Yet when she turned to go inside, the valet put a hand on her arm. Questioning, she looked back at him. He searched her face. “I know it’s not my place, but…are you sure you are all right, gnädige Frau?” He hesitated. “I saw you talking to the young master…”

  Cissy gave an amused snort, though she was touched by his concern. “Johann, half of Kirchwalden—no, make that all of Kirchwalden—saw me talking to Leopold von Wolfenbach tonight.” She shrugged. “He is a nuisance, and I wish he would stay away from us.”

  “He has always been obsessed with the castle.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I assume he’s been more obsessed with the legendary Wolfenbach Hoard.” She rolled her eyes, making the valet chuckle.

  “Yes, I assume that is true,” he conceded. “I didn’t want to keep you, gnädige Frau. I was just concerned.” His honest brown eyes regarded her solemnly.

  This time, Cissy didn’t have to force a smile. She patted his arm. “I know. And I thank you for it. I…” She frowned, remembering something Leopold had said. “Actually, Johann, I was wondering: what is so special about the Contessa Czerny?”

  The valet’s expression darkened dramatically.

  “Leopold mentioned her tonight,” Cissy continued slowly, watching his reaction. “And…yes, when he first arrived here, he mentioned her, too. And it was like…” Feeling suddenly vulnerable, she turned her head away and shrugged a shoulder. Briefly, she closed her eyes. But no… I don’t want to remain a sheep forever. Determination lent her courage, and she looked back to Johann, looked him straight into the eye. “What is the Contessa Czerny to my husband, Johann? Is it true that she was his fiancée?”

  The valet sighed and rubbed his neck. “I wish I weren’t the one to tell you this, gnädige Frau.”

  Cissy stared at him. “Well, I haven’t got that many options, have I? My husband isn’t talking to me at the moment, and when he does, all he does is snarl.” She raised her eyebrows. “So?”

  For a moment Johann stared at her, slack-mouthed, then he gave a laugh. “God bless you, gnädige Frau.” He immediately sobered. “I understand that before he ran away to join the British army, my master was indeed engaged to marry the Contessa Czerny.” Awkwardly, he cleared his throat. “I understand that he was very much in love with her.”

  In love. Cissy closed her eyes and swallowed hard. For the first time, she noticed the bite of the crisp night air. “But his need to fight for the
freedom of his country was stronger,” she whispered.

  “Yes. Yes, that’s true.” Johann’s voice was gruff, and he cleared his throat once more. “Apparently, he asked her to wait for him. Or at least he thought she would wait for him. When we were lying in the field together, he would sometimes talk of her, and I think it was his thoughts of her that got him through the ugliness of it all.”

  Blinking back tears, Cissy looked up at the dark sky, searching for familiar formations. She needed something to ground her. “What happened?”

  There was a rustle of clothes as Johann shifted his weight. “Apparently, she…balked,” he said uncomfortably. “When the family of Wolfenbach lost their privileges, she must have thought she deserved better. And she searched for a new husband.”

  “And finally became the Contessa Czerny.”

  “Yes. My master didn’t know. Until he returned to Kirchwalden, he didn’t know. He thought…hoped…” The valet’s voice trailed away.

  Cissy turned back to him. Johann’s face was set in grim lines.

  “He had so hoped,” he said grimly. “But she wasn’t there. And when he was sent back, while he lay nearly dying without his leg, she returned all the letters he had written to her, all the presents he had given her. She sent them all back with the words that he should never come near her again so the sight of him would not disgust her.”

  Cissy gasped. “Oh my God,” she moaned. She could only too well imagine his despair and pain. “How could she do something like that?”

  A cynical smile twisted Johann’s mouth. “If I should venture a guess: because she was very much in love with the title and the money, but not with the man. Just as she is in love with her current title and wealth, but not with her husband.” He scratched his ear. “I beg your pardon, gnädige Frau, but the Contessa Czerny’s extramarital affairs are always fodder for the gossipmongers.”

  “Oh my.” Cissy’s mouth went dry. “And Leopold von Wolfenbach is one of her beaux, is he not? That is what he’s rubbing Fenris’s face in at every chance he gets.” White-hot fury nearly choked her. “The sniveling cur! I should have pushed him into the fire after all!”