Christoph laughed, a cheerful sound in that cold room. "A most learned summation, my Kitty Cat. Now attend and hear a little more. The Roman Empire fell when wild men rode in on horses from the east, out of where the Bylorussians and the Ukrainians live today. Some of those wild riders were Hungarians and Magyars, some were Slavs."
"I know about Huns," Caterina said. "They traveled with herds of horses and cattle and their leader was Attila."
"Yes. Rossmann and Goran are from a land where many different tribes of Slavs settled. These days their land is divided between the empire of the Ottoman Turks and our Hapsburg Emperor. Their homeland has been overrun so many times, for the last several hundred years by Turks, that things are always troubled. They fight each other, too, those tribes. There are Serbs, Slovenes, Croats, Macedonians and a whole crowd who have become Muslim. Some Muslims, you see, are as white as you and me, although others are brown, like the people of North Africa."
There was a brief interruption while a servant came in bearing a bowl of brown speckled pippins. Plates were removed and a rough cutting board upon which sat a soft cheese in solitary state was placed between them. Cat picked up a knife and began to cut a up the fruit. She loved apples and cheese.
"So," Christoph continued, reaching for an apple, "Goran's village and all his family were killed by Serbs. No one can blame him for hating Serbs where ever and whenever he finds them. When I first took Rossmann on, I worried about one murdering the other. Lately, Goran's taken to putting it about that Rossmann's a Muslim, which certainly brings everyone to his side who wasn't there already. I'd never dare to leave the two of them alone at Heldenberg."
"But wouldn't your Hauptmann Goran know a Muslim when he saw one?"
"It is a fact of life that Goran is a Croat and Croats hate Serbs as much as they hate Turks. When I was fighting out there, they were killing each other constantly, even when they were supposed to be fighting on the same side. There is just too much bad blood over too many years. Some Serbs side with us, others with the Russians, with whom they share a religion, but many live on lands which pay tribute to the Grand Turk."
Christoph cut his apple into sections crowning the slice with cheese. Another servant appeared, carrying a bottle of Moselle, which he poured into fresh glasses.
"It's hard to manage," her husband went on, "when the two servants I most rely upon want nothing more than to stick a knife into the other's heart. I've learned to take what one says about the other with a good deal more than a pinch of salt. And," he concluded, "it doesn't matter to me whether Rossmann goes to Mass or not, as long as he takes good care of my horses. Frankly, the fellow could have horns and a tail and wander around in a cloud of brimstone and I wouldn't dismiss him."
He smiled, but Cat had a last question.
"But why doesn't Rossmann go to Mass?"
"Because Serbs are Christians of the Eastern Rite, like the Russians. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a sin for him to attend our Mass."
* * *
After supper, Cat and Elsa continued with unpacking. Cat was startled when, without a knock, Josefa swept into the room.
"I'm to help you, m'Lady. Frau Walter sent me."
"That's not necessary." Cat straightened and tossed a braid over her shoulder. She didn't want this saucy creature butting in.
Josefa stood uncertainly by the door, surprised. Caterina was very tall and could project aristocratic command when she had to.
"Shall I go?"
"Yes, but thank you for coming and thank Frau Walter for her thoughtfulness." Caterina used a cool tone which would have done her mother proud, but in the next moment it was all undone.
As Josefa turned and put her hand on the latch, Caterina added, "Josefa, I suppose I ought to go down and speak to Frau Walter about the house." Belatedly, she'd remembered that a conference with the housekeeper was how her mother began every morning.
"What on earth for?" Cat was left staring at a whirl of skirts extinguished by the closing door. That's what I get, she thought, for showing weakness.
"Impertinent." She raised her voice, but the footsteps continued away along the corridor. "She's going to have to learn manners. Either that or she won't be here much longer."
"Oh, but Mistress," Elsa whispered. "She's Frau Walter's sister."
