The Cursed Bride

by Camille Oster

  The carvings were mainly of leaves and acorns. There was nothing sinister in the carvings. She'd looked over the whole bed. But then would it have to be a depiction of something sinister? She hadn't thought to ask Mrs. Tober.

  Leaving the study, Aldine shut the door. She didn't like the room now, didn't like how that man surveyed the space as if it was his domain. This had been his domain at one time. This family were directly connected to that man. They had to know what he'd done back then.

  "There you are," Elke said, appearing out of the salon doorway. "What are you doing?"

  "Nothing in particular," Aldine said. "Just wandering, I suppose."

  "Come into the salon. Wilhelmina is preparing some of the flowers."

  Aldine noted that it was a task Wilhelmina had never sent her way again, after she proved to be quite good at it—not that she had received any compliments for it.

  "One of my magazines arrived with the mail. You can have a look through it if you like," Elke offered. Elke liked the fashion depicted in there and studied and emulated them when her magazines arrived. They described everything from dress cuts, accessories and even household management for the modern woman. The dresses were typically too fine for everyday use. "I am thinking about having a new dress sewn. There is a woman not far away who sews sufficiently well. There is a ball later in the autumn, which we all go to. Do you have a dress?"

  "Yes," Aldine said. There were a few ballgowns in her wardrobe.

  "I see," Elke said, almost a little tartly.

  "My father's guild held them a few times each year. And there were often balls associated with the completion and opening of buildings."

  "Seems you quite familiar with balls. I doubt our simple country ball will rival what you are used to."

  At times, it felt as if she couldn't win. It also seemed that the reality of her more humble origins wasn't reflected in her lifestyle to the degree that both Elke and Wilhelmina expected. Being of a lower social order, she was supposed to be less skilled and having led a less elegant life, but that simply wasn't the case. Merit and birthright were at times at odds with the expectations of some. It would perhaps be best if Aldine didn't mention that she and her parents had once been invited to a royal ball—in reality a crowded, hot and not particularly amusing affair.

  Ludwig joined them for lunch that day, which was a welcome addition by all. Apparently, his work with the accounts was all up to date, so he returned to spend the afternoon with his lovely ladies, he said. It was a quick lunch and Elke and Ludwig withdrew to their room to rest in the afternoon, leaving Aldine to sit with Wilhelmina.

  "Have you taken your medicine?" Wilhelmina asked, putting aside her perusal of Elke's magazine.

  "Yes, of course," Aldine lied. As much as she could get away with not taking it, she would, because it left her feeling utterly awful. Luckily, no one in the house insisted on checking that she swallowed like the doctor had done, so she could safely store the pills under her tongue until she could rid herself of them out the window. She had to take care, though, or someone would eventually notice the collection of white pills under her bedroom window.

  In fact, she should go out there and trample them into the dirt. It was a sunny day. As she looked, she saw Wolfgang riding around the edge of the yard toward the stable. She hadn't seen him since that ride to Gelling Forest. Quickly, he disappeared from view. She chose to stay put for a while so Wolfgang was clear of the stable. For some reason, she didn't want to encounter him at the moment, although she wasn't entirely sure why. Perhaps because she had given him ammunition to use against her, because he knew where she had been that day and no one else did. If he was inclined to, he could figure that out and she didn't want to give herself the opportunity to be disappointed with him. The other women's wariness and even disgust with him was still a concern, because she didn't really know where it stemmed from, other than his simple presence.

  Given sufficient time, she rose. "I might walk a little," she said, hoping Wilhelmina would not offer to join her. It hadn't happened before, but there could always be a first time, and Aldine wanted to be alone.

  It was warm enough that she didn't take her jacket. She wasn't intending on going far. Strolling out of the door, she welcomed the sun, even as she was dressed warmly that day.

  A knock at the window behind her had her turning back, at the same time, a whoosh and a thud sounded. It had been close, very close, whatever it was. Turning, Aldine looked back and saw a stone embedded into the lawn.

