VROLOK (6 page)

They were married quickly and Adriana soon realised why Guy had married her. It was simply to have someone to look after Isabella. This, she did, but only because she knew that if she didn’t her husband would have no need of her. Adriana soon became pregnant and had a daughter of her own.

Natasha was born within a year after they were married and Guy showed great affection towards his second child. He lavished on her the attention he wanted to give Isabella but could not.

So Isabella grew up in a house where everyone in it despised her. Adriana saw her as a constant reminder of the woman who had stolen her husband’s heart. Isabella’s half-sister Natasha was taught by her father to either be malicious towards Isabella or to ignore her existence completely. Her mother taught her to be jealous of Isabella. So Natasha grew up hating Isabella, also.

After a few years, I went to see if I could take Isabella and bring her up myself. Adriana wanted me to, but Guy said to her that if Isabella was to leave the house then there was no need for her to stay either. Adriana retaliated, asking who would take care of Natasha. Guy shouted back that he would. From then on Adriana made it perfectly clear that I was not welcome in their home. The only time I would see Isabella after that was when she would come and visit me, which happily, was often.

At first, I saw only the good side of Isabella’s nature. I was thankful. I thought she had taken after her mother and would be forgiving towards her father when she was old enough to understand.

I used to ask her about her family when she was still a child. At first she would cry and ask me why her father hated her so much. I tried to explain it to the child as best I could, but how could she understand? When she was older and I asked about her father, she refused to talk about him. When I mentioned his name, a dark look would creep over Isabella’s face. It was a look I had seen before on the face of her father when the news reached us that the child Clara had cared for was dead.

This worried me. Guy had taught Isabella to hate. He had shown her how to become bitter and it is a lesson she has learned well. Hatred has destroyed Guy’s life and if Isabella is not careful she will become just like her father: bitterness and hatred will destroy her life, as well.

Nicolae had only shown Isabella part of the letter. Isabella was hurt by what she had read. How could her grandfather compare her to her father? She was nothing like her father. She put the letter down and looked up at her husband. “It’s no excuse for what he did to me,” she said.

“I never said it was,” Nicolae answered.

“How could my grandfather think I was like him?”

“This is your chance to prove you are not.”

Isabella paused for thought, “I will go and see him,” she relented.

The next day they went to see Guy; there were several people there already. The doctor was there, Guy’s priest, Adriana and Natasha. The mother and daughter were sitting at Guy’s bedside. When Natasha saw Isabella her colour faded, she turned ghostly white and she moved into a corner of the room. Isabella scowled at her sister and then took her seat by her father’s bed.

Isabella’s father wasn’t quite lucid. He looked up at his daughter and whispered. “Clara, have you come for me?”

“It’s not Clara, it’s your….” Isabella could not bring herself to say daughter. “It’s Isabella.”

“Isabella,” her father said, smiling at her. Isabella’s father had never smiled at her before and Isabella was not glad to see him smiling at her now. It was too late for that. She was disgusted.

“You look so much like her, Isabella, so beautiful.” Guy took Isabella’s hand. Although her first impulse was to pull away, she resisted this impulse for the moment. Isabella felt very uneasy with him touching her, but he looked so pathetic that she continued to let him. Nicolae thought this was a good sign. Adriana, who was sitting on the other side of the bed, was trying desperately to stifle her sobs.

“I have treated you unkindly….” Guy continued. “I am sorry. Please forgive me?” At this Isabella snapped back her hand.

“Is that it?” Isabella began. “An insincere apology and then you ask my forgiveness. Is that really all you have to say to me? You thought I would forgive you if you just asked me. Why do you even want my forgiveness? Is it because you fear your own death? Is that why you want my forgiveness? Do you think you’ll be condemned if you leave this world without a clear conscience…condemned to hell? What is it, Guy? What is the real reason for your penitence?” Isabella then looked around the room, and then it struck her: she knew why her father was so eager for her forgiveness. “You are afraid you will not see my mother again, aren’t you?” Guy did not answer; he just stared at his daughter and the hatred he had created within her. “Forgive you? I am insulted that you asked me to.”

“Child!” the priest cut in. “If you don’t forgive your father you not only condemn him, you also condemn yourself.” Isabella left her father’s bedside and went over to face the priest.

“Do you think the threats of your religion frighten me? You may be right, I may be condemning myself. Even if I lose my soul, I will rest easy knowing that he is condemned with me.” The priest stepped back from Isabella. He was frightened by the young girl. Isabella turned and walked towards her sister. She leaned in close and whispered in Natasha’s ear, “You have no one to protect you from me now, so watch your back, sister.”

