"Yes," Aldine said, but she wasn't sure she was. Part of her wanted to crawl back in bed, but it would only make things worse for sleeping the evening to come.
Pulling one of her day dresses from the wardrobe, Anna laid it out on the bed.
"I think we will keep the hair simple today," Aldine said. It was perhaps a day when she couldn't deal with any level of complexity. The library would serve as a nice, quiet space to read.
Her head tugged slightly with each stroke as Anna brushed her hair. In the mirror, Aldine looked a little pale. Some sun would be good for her cheeks.
"Are you not hungry today?" Anna asked, looking over at Aldine's untouched breakfast that had been brought to her earlier.
"My appetite is missing." Even as she said it, she knew that Anna wondered if she was with child, but Aldine knew it was the previous night that had robbed her of appetite. Although how would she know if she was pregnant? Several days of missing appetite and a queasy stomach, she supposed. Hopefully Anna wouldn't go downstairs and gossip about how the countess was showing signs of childbearing.
Her hair brushed and simply braided, Aldine dressed and put on her shoes, before standing at the door and trying to compose herself. For some reason, she wanted to stay in her room, but that would be unseemly. It was time to face the day and Aldine left, walking down the stairs, to meet Wilhelmina coming out of the salon, carrying a vase of flowers.
"Well, look who's risen. Well past ten. We are not in the habit here of lying in our beds all morning like princesses," she said sharply. "That might be how you behaved at home, but here we live differently." Without giving Aldine a chance to explain, Wilhelmina left the room.
Not quite knowing what to do with such harsh criticism, Aldine just stood where she was. Nothing in her repertoire of appropriate behavior had prepared her for something like this. One did not give credence to false accusations, and one did not talk back to one's mother-in-law. There had been a good reason for why she had risen late that morning, but even in her own head it sounded feeble—rising late because she'd had a nightmare. It was the excuse of a child. It was difficult to explain how this nightmare had affected her, and still did, even now.
Finally choosing to walk into the salon, she found Elke sitting in a chair, reading. Aldine wished her good morning.
"I heard you being a victim of Wilhelmina's foul mood."
"I was feeling a little under the weather," Aldine said, trying to explain her late rising.
"I hope everything is alright?" Elke said, clearly looking worried.
"Just a difficult sleep last night."
"I hate when that happens. When you lie in bed and can't do anything but look at the ceiling."
"Do you have trouble sleeping?"
"Rarely. In the height of summer, when the nights are warm, I suppose. What is giving cause to your trouble?"
In a way, Aldine didn't want to explain how she'd had a nightmare and that her nerves were still frayed. "Just one of those nights," she said, smiling tensely.
Wilhelmina walked back into the room and it felt as though the temperature dropped. Immediately, Aldine felt herself tense.
"We're having the carpets whipped today, so we need to move all the furniture off to clear them. You will both have to help."
"Of course," Elke said with a smile, appearing enthusiastic, which made Aldine appear less so.
"Yes, of course," she added, but knew it appeared a belated afterthought.
"Like I said, we don't sit around like spoilt princesses here," Wilhelmina repeated. "Start in the study."
Putting her book down, Elke gave her a conspiratorial look as she walked out of the room. The study was somewhere Aldine hadn't been, Heinrich's exclusive part of the house. Walking past the window, she saw that whipping structures had been erected outside and maids and manservants had been gathered for the task.
"It's a momentous task," Elke said. “It will take all day.”
This was the last thing Aldine wanted, feeling exhausted before even starting such a day, but what could she do? Already she had failed at being enthusiastic enough about this task.
Heinrich's study was dark, the grate cold. Leather-bound books lined the wall and his desk was neat and clear. From what she knew of him, he wasn't one to spend time indoors, bent over accounts. A tray of decanters stood in the corner and above the fireplace was a picture of a severe-looking man, dressed in black, old-fashioned clothes. Clearly looking the way a devout Lutheran did in those days.
"Johannes Graven," Elke pointed out. "Looks like a joyous person, doesn't he?"
The man looked too somber to even know how to laugh. "They were different times, weren't they?"
"They had a lot to lose back then, I suppose. The world was changing, or rather, they were trying to change the world. Especially down here where we have Catholics everywhere we turn."
"The churches were nice in Italy." They had been very different from what she was used to, with gold gilded embellishments, marble statues, paintings of forlorn saints and weeping women. A far cry from the comparatively unadorned churches she had always attended.
"Shush," Elke said, pointing at the portrait. "Don't let him hear that. He'll turn in his grave."
Aldine smiled at the silliness as they proceeded to move a small table and a chair off the carpet that ran underneath. The manservants then came and rolled up the carpet before carrying it out.
*
All day, there had been dust in the air, but Aldine supposed it was a job well done. Carpets did tend to capture all the dust and dirt in the house, releasing it whenever anyone walked over them.
Wilhelmina had gone on to direct them the whole day, and there had barely been a moment to sit down, let alone hide away in the library.
Come suppertime, Aldine was exhausted. If she had any worries about sleeping that night, she was well past that. Every ghoul in the world could come out to haunt that night and she wouldn’t notice a thing.
