The Queen of Beauty (The Century Trilogy Book 3)

by Petra Durst-Benning

  Elisabeth Kaiser stopped to chat with the boatman briefly as they drifted in, and Clara looked up at the picturesque little town that hugged the rising vineyards. Medieval houses, towers, and even some sort of castle huddled close. Clara had not seen any place nearly as romantic looking—not in Berlin nor on her trip south.

  The boatman jumped onto the dock and secured the boat before helping the passengers disembark. Clara and the fisherwoman said good-bye as friends. Because Elisabeth also supplied Lilo’s hotel, the Hotel Residenz, where Clara was planning to live, they were certain to see each other again.

  In Friedrichshafen, Clara had been preoccupied with organizing the last leg of her trip, and she had seen almost nothing of the town itself. Now, in Meersburg, she took the time to at least gain a first impression.

  Clara walked along, struggling with her bags, on the street behind the Gredhaus that led directly into Meersburg. It ran parallel to the shore, and she thought that it probably connected Meersburg with the small villages she had seen from the boat. Shops and restaurants lined both sides of the road, and each one was marked by an artistically decorated sign. “Treiber’s Emporium,” read one, and “Schönbein’s Tobacco” the next. Other signs pointed to stores in the narrow roads that ran off the main street. Charmed by everything she saw, Clara spotted a sign illustrated with a brass-colored mortar: “Weingarten Pharmacy, Turn Right in 100 Feet.” That was a good start, at least! Clara wanted to go to the pharmacy right away, but she knew she should get to Lilo’s hotel first. She stopped a man walking out of the stationery store and asked where she could find the Hotel Residenz.

  “See the gate leading out of the low town back there?” The man pointed along the street. “You’ll find the Residenz just past that.”

  Clara thanked the man. Though she didn’t have much farther to go, the handle on her old suitcase was cutting painfully into her hand, so she allowed herself a short break. To stay out of the way of the pedestrians and horse-drawn carts, she stood back against a wall. Massaging her sore hand, she looked up at the castle that she had seen from the boat. It loomed on the hillside above the town gate, an imposing medieval construction in gray stone that dwarfed the buildings around it, all solid half-timbered structures housing shops and businesses at ground level and apartments above. What an extraordinarily beautiful town, thought Clara after she picked up her suitcase and started walking again. Everywhere she looked—in front of the windows, in large planters, in green areas between the houses—there was a profusion of flowers. The facades of the houses were painted in delicate pastel tones, and the streets were free of trash, unlike in parts of Berlin. And then there was that scent again . . . It was the same that Clara had noticed in Friedrichshafen, the mixture of seaweed and algae, but with a tinge of fermented grape juice.

  On the side of the hill that rose above the shopping street, there were small vineyards in between the houses. Here and there, men were harvesting the grapes. Clara thought of Isabelle with a smile. Then, above the vineyards, her eye came to rest on a huge building. It was not as old as the gray castle, which Clara was drawing closer to with every step, and it had something of a baroque style. The wide facade had been painted in a soft pink hue, while the window frames were gleaming white. It looked like a palace for a princess. Who would live so ostentatiously? And what was inside the equally huge bright-yellow building to the right of it, above and behind her now? That must also belong to very rich people.

  The closer she came to the gate of the low town, the more Clara understood how Meersburg was laid out. Through the low town was the shopping street that she was walking along, Unterstadtstrasse, from which several short lanes led down to Seepromenade, an esplanade along the lakeshore with a quay wall that dropped into the lake. Clara looked forward to seeing that, too, but it would have to wait for another day. Above the shopping street was another part of the town, centered around the medieval castle. It looked as if there were more shops and restaurants there, too; certainly, there were several elaborate signs that pointed out the various ways to get up there.

  Clara was beyond impressed by the town that was to be her new home. When Josephine had spoken of Meersburg, she had made it sound more like a small fishing village. Clara smiled as she resolved that in the future, she would make up her own mind about things, rather than blindly accepting what others said.

