Tempting Fate (54 page)

If Aunt Myra hasn’t seen the doctor yet about that stitch in her side, you make her go. Uncle Ned might be mad at her for it, but better than having her in the hospital. If she says she can’t spare the time, you drive her both ways. None of us is indestructible, and a woman of Aunt Myra’s age should keep an eye on herself. Sixty-two is getting up there.

I liked the picture you sent. The new porch looks very nice. You didn’t tell me anything about the dog on the steps. Is he new, or have you not mentioned him?

Let me know how your trip to Seattle turns out. I’ve never been there, but they tell me it’s a beautiful setting and a pleasant city. I don’t think I ever met the Wagoners, but give them my greetings in any case; if they’re sensible, enough to like you, then they’re fine people.

Have a good summer. I’m glad you’re getting a chance to travel, but I wish you were coming over here, so I could show you around Europe. I know some of the things I’ve told you about it make it out to be a dangerous place, but don’t let that worry you. Most of it is beautiful, the people aren’t ogres, the food is great, and there’s no place at home that feels the way it does here.

Promise me you’ll think about what I said before you’re in too deep with Jerry.

I’ll try to write again when I’m back in Paris. In the meantime,

Much love,

James

3

Maximillian slammed the parlor door and glared at his sister. “Otto told me you’re entertaining tonight,” he said furiously.

“That’s correct.” Gudrun had not risen when he stormed in on her, and now she stared out the window, smiling slightly, determined to remain composed.

“You’ve asked that foreigner to visit!” Maximillian’s face was flushed and his mouth was set in a mulish line.

“Yes, I have.” She smoothed her skirt methodically. It was a deep blue, like darkened Wedgwood, of loose, impressed pleats in heavy linen. A long, demure tunic jacket with a wide, low belt was worn with it. There was nothing provocative about her clothes, except their quality and cut.

“Just a little tête-à-tête supper, that’s all.” He strode toward her, snapping his fingers angrily. “Jürgen hasn’t been in the grave even six months, and already you’re flaunting yourself!”

“Flaunting myself?” she repeated, looking at him at last. “I have made every effort to conduct myself with propriety. Graf Ragoczy is not going to dine with me. He has accepted my invitation to play cards. The servants are here.
You
are here. You don’t suppose that I’m going to lock myself in my bedchamber with him for two hours, do you? We will play cards or chess and for a while we will converse. It is entirely acceptable behavior, Maxl. No one would find it shocking or … questionable. The Graf has been a guest here before and his standing is good.”

“He’s a foreigner. He had that man Schnaubel work for him. His chauffeur is a Russian!” Maximillian rounded on her, his hands becoming fists and his voice rising. “Don’t you know how that will appear?”

“To whom?” Gudrun asked with defiance in her blue eyes. “To your bigoted friends? To those sots at the Hirsch Furt? To Konrad Natter? Are they the ones you’re thinking of, Maxl?” She stared at him until he turned away from her. “You worry about me now, when I have at last got the courage to enter the world again. When I was immured here, with a dying husband and my servants, it didn’t matter to you, did it? Your friends approved of that, and you believed what they told you about what I have done. You were delighted that you did not have to concern yourself with me. Now that I have a chance to have life again, you come here, with your noise and your blustering, and you tell me that you will not tolerate what I do. You haven’t the right to talk so to me, Maxl. It is not up to you to speak to me this way.” Her eyes met his and although she did not speak above her usual quiet level, there was strength in her that her brother had never seen before. “The years you left me alone here I found self-reliance because there was nothing else I could do. You were not here to see this. You chose to escape, and that is your privilege, but you have forfeited any say in my life.”

Maximillian stared at her, aghast. “You’re hysterical.”

“No. A year ago, two years ago, I might have been, but no more.” She sighed as she looked away from her brother. “I cannot let you do these things to me, Maxl. I know you believe that you want to protect me, but I don’t need or want your protection. I want to play cards with Graf Ragoczy. I want to visit my friends in München, or have them visit me, whether you approve of them or not. I want to live in the world again, and not in Jürgen’s tomb. You may dislike this, Maxl, but you cannot deny me.”