  If she had not turned back, that stone would have hit her on the head. Looking up, she searched for where it had come from, but there was nothing along the roofline. Yet it had fallen. Nothing looked undisturbed.

  She'd almost just died and her mind was screaming at her. Absently, she jerkily stepped backward across the lawn.

  Looking back, she saw Wilhelmina at the window, her eyes large and her mouth open. She had seen it. Aldine simply stared at her, not knowing what else to do.

  Again she looked back at the roofline, but nothing moved up there. No shadows, no face looking down. Could it simply have fallen? Fallen exactly where she had been a millisecond prior.

  Even now she felt a memory of the draft from the stone coming past her head, heard the noise of it hitting the lawn.

  Wilhelmina appeared out of the door, looking up at the roof, searching for the culprit or the risk. "Come," she said, taking Aldine's wrist and pulling her away from the house. "The house is old. I'll have the men check the roofline. Weber!" she called loudly. She wasn't letting go of Aldine's wrist and Aldine was too stunned to do anything but stand there. "Weber!" she called even louder, until the old retainer appeared. "A stone fell off the roof."

  As with everyone before him, he looked up and searched. "I can't see anything."

  "You will have to go up there and check the house is secure. It is an old house," she repeated.

  That could not have been an accident, Aldine thought. It had been so close. If not for her attention being drawn away, she would be dead now. Looking over at Wilhelmina, she realized that the woman had saved her life—completely unwittingly, but responsible all the same.

  There was still a grave look on her face. She'd never seen Wilhelmina this agitated before. It was just the two of them on the lawn, both too afraid to step closer to the house.

  "It almost killed me," Aldine said, her voice shaky with nerves. "If you hadn't knocked on the window, it would have hit me." She could almost see herself lying dead on the lawn, her head bloody.

  "I just thought you needed your jacket," Wilhelmina replied quietly, her countenance still showing her shock.

  "I was so close to not needing anything ever again."

  They looked at each other. "I am sure the winds dislodged it."

  It was a fairly substantial stone for the wind to dislodge. Surely something that size balancing precariously on the edge of the roof would have been noticed. No, this wasn't an accident; it couldn't have been.

  The house looked large in front of her, and Aldine almost expected to see something sinister gazing at her from one of the windows, but as she searched, she saw nothing out of the ordinary.

  Chapter 22

  EVERYONE WAS GATHERED in the salon, including Heinrich and Wolfgang. They all spoke and commented on what had happened. Aldine was still shocked, while Wilhelmina kept pushing the calming pills on her. The last thing she wanted now was to feel utterly addled. A stone had just about dropped on her head and killed her. Something or someone in this house had done it.

  Wilhelmina hadn't. That was what Aldine knew for sure. Could it have been the curse moving a stone so it fell? Or did it act through someone? That person had to be in this room. Her dreams told her it was Heinrich, but he'd been away from the house—or at least that was how it appeared. Elke and Ludwig had been in their room, which left Weber and Wolfgang.

  It was hard to imagine Weber doing something like that, but then he'd been in the house. He, as opposed to Wolfgang, was not
aligned with the family and the person who had acted against the witches. While illegitimate, Wolfgang was.

  Watching him, she tried to see some evidence that he had come into the house and made his way to the roof. Or perhaps he didn't need to enter the house. Could he scale the outer wall to the roof?

  There was no evidence in his eyes or movement, but then it could be that the person responsible didn't even know what they were doing. And now they had tried to kill her. It was almost inconceivable if it wasn't for the fact that she had felt how close that stone had been to striking her.

  In a way, it made sense that it was Wolfgang, because he was the oldest. Because, would witches casting curses be specific enough to specify that it be a legitimate son that it acted on?

  "Are you alright?" Elke asked sitting down next to her. "Such an unthinkable accident. It was lucky it didn't strike you."

  Aldine could only nod.