  Chapter Eight

  Clara saw Lilo’s hotel straight ahead the moment she stepped through the gate that led out of the low town. It was a classical-looking structure, painted pale yellow with many tall windows framed by pure-white curtains. It was situated a short distance back from and above the waterfront esplanade. On the lake side, there was a long terrace, which would certainly offer fantastic views over Lake Constance. There were white wrought-iron chairs, tables with yellow tablecloths, and white planters overflowing with flowers. On the other side of the hotel where the entrance was, the last roses of the season were in bloom—also yellow.

  Lilo has something for yellow, Clara thought. Feeling a little intimidated, she headed for the entrance, which was flanked by two stone columns. She had never expected anything as grand as this!

  With her arms open wide, the beautiful and elegantly dressed proprietress of the hotel came to the entrance to meet Clara.

  “Welcome! Welcome! When did we last see each other? It feels like half an eternity . . . back when we were still young and stupid, wasn’t it?”

  Before Clara knew it, Lilo had wrapped her arms around her in a convivial embrace. “Thank you for taking me in,” she said with a smile, overwhelmed by Lilo’s greeting. If she weren’t at Lilo’s hotel, Clara wasn’t sure she would have recognized Lilo, whose hair was cut almost as short as a man’s. Clara had never seen a woman with such a daring cut, but Clara thought it suited Lilo admirably.

  Lilo swept aside a wayward strand of her wheat-blond hair and grinned. “We’ll have to wait and see if you really thank me. I need help in the hotel desperately. Some days, I don’t know if I’m coming or going. But don’t worry, you’ll still have time for the real reason you’re here. I’ve already written down the names of several pharmacists, not only here in Meersburg, but in Friedrichshafen and some other places as well.” As she spoke, she waved over a young man. Clara guessed him to be in his midtwenties. He wore a dark-blue suit that he didn’t quite fill: the sleeves were hanging loose, and a good hand’s width of fabric on each leg was piled atop his shoes. The cap he wore was also too big and had slipped low on his forehead. The young man seemed unconcerned by these things and trotted over eagerly.

  “I’d like to introduce Fritz. He’s responsible for everything that jams, whistles, and squeaks, which means that if you have any problems with a faucet or can’t get your door open, he’s your man. He also helps guests with their bags. You’ll be living back there in the side wing. Fritz will show you where.” Lilo pointed to an extension of the main building that Clara had not noticed earlier. “I have an appointment in a couple of minutes. But if you like, we can have dinner together this evening. Before that, you can take your time and look around.” She waved her arm as if to include everything about the hotel. Then she kissed Clara on the cheek and was gone. Dazed and fascinated, Clara watched Lilo glide away. What an unbelievable radiance she had! What confidence! And she was also a divorcée.

  Clara’s room was large, but the leafy trees growing just outside the window also made it rather dim. The walls were painted a light yellow, which helped a little, and a small, pretty chandelier provided a bit of light. Clara screwed up her nose. The smell of mothballs hung in the air, so she went over to the window and opened it. The fresh Lake Constance air streamed into the room. But as far as she leaned out of the window, she could not see the lake itself.

  Her children would not be able to spend the night there, she realized, as she sat tentatively on the single bed, which was set up along the narrow side of the room. But she also had no intention of living in the hotel for very long—the sooner she found her own a
partment, the better! And then . . . One step at a time, she warned herself.

  At least her stay at Lilo’s hotel would be no hardship. The mattress was good, the down comforter was light, and the sheets were silky and smooth.

  There were two chairs, a table, and a wardrobe. When Clara opened the doors of the wardrobe, a few empty coat hangers clattered against each other. A mirror had been attached to the inside of one door. Clara grinned. In the future, she would have to check what she was wearing half standing in the wardrobe. But it didn’t matter! She was about to close the wardrobe door again when she caught sight of herself in the mirror. A world separated her in her traveling outfit from Lilo in her fashionable clothes, but she was satisfied with what she saw. Although the journey had been long and stressful, she looked fresh, and her eyes were practically glowing. At the very least, no one looking at her would see the despairing woman she had been just a few days before.

