Into the Lion's Den (75 page)

At tea time, Friederich woke him up and told him to get dressed because they would drive together to the Church where it was celebrated. “Most of the people you already know from the Foundation. The one in charge is Gertrud von Kleist, so do your best to stay away from her Guntram. The Duke has granted his permission for you to go -and it's your right because you were helping
Mme.
von Ribbentrop more than anyone -but fears she might be unpleasant to you after her daughter's incident.”

“I understand, Friederich. I'll stay in a corner. I only wanted to see one of those Christmas markets.”

“You should see one in Vienna or in Munich, child. Perhaps, next year if your health allows it. Remain inside as it's very cold to be in the gardens.”

“Yes, Clara already told me she has a job for me, as children entertainer. I have to take pencils and paper and a good provision of Christmas motives,” Guntram said with a grin.

“Good, stay where she tells you.”

Alexei's offered to drive them in his BMW, but Guntram wondered why another Audi was following them all the time. “Simple precaution, child,” was Friederich explanation and he refused to further extend it and started to tell a story about how Albert von Sachsen Coburg had brought the German tradition of Christmas trees and giving toys for the children to England.

The Church's garden and interior yard were decorated with many tables full with traditional wooden toys, pastries, Christmas decoration and different kinds of wooden nutcrackers. Upon his arrival, Guntram was caught by Monika van der Leyden, the Duke's private secretary who introduced him to her Aunt Sophia zu Löwenstein, the old prince's wife.

“You're the father of Johannes,” the old princess said with a playful light dangling from her eyes.

“Fortunately, he's behaving well, but we can't say the same from Oskar.”

“I'm not married, princess. I'm afraid this is a mistake,” Guntram said very nervous and the smile of the old woman broadened, while Monika was doing her best to keep he aristocratic poise.

“Claudia brought him home last Easter and she keeps it in her room. Her mother was not so sure about how convenient it could be, but then, Maria cried that she wanted to have Oskar too and we couldn't refuse it any longer. The condition was that they should remain high.”

Guntram looked desperately at Monika, but she returned him one of her cold looks as if the boy were a complete simpleton who couldn't remember something so simple. “I don't know any Johannes but Dr. von Kleist's son.”

“You created two entities like Johannes and Oskar and you have forgotten them? The girls will be most disappointed!” the princess shouted in false shock.

“Poor Oskar, he's so nice with his blue coat and red rain hat!”

“And Johannes has such a nice white tail!”

“Almost makes you consider vegetarianism,” Monika laughed, unable to keep with the joke and Guntram looked at them dumbfounded. “Johannes is the duck you draw for Claudia zu Löwenstein and Oskar is a teddy bear you created for Maria, her youngest sister. Both live now with my cousin Adolf's family. Shame on you for abandoning your creations!” Guntram had to laugh utterly relieved that he wasn't accused of fathering people.

“I've heard that Clara plans to make you work today,” the princess said affably. “My husband has already seen your work and I wondered if you would be so kind as to visit us, let's say, after the holidays and show us more.

Tita and Elisabetta have spoken very highly of you.”

“I've seen several of his watercolours, Aunt Sophia, and they're very nice. When is your exhibition in Berlin, Guntram?”

“It starts from the 8th onwards. The
vernissage
is earlier, on January the 3rd, but it's only for the press and collectors. I will not attend it because the doctor forbids me to fly for a few months after going to London.”

“
Vernissages
are very boring, my dear. Always the same people and cheese,” Sophia commented. “You miss nothing.”

“I become nervous with so much unknown people around,” Guntram confessed.

“I also, but with the years you forget they're there. Come with me, I'll introduce you to some people before Clara chains you to a table and makes money out of you.”

One hour later of meeting several people more, Guntram was very glad to sit next to a young and attractive Colombian woman, Cecilia Riganti in a table with papers and pencils and a line of seven children ready to ask for something. Realising that he will never be able to finish all the requests, he preferred to sit the oldest ones and make them draw by themselves while he painted something for the younger ones so they could colour them.

“You keep them all busy and quiet. Do you want to work for us?” Cecilia laughed, speaking in Spanish much to Guntram's surprise.

“Do you work in a school?”

“No, I'm Mme Gertrud von Lintorff's secretary at the Foundation. I overlook the bookkeeping.”

