Viennese Yarns

By Laurie Campbell

This is the fifth book is about the Prussian family. The father is trying to take care of his wife, who is addicted to the drugs of the ninteenth century, a time when addiction hasn't been identified. There is only one place in the world trying to treat people for drugs, Vienna. So Otto has to take his family there and cope with the Viennese way of seeing and doing things. Will Hildegard overcome her dependencies? How will Otto cope with the strange life? How long will it take?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Nov 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781490715711

Laurie Campbell

Laurie Campbell grew up playing paper dolls with her sister, but spent far less time selecting their clothes than creating situations for the characters to act out. By the time they outgrew paper dolls, the characters were so real that Laurie started writing a book about six beautiful sisters who lived next door to six dashing brothers. She swears she'll finish that novel someday. But meanwhile, she enjoys writing about ordinary people in extraordinary situations that could happen to anyone who want the best for those they love. Laurie spends her weekends writing romance, and her weekdays producing TV commercials for a Phoenix advertising agency. She also works as a marriage counselor, teaches a catechism class, speaks to writing groups on psychology for creating characters, coaches newly diagnosed diabetics, and spends any free time playing with her husband and teenage son (who helps her solve plot problems). For getaway weekends, they travel to Arizona's red-rock country of Sedona...which was named for Laurie's great-grandmother, Sedona Schnebly.

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© Copyright 2013 Laurie Campbell.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Cover picture by Barb Jernigan

ISBN: 978-1-4907-1570-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-1572-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-1571-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013917807

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1     Going to Vienna

Chapter 2     February 1861

Chapter 3     Dark Times

Chapter 4    March 1861

Chapter 5     A Fair Yarn

Chapter 6     April 1861

Chapter 7     Progressions

Chapter 8     May 1861

Chapter 9     Steps Forward

Chapter 10   June 1861

Chapter 11   Tales from the Vienna Woods

Chapter 12   July 1861

Chapter 13   Holiday Yarns

Chapter 14   August 1861

Chapter 15   Seasonal Yarns

Chapter 16   September 1861

Chapter 17   Back to Baden

Chapter 18   October 1861

Chapter 19   Back to Vienna

Chapter 20   November 1861

Chapter 21   Back to Prussia

Glossary

Backspiece

Other books by Laurie Campbell

Published by Trafford Publishing

On Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.uk, Amazon.au, and ebooks

All Manor of Yarns:

1. Prussian Yarns

2. A Stitch in Time

3. Tinctures and Tantrums

This is a historical trilogy about the von Goff family in Prussia in 1860.

The Snow Queen and the Caterpillar

1. There is a Season

2. Viennese Yarns

Coming soon:

3. Hot House Yarns

This is the next trilogy about the von Goff family, which is the story of getting Hildegard von Goff off the drugs of the nineteenth century.

Also coming soon:

1. Winter in Paris

This is a story about the boys Luise met in a Stitch in Time, and what happened to them next.

And in a different genre by Lorraine Stanton

1. One Bead of Gold

This is the story of abused children in 1950s New Zealand

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book was written while I was undergoing a bout of double pneumonia. I was raising foster children, and didn’t dare go to the hospital in case the children were taken away, so I stayed home and wrote, and the children did everything for me. So I wish to thank Tina MacLaughlan, and Beth for nursing me and cleaning the house, and Beth for reading and commenting; Vern Campbell and Jason McDonald-Hall for cooking and cleaning and doing the shopping; Richard Campbell and Don McDonald for critique, doing the laundry, and Richard for talking to the doctor behind my back.

I wish to thank Sheila Jensen for her ideas about what Otto would do while he waited; Lisa Peppan for her research into drug taking and the people involved; and Jeanne Nadreau for inside information.

CHAPTER ONE

Going to Vienna

The train pulled out of the station in Berlin with great puffs and gusts of steam. As each chug bore her further away from her home, Luise von Goff-Puttkamer slumped further down into her seat and cried.

Her father leaned over and put one of his big, square hands over her tiny ones. Ludi, sweetheart, what is it? he asked.

She turned her face away from him, letting the tears run unheeded down her cheeks.

Otto turned to his ward, Kirsten, in a mute appeal for help. Tears were welling up in Kirsten’s blue eyes. You, too? A touch of desperation tinged his voice.

Kirsten slipped off her seat and kneeled in front of Luise, her crinoline billowing around her. Don’t cry, Ludi, please. I can’t bear it when you cry, she whispered.

Otto sat back. Never, never would he understand women, not even young ones like these two. Luise had pleaded with him since she could first talk to be taken with him on one of his trips, and now that he was taking her, she wept.

I don’t want to go, Vati, Luise whispered, her face still turned away.

Is this the same girl who couldn’t wait to travel with me?

We’ll be gone so long, she wailed, turning to look at him. What if something happens while we’re away? What if Franz forgets me?

The staff will take good care of everything. They know what to do if something goes wrong. Whenever I’ve gone away I’ve had that same bailiff to watch over Schönwald, and he’s run everything exactly the way I want it every time. There’s nothing for you to worry about, not even your Franz. Dogs remember the people they love for years. He wouldn’t forget you even if you didn’t go back until you were as old as I am.

If Otto had expected Luise to smile at that, he was mistaken. Her tears increased. But, Daddy, why do we have to stay away?

We have to be in Vienna until your mother is well enough to go back home. We must do everything we can for her, I thought you understood that.

Then Luise felt guilty. She covered her face with her hands. What if Mutti never gets better? Will we never go home?

Otto glanced at Kirsten, hoping the older girl to help him say the right thing. Kirsten dabbed her eyes delicately with an embroidered pocket handkerchief. Otto gathered Luise onto his lap as he used to when she was tiny. He held her close and rocked her. We will do everything we can for your Mutti, Liebchen. I daren’t make you any promises about her. The only thing I will promise you is that we will go back home in time for Christmas no matter what happens.

In time for Christmas! That’s almost a year away!

Actually, its ten months, and it might not take as long.