Ludwig had returned earlier than Heinrich, as he often tended to do. He joined Elke on a bench outside for a while, where they talked. Their marriage seemed strong. There was a real camaraderie between them.
Once Heinrich returned, he went upstairs to his room to wash and change.
"Did you not notice the house cleaning we did today?" Wilhelmina asked as they sat down for supper, her taking the head of the table opposite her son, and Aldine sitting next to Heinrich—as she preferred. "Every carpet in the house was dragged out and whipped until they cried for mercy."
"The house does smell a little fresher for it," Ludwig said.
"It was hard work, although it seems city girls are not all that accustomed to work."
Looking up, Aldine looked over at her mother-in-law, trying to understand what she was implying. She'd worked just as hard as anyone else.
"Slumped over the furniture most of the day," Wilhelmina went on, her head held high, but not looking Aldine in the eye, as if she was below regard. Her gaze was on Heinrich.
"Not surprising as Aldine had a difficult night last night. It would have been a hard day for you," he said, turning his attention to her.
"We managed," Aldine said with a smile. "All the carpets were done." In a way, he was standing up for her and she hadn't really expected it. A quick smile lifted the corners of her lips, but then she remembered that Wilhelmina was watching. In whatever power struggle this was, Heinrich had just handed her some power. Aldine wasn't too naïve to know it.
Everyone returned their attention to their soup, but Aldine couldn't help but worry that this would make things worse. A kind word might not be enough to make Wilhelmina retreat, but it meant a great deal to Aldine that her husband stood by her. It gave her hope beyond anything she'd felt since coming here.
Chapter 12
EVERY DAY, IT SEEMED the relationships and personalities within the house were revealing themselves more and more to Aldine. No longer was she the curiosity that Heinrich had brought home and now she had to find her plac
e within the household. Although it seemed Wilhelmina was reticent to give up her role as the mistress of the house, maybe even vying for being the head of the family.
Relationships were complex and she was starting to see that complexity now. It did make them harder to deal with. Ludwig appeared to be the least interested or concerned about her joining the family. Heinrich—well, he was still distant in many ways. She saw more of the women and understood more of the strains between them. In a way, it felt as if she wasn't getting to know Heinrich better than the handsome and carefree man she had gotten to know on her honeymoon. It felt, however, that there was more of himself he wasn't showing her. For example, she still didn't know how he felt about his previous wives. That part of himself, he wasn't letting her see.
Her relationship with Wilhelmina was strained. Perhaps it always had been, but she hadn't seen it before. Nothing she did was ever correct and the older woman went to pains to point out even how she poured coffee incorrectly. Mother-in-laws were notoriously difficult, weren't they? Perhaps this was simply normal. Aldine had never had a mother-in-law before.
Walking was her reprieve and her relief. The paths around the house were lovely once you got used to the eerie silence of the forest. Everywhere she looked, it seemed like a painting, even the darkest recesses of the forest. Nature was wonderful at creating scenes, wasn't it?
This time of year, the air was sufficiently warm to make for a pleasant walk. As with the family, she was starting to notice the details—the birds, the plants, the streams. There were fish in some of them, and they swam like shimmering, silver missiles in the water, scattering as her shadow appeared above them.
Small, old bridges were built over some of them, while others she had to jump across. The water was ice cold. It didn't warm with the weather.
Out here, she felt part of nature, just another creature roaming the forest. It was a feeling she hadn't expected, but as she calmed with her surroundings, she felt comfortable being there. Boulders were warmed by the sun and provided a good place to sit and simply listen. The trees sang with the wind. A perfect symphony—a crescendo whenever the wind picked up.
At first, she had felt safe in the house and at risk outside. Now it was the exact opposite. The forest was never going to judge her or pick on everything she did. It accepted her just as she was.
The path led her on, until she realized that she was not on the path she had expected to be. The surroundings were growing unfamiliar. Tension rose up her spine, but not distressingly. The path would lead her right back to where she had been. Truthfully, she was probably somewhere everyone else knew really well, but she didn't. Had she wandered off Heinrich's land? Unlikely, but she hadn't been paying much attention, simply following the path wherever it led.
The path was the important part. It would eventually lead somewhere she would recognize and she could orientate herself again. Still, she would turn back and retrace her steps.
The longer she walked, though, she wasn't getting to anywhere she recognized. Was she even walking toward the house?
Heinrich knew this land like the back of his hand. He would find her if she got lost. That she knew, but there was still something very uncomfortable about being lost. The comfort of nature around her was now giving her less solace.
The forest was growing denser and more oppressive and the path smaller and smaller. Aldine stopped and didn't know if she should go forward or back. If she turned back, she would be led back to a path she didn't know, and ahead was another path she didn't know. Somehow she had gotten off the safe path onto a new one, and this was not a well-used path at all.
Still, it would lead somewhere and she could not simply stand here in indecision, so she walked on. She simply had to follow the path and not lose it. As long as she was on a path, she was fine.
