“Look! Someone is watching us.” Isabella looked up. The sun was shining in Isabella’s eyes and at first it looked as if it was a man but then a large cloud covered the sun, the sky darkened and the vision seemed to mist over and when it became clear again it looked like a wild dog.
“It’s just a dog. Calm down, Katya.”
“I could have sworn it was a man…it looked like a man,” Katya said, baffled. As she watched, the dog disappeared from the battlements.
“Come on, let’s see if we can get in,” said Isabella.
“Isabella, I think we should leave. You know, by the look of this place it has been abandoned for years.”
Isabella was hardly listening to Katya. She was looking at the carvings surrounding the door. Some of them had been broken but the breaks were clean, as if they had been broken them purposely. Isabella pushed on the door.
“It won’t budge.”
This time Katya was not listening. She had been distracted and started to tug on Isabella’s sleeve. “Look,” Katya whispered.
Isabella raised her head. The dog that they had seen on the battlements was now in the courtyard watching them. The two girls were now frightened because they now realised that it was a wolf.
“Isabella! We have to leave now!” Katya whispered firmly.
“How can we? He’s blocking the entrance,” Isabella said, as she kneeled down and pulled Katya down with her. “He is probably more afraid of us than we are of him,” Isabella continued.
“Oh, is that right? Isabella, are you mad…?”
“SSSHH!” Isabella stretched out her hand and started to speak softly to the wolf. “We won’t hurt you.” The wolf approached them slowly and started to lick Isabella’s outstretched hand.
Katya sighed with relief and said, “I would have had to see that to believe it. Only you could charm a wolf.”
Isabella smiled and began to stroke the wolf. The wolf soon left the pair and went down one of the passageways.
“Let’s see where he’s going. He must know a way in; how else did he get down from the battlements?” Isabella followed the wolf and Katya reluctantly pursued them. The three walked down one of the passageways leading from the courtyard. Close to the end of it was a door lying open, off its hinges.
Isabella, Katya and the wolf all went through the doorway into the main reception hall. The hall like the rest of the castle had seen better days, but they could tell it was once magnificently opulent. There were several portraits on the spacious walls. The one that caught Isabella’s eyes was of a beautiful, sad-looking woman. It had been slashed with a sword and it hung in the centre of the hall over a palatial fireplace. A chair sat opposite and a fur rug lay on the stone floor beside the chair. In the middle of the hall was a venerable stone staircase and around the hall were several other doors.
Isabella ran around the hall trying to open each one, but all of them were either locked or jammed shut. Katya stood just watching her friend.
“Isabella, it’s obvious that this place has not been lived in for years. Everything is covered in dust and cobwebs.”
Isabella ran upstairs, not paying much attention to her friend. Katya and the wolf followed behind her. Isabella ran around to each door and again none of them could be opened. When she got to the last door she pounded her fists against it and dropped to the floor holding her face in her hands.
“What were you hoping to find here?” Katya asked her friend.
“Oh, nothing I suppose,” Isabella said, completely disheartened. “It was just a foolish idea.”
“Did you expect to find Vlad? Even if he was up here, he’d be an old man like your grandfather.”
“I know that…I knew as soon as I entered the courtyard that he would not be here. But…”
“But what?”
“What I was really hoping for was a library.”
“A library?”
“My grandfather has only a few books and I have read them all, but Vlad was the sort of man who would have had a grand library full of books on every subject. I want to teach myself things. I want to learn about other places, I know I will probably never leave the village, but to read about the world is almost as good as seeing it.”
“Any books Vlad would have owned would have been in his own language.”
“I know a little bit of Wallachian. I am sure I could teach myself the rest.”
Katya sighed; Isabella always had an answer to everything.
“Vlad would have taken any books with him when he abandoned this place,” Katya answered.
“I suppose you are right.”
“It’s getting dark, and if anyone found us in the woods at night we really would be in serious trouble.”
Isabella started to descend the stairs. The wolf that had always remained close to the two girls started to bark.
“We nearly forgot about him,” Isabella said. “Maybe he wants to come with us.” Isabella climbed back up the steps and kneeled down beside him, stroking his fur as she did so. The wolf gratefully reciprocated her show of affection by licking her hand.
“Isabella, it’s a wolf,” Katya said dryly.
“Oh well, we will soon come up and see you again,” Isabella said to the wolf as if it could understand her.
“We won’t,” said Katya.
“Then he’s coming with us.”
“And who’s going to look after him?”
“Nicolae will.”
“And where are you going to say you found him?”
“I’ll think of something,” Isabella said, pulling herself up using a curtain that was beside the wolf. The curtain could not support her weight and fell down to uncover one final door. Isabella looked at Katya, forgetting about their minor argument, and smiled.
“Well, go ahead, try it,” Katya urged.
Isabella was filled with fresh excitement as she pushed on the door and this one opened to reveal her sought-after library. It was better than she had hoped for. There were books in her own language, books in Wallachian, Dracula’s language, and others in German, Russian, and Hungarian. Some books had several different translations; she would be able to teach herself different languages and learn about the world she thought she would never see.