Kirsten returned to her seat. She picked up her embroidery and began to work on it.

You don’t care, do you? Luise snapped.

Kirsten answered, calmly, Yes, I do, but since we can’t turn around and go back now, we might as well make the best of it.

It’s alright for you. You didn’t leave your dog behind for who knows how long.

That’s because I don’t have one.

Otto gave Luise a tiny shake. That will do, Luise Maria. There’s no call to turn on Kirsten just because you’re not happy.

Luise lowered her head. Tears rolled down her cheeks again.

That’s entirely enough of that, her father murmured.

You don’t understand, Luise wailed.

Nicht, no, I don’t. Nor can I if you don’t tell me what it is that has you so upset. Miraculous though I might be, I cannot read minds.

Luise sniffled and wiped her face with a kerchief screwed into a grubby ball in her fist. She plucked up the courage to say, I’m afraid.

More gently Otto asked, Of what?

Something might happen while we’re gone.

I thought we just talked about that?

But awful things can happen.

Otto sighed and considered his words carefully. We need this time away just as much as your mother does, Liebchen.

Luise’s head jerked up, her blue eyes fierce with indignation. We don’t sit in corners rocking ourselves and not talking.

I didn’t mean that we need to go to Vienna for the same reasons, but that we need it just as much. It will take time and distance for us to put Gottfried’s death behind us. Even if having a guest murdered in his bed didn’t unhinge our minds in the same way as your mother, that doesn’t mean we aren’t affected too.

But if something happened, we’d be so far away.

We were all in the house when Gottfried was killed, so our being there or not being there is of no consequence in a thing like that.

Luise’s face crumpled again. I just feel like Schönwald isn’t safe without us.

I know, Otto said with compassion. Yet you know Frau Blücher was caught and hanged for her crimes. She can’t hurt anyone anymore. We need this holiday to put it all in perspective.

What does that mean?

Right now we’re all still caught up in it. Look how worried you are instead of being excited, yet you’ve wanted to travel with me since you were tiny. It’s not like you to miss an adventure you’ve longed for like this.

But it doesn’t feel like an adventure. It feels like we’re going away when we should stay home to take care of things.

After a little while you won’t feel scared. You’ll sleep more easily again. You’ll be able to enjoy the trip.

Luise climbed down from her father’s lap and returned to her seat. She looked out of the window as the train sped along, and said in a sulky voice, I thought you would take me with you to some wonderful place like England or Sweden. We’re not even going on a ship.

Vienna is a wonderful place, Ludi. Austria is completely different from Prussia. Once you girls get used to travelling we’ll go by ship, but a train is enough for now.

This is dumb. Everything looks the same as home.

Give it a chance. We’re still in Brandenburg. By tomorrow the land will look a little different. Each day you’ll see more new things.

Luise gave a sigh so big it seemed to come from her boots.

How would it be if I told you a story? Otto asked, falling back on a proven comfort.

Kirsten stopped stitching and looked at her guardian, a gleam of amusement in her eyes.

Luise wasn’t a striking beauty like Kirsten, but she had an elfin prettiness that made her look porcelain delicate when she was unhappy. She continued to stare out of the window.

Would you like to hear a story, Kirsti? Otto asked.

Ja, Onkel Otto, Luise’s told me about your stories.

What would you like to hear?

About the trip you made to England when you brought Fluch back with you.

Luise’s head whipped around when she heard her parrot’s name. Nobody will take proper care of Fluch while we’re gone, she wailed. They’re all too scared of him.

Cosima’s not scared of Fluch, Otto assured her. You can write to her and find out how he’s doing. He leaned forward to whisper their secret code in her ear. I am the trunk…

With a swift glance at Kirsten, who politely turned away, Luise whispered back, . . . and I am the branch…

Together we’re one tree, Otto continued.

Together ‘til the ends of the earth, Luise finished. It had been their private signal to one another since Luise was three years old. They usually finished it with Luise burying her face in her father’s beard but she couldn’t bring herself to do that in front of anyone, not even Kirsten.

In fact, they had never before gone through their litany with Kirsten present. When any one was around they shortened the code to the single words, ‘branch’, or ‘tree’. It let all three of them know how much Kirsten had become part of the family that they said it in front of her.

Comforted, Luise told her father, I’d rather not hear stories about the pets. It makes me think of them missing us. Could you tell us something else, please?

You’ve been hearing my yarns all of your life. What would you like to hear?

I don’t know, Vati. Everything I can think of makes me want to go straight home.

Well, then, what about the first time I saw Vienna?

Ja, ja, that’s it. Tell us about that, they chorused.

Otto sat back in his seat to compose his yarn. He fiddled with his tinderbox to get a good enough spark to light his pipe, then he tamped, lit and relit his pipe. Finally he raised his chin and blew a stream of smoke up to the ornate ceiling of their carriage. The girls dutifully watched without a word. Kirsten was a naturally patient sort and young Luise had learned that her father’s stories were better if she gave him a chance to organise them before he started to tell them.

I was about your age when my parents took all of us south, he started.

Kirsten picked up her stitching again.

Luise wiggled in her seat. She rubbed her cheeks with her kerchief, leaving grubby streaks across them.

"My mother had heard stories of miracle cures in the spas, so my parents brought my sister Elisabeth to Vienna to see if a miracle could give her sight. We all came. My sister, Adelheid, was twenty two; my brother, Werner, was twenty; Sigismund was eighteen; Elisabeth was sixteen; Johann was fourteen; I was twelve and Monika was three.

In those days the railway didn’t cover Europe as it does now, so we spent weeks travelling by carriage where we now spend days on the train to cover the same distance. Ada, Werner and Sig were grown up enough to keep themselves busy during the trip. Elisabeth was fascinated by each strange sensation. She and the baby were cared for by our nanny. Our parents were full of hope that Elisabeth would be cured, so everyone else was happy."

Everyone else except you, Vati?

That’s right. Johann and I were bored, bored, bored. Our tutor was with us to keep us out of trouble, but do you think we could pay attention to lessons?

