Tempting Fate (25 page)

At that, Fräulein Mauser bridled again. “The informal dining room?” she repeated, her back stiffening with each word.

“Yes. Does the arrangement displease you?” Ragoczy’s features were pleasantly expressive and now showed good will and polite concern. “Is it that you dislike eating in the informal dining room? I gather that you think I should instruct my staff to set your places in the formal dining room. If that is what you truly desire, I will, of course, do so, but,” he went on serenely, “I should point out that it has not yet been restored—as you may have heard, this Schloss was vandalized some ten months ago, and much of the damage is still apparent—and that there is no fire laid in the hearth because we have not yet been assured that the chimney is sound. But it will be as you wish.”

Herr Bündnis spoke up first, his face slightly flushed. “The informal dining room would be more appropriate for us, in any case. Most tutors take their meals with the children or the servants in a big house.” He did not meet Fräulein Mauser’s quelling gaze. “You are good to offer us so much courtesy.”

“Thank you, Herr Bündnis,” Ragoczy said with a fleeting engaging smile.

Roger gave a tactful cough, then addressed the three tutors. “Your places have been laid, and I believe that the meal is ready. If you will follow me, please…”

Herr Pfahl was the first on his feet. “I am at your disposal. Where are we going?”

“Down the main hall and to your left. The room is a pale Wedgwood color with tall elm wainscoting; the draperies are dark peacock damask. The door is open.” He waited as the three visitors came up to him. “This way, if you will.”

As she left the room, Fräulein Mauser turned to give Ragoczy a long, critical stare.

Ragoczy returned her look with a degree of amusement, and once the door was closed, he shook his head, then crossed the room toward the far wall, and tapped once on a gold-and-peach-tinted panel. “Well, Laisha Vlassevna,” he said as a narrow section of the wall swung inward, “what did you think of them?” He spoke in Russian now, and there was warmth in his voice.

“Must I have one of them? Can’t you teach me?” As she asked these questions, Laisha scrambled out of her hiding place and made a cursory attempt to restore order to her clothing.

“Yes, I think it had best be one of them. You should have experience of someone other than myself, my child,” He put one small, long-fingered hand on her shoulder. “You will not always live here with me; you have a great deal to learn before that day.”

Her face grew pale. “I don’t like it when you say that.”

Ragoczy gave a little shake to his head. “Laisha, this isn’t like you. Yesterday you said that you wanted to know new people, and now you want me to send these good tutors away.”

“But I didn’t mean tutors, I meant…” She squirmed a bit, not willing to look at him.

“You meant you wanted children your own age to play with,” Ragoczy finished for her sensibly and saw her nod tentatively. “I don’t intend that you should wall yourself up here. I’ve already asked Frau Schnaubel if she would be willing to bring her family up here one afternoon. Would you like to see Olympie and Hedda again?”

Laisha nodded, but then said quickly, “I don’t want to see that Emmerich, though. He’s too young.”

“He’s six years old, my child,” Ragoczy said, chiding her gently.

“Well, you said that I’m eight.” She announced this with all the conviction of youth, “He’s just a baby.”

Ragoczy was silent a number of seconds. “I wonder if Olympie thinks that of you? She’s almost eleven.” As he mentioned the ages, he felt a remote bewilderment. How could a few years matter so much? He had long been aware that such things were very important, particularly to children, but his life was so long that a decade seemed a frightfully short time. To quibble over a year …

“Olympie can’t talk Russian,” Laisha said with sudden belligerence, as if this somehow equalized the difference in their ages.

“And your German is not very good,” Ragoczy reminded her as he brushed back her fair, tumbled hair.

“Well…” She spun on her heel and started toward the door. “I don’t want to learn German. I don’t like it. It sounds silly.”

“But we are living in Bayern,” he reminded her gently. “If you go to München, how will you manage if you cannot ask questions or read signs?”

“I won’t go there,” Laisha insisted. “I will stay here, and you will speak Russian.”

Ragoczy reached for one of the antique chairs and pulled it over so that he could sit down. He looked at the girl steadily. “Laisha, you mustn’t think that. I would not be doing you a service if I agreed to such a plan. Knowledge is the most precious thing there is in the world, my child: knowledge of things, of people. If you have knowledge then you have the only protection that endures. You must learn German. And French. And Italian. And English. Then, no matter where you go, you will be able to fend for yourself. Nothing I can give you is so valuable as that.”