“We’ll see about that.” He started toward the door, but her voice stopped him.

“If you interfere in any way, Maximillian, I will not want you here any longer. I will not pay your debts. I will not entertain your friends. Volkighügel belongs to me, not to you.” She had been afraid to speak to him in this way, but now that the words were out, she was oddly exhilarated. Nothing Maximillian could say or do now would alter the truth of what she said.

“I am your brother,” he reminded her as the color drained from his face.

“Yes.” She did not answer his tentative smile with one of her own.

“I am thinking of your welfare.”

His charm, which had so long delighted her, now seemed pathetic. “You may believe that you are, but it is not so, mein bruder. You are interested in preserving your position here, and that is fine with me, upon certain conditions.”

“The debts?” He spoke quickly, and his tongue darted over his lips.

“In part. We are no longer wealthy, Maximillian. We have very little left, and you have not been willing to remember that. You wish to have your automobile, and I am willing to provide you with fuel for it, as I need the same for my automobile. You have the cottage to live in, and Frau Bürste will prepare your meals for you as she has done in the past. I expect that she would be disappointed not to have the pleasure of serving you. I am not able to pay for the entertaining of your guests, not on the scale you have said you wish to provide them. If you want to serve ham, it must come from our own pigs, and that means that you must take it into account. I have worked out an agreement with Hansi the butcher: I will provide him pigs on a regular basis if he will share the meat with us and occasionally trade for other cuts. I have sold all but one of the horses, and Miroslav has agreed to look after the pigs in return for the use of the groom’s quarters in the stable. I am amenable to such an arrangement, and he has said he is pleased. I will still pay him a small stipend, but it will not make the same demands on my purse that his work has required in the past. I have also arranged to purchase three cows, and from that we will have milk. Miroslav will attend to that, as well, and we will have butter and cheese not just for ourselves, but to trade with others.”

Maximillian had been regarding her in horror. “Trade? Cattle? Pigs? What has come over you?”

“The world, Maximillian.” She got up slowly and approached him. “You have not paid much attention to our situation, even when the money was so worthless that a bale of hay had more value than a stack of bills. You have been blind to that—”

“Blind? Why, it was the Thule Gesellschaft that revealed the truth behind the inflation. It was no accident, but a determined effort on the part of our enemies to destroy us completely. You complain about stacks of banknotes, but
we
were the ones who saw the deception that lay behind this—”

Gudrun cut in just as he had done. “And what did you do about it? Did you sell anything you valued to provide for this household? Did you?”

“The Gesellschaft required my assistance,” he said with petulant dignity.

“Did it? And this household, where you have lived and provided food and lodging to those members of your Gesellschaft, did you ever pause to think how it was that they were fed, or where their blankets came from?” She was angry now, and she glared at him without shame. “I have almost no jewels left, Maximillian, and much of our best furniture is gone. You didn’t notice, I suppose, because there were other chairs in the lumber room which replaced those I sold. It was not my choice to give up grandmother’s harp or the two French highboys in the master bedroom. And if you knew how pitifully little those treasures brought us! Most of it went to pay Walther for his nursing, and I have always
hated
Walther. Then you brought those six men here, and you drank and ate for five days as if there were money in the world and you did not have to think where the Froschschnekel in Rahm or Krautwickerl came from. Otto went poaching on Ragoczy’s land for birds and fish to feed you. He made himself a criminal to keep you and those men in food!” Her indignation grew as she thought of the wary expression in the old man’s eyes when he had returned with three ducks tucked under his coat because he did not dare to carry a bag.

“But that’s just the
point
,” Maximillian tried to interrupt. “Don’t you see, our
enemies
did that to us. Otto was only a victim of their schemes.”

“And that makes it
right?
Then why didn’t you go after the pheasants and the sheep with him? Did you assume that we were immune to the inflation here?” She had screamed this last, and it was with an effort that she controlled her ire. “You say that you were aware of what was being done, but you took no action.”

“The Bruderschaft was—”

She did not let him say any more. “What? Murmuring incantations? Painting symbols on the sides of houses? Very important work, I am sure.” As she moved away from him, she had to press her hands to the sides of her nose to keep from weeping.

