Evil Legacy

by Margit Sandemo

  The tears that Gabriella had been holding back for so many weeks welled up unstoppably inside her. She struggled with them for a moment, then turned and rushed away along the corridor.

  “Was that really necessary, you evil little beast?” barked Kaleb. Gabriella ran up the stairs to her room. There, she closed her eyes and bravely fought her emotions. ‘Ugly, skinny and boring,’ she thought desperately. ‘Everyone thinks that about me. So it’s hardly surprising that Simon left me! But it’s the last thing in the world I wanted to hear right now, when I’d just enjoyed a brief moment of happiness.’

  She was just summoning up the all-too-familiar feelings of self-pity when a pair of friendly hands touched her shoulders. She couldn’t bear turning round, but she hoped it might be Kaleb.

  “Miss Gabriella, don’t hold back any more,” Kaleb’s voice was tender and so soft that it made her shiver. “It’s probably impossible not to weep at this moment, and I think this is the time for tears. You’ve not shed a tear for a very long time, I think – and that’s never a good thing.”

  Gabriella swallowed hard twice, but found that she couldn’t speak.

  “You must understand that Oline’s jealous of you. Besides, when she sees you living here with so many men around you, she thinks in her twisted view of the world that we’re all your lovers.”

  Gabriella laughed and sniffled at the same time. A strange, tingling feeling was beginning to be awakened somewhere deep inside her as she relished the sensation of Kaleb standing so close ...‘But no,’ she told herself. ‘I mustn’t have such thoughts. What’s wrong with me? Now his very words are beginning to have an effect on me.’

  A moment later she gave up the struggle and turned to him sobbing, releasing all the pent-up tears that she’d held inside for so long.

  Kaleb showed far more understanding than she’d thought him capable of. As they listened to Oline’s primal screams from downstairs, an indication that she was now in the tub, he whispered softly in her ear.

  “My dearest marquise, you and I are from different worlds. But I can’t help myself ... I think you’re the finest and most beautiful woman on earth. Forgive me if I’ve spoken out of sorts.”

  Caught between tears and laughter, she said: “Say more, Kaleb! Say a lot more! I’ll not object if you carry on saying those things. At this moment I need to hear them.”

  She stopped weeping as suddenly as she’d started. She tried to look up at him, but it was still too dark to see his face. “And to think I was so unhappy because I thought you didn’t like me,” she said breathlessly.

  “I was thinking the very same thing, marquise. Do you feel better now?”

  “Yes, thank you. Much better. It helped a lot to cry a few tears and hear some friendly words.”

  “You haven’t heard very many from me. I’m ashamed of how badly I’ve behaved. All I can say is that I wished to protect myself from my own unrequited devotion to you. I wanted to see only the bad in you; that you were arrogant and self-centred and much else besides. But you were nothing of the sort! I beg you, please forgive me if you can.”

  Gabriella nodded and rested her head against his chest. “Now I understand,” she whispered.

  “Thank you,” he said. “That lifts a great weight from my heart.”

  They stood unmoving for a long time and the sounds from below grew a little quieter.

  “I suppose it’s time we helped the rest of them?” asked Kaleb in a quiet voice. “Now that the screaming has been replaced by swearing, I suspect that Oline has finally been scrubbed clean.”

  “Yes, you’re right.” Gabriella freed herself reluctantly from his pleasing embrace and looked up at him. “Kaleb, how on earth are we to manage Oline?”

  “She’ll be difficult, but your grandmother’s optimistic and so am I. We’ll have to deal with the problems as they come, one by one.”

  “I’m rather afraid we’ll get them thrown at us all at once,” sighed Gabriella. “We’ll see, won’t we?”

  As they returned downstairs together, Gabriella thought how wonderful it was to be able to discuss a problem like that with Kaleb and to know that he was her friend and that they understood each other. She’d never had that sort of relationship with a man before and it felt surprisingly peaceful and right.

