by Eva Ibbotson
‘But it’s you I want, Heidi. I want someone familiar . . . someone to remind me of the good times I had here and how happy I used to be.’
They were in the deserted, freezing theatre, rummaging among the contents of the skips for garments Tessa considered suitable for her trousseau.
‘But you’re going to be happy now,’ said Heidi. ‘I mean, you do love the prince, don’t you?’
‘Yes, of course. Only I think perhaps it’s best not to be too much in love when you get married,’ said Tessa carefully. ‘I mean, think how awful it would be seeing everything sort of fade and get less.’
‘Yes . . . I suppose so.’ The Littlest Heidi looked unconvinced. ‘Oh, I’m sure it’ll be all right; I’m sure it will!’
‘If you come, it will,’ said Tessa. ‘I want you to travel down with me and stay until the wedding. The country will do you good.’
That Heidi should be overborne by the steely will of the Princess of Pfaffenstein was inevitable, but there was one subject on which she stood firm. She was not, as Tessa helpfully suggested, going to adapt one of her Sylphide costumes as a bridesmaid’s dress. Not only would her old dancing clothes no longer fit her, but if she had to go she would be decently attired. So she had run home to her mother, who was a dressmaker in Simmering, and returned twenty-four hours later with a charming, pristine, three-quarter-length dress.
Tessa’s decision to marry Maxi had appeared fully formed in her head the morning after she had parted from Guy at the cemetery. By marrying Maxi, she would get the aunts away from the Vienna flat, for of course they would live with her at Spittau. Spittau was not their beloved Pfaffenstein but it was the country and a familiar world. There would be maids to help them, and plentiful food without standing in queues. Not only would she be able to help the aunts but also Heidi, who had been looking so peaky, and Bubi who could come to stay. Oh yes, the advantages of marrying Maxi were endless. She would breed not only water spaniels but komondors, those enchanting woolly-haired puszta dogs. And if anything was needed to convince her of the wisdom of her action, it was a quick perusal of the railway timetable which confirmed that a churn of fresh milk put on the 6.05 from Spittau would reach Boris and The Mother in time for lunch.
Having taken her decision, Tessa became immediately and radiantly happy. Everyone knew that she was happy because she told them so. True, certain outward and traditional attributes of happiness were not entirely within her grasp. Since she found it difficult to swallow anything much larger than a pea, she lacked the plump, pink look of the more obvious kind of ecstacy, and her nights, spent underneath a pillow not crying, gave her huge, hollowed eyes a look which a casual observer might be forgiven for not recognizing instantly as one of pre-nuptial bliss.
Nevertheless, having made up her mind, she moved with such efficiency and despatch that a week after her letter to Maxi, she arrived at Spittau with her aunts, her bridesmaid and the pug in a carpet-bag.
Though Heidi had had an uncomfortable journey, alternating frequent visits to the toilet with frenzied searches on the floor of the railway carriage for Tessa’s engagement ring, she was deeply awed by her first sight of the Wasserburg.
‘Oh,’ she breathed. ‘How beautiful! How melancholy!’ It was clearly the greatest praise she could bestow.
In the vaulted hall at Spittau, the servants were lined up in serried ranks to meet their new mistress. But the stab of misery Tessa felt as she confronted the pomp and protocol she had hoped to leave behind for ever was instantly suppressed. She smiled brilliantly, made (as she knew only too well how) the short, expected speech and swept up the stairs to universal sighs of satisfaction.
During the next few days Tessa was very, very busy. She visited the tenants, many of whom had known and loved her from childhood, listened to their grievances and determined that at least some of Maxi’s compensation should come their way. She rowed over to a neighbouring bay to bespeak from a retired captain of Dragoons an enchanting komondor puppy as soon as it was weaned, and spent hours in the kennels bursting paper bags in the ears of the new pointer puppies to prevent them from being gun-shy. Everything, thus, was going splendidly and the fact that Maxi now kissed her on the lips rather than on the cheek when he said good night was absolutely natural – something she would get used to very quickly and, indeed, enjoy.
Maxi was being altogether most kind and attentive in every way and the only fault she had to find with him was his treatment of Heidi.
