Sally Wentworth - King of the Castle

by King of the Castle

  Rather taken aback by the urgency in his voice, Lee could only reply, 'Why, yes, of course I will.'

  He nodded. "Good, then I will wish you auf wiedersehen for the present.' He raised his riding-crop in salute and dug his heels into his horse to send it cantering up the hill.

  After returning the chestnut to his stable, Lee drove back to the hotel and found Herr Gruber most helpful in giving her the name of a valuer, in fact he luckily had the address of one who spoke English on his desk, so she was able to telephone straightaway. When she explained that she was only a visitor to Austria, the valuer was more than helpful and agreed to go to the chalet the very next day and let her have his report' the day after that. Pleased with her success but rather tired and achey after her unaccustomed exercise, she decided to go to bed early to read, but just as she was on her way upstairs after dinner, Herr Gruber told her that there was a phone call for her. Quickly she ran down to the little telephone booth and picked up the receiver.

  'Richard? Is that you, darling?'

  There was a pause before a masculine voice said slowly, 'I'm sorry to disappoint you, Fraulein, but this is Max von Reistoven. Did you have any success with a valuer?'

  'Yes, I did.' Quickly Lee explained the position.

  'I see.' He seemed to deliberate for a moment, then amazed her by saying, 'If you have nothing planned for tomorrow perhaps you would allow me to show you a little of the Tyrol? You haven't been up into the high mountains yet, have you?' '

  'Why, no. But really, Herr von Reistoven, you don't have to go to that trouble. I'll be ……’

  'It will be my pleasure, Fraulein. I will pick you up at—shall we say nine-thirty?'

  'Th-thank you, that will be fine.' In rather a daze Lee put down the receiver and went up to her room to prepare for bed. Her book forgotten, she lay in the darkened room and watched the bars of moonlight that filtered through the windows. It had been a day of mixed events, mixed emotions; her delight on first seeing the perfect picture the chalet made and her disappointment at its condition; her enjoyment of Max von Reistoven's company and her bewilderment when he had seemed to change towards her when she had told him of her engagement. Was it because he disapproved of her being here alone? Or was it because he had foreseen all sorts of legal wrangling when he found out that Richard was a lawyer? Whatever it was, it would appear that he had decided to overlook it or he wouldn't have asked her out tomorrow. To the high mountains, he had said, and Lee was still thinking of the mountains and of Max von Reistoven when she drifted off to sleep.

  The big grey Mercedes pulled up in the forecourt of the hotel promptly next morning and Lee went rather hesitantly down the steps to meet him, unsure of what to expect. But she needn't have worried, for Max greeted her with a friendly smile and courteously made sure she was comfortable and had everything she needed before driving off. He took her deep into the Alps, along side roads through toyland villages that not yet been overrun by tourists, driving quite fast, but with skill and confidence so that Lee felt no alarm as the powerful car took the hairpin bends in its Stride.

  At length he pulled up in a car park near a cable-car station at the foot of one of the highest peaks.

  'Are we really going up in that?" The cables that held the car looked awfully fragile as they stretched out into space towards the summit.

  He smiled. 'It's quite safe.' He led her to the small queue of people waiting for the car to come down and Lee became aware of how people turned their heads to look at them. Max was wearing a tan safari-style suit that, despite its well-cut casualness, didn't detract from his authoritative, carelessly arrogant manner, and Lee supposed it was this that made people move out of his way to let him pass and the ticket seller to speak so deferentially.

  The ride in the cable-car was one that Lee would never forget. At first it was rather nerve-racking to find oneself suspended in mid-air, but soon the breathtaking panorama set out around her made her forget the sheer drop below. After they had rattled noisily into the cable-station on the mountain top they wandered round the walks that had been cut out of the rock-face. In one area an alpine garden had been planted with edelweiss and other rock plants which climbed their colourful way among the nooks and crevices of the bare brown rock.

  Suddenly a thick mist shut out the sun and enveloped them in greyness. Hastily Lee pulled on the sweater that she had brought with her. 'Ugh, this mist is damp! I can feel the moisture on my face and hair.'