Luise looked at Kirsten and both girls giggled. They shook their heads.

We couldn’t. What happens when you’re bored and you can’t pay attention to the things you’re supposed to?

Kirsten, dutiful child that she was, rarely got into that sort of trouble. She glanced at Luise, who protested, Don’t look at me!

Can you tell me what happened to us? Otto asked Luise.

Why does everyone right away look at me?

You’ve never been in trouble for not doing your lessons?

Wellll… maybe a little bit.

And you’ve never had to stay and finish something after Kirsten was allowed to go?

Maybe one time.

Only one time?

Wellll… maybe more than one time.

Almost like every time there’s something you hate doing you put off doing it?

Almost like that.

Kirsten snickered.

Luise looked at her and realised what was happening. Vateee, don’t tease meee! she protested.

Otto and Kirsten burst out laughing.

Luise gave both of them a disgusted look. Tell the story, she told her father, You’re not telling the story. This isn’t part of the story.

Otto bowed to her, his eyes twinkling with mischief. Your wish is my command, Fräulein.

You’re still teasing.

Otto made a show of controlling himself. Ahem. Being such a good child who never daydreams through her lessons, you wouldn’t know about the kind of trouble we got into.

Luise glared at Kirsten, silently warning her not to giggle at Otto’s teasing.

Kirsten wrinkled her nose at Luise.

It’s not that we meant to misbehave, you understand. I didn’t intentionally get left behind in Dresden. I didn’t realise how panic stricken my mother would be when they found out I wasn’t with them and they had no idea how far behind they’d left me.

Luise was horrified. How could they not notice one of their children was missing?

We were travelling in five carriages, since this rail line didn’t exist then. Each thought I was in one of the other carriages until they stopped somewhere and all got out. Then it was obvious I wasn’t with them.

How did you come to be left behind, Onkel Otto?

I didn’t mean to. It just sort of happened while I was hiding from my mean brother Johann.

Why did you call Onkel Johann mean? He’s our best uncle.

He is now a monk. Back then he was a fourteen year old boy who didn’t like it when his little brother tied his boots together while he slept. He liked it even less when I laughed myself silly when the carriages stopped and he fell on his face trying to get out with his boot laces tied together.

Why did you tie his boot laces together, Onkel Otto?

I thought it was funny.

Were you a bad boy, Vati?

Just mischievous. I didn’t intend to hurt anyone, though I’m sure Johann didn’t like falling on his face.

Was Onkel Johann really angry?

He was not pleased. Even when they found me again, he was not pleased.

Wasn’t he glad to see you were all right?

Not when his ears were boxed because of me.

Why did they hit him?

For some reason they thought he should have told them I had been left behind.

Did he know you weren’t on another carriage?

Oh, yes.

It sounds like he wanted something to happen to you.

He certainly did.

But you were the only little brother he had.

For which he thanked God every night. Big brothers don’t like little brothers who play tricks on them. Mind you, I can’t see where he had the right to be so offended by that trick when he stole the idea from me.

Whose boot straps did Onkel Johann tie together?

Our tutor. Then he let me take the blame for it.

Were you punished for tying the tutor’s boots together?

Can you imagine the unfairness? Just because a person does something once doesn’t mean he—or she—did it the next time it happened, does it?

Luise peeked at him out of the corner of her eye. It sounded suspiciously like he was teasing her again. Were you in trouble that whole trip, Vati? she asked to divert attention from herself.

It was after that trip that my mother finally agreed to let me go to school like the older boys instead of being tutored at home.

Did you want to go to school, Onkel Otto?

Until it got there and found out what a miserable place it was, I wanted to go more than anything else in the world.

Why wouldn’t your mother let you go, Vati?

Until I was nine, when Monika was born, I was my mother’s baby, and afterwards I was still her baby boy and she wanted to keep me near her.

Why did spending time in Vienna change her mind? Kirsten wondered.

It’s possible that when our tutor gave his notice it affected her decision a bit.

Luise frowned, thinking Otto was teasing. Your tutor left just because Onkel Johann tied his boots together?

That was only the beginning of the things we inflicted on that poor man. Remember, he kept trying to give us school lessons throughout the entire trip.

Luise snickered. How ill-mannered of him, she said impishly.

Otto was so glad to see her return to her usual playfulness that he laughed far more than necessary for such a mild attempt at humour. He realised he was overdoing it when the girls glanced at one another. Immediately he caught himself and launched back into the story as if he’d always meant to. When my father arrived back to find me I made sure he found a frightened, crying child waiting on the side of the street.

Kirsten frowned. Weren’t you scared, Onkel Otto?

Nein, mein Schatz. I had a fine time with the local kids until I saw a man riding into town. I was pretty filthy by then, so I had the local kids beat on me until my Vati came.

Didn’t that hurt? Luise asked, settling down to listen.

Not too much. It riled meines Vati, though. He scooped me up on his horse with him and rode back telling me what a close escape I’d just had. I had expected them all to come for me. But my father had left the carriages and headed out alone. He said it was faster that way, but I was convinced he loved me. They put me in one of the later carriages because of the mess I was in. They figured they’d clean me up when we got to a hotel, which kept me out of Johann’s reach until we stopped to look at Vienna. Then Johann came out of his carriage towards mine, and I took off.

The girls laughed. Otto signalled his valet, Ernst, to bring refreshments to them and continued, He ran down one side of the carriages and I escaped out the other side and ran to some bushes.

You weren’t really scared of Onkel Johann, were you? Luise asked. He’s your friend, now.

When one of you is fourteen and has started his final growth spurt and the other one is a weedy little twelve year old, a judicious exit is wise.

The girls giggled, and settled down together.

Mind you, my devoted older brother felt less blasé about losing me when he thought he’d killed me.

Vati! Why would he think he’d killed you?

You have to remember we were young boys, Luise, Otto said while mentally kicking himself. He was taking the girls with him to help them get over the horror of a murder in their house, and here he was scaring them with unnecessary lurid exaggerations. Johann didn’t intend to hurt me. It was when I fell down the hill that he thought I’d died.