Laisha recognized the somber tone of his voice, and she turned back to him, looking into his dark eyes. “Can’t I do that later?” she implored him.

“It only gets harder if you wait,” he said with a shrug. “If you learn these things now, it will be fairly easy, but later…” He lifted his hands slightly to show her how futile delay was.

She was watching him carefully, her bright brown eyes wary. “What if I don’t like it? What then?”

“Then you will have the right to ask for another tutor, and I will provide that for you. Not, of course”—his tone was firmer now—“for your caprice, but for real grievance. You would not be unreasonable, would you?”

Though her lower lip pouted, Laisha was able to shake her head. “I don’t think so. I might.” Her face turned up to his for a second, and then she looked away toward the windows. She tugged at the end of her wide sash, standing a trifle too stiffly.

Ragoczy leaned forward, his elbows propped on his knees. “Laisha, I don’t want to frighten or indulge you: neither would be kind. We are both strangers in this country, Laisha. It is not wise for strangers to abuse the hospitality of the country that has given them refuge. That is what has happened here.”

“But this is your house,” she protested. “You own it. You are not poor.”

“No, I am not poor, but nevertheless, I am as much a displaced person as you are. You cannot now return to Russia even if you decide that Germany is not to your liking. Your home is there no longer.” He felt his chest tighten as he saw the wistful softening of her face. “You must learn, Laisha. That course is the only way to any sort of a happy life. Believe this.”

She took a deep breath, her hands clenching to fists at her sides. “I don’t like to sit in little rooms with books all afternoon and recite verbs and things.”

“Nor do I. Your tutor will take you on walks while you study. You will ask questions and converse. No little rooms, no lists of verbs. That I promise you.” He rose from the chair. “I must go to my study. They will finish with their meal shortly and I have to talk with them individually.”

Laisha looked down at her rumpled skirt. “I don’t want to be by myself.”

“You are not alone. You will not be alone.” He struggled with a sudden desire to indulge her demands. He knew that she was frightened and unwilling to admit it. He was also aware that he could not afford to do this. There would be a time, and that time was near, when she would not want to be protected, and then she would resent his concession. “When you speak the language, you will find it easier to have friends.”

She was staring down at her shoes and so did not see the fond smile that curved his ironic mouth. “But you’ll go away, won’t you? And there will be just tutors here. I remember how it was before, when there were weeks with no one but servants in the house and…” She faltered, and tears came into her eyes, as often occurred when one of the few fragments of memory came back to her.

Ragoczy dropped to his knees and put his arms around her. “Ah, Laisha. My girl.” He felt her shaking with suppressed weeping. “You are safe here, for a time, which is the most anyone can be promised in a life. I will not abandon you, my child. You have my word on it.” He had no way to assure her that his word was reliable, but hoped that she would accept it as sincere. “I travel, and my … work occasionally calls me to other places, but I will be certain that there is provision made for you. When you are a little older, perhaps you’d like to travel with me.”

She gulped. “I
have
traveled with you.”

He nodded. “But this time, we will go in a train or an automobile. We will not have to hide, or steal food. We will have a train carriage all to ourselves, if you like, and Roger will bring you chocolate in the morning.” This time his smile was able to evoke one from her.

“Where will you go?” she asked, still frightened but less upset.

“Oh, Wien, Paris, Salzburg, perhaps Berlin. Certainly München fairly often. Occasionally I will have to go to Tübingen. I may go to Zurich, or Milano, or Barcelona. That’s for the future. I promise I will go no farther than München until September. You will have six months of me, my child, and you will be pleased for the change.” He stood up, and this time she continued to look at him. “Now, go find Roger; he’s waiting to serve you luncheon.”

Laisha stared hard at her guardian. “Six months,” she said firmly, then turned on her heel and scampered out of the room, closing the door behind her with an energetic crash. Her running footsteps faded down the hallway.