‘Why can’t you be nice to her, Maxi?’ Tessa wanted to know. ‘You weren’t such a snob in Vienna. You were glad enough to take her out to lunch and to the cinema when I was busy, but here you hardly talk to her at all. You know how I hate snobbishness, and she’s so sweet.’
‘Yes, I know she is. But anyway she avoids me just as much. Look, just leave me alone, Putzerl,’ said Maxi, who really had rather a lot to bear.
Two days after Tessa had given her aunts the benefit of a preview of her bridal gown, the guests began to arrive for the ceremony. The meanness of the Swan Princess, coupled with Tessa’s request for a small and speedy wedding, kept the numbers down to a minimum. Waaltraut came and was offended because she had not been asked to be a bridesmaid; the Archduchess Frederica came and was offended because Tante Augustine had her room; Monteforelli arrived grumbling about the damp . . . and Father Rinaldo who looked at the bride through narrowed eyes, flicked her nibbled fringe with his fingers – and held his tongue.
Then, less than a week before the ceremony, Tessa heard the sound of muffled sobbing as she was passing Heidi’s bedroom door.
She knocked, entered and found the Littlest Heidi curled up on the four-poster, her blonde curls damp and her face streaked with tears.
‘Heidi! What is it, love?’ said Tessa, bending over her anxiously. ‘What’s the matter?’
No answer: just a disconsolate shake of the head.
‘You’re still not feeling well, are you? You didn’t have any lunch again. Heidi, please let me fetch a doctor. This has gone on long enough.’
‘No!’ Heidi sat up, a look of terror on her face. ‘Tessa, I absolutely don’t want a doctor. You mustn’t think of it. I’m perfectly all right. It’s just the first months – I’ll feel better soon. My sister was the same,’ said Heidi wildly, now concerned only to prevent a visit from the Spittau practitioner.
‘Oh, my God! How could I be so stupid!’ Tessa had dropped her friend’s hands, aghast at her own blindness. ‘It is really quite unbelievable! Oh, love, why didn’t you tell me straight away? You know I would have helped you.’
‘There’s nothing to help with. It’s all absolutely all right. My mother’s very good, she won’t turn me out.’
‘But Heidi, won’t the father—? I mean, does he know? Surely he would want to help you – or marry you? Goodness, anyone would want to marry you. Or is he married already?’
‘No.’ Heidi had turned and buried her head in her pillow, but not before Tessa had seen the deep flush that spread over her face.
‘Do you know, Heidi, I think I must almost be a cretin,’ said Tessa reflectively. ‘It comes of being brought up in that ridiculous way, I suppose. I kept wondering why Maxi was avoiding you. And he really doesn’t know about the baby?’
‘No, he doesn’t. And he mustn’t – not ever! Promise me . . . please! Everything will be all right after the wedding, honestly. I’ll go away and not see either of you again. Just let us get this wedding over.’
‘Ah, yes, the wedding.’ Tessa was still sitting on the bed stroking Heidi’s tumbled curls, but there was something in her voice which made Heidi lift her head and look carefully at her friend. Tessa was smiling and her eyes held a look that had not been there for many days: amused, mischievous, yet curiously serene.
‘Oh, you do love him! I thought you didn’t, but now I can see you do. You’re really looking forward to the wedding, aren’t you?’ said Heidi eagerly, clutching at Tessa’s hand. If Tessa was happy, she could bear it all.
Tessa bent down and kissed her friend’s hot cheek. ‘Yes,’ she said, her voice light and lilting. ‘I’m looking forward to the wedding very much indeed!’
For two days after Guy’s departure, life at Pfaffenstein continued exactly as before. Parcels continued to arrive with wedding gifts. Magnificent meals were served to Nerine and her family, and every provision made for their comfort. Then on the third day, most mysteriously, the footmen were withdrawn, as were the gate-keepers and the innumerable dirndl-clad maids who had scuttled respectfully along the corridors.
Thisbe Purse, looking harassed, tried to explain the new state of affairs to her employer’s fiancée. ‘These are Mr Farne’s orders, Mrs Hurlingham. I’m very sorry. There’s just to be a skeleton staff. Meals will go on being served of course, but the staff are only to come up by the hour. I’m afraid there may have been some kind of trouble, but we must just keep calm.’