What hill? Kirsten asked, completely lost.

The trouble was the bushes I meant to hide behind were on the top edge of the bank of the Danube.

You fell?

Ya, I did that. I was looking over my shoulder when the ground dropped away. I tried to turn my head, but I was off-balance and tumbled down the slope. Just a bit at first, to warn me. The bluff wasn’t a perpendicular cliff. It was a steep slope covered with bushes and grass. I thought I’d slide to a bush. The edge of the bluff gave way carrying me gently to the bush so I thought all was well. But, you see, I didn’t think to ask the bush first if I might crash into it. It resented my ploughing into it uninvited, catching hold of and breaking its youngest, outermost shoots. As I looked up the bluff hoping they weren’t upon me, the bush gracefully and with the utmost precision bent over and tipped me off to tumble inelegantly on down the slope. I landed on the top of a bush covered with some kind of nicely scented flower filled with some viley sticky goop that enamoured itself of every part of my body that came into contact with it. The moment it felt I was suitably gluey this bush also dropped me off.

The girls were laughing right out loud, now, as Otto was on his feet acting it all out. It didn’t want a boy on it either? Luise asked.

Nein, it didn’t. I could hear Johann and Herr Ratzenberger yelling at me to hold on. Did they think I wasn’t trying to?

Kirsten gasped out between giggles, Your tutor’s name was Ratzenberger?

It was, unfortunately. Luise started to speak up, but Otto warned her, Don’t say it. We thought of all those things to call him when I was a boy. If I was punished for saying them, I’m certainly not going to let you get away with it.

Luise pealed with laughter. What things? she managed to say, trying to sound innocent and failing utterly.

Otto shook his finger at her.

Ernst appeared with refreshments for everyone, so they reached for them eagerly.

Otto took a good slurp of tea and continued, In fact, at that point I thought my problems were over when I got a good grip on a branch of the latest bush. I should have thought to ask its permission first, though. It got rid of me by breaking my anchor so that I, of course, dropped down to the next bush. Not just any bush. Nein, of course not.

What did this one do, Vati? Luise asked.

This one had to be a bush full of ants, Otto said in remembered pain.

Ants? asked Kirsten.

You knew that, didn’t you? What is the purpose of covering a boy with sticky goop if you don’t follow up by covering him with ants who love sticky goop and spiders who love ants who love sticky goop? Naturally they all have pricky little feet and find their nasty little ways under my clothing so that they can make their prickly little tracks on my bare skin.

The girls were laughing too hard to answer him, so he continued, That kept my hands busy scratching and slapping, which distributed the sticky goop evenly over every part that had been missed, not to mention preventing my catching a good hold of any other branches. I continued to plop, slither, scramble, plop, slither, struggle, plop, slither, curse the entire way to the bottom of the bluff. The last bush dropped me in its turn, depositing me with sentient accuracy into the water on the edge of the Danube.

He took a sip of his tea and continued, You don’t believe in ‘The Beautiful Blue Danube’ do you?

They shook their heads, unable to speak.

Well it wasn’t true where I fell, at any rate. Could be it was the only scummy, slimy, smelly backwater on the entire length of the Danube. I don’t know. All I know is that I was plopped into it with such a perfect aim that I will never again believe that green beings have no ability to plot revenge for our lamentable habit of eating their brethren.

Otto doctored his tea the way he wanted it, took a satisfied sip, and told the giggling girls, "By that time Johann thought I was dead and Old Rat thought he’d lost his job. I couldn’t hear them anymore. Not that I was listening for them, occupied as I was with not drowning and removing sticky crawlies from under my clothing, all without showing anything impolite to giggling peasant girls. Oh, I didn’t mention giggling peasant girls? No matter, you knew they had to be there, didn’t you? Doing laundry in the cleaner water upstream from the scummy patch I landed in. They were vastly amused by the sticky, scented, struggling, foreign boy who fell, cursing and thrashing, from bush to bush to river. I splashed down, spluttering and thrashing, right where the eddies of the backwater took the suds from their laundry.

There I was, green slime and soaps sludge sticking to me, trying to divest myself of icky, sticky, prickly crawlies without divesting myself of my sodden clothing, when Johann arrived, rushing down the bluff, yelling for me. Otto! Otto! My God, I’ve killed him. Otto, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean for you to fall. Oh, my god, Otto, what will I do? But when he saw me, all he said was, Well, you damned fool why didn’t you watch what you were doing?

I answered him by floundering out of the muck and throwing him in it. Herr Ratzenberger arrived as we fought in the slush.

Stop that! Get out of the water this instant! I’ve had enough of you boys! No job is worth this provocation! The moment I see your father I will give him my notice. I can’t take any more of this. Not one more day, not one more hour!

Johann and I stopped fighting and looked at one another. We had wished for, longed for, prayed for those words all of our lives. Now that we’d finally heard them, we celebrated by sloshing out of the mire and throwing Herr Ratzenberger in. It had been my fondest dream, next to going to school with Johann, to pay the Rat back for the years of misery he had inflicted on us all in the name of maintaining discipline. We pushed his head under, we rolled him in the muck, we covered him with soap scum and green slime, we put mud down his back and threw his hat in the river. Not our best planned moment. He hadn’t meant what he said. Not only did he stay in my family’s employ long enough to see us thoroughly thrashed for what we did, but he also stayed around to make our lives miserable for the duration of our stay."

The noise of the girls’ laughter had attracted their governess, Amalie Braun. They were shrieking so that she couldn’t tell whether they were angry, afraid, or delighted. I wasn’t until she looked through the door into the area of the carriage that had been made into a living room that she could tell the girls were laughing. She stood quietly in the doorway and watched. She loved to see Otto’s way with a story. Luise was sprawled across her seat, laughing with unselfconscious abandon. Kirsten, ever the lady, was doing her best to maintain decorum, though she was laughing so hard that her stitching had fallen unheeded to the floor. Otto was standing at an angle to the girls, gesturing, as he puffed contentedly on his pipe, weaving pictures in the air with his voice and his hands, watching Kirsten steadily as he tried to ruin her composure. He noticed Amalie and winked at her.