Ragoczy went to the open wall panel, securing it with care, being certain that the latch was firmly in place. The Schloss had a number of such devices built into it, left over from less hospitable days. He felt a measure of consolation in knowing that the servants had discovered less than half of them. When he was satisfied that this one was concealed, he left the room, going quickly down the long hallway toward the back of the building.

The study was on the north side of Schloss Saint-Germain, a tall-windowed room with fine oak paneling deeply carved with an intertwining leaf pattern. There were two large glass-fronted bookcases filled with an eclectic sample of volumes, though the majority of Ragoczy’s collection was in the library. A huge desk dominated the room, a lovingly-crafted monstrosity of mother-of-pearl-inlaid walnut. It had been made eighty years before in Amsterdam and at the time was a commission from the Royal Family. Now it was decidedly out of fashion, as were the three lumpish chairs in the room, all of which had been made in Ankara by a house of saddlers who had the skill to build flexible frames for their chairs so that the shape would alter subtly to accommodate whoever sat in them. They were upholstered in tooled red leather, and aside from their remarkable comfort, had nothing to recommend them. There were a number of paintings on the wall, two of them Velázquez’s work, the others less identifiable. A jade lion with a broken paw occupied the center of the marble mantelpiece, flanked by alabaster birds from Niklos Aulirios. A very old chest stood empty against the far wall.

Although it seemed a complete world in itself, there was another room beyond the study, considerably larger and more utilitarian, where Ragoczy pursued his various researches. This room was reached by an inconspicuous door in the study wall, and by a concealed passage on the second floor of the Schloss.

Ragoczy took a wooden match from the box on the desk and lit two of the gas brackets. The afternoon was clouding over and the study was dark and chilly; after a brief period of consideration, he “set the fire laid in the grate alight, as well, pulling the brass screen across the front of the fireplace. He drew one of the three chairs up to the desk and sank into it, staring in complete abstraction at the jade lion.

It was almost twenty minutes later when Roger gave a discreet knock on the door and announced “Fräulein Mauser,” holding the door open for that formidable woman as he did.

“Fräulein,” Ragoczy said, shaking off his preoccupation and indicating a chair to her. He did not rise.

As the door closed behind her, she stared at her host. “Graf, I am astonished.”

“Why?” Ragoczy regarded her with utmost good humor. “Come, Fräulein Mauser, sit down so that we may have an opportunity to talk.”

She shrugged. “You have not yet learned how these matters are to be handled,” she said in roughly the same tone she would use to reprimand a naughty three-year-old.

“Let us put an end to this charade, Fräulein. You would like me to believe that you are to be accorded courtesy appropriate to honored guests. If I employ you,” he went on more slowly, with careful emphasis on each word, “I will expect you to perform your duties without constant intrusions. I have not often had children in my charge but I have employed many persons over the years. You have been hoping to convince me that any tutor deserves more attention and distinction than is customary. That is not the most satisfactory way to begin with me.” He sat back in his chair, his hands folded, his commanding dark eyes on the woman’s face.

“You misunderstood me, Herr Graf,” Fräulein Mauser said with a good deal less confidence than she had shown at first. She sat down heavily.

“Then you will forgive me,” he responded. “You have most flattering references.” His tone was brisk, his expression alert. “You must have had excellent rapport with the children you supervised.”

“Surely it is more a question of authority than rapport, Herr Graf,” Fräulein Mauser corrected him, unaware that she had lapsed into her old behavior. “Children must have strong authority or they will run wild. Responsible citizens are the result of authority and firmness in youth. I have had my share of success in instilling a sense of obligation and respect in my pupils.” As she spoke, she unconsciously squared the ends of the scarf she wore.

“And what of the children?” Ragoczy asked her politely.

“They have done well.” Her complacence was so complete that she did not perceive the narrowing of Ragoczy’s dark eyes.

“How do you mean that, Fräulein?” He had unlaced his fingers and leaned forward. “I fear, being foreign, I do not entirely comprehend what you are saying.”

She brightened visibly. “I will be honored to do so. Naturally, not all foreigners are familiar with the standards of education in Deutschland. Therefore it is a great delight to tell you that those I have taught have mastered not only their own languages but also at least three others. I have recently been able to instruct a young boy in Greek and Latin as well as French. I do not generally teach Italian. Latin is preferable. Italian is a corrupt tongue, don’t you think?”