Cat shook her head. "I don't care if she's the Queen of Sheba. She's not going to talk like that to me. I shall speak to my—husband."
Some day, she thought, I will not stumble over that word.
It didn't take too long to finish the work. Elsa oohed at the sight of Cat's leather-seated riding trousers and her jackets and hats, at the high leather riding boots, at the gloves and cloaks. There was more of that than dresses, although Cat had been made, in the weeks before her wedding, to stand still for fittings. There were three new dresses, but more shifts, shirts and stockings in the trousseau than anything else.
"I pray to God," her mother had sighed one day, "that there is someone on Heldenberg who can sew for you, Caterina. In the meantime," she'd held up a shirt which she'd been embroidering white-on-white, "we'll work at getting you at least a year's worth of under things. Then we'll pray..."
When the last shirts were put away, they went into Elsa's room. Her maid had been sleeping with the housemaids before Caterina's arrival, so she too was just moving in. A nicked and battered chest of drawers, a chair, and a washbasin were all the furniture. There were marks on the walls and on the clean but badly scuffed floors.
"This is exactly like a nursery room." The thought was spoken aloud. Cat's mother had always slept in a middle room too, accessible on one side to daughter and her nurse and on the other to her husband.
Elsa began taking clothing from the small trunk, kneeling to put them away in the chest. Suddenly she recoiled.
Something, Cat saw, was already inside. Elsa, alarmed, made a move to shove the drawer closed. Cat couldn't imagine what might be inside, but she realized she ought to see.
"Open the drawer, Elsa."
When Elsa, looking as if the end of the world had come, opened the drawer again, she saw a set of toy soldiers. There were foot soldiers with pikes, a cannon, artillery men and a set of cavalrymen mounted on a prancing horses.
Joining Elsa on the floor, Cat picked up a horseman and turned it round in her fingers. It was beautifully carved and painted, very much like the toys with which her father, over her mother's objections, had indulged her.
Her heart leapt into her throat. She was thinking of a thousand things, but chiefly of the night at the Black Swan, where she had stood naked before her husband, had asked him with her eyes to make love to her.
Oh, what if he had? What would she be feeling now?
"Elsa," she said, "Elsa, where is the child that these belong to?"
"I am sorry, Mistress. You must ask the Herr Graf."
Cat dashed down the stairs, passing housemaids with arms full of linen, on their way up. Skirt in hand she continued down the corridor, past the open door of the kitchen, bustling with the labor of autumn. Her haste, she knew, occasioned comment, but she didn't care.
When she reached the bailiff's quarters at the back of the house, she threw open the door without knocking. It proved to be a spare parlor. The men at the cluttered desk turned, surprised in the middle of looking over accounts.
Goran had been sitting near the door. He pushed himself warily upright with the stout cane he always carried.
Cat managed to drop a curtsy to the others, all the while fighting with fear and temper. "Herr Graf, Amtmann Walter," she said. "Excuse me, but I must speak to the Graf. This minute."
Christoph raised an eyebrow, but he stood, while indicating that Walter should leave. "I will send for you again, Herr Amtmann."
"As you wish, Herr Graf." Walter, with a look in Cat's direction, bowed. He began to gather up the papers.
"Leave it." The Graf's tone left no doubt in anyone's mind that an exit should be immediate. Helpfully, Goran opened the door.
"Of course," Walter muttered. As soon as he had gone through it, Goran started to follow.
"Herr Goran, please see that we aren't disturbed."
The Croat's balding head inclined as he closed the door.
Christoph waved her to a chair, but Cat strode forward and thumped the little cavalryman down upon the accounts. Her husband regarded it sadly. Then his long fingers came to take it up.
"Thank you for your restraint, Caterina."
"Where has the child gone?"
"Children, Cat. My two boys, fine fellows of eight and nine, who went this spring to boarding school."
"Did Wili know?" Caterina linked her fingers and squeezed, damning herself for every dot of emotion she showed.