Was you whole stay in Vienna ruined, Vati? Luise asked when she was able to speak.

The only thing that saved it was that Werner and Sigismund were so impressed that we had done what they’d never had the nerve to do that they did everything in their power to make our stay bearable. Because of them we actually had quite a good time and the Rat left as soon as we got back to Prussia.

What happened while you were in Vienna? Kirsten wanted to know.

Ja, Vati, what? Tante Elisabeth still can’t see.

Nein, there were no miracles for Elisabeth. But there was one for Adelheid. She was twenty two and still without an offer for her hand when we arrived, but by the time we departed she had a promise ring.

Why weren’t there any offers for her hand, Onkel Otto? I’ve seen her portrait. She was nice looking.

Well, there was one enthusiastic young fellow in her first season, when she was sixteen. I don’t remember him. I was only six years old. I was told about him being upset by Elisabeth.

That’s awful! Luise and Kirsten glanced at each other. That couldn’t happen to us, could it?

Adelheid said that his family forbade him to see her any more, but sometimes people cover up hurt feelings by saying things like that. Maybe he just didn’t like her as much as he thought he had. They were very young then, so it could be for the best that it came apart then.

Kirsten asked, What did Tante Adelheid to when her young man was forbidden to see her? Did they try to meet in secret?

Nein.

Ooooo, she sighed in frustrated romantic imagination.

Otto grinned at her and perched on the chair. One would not do things like that, Kirsti. She continued to go to the dances and parties, to enjoy herself, and to look for someone else.

She wasn’t even broken heated? I would just die if anything like that happened to me! Kirsten sighed romantically, bending over and picking up her stitching and clutching it to her bosom in a dramatic gesture.

Otto and Amalie shared a look. It made him nervous to see how missish she was becoming. She had always been ladylike, right from the time she was a small girl in his brother, Johann’s orphanage. All during the time Otto and Johann had tried to hide her existence by having her as Luise’s maid, Otto had worried about her being found out. Now that he’d made her his ward, he worried about her romanticism. He wished he’d been able to keep her as Luise’s maid, innocent of her parentage and happy in her work.

He had needed to adopt her as his niece so that the nuns would treat her well when he sent to two girls to a convent for safety during the hunt for the murderer. There had been no choice then, but there were times… Otto caught Amalie’s eye again and pulled himself back to the present.

You wouldn’t die, Kirsti. You would carry on like the brave girl you are. Besides, I don’t know that Adelheid cared that much for the fellow, or that she wanted to marry in her first season. There’s no harm in a girl waiting a year or two and having some fun first.

Kirsten jumped and flushed at the implied rebuke, then bent her head over her stitching.

Luise at eleven wasn’t nearly as interested in boys, stitching, and talk of marriage as Kirsten was at fourteen. She drummed her heels on the front of the seat. I wouldn’t care if someone wasn’t allowed to see me just because of Tante Elisabeth. I don’t want some young man to get all soppy about me anyway.

Otto grinned to hear that, exchanging a glance of amusement with Amalie.

Kirsten clucked, Oh, Luise, that’s so unladylike. Onkel Otto, what are we going to do with her? Never will she sit like a lady or talk like a lady.

Poof! Luise exclaimed, rudely. You’re not my governess. You don’t decide what to do about me.

But I am, and I can, Amalie spoke up, making both girls jump. Luise, watch the way you sit and the way you speak. Kirsten, don’t be so condescending.

Instantly crushed, Kirsten hung her head, tears filling her eyes.

The irrepressible Luise tilted her head, to look at Amalie. I want to be just like my father. You were mischievous, weren’t you, Amalie?

Worried that he’d made a mistake in talking about how mischievous he’d been, Otto informed his daughter in tones guaranteed to squelch anyone, I, however, didn’t talk back to my governess.

He regretted that the moment he’d said It. The light went out in Luise’s eyes, and she went back to staring out of the window the way she had since they first left Berlin.

Unable to think of anything to bring back the fun they’d had, Otto fiddled with his pipe without speaking.

He was considering picking up a newspaper when Kirsten, too full of curiosity to let the subject die, asked timidly, Onkel Otto, was that the only offer Tante Adelheid had?

He was delighted with her. Nein, Liebling. When she was nineteen or twenty a Berlin widower did his utmost to interest her in being the stepmother of his children. He might even have succeeded with her if he’d had little more time. Our father decided that being the second wife wasn’t good enough for his eldest girl, so that was stopped.

Did Tante Adelheid mind?

Ja, that time she was upset. She was older by then, and was becoming afraid that her chances were getting slimmer by the minute. After that she didn’t try as hard or have as much fun.

Luise had become interested in the subject. She spoke up, But she’s married now, isn’t she, Vati?

She certainly is.

How did she find someone?

Vienna is a city. There were all sorts of men around, angling for the hand of a young lady. They didn’t mind that she was a little bit older. Your Onkel Ruprecht was one of the. Ada liked him, he seemed to have a good future, and he was willing to follow us back to Prussia to court her, so our parents encouraged him.

Onkel Ruprecht travelled all the way to Goffhausen just to see Tante Adelheid? Luise asked, scornfully.

Isn’t it romantic? Kirsten sighed, dreamily.

Nein, it’s stupid. Vati, you wouldn’t spend days travelling in an uncomfortable carriage just to court a foreign girl who might not even want to leave her home to best with you, would you?

Otto grinned, Obviously I wouldn’t, because I married a girl who had grown up fifty kilometres away.

Kirsten was not impressed by their attitude. What an awful way to say it, Luise! How unromantic! Onkel Otto, do tell her that’s not the way it was.

Actually, that’s rather an astute guess about the way things were, Kirsti, I’m sorry. the stage coaches were abominably uncomfortable and poor Ruprecht had no guarantee that Ada would want to leave everything she knew and loved to journey all the way to Austria to live.