“Must be hard with all those numbers.”

“It's all right. There are fourteen of us to check what the other is doing. We present our results to Dr. von Kleist. Would you like something to drink? It's very cold and you had nothing since you arrived,” she offered when she noticed how pale and tired the young man was. 'Did Ferdinand not tell me he's seriously ill? Something related to the heart?'

“I don't want to leave the children alone.”

“I'll go for it. Tea?”

“Yes, please, Ms. Riganti.”

Cecilia went to the large table to pick a porcelain cup and some tea, when Gertrud von Kleist approached her. “Cecilia, be a dear and see if the Weissmanns are leaving. I would like to have a word with…” Gertrud feigned to be lost for a second.

“Margarette Weissmann about her donation for the project in El Salvador?” Cecilia supplied.

“Exactly, thank you, dear.”

“Ah, I was going to bring a cup of tea to Guntram de Lisle. I'll ask one of the waiters to do it.”

“No, no, don't waste your time, catch her before she runs to MSF or some other charity on the TV. I'll take care of Guntram. Which tea are you using?”

“Darjeeling, I suppose.”

“All right, now run. That woman is worth several million and I don't want another third world country orphan to steal them from me.”

'No wonder, Ferdinand says she's a witch.' “Yes, of course Madame von Lintorff,” Cecilia answered curtly and left the room, leaving the tea on top of the table.

'Time to get rid of the little pest.' Gertrud discreetly got three small white pills, saccharine size and threw them into another teacup, adding two spoons of honey to change the bitter taste and took an apple-cinnamon flavour tea bag before adding hot water to it. She carefully stirred so everything would be well mixed. She took the cup in her delicate hands and walked to the other side of the room where Friederich Elssäser was speaking with Pater Bruno. 'If I give it to him, he might suspect. I need someone else.'

“Aunt Gertrud!” A young girl pulled unceremoniously her dress. “It's me, Claudia zu Löwenstein!”

“Yes, dear. How are you? You've grown so much.”

“Thank you, Aunt. I'm in the third class now.”

“Impossible! You look like a young lady. I thought you were in the fifth class!”

“No, Aunt, that's my sister Katherine.”

“Could you make me a favour, I'm in a hurry and Pater Bruno is still speaking and does not look like he's going to stop any time soon. Could you give this cup of tea to the old gentleman with him and tell him its the tea Cecilia prepared for Guntram but she had to leave?”

“Yes, Aunt Gertrud,” the girl answered, happy to be useful, especially to Guntram who had been so nice to her. She held the teacup and the dish with great care as she didn't want to spill the tea and be called clumsy and walked toward Pater Bruno very slowly and lightly treading.

“Pater Bruno?”

“Yes, Claudia?” The priest interrupted his conversation with Friederich and another man.

“This tea is for Guntram.”

“I'm not Guntram, Claudia,” he answered and the girl just froze, clutching the teacup stronger than before.

“Perhaps she doesn't know where he is. Last time I saw him, he was drawing in one of the tables,”

Friederich said.

“Miss Cecilia said it was for him, but she had to leave.”

“All right, I'll take you to him.”

“It's too far away, I'm afraid I will drop it,” Claudia confessed, embarrassed.

“Oh, don't worry, I'll carry it for you and then you can give it to him,” Friederich said kindly.

“Thank you very much, sir,” she said, enthusiastically passing the cup to him and almost spilling the hot liquid on the man.

Guntram was glad to see Claudia again and thanked her for the tea as he confirmed the story that Cecilia Riganti had gone for it. He only took two sips to avoid offending the little girl, because he hated honey in the tea, and continued to work for the smallest ones, now helped by Friederich who could understand them much better than him.

Some thirty minutes later Guntram felt his head turning around and an acute oppression in his chest.

First he tried to dismiss it, but the dizziness was overpowering. “Friederich, I don't feel well at all, can you excuse me and we drive home?” He had some difficulties to pronounce the words and the man saw how pale Guntram was. He offered his apologies quickly and had to help Guntram to stand up. “Too much punch, child?” he joked to release his nerves because he felt something was very wrong with Guntram. “No, I attacked several of these macaroons. I'll pass dinner tonight.”