"I had no secrets from Wili."
"But you kept secrets from Mama and Papa—and from me."
"Your father knew. As for you, we have enough to unravel, Caterina. I thought it best to take one at a time."
Cat gritted her teeth. Every response he made prompted more questions. It was hard to stay calm.
"Did Wili know you'd sent your boys away?"
"They are at the good Piarist's school in Perchtoldsdorf. I'm afraid that like you they prefer larking about on horseback to studying." A smile came to his face, a proud paternal look Cat recognized.
"What kind of father would I be if I did not see to their education? They went to school this spring not only because I would soon bring your sister here, but because it was time for them to start taking their place in the world. I will not slight the obligation of having fathered them." He looked straight at her. "The older is to go to the army. The younger, who has a gentle nature, I will help to civil service, perhaps."
"And Elsa's room was their nursery? And their mother slept in the middle room?"
"For the time she was my mistress."
The ferocious swing Cat launched was intercepted by a strong hand.
"How dare you put me in your mistress's room? How dare you?"
"Hush!" Christoph backed her to a seat in his chair.
After the attempted slap, his hands had fastened upon her wrists like manacles, so she struggled no further. Equally constraining was a sudden awareness that half the household probably had put an ear to the adjoining wall.
"None of your cowardly running before I'm done talking to you."
"I'm never a coward. Damn your black heart."
She glared. Finally, humiliating tears welling, Caterina nodded angrily, indicating that he could go on.
"Four years ago, during one of my long absences Barbara fell in love with a Hauptmann, a captain of my guard I'd sent up here to recover from an illness. Three years ago, just before their daughter was born, she and Hauptmann Ermler were married in Heldenruhe, with my blessing."
Cat stared. Somehow, this wasn't the narrative she'd been expecting.
"When I first found out about their affair, I was hurt, but I had to admit it was more my pride than my heart. I could never marry Barbara, so why shouldn't she fall in love with someone who could?"
"But she didn't leave Heldenberg until this spring?"
"No. She and her husband have been living here."
"Convenient."
"Caterina," her husband replied, "Hauptmann Ermler is attached to my body guard. Do you know how easy it is to kill the man by your side under cover of battle? As a matter of fact, he could have left me for the Turks last year, but he risked his neck to drag me to safety."
"Christoph, I'm not a fool. You are his patron. Papa says that poor men can't afford honor."
"Your father has many forcefully expressed opinions, but, as you know yourself, Caterina, he is not always right."
The chair into which he'd pushed her into was more than normally high. Cat considered, swinging one foot restlessly and staring at the squares of the slate floor. Only beneath Herr Walter's desk was the cold gray stone covered with a Turkey carpet.
"Caterina, I'm not a monster. I wish you had not found this," he said, turning his gaze back to the little horseman. "I had planned to tell you about the boys as soon as you had settled in a little. Wili and I talked over a lot of things that you and I haven't had time to go into."
He released her hands, and began to pace in front of the empty maw of the fireplace. Cat had no sense of this as a performance. Christoph looked like exactly what he was, a man of action who had been trapped by a tangle of circumstance that he couldn't cut his way out of with a sword.
"I swear to you, just as I swore to your sister, that Barbara and I haven't been lovers for a long time. Barbara stayed at Heldenberg because that was what she wanted. She helped her sister, Frau Walter, manage the house," Christoph said. "But, even if she hadn't made herself useful, there were the boys, my sons, Caterina. There is nowhere so healthy for young children as the country. Wili understood why it was right for them to stay here with their mother."
"Wili would have believed the sky was red if you'd told her so."
"Wili said she could let the past go if I promised to be faithful. She also promised that if anything ever happened to me during their minority, she would see that their education was completed and suitable positions found for them."
A muscle in his strong jaw twitched, perhaps at the memory he was conjuring. Then he said, "This spring I told your sister that I was hers till death parted us."
Were those tears in his eyes? He cleared his throat and continued.