  When she had unpacked everything, she knew that she would feel at home there. The picture frames with the photographs of her children stood on the table, and she had stowed her books beneath the bedside table. She only had to find somewhere suitable for her father’s notebook, her mother’s jewelry, and her own personal documents.

  “I hope you were able to get settled in a little,” Lilo said when they were sitting together at dinner a few hours later in the hotel’s elegant dining room. Lilo had her own table some distance away from the guests’ tables and shielded from them by several tall indoor plants. From there she had a good overview of everything going on in the dining room, but she couldn’t be seen, and she and Clara could eat in peace.

  “More than that. I can’t remember the last time I felt so . . . alive. I feel like I could tear trees out by their roots!”

  Lilo smiled, and there was something knowing in it. “That’s the lake air. Or maybe just living by the lake; I don’t know which. I was just the same when I came here from the Black Forest. I felt so cooped up there.”

  Clara looked expectantly at Lilo, but she already said what she wanted.

  “Can your guests rent a safe or lockbox? I don’t know what to do with my personal papers and valuables. Not that I have too many of those,” Clara said with a laugh.

  “Of course. I’ll tell reception that they should let you have a box.”

  As they ate and talked—Lilo asking about Josephine and Isabelle, and Clara asking about life on the lake—Clara’s eyes were drawn again and again to the vista offered by the floor-to-ceiling windows. It was dusk, and the esplanade was lit by numerous lamps. Out on the water, boats bobbed with lights of their own, presenting a particularly romantic sight.

  “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful,” Clara murmured, her voice laden with emotion.

  Lilo smiled. “There’s something magical about the lake. It’s no wonder that thousands of tourists come here every year from every corner of the empire. We even get the Württemberg royal couple here every year, and they bring all kinds of nobles with them.”

  “And they stay in the pink castle up on the hill,” said Clara confidently. She knew it!

  Lilo frowned. “No. The royal palace is in Friedrichshafen. What you’re talking about is the residence of the prince-bishops of Constance. Next to that is what they call the Marstall, the royal riding school and stables. Ha! Here, even the horses live like princes! But don’t worry, a few baronesses, countesses, and duchesses wander down this way in the tourist season, too.”

  “Even here, in your hotel?”

  Lilo nodded proudly. “Which I’m very happy about, of course, but I treat every guest with the same importance. But let’s talk about you now,” she said, suddenly businesslike. “Josephine wrote about what you have in mind. And of course I’ll help you any way I can. But if I can give you any advice, it’s this: don’t mention your divorce at all. One does not have to make one’s life any harder than it needs to be.”

  Clara swallowed hard, surprised by the sudden change of topic and, more so, by Lilo’s message. “But the people here will ask about my family. Am I supposed to lie? What happens when it comes out?”

  Lilo waved off the objection. “Of course you shouldn’t lie. Keeping your mouth shut is more than enough. If anyone asks me about my husband, I lower my eyes and do my best to look sad. And everybody thinks they’re looking at a grieving widow. It’s as simple as that.”

  “You make it sound very easy,” Clara admitted, looking with admiration at the woman sitting opposite her. Lilo was wearing the same dress she had had on at midday, but she had put on long earrings that glittered golden with even the slightest movement of her head. Clara had dressed up for dinner, but she now saw that, compared to the elegant guests and Lilo, she looked like a frumpy housewife. She might have to spend a bit of her emergency money to buy herself something new.

  “All beginnings are difficult. I had to go through quite a lot myself before I understood that pearl of wisdom,” said Lilo with irony in her voice. “I can’t show my face anymore in the small Black Forest village where Horst and I used to live, not as a divorced woman. The people point at me like I’m some kind of thief or other criminal, though it was Horst who had one affair after another. They give me a hard time because I got divorced! In society’s eyes, the only goal worth striving for as a woman is to be a good wife who quietly accepts anything thrown her way.” Lilo snorted in a very unladylike way.

  “Is that why you left the Black Forest?” It was so good to be able to sit and talk to someone who had been through similar experiences.