But they must have truly loved one another, surely.

I’m sorry, but marriages based solely on romance are rare, unlikely and unstable. It’s more likely he saw a large dowry and she saw her last chance.

Onkel Otto!

Kirsti, Liebchen, that is the way the world turns whether you like it or not. You can only bring yourself heartache by refusing to face reality.

Kirsten lowered he head slightly, and told Otto, I can’t believe that they didn’t love one another.

Maybe they did. He certainly doted on her enough while he was at Goffhausen.

Do you remember that, Vati?

Oh, ja. I was thirteen by then, home from my first horrible year at school and ripe for trouble.

Luise grinned. What did you do?

Otto could see the gleam in his daughter’s eye and didn’t want to repeat his earlier faux pas, so he evaded the subject by shrugging, Just raced around on my horse. You know how it is when you’re first let out after being cooped up. You ride and ride to blow the cobwebs out of you head, don’t you?

Ja. I do that, too, Luise agreed, while plotting inside her head how to get her father talking again. She tried, Did Onkel Ruprecht wait a whole year before he went north to see Tante Adelheid?

Almost. We were in Vienna for the summer of 1835, and he arrived at Goffhausen in the spring of 1836.

Did they get married right away? Kirsten breathed her hands clasped hopefully under her chin.

Nein, they didn’t. He returned to Vienna for the winter, then came all the way back for the wedding in the summer of 1837.

Were you pleased to see him, Vati?

I didn’t really know him. I hardly remembered him from our visit to Vienna because I had spent so much of that confined after the incident with Herr Ratzenberger.

But you thought it was exciting that he was going to marry your sister, didn’t you? Kirsten hoped.

Nein. I thought that sort of thing was too soppy for words until I was about fifteen.

That’s what I think! Luise exclaimed in delight.

Oh, Luise, Kirsten sighed.

Well, I do.

You’ll change when you get older, Otto told her.

Never. I’ll never like the idea of a man acting all drippy and drooly and dumb.

Oh! It is not either dumb, Luise Maria, it’s the most beautiful sentiment. Like Romeo and Juliet.

Have you read that thing? It’s stupid! People don’t really talk like that. Can you imagine saying the things they say to a real person? You’d choke on the words if you didn’t fall down laughing first.

I would not! You would not. You’re being deliberately horrid to provoke me. I shan’t respond.

Vati, I hate it when she gets like that. We used to have such fun together. Now she says soppy things and sighs and cries and talks like a governess. Tell her to stop it.

It’s not as easy as all that, Ludi. Our Kirsten is growing up. All young ladies change as they grow. You will, too.

I won’t be like that. Luise pointed at Kirsten in distain.

Pointing is unladylike, Kirsten said down her nose.

Enough, girls. Enough.

Did your sisters get like that? Luise whispered, knowing full well Kirsten could hear her and be offended.

All except Elizabeth.

Right on cue, Kirsten glared at Luise. Satisfied, Luise asked her father, Did Onkel Ruprecht say soppy things to Tante Adelheid?

Well, I couldn’t know that unless I listened into private conversations, could I?

I suppose not. At least he didn’t sing under her window or anything dreadful like that.

He did.

Nein!

How sweet, Kirsten sighed.

How soppy, Luise sneered. What did you do about it? she demanded.

Threw water on him.

Perfect! Luise jumped with delight. Did you get in trouble?

I wasn’t caught.

Did they walk through the woods and gaze soooulfully into one another’s eyes and sigh and all that stuff?

Luise, must you make a mockery of everything nice? Honestly, there are times when it’s hard to believe you’re the heiress.

There she goes again, Vati.

Unfortunately, she does have a point. Frau Braun, did you come here to fetch the girls for something?

Amalie knew a cue when she heard one. Otto’s patience with is much loved girls was wearing thin. She had to take them so Otto could travel in peace for a while. Come on, she said without a moment’s hesitation. It’s time to get the two of you ready for the meal.

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The von Goff-Puttkamer family was wealthy enough to hire two private railway carriages so that they travelled in privacy and comfort. Otto was an investor in the Prussian railways, by which means he had not only supplemented the income from his estate of Schönwald, but had become far better established than any of his family knew. Only his brother, Sigismund, had an inkling of Otto’s substance, from filling out forms to take his children if anything happened to Otto.

But Sigismund and Otto’s brother, Johann, the monk, didn’t know the extent of His good fortune.

Otto’s only child, Luise, was the heiress of the von Puttkamer estate through her mother. Only her father and Onkel Sigismund knew that it was from her father that she would come into a fortune.

It suited Otto to keep things like that to himself.

There were signs that he was doing rather well. Anyone who paid attention could see that Schönwald had benefitted from his care. Under his father-in-law the place had been deteriorating, but since Otto had taken over the land the buildings and the herds had been modernised, spruced up and developed.

Because Otto kept his own council and had no ostentatious habits, the word around the area was that he worked hard, whereas Friedrick had wasted too much time on the army. It hadn’t been noticed that the improvements to Schönwald couldn’t have been achieved by good management or hard work, no matter how much good luck had been thrown in. Even Johann, who was Otto’s closest confidant, had no idea how much of Otto’s investment income was poured into Schönwald, improving the value of the land, the herds, and the crops.

The result was that he was able to travel all of the way to Vienna to seek help for his stricken wife and to do it in considerable style and comfort. He could leave his daughter so well off that she would be sure to find a husband despite the fact that she came from a line of unfruitful women. He could off such a large dowry for his ward that she had a chance of a good marriage even with her doubtful parentage.

He protected his pride be telling himself if ever he lost his investments no one would know he’d had them in the first place. Besides, he had brought Schönwald into such good condition that it could now support the family for generations with no difficulty.

In many ways Otto was a contented man. He felt successful and confident when it came to his business and he had a deep affection for his land. He adored his daughter and loved his ward. He had long since come to terms with the fact that there could never be another child from his wife and had given up longing for a son.

The only cloud in his life was his wife’s health.

He decided to see how she was coping with the journey.