  ***

  If they’d thought that the children were hard work before, life became twice as hard now that Oline had joined them. She shocked them all with her vulgar language, her shameless teasing of the men and, not least, with her many different illnesses. They’d taken such a deep hold that Mattias had to use every ounce of his skills and resources to cure them.

  As she gradually calmed down, recovered her health and adjusted to her new surroundings, they finally got an explanation for all the ghostly dragging noises they’d heard coming from the attic. Oline explained angrily that it had been much too cold up there for her and she’d needed to move an old bed across the attic floor in order to find the least draughty spot so that she could sleep comfortably.

  In time, she became willing to co-operate – but only up to a point. There were still no limits to her curiosity and on one occasion she was found in Yrja’s dressing room, impishly trying on all of Yrja’s beautiful silk skirts. Other old habits also died hard. Oline would pilfer from the kitchen the very food she was going to be served a few minutes later. She’d become completely infatuated with Andreas, who did his utmost to keep his distance from this brazen creature – who stank of the tar that Mattias rubbed into her skin to cure her scabies. It was this alone that was keeping him from touching her – or so she liked to tell everyone.

  “But just you wait till I’ve got rid of it,” she announced, “then you’ll see him come running after me like a ...”

  “Thank you! That’s enough!” Kaleb said firmly. “There are ladies present.”As the days passed, Oline showed she could be enthusiastic in lessons. She was certainly not stupid. She’d soon caught up with the others in her reading, but she thought that arithmetic was boring – children invariably find things they don’t understand to be boring – and as a result she caused mayhem in those lessons. After observing this, Liv decided to let her concentrate on the simpler, more elementary things, like counting money. “Whatever would Oline ever need higher mathematics for?” she reasoned.

  She’d obviously fallen under the spell of Mattias’s soft eyes and had learned to respect him. But instinctively she knew that she wasn’t for him.

  “I swear he’s been castrated. I do,” she sniggered, mostly to reassure herself. “Could hardly be anything else, could it?”

  ***

  In the last week of Advent, there was much to do, and Graastensholm was in chaos. While everyone was rushing around frantically to get things done in time, filling the house with laughter and excitement, a visitor arrived out of the blue, bringing a brief period of tension and drama into the house that nobody could have predicted.

  Gabriella had been out with the children, but she recognised the voice of the unexpected guest the moment she entered the hallway. The cultivated voice was that of Simon, she was quite certain of that.

  But why on earth had he come all the way to Graastensholm?

  She could see him through the doorway of the drawing room, standing bolt upright. Grandma Liv, Mattias, Kaleb, Tarald and Yrja were all there too. Gabriella immediately sent the children off with a maid. As she entered the room, she noticed that all the colour had drained from Kaleb’s face.

  In that same instant, Simon took a step towards her, smiling and with hands outstretched.

  “Gabriella dearest. How very good to see you again,” he exclaimed. “I’ve just been telling everyone what a terrible misunderstanding there’s been. How could anybody believe that I’d run off to Germany with another woman? I was called in great haste to attend to a relative who lay on his deathbed and had no time to tell anyone ...”

/>   Gabriella looked at the distinguished figure before her and felt no emotion whatsoever.

  “And the young lady?” she asked very politely. “Was she also called to someone’s deathbed?”

  Simon ran his hands through his splendid golden mop of hair and smiled. “Believe me, it was pure coincidence that she left when I did. We knew nothing of one another until we met in the coach travelling south.”

  “That isn’t what you told a fellow officer, who knows my father,” said Gabriella, again speaking with an icy politeness. “Or haven’t you spoken to my parents yet?”

  “No, I haven’t. I heard from friends that you were staying here and because of my dismay at these terrible rumours that were being spread, I felt I had to hurry to see you and assure you first, in person, of my utter devotion.”

  “So she’s left you then, has she?” interrupted Kaleb in a terse voice. “The other woman.”