Then on the next day the men came.
They came in three pantechnicons, driving into the courtyard without a by-your-leave and thrusting their way into the castle. Men in bowler hats and brown overalls with pencils stuck behind their ears, swarms of them, flicking with their fingers at the porcelain bowls, lifting up ornaments . . . And bursting into the blue salon where Nerine sat with her family.
‘Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Sorry to inconvenience you but we have orders to remove the contents of this residence.’
The man who spoke was clearly the boss: a tall fellow with a yellow complexion and a theatrically curving South American moustache.
‘Are you mad? What do you mean by this? How dare you barge in here? Nerine had risen and confronted him furiously, while all about her came cries of, ‘What is it?’ ‘What has happened?’ from the Crofts whose German was vestigial.
‘We’re only doing our duty, gnädige Frau. It’s to pay Herr Farne’s debts. He’s rolled up, poor gentleman. Here’s our authorization.’ He thrust a sheaf of papers, alarmingly splashed with red sealing wax, in Nerine’s face. ‘You lot start next door,’ he ordered three of his underlings. ‘And you two start in the hall. The marble statues are fixtures, more’s the pity, but we’ll take the rest. Stefan, Georg, Isidor, you stay here with me.’
‘No! No! No!’ Nerine was as white as a sheet. ‘I don’t believe it, it’s a lie!’
Impervious to her distress, the men got to work. Ropes were brought from the lorries with rolls of hessian padding and crates. Moving with incredible speed and the unmistakable air of men thoroughly accustomed to the job, they stripped the walls of pictures, carried out chairs, coffee tables, ormolu clocks and began to roll up the Aubusson carpet.
‘I told you so, I told you so!’ screamed Mrs Croft as the sofa she had been sitting on vanished from behind her. ‘Not just a piece of sacking but a piece of sacking in Newcastle upon Tyne!’
Only Martha remained unruffled. ‘Ee, hinny, you don’t have to take on so,’ she said in her quiet voice to Nerine. ‘Even if Guy’s in a bit of trouble, he’ll come round again. You stand by him and you’ll see.’
Nerine turned to her. ‘Don’t you see,’ she said furiously, ‘that I cannot? I simply cannot be poor, I have no right.’ Her hands flew to her face. ‘Oh God, what shall I do?’
One man only, out of all the bailiffs, seemed to have some degree of pity for the lovely widow: a small, portly man whose long, blond beard and blond locks issuing from the brim of his bowler hat contrasted strangely with his black and soul-filled eyes. ‘You want to watch your personal possessions, gnädige Frau,’ he whispered as he passed her with an armful of petitpoint cushions. ‘Jewels and suchlike. They’re forfeit, too, by Austrian law if an engagement exists.’
‘Oh, my God!’ Nerine was totally beside herself. Her jewels! The diamonds Guy had given her, the pearls . . . her furs!
‘Excuse me.’ One of the men had brushed past her and was lifting the first of the mirrors off the wall, then the second, the third . . .
‘No! Not the mirrors! Not the mirrors!’ screamed Nerine.
Then she turned and ran for the door.
19
Tessa had the compartment to herself and as the train steamed out of Spittau, she put her hand into the pocket of her loden cloak to draw out the ancient leather casket once more, and gaze at its contents.
Yes, she had been right in what she had said to Guy. It was not like other jewels, the Lily of Pfaffenstein. The beaten silver was dark, almost dull, so deeply was it marked by time, but the delicate marvellously wrought petals, the proud curve of the stem, exuded an unmistakable air of majesty. If ever there was an ornament carved out of the very soul of the unknown craftsman, it was this symbol of fidelity and love.
One last task, then: to take the Lily to Pfaffenstein and give it to Martha Hodge. Thank heavens she would not have to get out of the train, not have to see the castle en fête for the wedding; not have to meet Nerine, hanging with proud ownership on to Guy’s arm. Martha had promised to be waiting on the platform, and all Tessa would have to do was lean out of the train, hand over the heirloom and continue her journey to Vienna.
‘You’ll know me all right,’ Martha had written in reply to Tessa’s letter, ‘for I’m as broad as I’m long! But to make sure, I’ll wear my navy coat and skirt and my fox fur.’