"When I put the ring on your finger, Caterina, I promised you fidelity before God and in the presence of our families. I shall honor my promise."
Caterina's head swam. There was a rising lump in her throat.
"If you were—were—honest with Wili, why haven't you been so with me?"
"I've explained. What kind of Blue Beard do you think I am?"
Caterina silently stared at her swinging foot.
"I'm sorry that this has upset you, Cat. I never intended for you to find out like this."
"You had six weeks before we were married. You never visited me once."
"Your father was absolutely against it. Frankly, I believe he thought you'd put me off and I'd refuse to go through with the marriage."
"And if you took another wife, his precious land would pass away from his blood."
"Yes."
Cat bit her lip. High handed, but just like her father…
"I hope you will be able to understand. As the boys are a part of my life, it's right that you should know about them, but I didn't intend for you to find out like this." His gaze returned to the cavalryman frozen in a motionless prance upon the papers, a man thinking about his sons.
Doubts and fears swirled. Again Cat remembered the thing Christoph had said at the Black Swan, about the "blessing" of delay. Had he been thinking of this?
Another black thought quickly popped in. Caterina blurted: "How many other children are there?"
"No others that I am obligated to as I am to Christian and Michael."
"Cuckoos in other men's nests, is that what you mean?"
"Perhaps, Caterina. No lady has ever taken me to task, but on occasion I've wondered. The fact is I've done a lot of things I've lived long enough to be sorry for."
Cat continued to gaze at the floor. So much to think through…
"There are no other secrets, Caterina. The past is past. As I told Wili, I want nothing more than to begin my life again. So," he ended, inclining his handsome dark head, "will you please stay? You must know by now that I have no intention of forcing you."
Caterina looked him up and down. "I promised my mother that I would try to trust you."
"I hope you will do more than try, but under the circumstances that is the most I can hope for." He took Caterina's hand up and briefly kissed it. "I shall not play the rogue with you." Dark eyes, gazing into hers, sent an alarming green flash, one that a subterranean something deep inside tugged to answer…
"There are a great many obstacles to our happiness, but I remain hopeful that in time we shall find our way. At th
e Black Swan we both had a glimpse of something beyond duty."
"Time will tell." Caterina severely quoted one of her mother's favorite maxims. Her heart, again heavy with doubt and homesickness, ached.
"Between us there has to be healing before anything can grow. Trust me a little, and I'll show you that a man can change."
Chapter Ten
At Heldenberg there were a few raw recruits for Christoph's company, young men from the farmsteads. There were also three officers and about fifteen foot soldiers from his regiment. These men always accompanied him into battle. They kept military discipline and so daily there were exercises and drills which her husband overlooked.
Christoph's days were full, for besides this and work with Walter, he took rides to survey his livestock and land. To Caterina's delight he always asked her to come. Those days were perfectly happy, the same cousinly fun they'd always shared. As they ranged over the broad shoulders of Heldenberg, Cat was able to enjoy herself, to let go of her fears and suspicions.
"You should meet my peasants. It's important, especially as I might have to go soldiering again next year. I want you to get a feel for the place and its problems. Your papa told me you were more interested in such things than women usually are and that's an interest I intend to encourage. If you have a talent for managing it will be useful, especially because I am a soldier and often absent."
Christoph talked with her about the people they met. He spoke about the livestock, about the few run-down farms, the peasants who couldn't, for one reason or another, pay their tithe.
Cat loved these rides "on business." It was wonderful to be treated like a grown, intelligent person. It was also wonderful to get out of the house, away from all those cold eyes.
"Come on, Red," her husband would say when the business of the day was done. "Let's gallop."
And gallop they would, a breathtaking, glorious chase. She'd set her sights on Brandy's burnished rump and chase Christoph until they reached the high meadows. Then he'd slow and they'd ride knee to knee, gazing at the range of gray-headed sister mountains and down the long sweep into the valley.
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