  Simon turned to him and said indignantly: “I can’t understand why disinterested parties should find it necessary to involve themselves in this matter. I shan’t even bother with a reply.” He paused and turned again. “Gabriella, may we please talk alone, in private?”

  “That won’t be necessary,” she said, lifting her head proudly. “You’re in disgrace, aren’t you – dishonoured and stripped of your rank? Your family have turned their backs on you and you’ve no money. You’re desperate. What you’ve done with your woman friend I don’t know, but Kaleb is probably correct in his assumption – unless, of course, the passion waned. Such things do happen. Now you come to me again because you think I’m a boring, ugly fool who will be grateful to have you back. Then I’ll explain to everyone why they judged you too harshly. That was what you’d planned, wasn’t it? Then your rank would be restored together with the huge dowry my father was to provide for us. All this would make it worthwhile to sacrifice your life by marrying a plain boring wife!”

  “But Gabriella,” he said, taken aback, “how could you even think such a thing? I want only what’s best for you and I’m saddened to think that you could think so badly of me. May I please speak with you alone?” He turned and flashed an irritated glance at the others who had been standing by, listening intently. They all stared back at him in silence for a long moment.

  When she spoke, Liv’s voice was soft but her tone was pointed. “I don’t believe Gabriella wants to be alone with you. She has no desire to suffer your attempts to blind her with fine words and tender embraces. You should know that during the difficult and humiliating time since you left her in that unbelievably cowardly manner, Gabriella has changed her mind about many things.”

  “I never dreamed of humiliating her, I tell you!” snapped Simon. “That was never my intention.”

  Unable to hold back any longer, Mattias moved a step nearer to their visitor. “You took an awfully long time to explain the ‘misunderstanding,’ if I may say so. Besides, I should inform you that Gabriella’s interest now lies elsewhere.”

  Simon’s uncertain gaze again moved to Gabriella’s face.

  “It’s true, Simon,” she said sombrely. “What I felt for you was no more than childish admiration. I now know what it is to truly love a person.”

  “But Gabriella! Think what you’re doing to me, please! You’re casting me into oblivion!”

  “You should have considered that a little earlier. Speaking for myself, I’m glad that things went as they did. Now you may leave! The coachman will drive you back to Christiania.”

  He was speechless for a few moments. Then he made one last pathetic effort. After glancing round at the family group, he turned back to Gabriella with a beseeching expression on his face.

  “Would you turn away a guest during Christmas time, Gabriella? It will bring bad luck upon your whole family, you know.”

  “And you’d counted on that as a last resort, Simon, hadn’t you? No, of course I’ll not turn you away with nothing. You may go to the kitchen door where the scullery maid will place a crust in your outstretched hand. Goodbye now, Simon. You may find your own way out.”

  Gabriella walked slowly out of the room and walked up the stairs towards her own room without looking back. Simon, however, saw this as a final chance to be alone with her and in a flash he’d followed her and grabbed her arm before she was halfway up the staircase. His eyes were shining with anxious hysteria.

  “Gabriella, don’t you understand?” he said in a broken whisper. “If you reject me like this, all that remains for me is to put a pistol to my head!”

  She looked down at him with pity as she waved away his hand from her arm in the same way one would wave away an unwanted platter of food.

  “So, after everything else, you want to place that burden on me, too?” she asked with pity in her voice. “Make me feel guilty enough to show you mercy. How low can you stoop?”

  Without another word, she turned her back on him and carried on up the stairs.

  ***

  Not long afterwards, Gabriella heard the sound of the sleigh leaving the courtyard and heading off down the road.

  Almost immediately, Liv and Kaleb came into the room and stood by the door. Gabriella was sitting on the edge of her bed, her hands in her lap.

  “We overheard what Simon said to you on the stairs,” said Liv. “You were wise not to let yourself be persuaded by such a simple trick.”

  “But if he does shoot himself? What then?”