While Isabella was staring in wonderment at the books Katya was steadily growing more and more anxious.
“We have to go,” she said.
“All right,” Isabella answered. She grabbed some books from the shelves and the two girls left the castle. The wolf followed them for a short time and then disappeared.
Isabella fell asleep that night reading one of the books she had taken from Vlad’s library. The next morning her stepmother woke her up by yelling her name.
“What is it?” Isabella yelled back to her.
“Come here. I want to talk to you.” She went into the kitchen where her stepmother was cooking breakfast.
“What’s that?” Isabella’s stepmother pointed at the book Isabella had fallen asleep reading. Isabella’s heart sank, although she did not outwardly show her state of mind. She had not taken the books to her grandfather’s cottage because she knew he would realise where she had gotten them and he would be very upset with her. He had always told her never to go up to the castle. He had always been strict and unrelenting on this point. Isabella had always wondered why. She did not know that the last person Alexei had known to go up there had died.
“What does it look like?” Isabella retorted.
“I know it’s a book, Isabella. I want to know if you can read it,” Her stepmother said.
Isabella was now relieved, for she realised what this was about. Her stepmother did not know she could read. Of course she didn’t, for Isabella spent as little time as possible in this house. Her stepmother and sister treated her with little more than contempt and her father ignored her. He could not bear to look at her, let alone show her any affection. Isabella to him was just a perfect picture of painful memories he would rather have soon forgotten. One of Isabella
’s earliest memories was of her father saying to her, “Your mother died so you could live! You stole your mother from me and I cannot stand the sight of you!”
Isabella’s thoughts were broken by her stepmother’s shrill voice.
“Can you read?”
“Yes!” Isabella shouted back.
“Who taught you?”
“Alexei!” At this moment Isabella’s father entered the room.
“Guy, did you know she could read?”
“Her mother could,” Guy answered. Isabella’s father did not look at her. He never looked at her.
“Well, I want Natasha to learn. I’m not having her being able to do something that my daughter can’t. So you can take her with you to Alexei’s from now on.”
Isabella’s sister entered the room. Isabella watched as her father kissed and hugged his younger daughter. She stood silently as her sister paraded her father’s affections in front of her. Natasha took great delight in hurting her sister, a trait she had learned well from both her father and mother. The two sisters had a mutual disliking for each other from as far back as either one could remember, but they had reached an understanding.
Natasha had one day referred to Katya as an ugly cripple. Isabella had caught her sister by the arm and told her if she said anything like that again, Katya would not be the only cripple in the village. Her sister’s firmness and the strong almost painful grip she had on her arm made Natasha realise that she meant every word she said. Since then, Natasha would only confront or try to upset her sister when there was someone around to protect her from Isabella’s wrath, hence, her ready display and indulgence with her parents.
Isabella hated the idea of Natasha coming with her to her grandfather’s. The only time she was really happy was when she was nowhere near her family. Isabella did not protest her stepmother’s wish—she knew it was pointless to do that and the more determined her malicious sister would be to go to with her. Isabella would just have to think of some other way of getting out of taking her sister.
The next two years passed more slowly for Isabella. At first she took Natasha with her every day, but after a while she started to get up early and leave the house before anyone else was awake. This would also give her a chance to go up to the castle to get more books, and while Isabella was teaching herself different languages and learning as much as she possibly could, Natasha was making little progress. She really did not have any interest in learning to read. Her main interest seemed to be Nicolae, which made Isabella even more miserable.
During this time Katya had married Dragen and she had stopped coming with Isabella to Alexei’s. Isabella missed her friend, but she was happy for her.
Isabella was now nineteen and no one could equal her in beauty. She received quite a bit of attention from the young men of the village, but she was not interested. She only had eyes for Nicolae but he, thus far, had expressed no sign that he returned her affections.
Isabella was still trying to avoid having her sister accompany her on her visits to her grandfather and had planned to get up early and sneak out of the house to avoid Natasha. This would also give her time to get some more books from Dracula’s castle. Her plan did not work. Natasha had woken before her and was already waiting outside.
“Hurry up,” Isabella shouted when she caught sight of her sister. On the way to Alexei’s they met Katya on her way to visit her parents. Natasha hurried on without stopping to talk to Katya, but Isabella stopped.
“What’s wrong with your sister? And why is she in such a hurry?” Katya asked.
“She wants to get to Alexei’s to see Nicolae.”
“Oh.”
“She thinks I’m stupid,” Isabella rejoined, staring at her sister as she practically ran ahead of them down the path to Nicolae’s house.
“Why, what’s your sister trying to do to you now?”
“She flirts with Nicolae while I’m there.”
“I know lots of girls who flirt with Nicolae and they don’t bother you as much.”
“But Nicolae’s so nice to her.”
“Nicolae’s nice to everyone. I would not feel threatened by her. Nicolae loves you, surely you know that.”
“I don’t know anything of the kind.”