  “A new start somewhere else, somewhere where nobody knew me, that was the only chance I had to get back on my feet. Horst owned several sanatoriums for lung patients in the area, and I helped him with the management. So I wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with how to deal with a lot of guests in one large place. But if I could avoid it, I didn’t want anything else to do with sick people.”

  “So you came up with the idea of opening a hotel,” said Clara with respect.

  “Of course, I could have taken my friends’ advice and kept my eye open for a new husband. But I wanted to try doing something of my own, to stand on my own two feet and not be dependent anymore. Do you know what I mean?”

  “Only too well. It’s just the same for me.” Clara nodded vehemently to underscore her agreement. Spontaneously, she reached out and took Lilo’s hand. “You don’t know how good it is to listen to you talk. For the first time in I don’t know how long, I truly believe that a new start might also be possible for me.”

  “Lake Constance is famous for new beginnings!” Lilo exclaimed happily, and she raised her glass. “Here’s to all your dreams, big and small, coming true. And soon!”

  Clara lifted her glass, too. “I don’t have big dreams. All I want is to find a job in a pharmacy,” she said, and drank a mouthful of white wine. “I feel like going straight out tomorrow.”

  “No one’s stopping you,” said Lilo. “Let’s do this: What would you say to working for me in the afternoons? That would make it easier for me to plan. And if you go off looking for work in Constance or Friedrichshafen or somewhere else farther away, we’ll find a solution. Like I said, I’ve put the addresses together for you already.”

  “That sounds wonderful!” Clara beamed. “But you have to tell me how I can help you.”

  “To be honest, I’d like to be able to throw you in wherever I need you,” said Lilo. She swung her chin toward the other tables, where the talk, as the evening lengthened, was growing more and more lively. “Tonight, for example, my head waiter is away, which is why we’re eating here and not in my own rooms. Like this, I can keep an eye on everything and intervene if necessary. Last week, I had two chambermaids fall sick at the same time, and the week before that the girl who helped in the kitchen ran off with the dishwasher.” She shrugged. “The more staff, the more headaches. That’s just how it is.”

  Clara raised her eyebrows. “And you trust me to jump in everywhere? I hope I don’t disappoint you too much.”
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  Lilo patted Clara’s hand. “A mother and wife who can run a doctor’s household and his practice? I’d trust someone like that to manage quite a bit.”

  One of the waitresses served dessert. Clara was amazed that she had an appetite for berries and cream. Food hadn’t tasted this good for ages!

  “I hope you’re happy with your room?”

  “Oh, absolutely, it’s beautiful,” Clara said between mouthfuls.

  “That’s good, then. All the guests want a room with a view of the lake, and I have no reservations at all in fall for the rooms in back. That will change by next spring at the latest, but by then I’m certain you’ll have your own apartment.”

  “Tell me more, and I’ll start to believe it myself!” Clara said. She laughed, but then immediately grew serious again. “You’re helping me so much. How can I ever repay you?”

  Lilo shook her head dismissively. “If I were the one in need, you’d do no less for me. Or for Josephine. Or for Isabelle. We women have to stick together or we’ll go under.” She raised her glass a second time. “To friendship.”

  “To friendship,” Clara said, delighting in the bright clink of crystal on crystal.

  Chapter Nine

  It was her first night in an unfamiliar place, but Clara had slept exceptionally well. She wasn’t surprised, given the long journey, all the new impressions. Plus, Lilo and she had drunk a bottle of wine over dinner, and there was nothing that would put you to sleep better than that, was there?

  Lilo had asked her to help with a birthday party. A guest from Frankfurt was turning fifty and had invited his entire family to Lake Constance for the event. Lilo wanted to set up a smaller secondary hall where the dinner and music could take place. But Lilo didn’t need her until the afternoon, so Clara had the morning to herself. There was no better time to visit the pharmacies in Meersburg, so after a light breakfast, she set off. Excited and happy, she hoped she would be able to find the sign with the arrow pointing to the pharmacy.