  "Heinrich and Ludwig are talking about going up on the roof and checking everything is secure. It must have been the storm not so long ago that had shifted the stone. And the wind recently, topping its balance. The merest wind and it toppled."

  Somehow, Aldine couldn't bring herself to believe that the wind had shifted that stone, but then, she was thinking that a centuries-old curse had.

  Rising, Elke walked over to Ludwig and Heinrich took her place. Taking her hand, he held it for a moment. "We will check to ensure nothing like that will happen again. I am sorry you received such a fright. That part of the house is quite old."

  Was that what he explained it as? Simply bits falling off an old house? Even as he held her hand, she felt remote and distant from him. A stone nearly falling on her was not enough to convince him that something was acting against her. At risk with his belief was her life.

  Wolfgang stood with his arms crossed, listening as Heinrich spoke, before they all walked out of the room, presumably to carry out this survey of the roof.

  "Perhaps we should call Dr. Hagen," Wilhelmina proposed.

  "No, I'm fine," Aldine replied before the suggestion took root. "I just want to rest for a while." What she really wanted was to be alone, and she rose before anyone thought to argue with her and walked up the stairs to her bedchamber. It really was the only place she felt able to breathe at the moment. Walking outside had done that for her before, but now she had to fear falling missiles aimed at her.

  Pacing her room, she wondered if she should write her father, but what could he tell her. It was not his place to give her direction anymore. The truth, however, was that she didn't trust the direction given to her. She didn't trust a single person in this house. This house was run on denial, and she was guided by that denial.

  Taking a deep breath, she tried to refocus. It could be that all here were innocent and this was the curse acting upon this house—a curse lodged in a talisman. The hunt for it should be her priority, and from what the Tober woman had said, it was close to where it enacted, which was Heinrich's bed.

  There was an attic above it, and a storage room below it. Clearly nothing in the storage room would serve as a talisman, but what was in that attic? Could there be anything stored up there, mere feet from the bed, radiating out its evil?

  Outside of the room, she heard the men come down the stairs from that very attic. As she listened at the door, she heard them keep going and it was soon silent. She had a good idea where the attic was now. It wasn't something she'd ever thought about before. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself. It could be that she was just about to face down witches. Would there be a fight for the talisman? Did they have protection? The last thing she needed was seeing an old ghost materializing. She wasn't sure she could cope with such an occurrence. This was all terrifying enough without seeing the enemy, but what else could she do? This talisman needed to be destroyed.

  Cracking the door to her room open, she saw no one outside and silently walked to the staircase leading up to the servant's floor, then up to the attic. The narrow stairway was hidden from plain sight, but she knew where it was now. The wood creaked slightly as she walked and if anyone was in the room next door, they would hear. The door was non-descript with a porcelain knob.

  The knob was cold to the touch as Aldine reached for it, the ratchets of the lock clicking as it turned, then stopped. Surely they hadn't locked it? A bit more pressure and it gave, the door creaking loudly as it swung open. A rush of stale air swept by her. Distinct columns of light flowed from the windows in an otherwise dark space. Everything was bare wood with no embellishments.

  There was the eerie stillness of a place not used to having people. Those places had a wildness to them, just like the witches' cottage, where that wildness was tearing the place down. The corners of the attic were shadowed and Aldine refused to let her attention linger there, in case something moved. It felt as if her attention would goad that into happening, as if her fear would bring her worry to life.

  No, she was being silly. It was simply an attic. Nothing more. With all her heart, she hoped so as she stepped into the space, trying to calm her nerves.

  Sheets were draped over objects and a layer of dust covered everything. There were footsteps through the dust toward a small door across the space. That was obviously the roof access, through which so many people had gone, including whoever had aimed that stone at her. It was too trampled to tell who could be responsible.

  Right now, though, she was here for the talisman that caused all the trouble and she walked in the other direction, toward above where Heinrich's room was. It was hard to make out exactly, but she estimated and found a small round table with some objects. A vase and an old lantern. There was also a trunk that didn't look as old as some of the other things. Why would that be here?