  'It isn't mist,' Max told her with a smile. 'You're standing in the middle of a cloud. Come, I'll show you.'

  He led her to where a part of the mountain jutted out from the face. A wall had been built for the safety of tourists so that they could look across the valley to the precipitous slopes of the other alps all around them.

  'Watch. Soon you'll be able to see through the cloud.'

  He moved closer to her, his hand resting lightly on her shoulder as he indicated the point where she was to watch. His hand felt warm and strong and it was a few minutes before she realised that the cloud had begun to shred and then, through a hole that slowly cleared, she saw the sun shining below them, and deep down in the valley a tiny red-roofed village with its shiny black upside-down radish of a church spire and a river that wound its way between the houses. It was like looking at a miniature landscape painting—a painting framed in grey cotton wool.

  A slight breeze chased the cloud away to settle on other mountain tops and Lee turned to speak to Max, but her voice died in her throat as she found him watching her, a rather pensive expression in his eyes that were as intensely blue as the mountain sky. The expression changed as soon as she looked at him and he suggested they have lunch in the hotel built on a nearby plateau. Here there was a huge dining-room with lines of wooden tables and benches. Max ordered soup for them, but as they hadn't brought a picnic lunch Lee rather thought that a bowl of soup wouldn't be very filling; however, the waitress brought a tray with a huge tureen of thick, hot vegetable soup with two bowls and spoons, and while Max was serving this, she came back with a basket piled high with chunks of French bread and a mound of butter pats. The coolness in the cloud had made them both hungry, but it was more than their combined appetites could do to empty the tureen.

  'Gosh, do they always give you this much?' Lee asked as she laid her spoon down at last.

  'It's mostly for the hikers and climbers, so they make it very thick and nourishing. You get the best soup in Austria in the mountain hotels.'

  The second peak they visited was by funicular railway this time; a small, noisy engine that pulled three carriages of tourists as it chugged its way slowly up the precipitous zig-zag track, stopping at tiny halts to pick up hikers who had given up and who flopped gratefully into the empty seats. It was quite late when they finally descended from this mountain and Lee thought that Max would take her back to her hotel, but instead he drove her to an inn, a very old Tyrolean building with a fretwork of beams supporting the ceiling and tables with red and white chequered cloths set around a cleared space in the middle of the lamplit room. They ate a delicious meal and Lee tried hard to remember the names of the dishes, but couldn't, and drank wine that made her feel relaxed and tell Max all about her life in England when he asked her. A compare came into the cleared space and to Lee's delight announced an exhibition of folk entertainment.

  There were dancers in ornate versions of the peasant dress that Lee had seen worn by girls in Ausbach. They had full dirndl skirts and beautifully embroidered hand-made blouses that made Lee decide she had to buy one before she left Austria; but the prettiest part of their costumes were the white lace headdresses that framed their faces so becomingly. In between the dances there were displays of various types of Tyrolean skills. Everyone enjoyed the race between a man sawing through a log of wood and another chopping his way through, and joined in the cheers when the man with the axe finally won. But Lee found herself fascinated by the demonstration of flag-throwing by two men in traditional male peasant dress of Tyrolean hat,
soft, full-sleeved shirt and short grey leather trousers— Lederhosen, Max told her they were called—and long grey socks with buckled shoes.

  The flags, of Austria and the Tyrol, were thrown high into the air, twisting and turning as they fell, only to be skilfully caught and tossed up again to pass each other in mid-air and be caught by the other man. The silken colours in the flags glowed warmly in the dimmed room and the only noise was the whirr and flap of the billowing ensigns. Then suddenly they were still, the whole room hushed and quiet. From outside, on the slope of the mountain, there came clearly and unmistakably the sound of an alpine horn, its deep, melancholy note echoing and re-echoing through the mountains until it faded into infinity. Lee sat there, strangely moved by the simple and ancient ceremony and it was several moments before she could bring herself to look at Max. He was watching her with a strangely gentle look in his eyes,' and she flushed as she realised how an evening that had seemed so wonderful and new to her would be only commonplace to him. This tall, enigmatic man belonged to his castle set among the crags, and Lee—he was being kind to her because she was a stranger in his country, knew no one, Couldn't even speak the language—nothing more. Then be stood up and politely helped her to her feet. The show was over, it was time to go.