The train had left the plain and the great, grey lake and was climbing past vineyards pruned for winter, past chequered fields, into the hills. Her own country, now: fir woods mantling green slopes, glittering rivers tumbling through ravines and high on the horizon, a constant pearly cloud that revealed itself breathtakingly as the first of the snow peaks.
An hour later, the train puffed into the station that served Pfaffenstein. Tessa had lowered the window and was leaning out eagerly, the casket in her hand. An old man with a basket of eggs climbed into the third-class carriage at the back; a young man and a black-clad woman with two children got out but the platform itself was curiously empty. Certainly no one as broad as they were long – no one at all now that the passengers had dispersed, which was strange because Anton, the station master, nearly always came out to have a quick chat with the driver.
Uncertainly, she opened the door of her compartment and stepped down. Martha had promised. The dates and times in her letter were perfectly clear. Already, doors were slamming again and the wheezing engine was giving its pre-departure squeaks. Then, running along the platform, came Steffi, the postmaster’s ferret-faced son, the only one of the five boys who had turned out badly.
‘Your Highness!’ He touched his cap. ‘There’s a message from the English gentleman’s foster-mother. She’s ill. She can’t come.’
‘Oh, dear!’
A minute in which to act. To anyone else in the village she could have entrusted the Lily, but not to Steffi who had already been in trouble with the police.
Nothing for it, then . . . Quickly, she took out her small portmanteau, shut the door of her compartment and stood ruefully watching the train draw out. A few minutes later, she had pushed open the white wicket gate which led from the station enclosure and set off on the path along the lake.
At once, she was in a world of aching familiarity. Here was the hollow alder in which she had found a nest of curled-up, sleeping water voles; here the rock shaped like a bird; here the bush that in summer was ablaze with sulphur-yellow roses . . .
She crossed the road, wondering again at the absence of people, and began to climb the steep, circuitous Narrenweg. The first shrine, with the wreath of artificial poppies which had lain there since Frau Sussman’s son fell in the war . . . the second, on which the quiet-faced Virgin’s nose was inexplicably missing . . . the third, beneath which old Marinka had put, as she put each year, a great bunch of her orange dahlias before they caught the frost –
‘Oh, God!’ Tessa had stopped, put down her bag and grasped the branch of an ilex beside the path, suddenly overwhelmed by a searing sense of heimat – that word which, though embracing it, means so much more than simply ‘home’.
; Then she set her chin, picked up her bag and ten minutes later was walking through the gatehouse arch.
There was no one on duty. The courtyard was deserted. Feeling suddenly extremely anxious, Tessa walked up the short flight of steps into the great hall and looked about her, puzzled. Where were the ornaments, the vases, the tapestry hangings? Then a door opened above her and, breaking the silence, she heard a furious voice.
‘Who the devil has raised the flag on the flagpole? Who is the imbecile who is climbing about up there? I’m going to blast him out of existence if it’s the last thing—’ Guy had appeared at the top of the staircase. ‘You!’
He came down swiftly, the brows drawn in a dark bar across his face, and stopped in front of the small figure in the grey cloak. ‘And what brings you here?’ he enquired.
‘I brought the Lily. For Nerine. Martha promised to meet me at the station and bring it up, but she wasn’t there. There was a message to say she wasn’t well. Is it anything serious?’
Guy shrugged. ‘She was all right this morning, perfectly all right. In high fettle, in fact.’ He gave up the puzzle. ‘You came from Spittau?’
‘Yes.’
He nodded, scowling. ‘And the prince is well?’
‘Very well. Guy, please would you take this, I want to get back,’ said Tessa, proffering the box. ‘Just take it and give it to Nerine . . . with my best wishes for her happiness.’
Guy took the casket, opened it and looked at it for a long moment in silent tribute. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘you’re right. It’s an extraordinary piece of work. I regret, however, that I cannot give it to Nerine because she isn’t here.’
‘Isn’t here?’ Tessa stared at him, completely bewildered. ‘But where—’
‘She heard that I was ruined and left. In case you’re feeling anxious on her behalf, let me assure you that she managed to take all her clothes and jewels and a few other unconsidered trifles that were lying about. We have reason to believe that Lord Frith will soon be the happiest of men.’