“Why don’t you ask him?”
“And give him the satisfaction of knowing that I cared one way or the other?”
“Isabella,” Katya scolded. “You know Nicolae could have been married years ago to anyone he wanted. But…”
“I’ll talk to you later,” Isabella cut Katya off. She never liked being scolded or told what to do, especially when the other person was right.
She soon caught up with her sister. “It was very rude of you to ignore Katya like that.”
“She’s not my friend,” said Natasha.
“That’s not the point. Show some respect.”
There was a brief silence. Then Natasha asked, “How long has she been married now?”
Isabella wondered what her sister was working up to but answered her question.
“Her wedding day was a month ago today and she looked beautiful.”
“As beautiful as she can look, I suppose,” said Natasha.
Isabella bit her tongue. She was determined not to let her sister know she was annoying her.
“I think I’ll get married soon,” said Natasha.
“Oh, really…and who’s the lucky man?”
“I think you can guess,” Natasha said.
It took all Isabella’s restraint to keep her hands off her sister. She stopped walking beside her and held back a few steps while Natasha carried on. Isabella slipped into the woods without her sister seeing her. She took a shortcut through the forest and arrived at her grandfather’s house long before Natasha. When Isabella arrived there she pounded on the door. Nicolae opened it.
“Where’s my grandfather?” Isabella shouted.
“He’s gone hunting.”
Isabella pushed by Nicolae, knocking him against the wall. Nicolae smiled; he knew as soon as he saw Isabella that she was furious about something.
“My sister will be here soon.”
“I’ll leave the door open for her.”
Isabella looked up at Nicolae. “Will you be glad to see her?”
Nicolae shrugged in answer to Isabella‘s question.
“She seems quite taken with you,” Isabella said.
Nicolae started to laugh. “Are you jealous?” he asked in disbelief.
“Jealous! Why would I be jealous? It is no concern of mine what you do. I think you two deserve each other.”
“You are…you’re jealous,” Nicolae said as he continued to laugh at Isabella. This infuriated her even more. She grabbed a cup that was sitting on the table beside her and threw it at Nicolae. The cup just missed his head.
“Are you trying to kill me?” he protested. “Now, just calm down,” he said with a sigh and then he went on, “You must know, Isabella, I realise who Natasha is and I know what she has put you through. I love you, Isabella…no one else. I always have and I always will. Even though you are hot tempered and vain.”
Isabella tried to make some rebuke to Nicolae’s last comment but he pressed his finger to her lips to silence her. “You treat the people you love with kindness and generosity and I have always loved you for that and although you are far from perfect, I love you despite your faults. Whether or not you are more beautiful than Natasha is irrelevant to me. You are the person I love.”
Natasha arrived and heard him speaking. She stayed back and started to listen secretly to the couple’s conversation.
“As far as your sister is concerned I would not look twice at her. Not when I could look at you,” Nicolae said to Isabella.
Hearing this made Natasha almost unbearably envious of her sister, but she remained quiet and kept listening.
“Alexei once told me never to tell you how beautiful you were, but I am telling you now!” Nicolae held Isabella in front of him and stared into her eyes an
d continued, “You are beautiful Isabella. I could never look at anyone else or think of marrying anyone else.” Nicolae took Isabella’s face in his hands and kissed her tenderly.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Isabella asked. She was completely relieved and overjoyed by this revelation.
“I always assumed you knew. I’m flattered really that you were jealous of Natasha. But she could never compare to you.”
Natasha then made them aware that she had arrived. Isabella looked superciliously at her sister and started to speak to her in a disdainful tone: “Wonderful news, Natasha…Nicolae and I are going to be married.”
Nicolae would usually object to this sort of behaviour from Isabella, but today he would let her have her little moment.
“I am happy for you,” Natasha said, her face twisted in a sneer.
“I can see you are,” Isabella responded with irony.
“I think it’s time for my lesson,” Natasha said.
“Alexei’s not here,” Isabella answered.
“You usually teach me, anyway.”
“I’ll leave you to it,” said Nicolae as he left the room. Natasha went over to get a book. Isabella just watched her sister. Isabella was enjoying her little triumph. She never got the better of her sister and she was revelling in this moment. Natasha looked up at her.
“What are you smiling at?” Natasha asked her sister. “You’re enjoying this.”
“Enjoying what?” asked Isabella calmly. Natasha put the book back on the shelf and went over to sit beside the fire. She lifted a poker and started stabbing at the hot embers.
“So, Nicolae does not think I am as beautiful as you.”
“I think his words were that you could not be compared to me.”
“My parents think I am just as attractive as you are.”
“Have they ever said that to you? Have they ever looked at you and said you are just a beautiful as I am?” Isabella asked. She turned around and sat down. “I would not worry about it, Natasha. I am sure your graciousness, charm and wit will see you through. I am sure you will find quite a…decent husband.”
Natasha did not know what graciousness meant but she knew her sister was insulting her and at this final remark. Natasha took the now red-hot poker and leaped towards Isabella with it.
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