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Hildegard’s maids might need help with her, considering how terrified she would be if she realised she had left Schönwald.

That is, if she were aware enough to notice.

Otto knocked lightly on the door. He winced at the realisation that one of Hildegard’s scenes would be an improvement at that point. He caught himself listening for her strident voice and shook his head in disbelief. Not in his worst nightmares had he imagined wanting to hear that grating whine.

Gurda, the maid to Hildegard’s Polish nurse, opened the door. Mein Herr, she greeted him.

How is she? Otto asked.

Still quiet, mein Herr.

She hasn’t spoken?

Not a word, mein Herr.

Announce me, there’s a good girl.

Herr von Goff! Gurda announced.

Otto was ushered into the part of the carriage set aside for the empty shell that resembled the person Hildegard had been. The three women seated around their sleeping mistress rose to their feet.

He brushed aside their polite murmurs, wanting only to know, How is she?

The question was asked so often in the von Goff-Puttkamer household that there was no need to ask who.

Hildegard’s Polish nurse, Danuta, indicated the prone body on the bed.

Otto thought out loud, Is she sleeping or did she take something?

Hildegard’s personal maid, Philomele Hübner, told him something he knew but hated to hear, Die Frau doesn’t sleep unless we give her something, mein Herr.

Otto closed his eyes in pain. Of course, he sighed. Has she realised we’ve left Schönwald, do you think?

Nein, mein Herr, I don’t think She has realised anything.

Nothing at all? Otto walked over to stand beside the bed. Worry and sorrow hunched his straight back and etched furrows into his round cheeks.

Not that we could tell, mein Herr. We’ve been unable to find any reaction to anything at all since she was told Frau Blücher had died. We have tried, mein Herr. We’ve tried everything we could think of. It’s as if she isn’t there, though we can see her and touch her.

Otto could see how distressed Philomele was. Hildegard’s affliction wore on all of them, but on no-one more than the woman who had been her personal maid since they were both children.

I know you would do everything you could for her, Frau Hübner. But she needs help we can’t give her no matter how we try. We’re making this journey to Vienna to take her to people who might be able to give her back to us.

Do you think they can do anything for her, mein Herr? It doesn’t seem possible that strangers can do for her what those who love and understand her cannot.

Otto looked down at his comatose wife. He brushed stray wisps of hair from her forehead with feather soft strokes of his fingertips as he hunted for the right words to reassure Philomele. There was a trick to dealing with his wife’s maid that Otto very much wanted to master. Too often and too easily he offended the woman he needed as an ally in his battle for Hildegard’s sanity.

For her sake we have to let them do what they can for her, don’t you think? As he spoke, Otto absentmindedly continued to stroke Hildegard’s brow. He was concentrating so hard on choosing the exact words in the right tone of voice that he was astonished to see the expression on Frau Hübner’s face when he looked up.

She had unshed tears in her eyes.

Taking it that she was moved by his tenderness towards her beloved mistress, Otto could tell she would be soft wax in his hands this time. One thing Otto did well was seize opportunity. He took a chance that he could say without offence, Those of us who love her don’t appear to understand what she needs well enough to put a stop to this, do we?

Philomele would usually have been indignant that Otto had said such a thing, but this time she looked sadly around the railway carriage. How could it have come to this? she murmured.

She sounded so weary that Otto’s heart went out to her. Although Otto would never forget how she had fought against him when he first tried to change the way Hildegard had been handled, he could forgive Frau Hübner by remembering that she had honestly believed she was doing what had been in Hildegard quite as much as he had.

That must have occurred to Philomele at the same time, because she looked at Otto with her head lowered, and asked him in a soft voice, peering through her lashes, Is this what you meant when you said her potions would be the end of her, mein Herr?

"Something like this. I’ve never known anyone who could be—how did you put it? You can see her and touch her but she isn’t there. That’s the way she seems to me, too. I couldn’t have foreseen this. I couldn’t have imagined anything like this. Someone who refuses to eat, who can’t function without potions and nostrums that are killing her, who thinks people who love her are plotting against her, but trusts those who harm her, who stares into space, not saying anything that makes any sense to anyone—who could imagine that sort of thing? Who has even heard of such a thing? All I knew was that she was getting worse and worse while that doctor of hers took cartloads of money without paying any attention to her.

All I wanted was for another doctor to see her and make sure she was getting the best care. When I found out the man was not only not helping her, but was feeding her the medications that would end up destroying her, I had to let him go whether it upset her or not. I thought we could step in and stop it from coming to this."

Philomele hung her head. She looked sorry to Otto. I wish I’d known, mein Herr, she murmured. Frau Blücher taught us; Frau von Goff and myself; that you weren’t concerned about die Frau and we were to guard against you at all costs.

I know. The fact that I do know is the only thing that made me consider having you back at Schönwald after I found out you were supplying Frau Blücher’s herbs to Frau von Goff.

Philomele looked around to make sure she couldn’t be overheard. Danuta, Gurda and Philomele’s maid, Katya, had moved away so that they were out of earshot. So quietly that Otto wasn’t sure he’d heard it, she confessed, I didn’t think I’d ever see Schönwald again.

That’s what you were supposed to think. But I had planned your dismissal as a lesson, so that you would understand how serious this potion business is. Almost all of those concoctions the doctor and Frau Blücher gave Frau von Goff contained opium. That’s what’s helping her sleep at this moment. Which means, whether we want to face it or not, Frau von Goff is an opiumsucht. I had to have you back with her because she’s so afraid of strangers. I thought she’d break down if there were no one tending her that she knew and trusted, no matter how skilled Danuta is.

They both glanced over at the hefty, tough, Polish nurse. Philomele frowned. I don’t like to hear die liebe Frau spoken of as if she were a gutter creature, mein Herr.

I don’t much care for it myself. Don’t forget, this is my wife we’re talking about. But remember, denying the truth doesn’t change it. The truth stands whether we like it or not, and the truth here is that this lady was betrayed by the people entrusted with her care. Now it’s our sad tale to try to bring what’s left of her back to life.