  Only a dim pool of light lit the entrance to the hotel when Max walked her to the door. Putting out her hand, Lee looked up at him and said sincerely, Thank you. It's been a really wonderful day.'

  Max took her hand in his, but instead of shaking it fee raised it briefly to his lips, then astounded her by saying, 'You know, Fraulein, if I had been your fiancé the engagement would be very official—and very, very short!' His eyes held hers for a moment, then he turned precipitately and strode back to his car.

  The valuer's report was waiting for her after breakfast the next morning and Lee was pleased to find that he bad put a value on the Chalet Alpenrose that was a little under the offer that Max had made for it. So the solicitor had been right; it had been a fair price. Thinking of the solicitor made her impatient for his return, so she drove round to his office where the secretary told her that Herr Kreuz would be back later that day. Lee made an appointment for three o'clock and passed the time in between visiting a nearby town famed for its woodcarvers. She spent an enjoyable couple of hours looking round the shops and buying presents for her parents, and a rather expensive carved panel which she told herself was for Richard, but which she couldn't resist, then had lunch in a pretty open-air restaurant overlooking a small lake before driving back to Ausbach to keep her appointment.

  Herr Kreuz was a thin, elderly man with a small moustache and glasses that he kept looking over the top of, but he greeted Lee warmly and soon got down to business. Besides the chalet and land, Lee was surprised to hear that her great-uncle had also left her a small insurance policy.

  'You will have read in my letter of the offer that has been made for the chalet," the solicitor went on. 'When you have seen the property it may be that…"

  'But I have seen it,' Lee interrupted him. 'I went there the other day and saw the state the place was in, so I got an independent valuation on it.' She pulled the report from her bag and gave it to him.

  Herr Kreuz pushed his glasses back on his nose and read it through carefully. 'Who gave you the name of this company, Fraulein?'

  'Herr Gruber at the hotel. It tallies quite closely with Herr von Reistoven's offer, so I don't see…'

  'But how did you know that it was Herr von Reistoven who had made the offer?' the solicitor asked sharply.

  'I met him quite by accident when I was going to the chalet and he told me. I said I would accept his offer if the valuation was satisfactory.'

  Herr Kreuz looked at her in some perturbation. 'You seem to be in a great hurry, Fraulein Summers.'

  'Well, there doesn't seem to be any point in delaying, does there? I only have a limited time at my disposal.'

  'But you don't know all the circumstances. Your great-uncle was not on the best of terms with Max von Reistoven. It may be that he would not have wanted you to sell to him.'

  Lee looked at the solicitor in some astonishment. 'But you told me about the offer in the first place!'

  'I was duty bound to do so, but I intended telling you all the circumstances before you made up your mind. You see…"

  'It isn't necessary to go into details, Herr Kreuz, I already know that Uncle Howard regarded Max von

  Reistoven as his enemy, that he had a persecution complex about it.'

  The solicitor looked at her over his glasses, his eyebrows raised. 'Who told you this?'

  'Herr von Reistoven himself. He was very open about it. My great-uncle didn't specifically state in his will that I wasn't to sell to him, did he?'

  'No, you are to dispose of the property as you wish.'

  'Then please will you draw up the necessary papers for the sale to Herr von Reistoven?' Still the solicitor seemed to hesitate and Lee added rather impatiently, 'Who else would I sell it to? Obviously no one would want it as it, and I don't have the capital for repairs and modernisation even if I wanted to keep the house.'

  For a long moment the solicitor continued to look at her, then he shook his head with a sigh. 'Very well, Fraulein Summers, it shall be as you wish. I will contact Herr von Reistoven and the contract should be ready to be signed within a few days.'