  Bending down, she saw that it had no lock. What could is possibly contain? Was there something in there that represented the witches? Because there wasn't much else around here, nothing that seemed from that era. Just a chinoiserie vase and a brass lantern with a cracked glass panel, so it had to be in this trunk. It wasn't even wood, instead some manufactured material. This trunk couldn't be more than a few decades old at the most, which didn't mean that its contents were similarly recent.

  Pushing on the lid, it refused to give. With her fingers under the lid, she pulled, but it still wouldn't give. The lid was too tight to really get a good grip on it. But she had to see what was in that trunk. Looking around, she searched for something, her eyes traveling the space. A wardrobe stood along the wall in the distance, and a copper fire extinguisher. Also, some kind of chaise lounge covered in a sheet.

  A figure made her heart stop painfully in her chest until she realized it was her own reflection in a half-covered mirror. Her groan of relief echoed back at her. With heart still racing powerfully, she tried to calm herself, wiping her clammy hands on her skirt. Every nerve in her body stood on edge.

  She had to focus.

  The space wasn't packed with things, but unwanted things were placed up here. Mostly things that looked intact, but perhaps not in fashion. Aldine could well imagine something unfashionable deeply offending Wilhelmina.

  There was nothing to help with the lid, so she tried again, concerned she might rip a nail, but she needed to get that trunk open. Putting all her strength into it, it gave suddenly, which made her fall back jarringly on her backside onto the dusty floor.

  Scrambling up on her knees, she rose and looked down into the trunk, which revealed endless bound bundles of paper and ledgers. On closer inspection, it was the household accounts, neatly stacked by years. Nothing close to the diabolical contents her mind had imagined. This was Ludwig's storage for his completed yearly accounts. Hardly the domain of witches and curses.

  There was nothing in there that could represent a talisman. Like with the trunk itself, nothing inside was of any remarkable age.

  Rising, she snapped the lid shut with her foot, unsure if she was relieved or disappointed. There was nothing here. Picking up the vase, she looked at the bottom and
saw it had been produced by a porcelain house in Austria. Again, not particularly old, but clearly not up to Wilhelmina's taste.

  "What are you doing?"

  Her startle made her drop the vase, which smashed to the ground. Turning, she saw Wolfgang standing by the door to the roof. He'd been up there, while she'd assumed he'd come down with the others. A mistaken assumption on her part.

  He watched her intently, then the pieces of the vase on the floor.

  "Heavens you scared me," she said. That did not address his question and she struggled to state a reason that wasn't talisman hunting. "Just curious, I suppose," she mumbled. Why was he up there when the others had left? It occurred to her that he was much stronger than her and could likely tackle her out that door and over the parapet without anyone really noticing. Her throat constricted. If he really wanted her dead, this was his opportunity. "Sadly, I broke this vase. I hope Wilhelmina won't be disappointed."

  With a tense smile, she crouched down to pick up the pieces. Wolfgang stood for a while, then closed the roof access door. Without looking at him, Aldine noted every step he took. Her finger cut on the sharp piece of the vase, but she was too intently focused to worry about a little cut.

  Heavy steps came forward and she stopped breathing. Was this where he acted against her? Grabbing the sharp piece that had sliced her, she held it in her hand in case her fears were realized. If she might not be able to fight his strength, she could mark him.

  But his steps veered sideways to the internal door and he disappeared down the stairs.

  A shuddering breath seeped out of her and she closed her eyes. Painful nervousness still ran through her blood and her hand shook as she continued to pick up pieces of the broken vase.

  Chapter 23

  DRAWING ANOTHER DEEP breath, Aldine looked down at the small, round table, still trying to get her nerves under control. Her mind was too jumbled to even consider what had just happened and what it meant. It was exhausting having to think and suspect every moment—every action and word. Someone was responsible and the talisman was driving them. That was where the problem stemmed from, so what was the point worrying about who it was acting through?