  “People who honestly intend to commit suicide seldom shout about it beforehand. It was almost certainly a ploy to frighten you. You’re the only person who can restore his honour.”

  “Is that true? I needn’t have a bad conscience then?”

  Her grandmother sighed. “There you are! You can see how he’s succeeded in turning things in his favour, leaving you sitting there feeling guilty and miserable! After all he’s done to you! He trampled all over your emotions and you’re well rid of him. Be thankful that you avoided marrying a man like that. You don’t still have feelings for him, do you?”

  “Good gracious, no!” Gabriella sat up straight. “On the contrary. I’m starting to discover how good it feels to be free of him. Free from everything that tied me to him.”

  “Kaleb has been speaking to me, Gabriella,” Liv said softly. “Had it been possible, he would have asked for your hand.”

  “And why isn’t it possible?” she asked sharply, no longer caring that she sounded too self-assured.

  Liv sat down on the bed beside her. “Because you’re a Paladin, my dear. Even Simon was a step down for you. Your father can’t approve of a marriage between you and a commoner. He had to go to the King and ask for permission to marry our Cecilie, your mother, despite her being a baroness. Kaleb isn’t asking for your hand, my dear. But he wants you to know that you’re not unloved.”

  Gabriella looked up at him and seeing the evident love in his eyes, stood up and slid into his arms, pressing her face against his chest.

  “He’s not unloved either,” she mumbled with a coy chuckle.

  Kaleb’s hands caressed her gently as he looked across at Liv. She was watching them fondly with a knowing smile on her face.

  “Are you prepared to fight for your love?” she asked at last. “Is it strong and true enough to be put to the test?”

  “I know my love will endure,” replied Gabriella without hesitation. “But how can I take Kaleb at his word? Didn’t he wish for ...” she paused and pulled away from him, her expression mischievous, “for a ‘special fair-haired peasant girl’? A girl as different from me as possible.”

  “Miss Gabriella,” said Kaleb, embarrassed. “You mustn’t listen to such nonsense. That was something I said in the darkness of a mine when I was fifteen years old. I’d hardly ever seen a girl then. And I had only childish ideas of what she’d look like. I've learned since then that love doesn’t stop to ask what a person looks like. And it will grow even
in the most stony ground – as it has between you and me.”

  Despite the strong and inspiring feelings Kaleb had begun to arouse in her, Gabriella was still struggling with her lack of self-esteem and again this emotion forced its way to the surface.

  “But I’ve failed in so many things, haven’t I?”

  “Miss Gabriella, you’ve failed in nothing! My fondness is for you, exactly as you are. Can’t you see that? Now I’ve grown to love you, isn’t that enough?”

  “Yes, yes! That’s much more than enough!” she beamed. But what did you mean, Grandma, when you asked if we’d fight for our love?”

  “Well, listen to me carefully,” began Liv. “I’m also of very common descent. Yet I married Baron Dag Meiden. And Cecilie is married to the Marquis Paladin despite being of minor nobility. Yrja was of peasant birth but is now the wife of Baron Tarald. Each one of us has married above ourselves and there’s no reason why Kaleb shouldn’t at least try to do something similar. Gabriella, I know your mother will agree at once, but all this will depend on what your father decides.”

  Gabriella bit her lip. “Dad is the kindest person in the world, and he’d do anything for Tancred and me. But he’s very particular that we should be conscious of our place in society. What should we do, Grandma?”

  “First of all, I want you to take some time to consider how you feel. Sometimes the first flames of passion can be short-lived. But try to avoid situations that might bring temptation too close – I’m sure you understand what I mean.”

  Kaleb nodded, his expression serious. For her part, Gabriella was more light-hearted.

  “Don’t worry, Grandma! Mum has warned me time and again against doing anything of that kind. For my part, I’ve decided not to allow myself any imprudence until after I’m married.”

  Both Liv and Kaleb couldn’t help smiling at her amusing choice of words.