No matter how much she hated it, Philomele couldn’t deny the truth in what Otto said. To avoid the subject she said, I can never thank you enough for taking me back, mein Herr. I realise now how much in error I was to give Frau von Goff the potions Frau Blücher sent. I truly believed I was saving her life. If I had only known how much harm I was doing I would never have done such a thing.

I know.

It’s more than I deserve that you’re so understanding, mein Lieber Herr.

Forbearance is not acquittance. Die Frau needs you or you wouldn’t be here.

Philomele visibly deflated. She had disliked and distrusted Otto since he had married Hildegard all those years ago. Now that she’d finally come to realise that he was good enough for her beloved mistress, it was too late to gain his trust in her. I intended to do only what was best for die Frau, mein Herr, she murmured, going over to Hildegard and straightening the smooth, unruffled bedding.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. What a shame in this case the good intentions of one have paved the road to another’s hell.

Philomele’s chin quivered. It was more than she could bear to think that she had caused any of Hildegard’s suffering. Must we take her to a place as far off as Vienna to get help for her?

Otto could have kicked himself for being harsh with Philomele when what he wanted to do was win her co-operation. He would have to try harder to forget how she’d thwarted him. ‘Must is a bitter nut’, he said in a kind tone of voice. This must be done. As far as I can find out this is the only place that will be able to get the opium out of her system without killing her, and without sparking gossip all around Schönwald. If you need help settling her down when she realises where she is, just call me. Any time of the day or night.

Danke, mein Herr, but I’m afraid she won’t notice. Since she heard about Frau Blücher’s death she doesn’t notice anything.

I was hoping that maybe the shock of waking up so far away from home would wake her up.

All we can do is hope, Philomele agreed.

Otto bid goodnight to his wife’s attendants, feeling that he and Philomele were going to be able to be able to work together despite his mistake. He believed they would work together for Hildegard’s sake.

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The moment Otto was gone, Philomele spat, Oh! That man! What a misfortune our precious Frau married such as that when there were so many nice young men she could have chosen.

Danuta walked back to Hildegard’s bedside asking, What he say? You had your heads together long time.

Just the usual stablemuck about how we have to do the best for die Frau and Vienna’s the only place that we can take her. He thinks we’re too stupid to notice that Vienna is where he always wants to go for the summer.

We do have to do the best for her. We’re that close to losing her, Danuta pointed out.

But it isn’t necessary to take her to Vienna to do that. This whole trip is because he wants this holiday and die Frau never wants to travel, so he’s making it look as if it’s for her.

Why bother? He’s the head of the house. He goes where he wants and does what he wants. No one questions him.

Because Herr Otto von Goff always wants everyone to think he’s such a good fellow, no matter what horrible things he does.

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In his bedroom compartment Otto talked to his valet, Ernst, as he dressed for the midday meal. You would have been ashamed of me, lad. Just when I was getting Frau Hübner to talk to me as if I were a human being and not an ogre, I went and pointed out to her that she’s only at Schönwald on sufferance.

You could hardly be expected to welcome her back with open arms after what she did, mein Herr. I doubt there’s another Gutsherr in all of Prussia who’d have given her a second chance.

But I didn’t give her a second chance. I realised that die Frau would fall apart if she were surrounded by strangers. Not that it made any difference in the long run. Look at her now.

She likely would have gone like this no matter what you did, mein Herr. You can’t blame yourself. It would have shocked anyone to find out that their old nanny killed a man in his sleep and then hanged for it, and die Frau is not just anyone. Attached as she was to Frau Blücher and nervous as she is, the shock of this winter might have unhinged her regardless of who attended her or how it was handled.

You could be right, small comfort though it is. The girls aren’t in very good shape, either. After fussing her entire life to go on a trip like this Luise sat and cried that she didn’t want to go. Then she and Kirsten had words over nothing. That’s not like them.

It has been a nightmare for them, mein Herr. It’s only to be expected that they won’t be themselves for some time.

Not to mention what it must be like for Kirsten to go from being an orphan maid to being one of the family.

Ja, mein Herr. They’ve had a lot of shocks in the last few months. Once they’ve been away for a while you’ll see the old cheerful Fräulein von Goff again, I’m sure.

I can only pray that you’re right. Are you finished?

Ernst took on a slightly scolding tone. You can’t mean to go to the table like that, mein Herr. At least let me brush you off.

Whatever, Otto shrugged. But he was too tense to tolerate being handled. Ernst had hardly started brushing and smoothing Otto’s jacket when Otto snapped, Don’t fuss, man!

Unruffled, Ernst commented, This holiday will do you every bit as much good as the girls, mein Herr.

Are you saying that I’m hard to get along with?

You’re tense and unhappy, mein Herr, which is only to be expected after having your brother’s valet murdered in your house.

You should consider a career in the diplomatic corps, Ernst. What about you? You were the one who spent time in prison for a crime you didn’t commit. How do you hold yourself together?"

I have you, mein Herr.

Don’t toady, Ernst. It isn’t worthy of you.

I was quite serious, mein Herr. You have helped me through this more than you’ll ever know. I don’t mind telling you that I don’t know how I would have made it through this ugly time if you hadn’t maintained your belief in my innocence.

Not to mention a certain sweet someone adding salve to the wound, hmm? Otto teased, embarrassed by Ernst’s praise.

Frau Braun was wonderfully understanding and comforting.

What is this ‘Frau Braun’? You aren’t on a first name basis with her? What’s gone wrong?

Mein Herr—uh— Ernst hesitated a moment.

Otto had turned to face his valet, full of concern.

Amalie and I are fond of one another. She’s a wonderful person.

But?

The Spark that I knew with Anna is just not there, mein Herr. I don’t know if a man can say he’s friends with a woman, but if it can be said, then Amalie is a good friend of mine.

Oh, Ernst, I’m so sorry, old man. I had hoped you would know some happiness after the hoops Anna Fischer had you jumping through.

"I have happiness enough. Good