But this path led somewhere, a ruin, that by the looks of it had been mostly reclaimed by the forest. Overgrown steps led up to a crumbling cottage that was partially built into the root of a large tree. This had not been a fine house even in its heyday. Moss covered everything, but she could see what would have once been a wall. The roof was completely collapsed.
A part of an iron stove stood, the top covered with moss created over layers of decaying leaves. The forest was reclaiming every part of this structure, gently breaking it down and absorbing it back.
Walking up to it, she stepped on the bottom step. Who had lived here? This had to be on Heinrich's land, unless she had walked so far she was off it, but she didn't think so.
The wood gave and she had the uncomfortable feeling of falling before her foot jarred on the earth underneath, a cut ran up her calf and she could feel that she was bleeding. This structure was inherently unsafe, she concluded.
Her father would adore it, built into the tree like it was. It was almost as if one could believe a gnome lived here, or some other fairytale creature. But realistically, it was an echo of some long ago past—maybe even from before the Graven family had come. It was hard to tell how old it was. It was certainly not built with modern building techniques, instead wood and mud and tree roots.
Who were the people who had lived here? Obviously quite far from the village.
A bird squawked above her head and she looked up. The trees were tall, like a cathedral around her. The tops were so dense there was hardly any light filtering down. Why would someone choose to live here, almost like a mole in the ground?
Maybe they weren't given a choice? Maybe it was a hermit like legends of old. Maybe even moss people for all she knew. With a snort, she dismissed her silliness.
Her curiosity had cleared away the panic that had started to take root in her. She had simply gotten on a path leading to this long-forgotten cottage in the woods, a hidden place. That was why the path had been narrowing. There was no reason anyone came here.
Exactly how she'd gotten here, she didn't know, but she wasn't sorry. It was a curious sight, almost beyond her belief if she hadn't seen it for herself. If only she had brought her drawing sheets. Instead, she would have to use her memory, but it was a rich sight of something that was as otherworldly as she had ever seen.
It was cold too. The lack of sunshine protected the last vestiges of winter. Would snow even reach down here, she wondered. With her arms crossed, she returned to the sparse path and walked back the way she'd come. Before she was out of sight, she looked back on the cottage. As curious as it was, there was something uncomfortable about it, but she couldn't understand why.
Her father would certainly enjoy her drawings of it, she thought as she kept going, leaving the strange little ruin behind.
Walking, when she came to a juncture, she chose the one that looked the widest and most used, and eventually she emerged, quite suddenly, near the flower garden in the far fields. It took her utterly by surprise, but she now knew where she was and walked home, proud that she had largely kept her head straight and not run off in a sheer panic, having to be rescued from the forest.
The house was quiet. The walk had taken much longer than she'd anticipated and she was going to be late for supper if she didn't hurry, slipping through the house before Wilhelmina could find her and complain.
Just as she was sitting down, Anna arrived to dress her hair.
"Do you know if Heinrich has returned?" Aldine asked.
"Not yet," the girl said and started brushing out Aldine's hair, pulling a caught leaf from it.
"I went walking," Aldine said. Anna didn't reply, going about her duties. "I stumbled onto the ruins of a cottage in a really thick part of the forest."
"You shouldn't go there. It's bad luck to go there," Anna stated.
Aldine chuckled until she saw Anna's expression in the mirror, showing that she was quite serious. Well, in a way that assessment was probably right because she had a cut on her leg to prove it was a bad idea to go clambering around a ruin. Any child should be warned not to roam around a place like that.
"That's the witches' cottage," Anna said quietly.
> "The witches?"
"It is said witches lived there, a long time ago. No one goes there."
"Surely no one believes such things in this day and age?" But then the people who lived here hung on to their superstitions. So was a witch a far cry from moss people?
"Oh, there are people who still believe," Anna said. "Even those who don't believe don't take chances. You don't want to be proven wrong, do you?"
"So much fear," Aldine said quietly. Even the people who didn't believe had that inherent fear of the superstitions that had been, never quite trusting their safety.
There was probably some perfectly innocent explanation, but the state of disrepair of the place did lend one to believe the fantastical. The Brothers Grimm had much to answer for, but perhaps they were simply a reflection of the fear people had of the otherworldly, rather than the other way around.
Chapter 13
WEATHER MOVED IN the next day, rain and mist, making the visibility barely beyond the edge of the lawn. The air seemed to have a heavy stickiness that clung to everything. Heinrich still left in the morning, saying he was off to the mill.
Once breakfast was done, Aldine took herself off to the corner in the salon where she drew, spending hours trying to recreate the hovel she had found in the forest. The witches’ house. It echoed through her mind. Had some woman lived there, or was it assigned as the witches’ house long after anyone remembered who had lived there? It was perfectly imaginable that some children would come across the ruin and assume that a witch had once lived there. What was clear was that someone who had wanted or needed to live away from others had lived there.
"Well, well," Elke said, startling Aldine with her appearance behind her. She'd been too absorbed to notice Elke walking into the room and approaching her. "The witches’ house."
Turning, Aldine looked at her. "I understand that is what it's called."
"I take it you stumbled across it. Your depiction looks just like it."
"Thank you," Aldine replied to the compliment. "I came across it yesterday."
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