  He kept her only a little longer and then Lee found herself back in the sunshine again. Slowly she walked back to her car, but didn't drive off straight away. She supposed she had behaved rather abruptly towards the solicitor, but somewhere deep inside she had a feeling of unrest, an increasing urge to have the business settled and get back to England, to her own familiar surroundings and to Richard. It wasn't homesickness, rather an inner fear that if she stayed too long in this beautiful country she might not want to go back. She looked at the little street of houses, alive with the rich colours of ancient wood, of wall paintings, of flowers, and, at the end of the road, the green wooded slopes rising to high granite peaks, and above everything the intense blue of the summer sky. Remembering the noisy, choking city streets she had left so recently, Lee realised there was no comparison—none at all!

  The air was very still and hot; there was no breeze to sway the flowers that grew beneath the crosses of stone and ornate iron that dotted the little churchyard on the slope behind the church. Butterflies settled undisturbed and ladybirds climbed their slow way over neat paths between the graves. On a wooden bench set under the shade of a tree an old man rested, apparently asleep, his head cupped in gnarled hands that leaned heavily on a stick. In an area of starkly new headstones, some only just beginning to weather, Lee found the one she sought—a plain stone bearing her great-uncle's name, 'Howard Canning', with the dates of his birth and death, nothing more.

  After arranging the flowers she had brought with her, she stood for a time looking at the stone and wondering about this man whom she hardly remembered but who had thought enough of her to leave her all he possessed. He, too, had been young once, had stepped boldly out to meet whatever life had to offer him. She hoped that he had lived it to the full, enough to make up for his illness in the last few years. Turning to go away, she almost jumped out of her skin when she found that the old man who had been sitting on the bench had come quietly up behind her.

  'Fraulein Summers.' The words were more a statement than a question. 'I have been waiting to see if you would come here, if you cared enough about my old friend to seek out his last resting place.' The old man spoke excellent English and his rather rheumy eyes were very much alive in his weathered face. 'My name is Johann Staffler and your uncle lived with me in Ausbach until his death. That was after he was forced out of the Chalet Alpenrose, of course,' he added deliberately.

  'Forced out?' Lee found herself staring into his eyes as if mesmerised.

  'Yes.' He turned and slowly went to the seat under the tree, Lee following him. 'Herr Kreuz, too, is an old friend. He told me that you were only interested in selling
the estate and getting the money, that you did not want to hear anything about the details of Howard Canning's death. But Howard often spoke of you with great affection and I did not believe he could mean nothing to you, so I decided to sit here and wait to see if you would come. If you did not…' he shrugged, 'then I would know that Herr Kreuz was right. But you did come, so I know that you did care about my old friend.'

  'What do you mean, "the details of his death"? And why was he forced to leave the chalet?' Lee asked in some bewilderment. 'I thought he died of a heart attack?'

  'That was the official medical reason, yes,' Herr Staffler agreed. 'But in reality he was virtually driven into his grave by the measures that were brought to bear on him to give up the Alpenrose estate,'

  'But I don't understand. What measures? And who brought them against him?'

  The old man looked at her. 'Why, Max von Reistoven, of course.'

  Lee stared at him; was this the kind of thing that Max had warned her about? Asked her to hear with an open mind? Carefully she said, 'I know that Uncle toward had been unwell and unable to look after the estate properly. Perhaps he imagined that Herr von Reistoven was treating him unfairly…" - 'Imagined!' Herr Staffler almost barked the Word out. 'What are you trying to say—that his mind was gone? Bah! You are as bad as the others. Just because a man's body is winding down it does not mean that his mind is too. Howard Canning's brain was as alert and intelligent as it ever was. But what is the point of telling you? You have already made up your mind to believe what they want you to believe,' the old man grumbled bitterly. 'You don't care after all; don't care that he went through years of physical hardships and worry because of what the von Reistovens did to him.'

  Lee found that her fingernails were digging into her palms. Numbly she said, 'I think you'd better tell me all about it.'

  Herr Staffler had stood up to leave, but now he sat down again. 'Very well. When Howard married Erika von Reistoven…' he began, then, at Lee's start of surprise, added, 'You did not know this?'