“You don’t know how important it is if you mock it. You are permitting the lies of our enemies to deceive you.” He folded his arms, thinking himself at last on secure ground. “This is not a matter of money or poaching, but a question of survival of the German people. You do not know how deep the hatred of our race runs in those who seek to bring us down. We have kept our purity, and it is more than they can bear, because with our purity comes our power.”

Gudrun stared at him. “And for that, you let Otto, who has cared for you since you were an infant, risk capture and imprisonment? You say this was not a question of money, and it must be so, if you can dismiss it in that way.”

“You’re overwrought, Rudi,” Maximillian began, and got no further.

“That is the least of it,” she declared, facing him again. “I wonder why I put up with you. If I were wise, I would insist that you abandon this nonsense. But then you would act covertly, I suppose, and I would have no idea what madness you were embarked upon. This way, I have some notion.” It was amazing to her that she could be calm after what had been said. “Maximillian, listen to me for a moment. You say that you are doing important work, and I suppose that justifies all your actions to you. Don’t interrupt me, bitte,” she said more sharply as he came toward her. “My conditions are reasonable, given our current circumstances.”

“And we will turn swineherds,” he said with contempt.

“Better that than thieves,” she countered. “You may continue to live here, but if you must entertain, you will have to pay for it or make whatever arrangements are suitable.”

“The crisis is over, Rudi,” he told her with extreme patience. “You heed not make all these sacrifices to frugality.”

“That’s not certain,” she responded. “And much of what we had is gone. We will not recover it. You are not a man to seek regular employment and I have nothing to sell but my heritage. We must become accustomed to this.”

“I forbid it!” Maximillian burst out.

“You have nothing to say in the matter,” Gudrun reminded him. “You abdicated that privilege. You have no right to question how I live, or what I do. I will not embarrass you, be—”

“Not embarrass me? What has this entire discussion been but an embarrassment?” He flung his hands into the air and strode toward the door.

“I am not quite finished, Maximillian. You had best hear me out so that we will understand each other.” There was such finality in her tone that her brother once again turned toward her, “If you are willing to occupy yourself with tasks here at Volkighügel, you will be paid for your efforts, as the others are. But beyond that, I cannot give you any more money because I have not got it myself. I will pay for three new sets of clothes a year for you, and any reasonable travel expenses on your automobile, but that is all I can do. I simply can’t afford anything more: understand that, if you can. You still have a trust fund that will give you a little money for your activities, but for the rest, you must manage as best you can.” She regarded him. “You aren’t a child, Maximillian. You haven’t been a child for years.”

“I should say not!” he expostulated. “But from your tone, I gather you think that I have been. You’re the one who should consider what you say. It is so easy for you, isn’t it, to blame me for the money you have lost and the desperate straits of all Germany, If that is how you regard me, I am surprised that you allow me to remain here.”

“Were things less precarious, I would not.” Her temper was wearing thin again, but she strove to control it. There was no point in yelling at her brother now, when he had so clearly decided that he was an injured party at the mercy of feminine caprice. “I know that I have obligations to the family, and there are too few of us left for me to ignore that association entirely.”

“And, naturally, you want to keep an eye on me,” he added for her with bitterness. His handsome features were marred by the cynicism of his words, “An irresponsible child is what you think I am. How generous of you to permit me to remain here. And how very cautious of you. Do you think that I cannot be trusted to manage my own life? Do you think that I will squander your hoarded resources—”

“There are no hoarded resources. I wish there were,” Gudrun told him sadly.

“That is what you want me to believe, I am certain. Well, no doubt you believe that you’re the one who has been abused in this, but you must realize that I have spent years trying to find a way to restore the honor of all Deutschland while you have been occupying your time worrying about how much pork you can trade to the butcher. It’s useless to try to explain to you how gross your error is!” He strode across the room, passing her as if she were no more than a servant. “You have become a tool of our enemies. I should have seen it long ago, but I did not permit myself to subject you to that close scrutiny that is required of me. I was sure you, of all the women in the world, would not succumb to the blandishments of the—”