“Can you walk to the car?” Friederich asked when he had to steady the faltering boy.

“That sentence is for the pub, not for the Church,” Guntram smiled weakly and wondered how the lights could have diminished so much in so little time.

“Are you all right, Guntram?” Adolf zu Löwenstein asked when they passed by his side on their way to the entrance door.

“Just dizzy, nothing to worry about.”

“I'll help you to your car, Guntram, you don't look well,” Adolf said when he noticed how pale the youth was and how he needed to lean himself against the wall for support.

“Thank you, Adolf.”

Guntram managed to leave the room on his own but he nearly collapsed on the foyer. Adolf was quick enough as to catch him and Friederich dashed for Alexei. “Did you take your pills?” asked zu Löwenstein, “you look exactly as my father did the first time he had a heart attack.”

“I have no pain or any numbness. Must be something I ate.”

“Did you drink champagne or something? It's bad for the heart medications.”

“No, nothing, just some tea and macaroons. Perhaps those.”

Alexei arrived almost running and unceremoniously checked Guntram's pulse and cursed softly in Russian. “It's very fast and erratic. To the hospital with you!”

“It's not so bad. I just…” and Guntram couldn't say more as he collapsed in the Russian's arms.

“I'll call an ambulance!”

“No time. Can you drive us to the
Hirschbaum Klinik
? It's ten minutes from here.”

“Of course, give me your car's keys. Mine is parked away. Is it a heart attack?”

“I don't think so, not yet. His pulse is very bad. He was doing just fine!”

“Father told me the last week was very stressful for him,” Adolf said while he opened the car's back door so Alexei could get inside with Guntram and Friederich took the passenger's side.

“If it's that, it would have affected him much before,” Alexei mumbled and decided to control the hypertension before it could cause real damage. “Mr. Elssäser, do you have his pills? Give me one orange that looks like hard jelly.”

“Are you sure, Antonov?” the man asked, but gave him the pill.

“It's this and hope it works or risk a heart attack, if it has not started yet,” Alexei took the pill and punctured it with a small Swiss army knife and forced Guntram's mouth open and squeezed it inside his mouth and to his relief the boy swallowed it in a reflex movement. “That's great boy, just hold a little more till Dr. van Horn sees you.”

“Until we have the lab results, we can't explain his condition. His catecholamines levels are fine and there was no heart attack, only a severe episode of hypertension and angina. My Duke, Guntram's latest tests are not three weeks old and everything was fine, and his cardiac arrhythmia was under control with the medications. Although his condition is serious, it was stabilized,” Dr. van Horn explained to a very upset Konrad von Lintorff very late that night.

“Could the wine have been the cause?”

“Sir, even if he would have drunken one glass of whiskey, it wouldn't be sufficient as to provoke such a rise in blood pressure. Even after the pill, and in the way your bodyguard gave it, it works in less than ten minutes, he had 160-210 mg! It's very high, even for a healthy person. Normally, Guntram has a low blood pressure with values slightly below the standard. We thought it could be an allergic reaction, but he had none of the other symptoms, therefore we need to wait for the drugs screening tests. In the moment, he's sleeping and I would like to keep him here for a few hours more. He could go home in the morning.”

“Thank you doctor. May I see him?”

“Yes, of course. A nurse is with him. Excuse me, please,” the doctor said before going away at full speed.

“Konrad, Guntram is sleeping now, why don't you take a coffee and eat something? I'll stay with him.”

Friederich said very softly, placing his hand on his pupil's shoulder.

“I don't understand it, Friederich. This morning, he was fine, happy with only a cold which Wagemann told me was not dangerous!”

“The cold has nothing to do with what happened.”

“Was he not taking something against it? These things have substances to make you feel active when you should be in bed.”

“Konrad, there are no contraindications with those pills. I'm also shocked. One minute he was drawing for the children and the next he asked me to excuse himself and go home. He told me that he felt very dizzy and that perhaps the macaroons could have been bad, but the doctor said that it couldn't have provoked such a reaction.

According to Adolf zu Löwenstein, he also had a salmon sandwich at the beginning of the party. He didn't touch the alcohol, only a tea with honey which Cecilia Riganti, sent him. I remember Claudia zu Löwenstein, asked me to carry it because she was afraid to break the cup.”