At this Adriana cried out, “You are damned!”

Isabella turned to face her stepmother. “Yes, I am damned. Everyone in this whole hellish family is damned.”

Isabella left the room. Nicolae, who had witnessed everything, followed her, trying to conceal his own disgust at his wife’s actions.

Adriana pressed her head down onto the bed beside her husband; she could not stand it anymore. She started violently sobbing. Guy turned towards his broken-hearted wife and rested his hand on her head. He whispered in a frail voice, “What have I done to her? I am the one who showed Isabella how to hate like that.”

Isabella’s father died before the sun came up the next morning. The funeral was small and Isabella did not attend. Nicolae did.

Isabella had told Katya a lie when she said on her wedding day that she did not go up to the castle. Isabella did go up to the castle and often. It was getting harder and harder for her to get up there. Nicolae was beginning to become a little overprotective because she was coming towards the end of her pregnancy.

One afternoon she had managed to avoid her husband’s watchful eye and had sneaked up to the castle without detection. Isabella soon lost track of time and when she eventually left it was getting dark. She hurried down through the woods and when she was nearly home she heard a voice calling her name.

“Bella!” Isabella’s heart started to pound. It was Nicolae. “What are you doing in the forest?” he asked her when he saw her. The wolf that Isabella had befriended on her first visit to the castle and which had always accompanied her when she went through the forest had slipped out of sight. Nicolae did not see him.

“I just took a shortcut through the woods,” Isabella answered.

“You know you should never go into the forest on your own,” Nicolae objected.

Isabella sighed. “You’re getting as bad as Alexei,” she said to him. “I’m a grown woman and I can take care of myself!” she added, exasperated by her overprotective husband.

Nicolae smiled at his wife. “I know you can, Bella. Let’s go home. There’s something I want to tell you.” When they got home, Nicolae began to relay the story to Isabella.

“A few years before your grandfather died he started to tell me about the murders….” Nicolae went on to tell her about the man he was named after and how the villagers had covered up the murders for years.

Isabella kept quiet, even though she thought it was all nonsense. She wanted to argue with him but held back her reproach, because she knew if she did he would start asking her questions about why she was so sure that the castle was totally safe. So Isabella kept silent all the time, trying to figure out how she was going to get to the castle from then on. She could not risk Nicolae catching her again. If he even suspected that she was up there he would be very disappointed in her.

That was the one thing Isabella could hardly stand about her husband. He judged her. The two of them were very different people. When she did anything that annoyed him he would not get visibly angry with her. He would not shout, or reprimand her. He would just be that little bit colder towards her. He made her feel guilty and she couldn’t stand the disappointed looks he would give her. Nicolae knew that shouting at Isabella was pointless. It would just make her more determined and he wasn’t the sort of man who would constantly shout at his wife.

If Nicolae found out that Isabella had been lying to him all those times when she said she was going to Katya’s, he would never trust her again. He would insist on going everywhere with her. Isabella loved her husband. She never wanted him to think badly of her. And like all wives who love their husbands, she thought that there were some things that he was better off not knowing. So therefore, when Isabella did anything that Nicolae would not approve of, she preferred to keep it from him. When she had not forgiven her father, Nicolae was so disappointed in her. He did not understand why Isabella could not forgive him. The pair in the end had resolved to not talk about it. They did not understand each others reaction to the events and they never would understand each other completely.

Isabella lay in her bed that night thinking about how she could get up to the castle without her husband suspecting. She rolled over and looked at him; Nicolae was sleeping soundly beside her. Many a night Isabella had lain awake watching her husband sleep. He was such a deep sleeper. Then it occurred to her. She could go up at night while Nicolae was asleep and he would never know the difference.

The following night she waited until her husband was asleep and then went up towards the castle. The wolf ran down to join her and walked with her the rest of the way. When she arrived she lighted a fire and read for hours. This pattern continued for weeks. She would return before Nicolae would wake up and then she would sleep late in the morning. She was quite heavily pregnant by this stage and Nicolae would let her sleep as long as she liked.

About two weeks before her baby was due to be born she was up at the castle as usual. The wolf accompanied her most nights and this night was no exception. The wolf appeared to fall asleep at her feet. Isabella was tired herself and before long fell asleep as well. The moment Isabella was asleep the wolf rose and left the room, only to return in another form.

After about an hour, Isabella awoke. She opened her eyes she was startled to see a stranger sitting opposite her. The stranger was a young, very attractive man. He had thick black hair and dark, almost black eyes.

Isabella jumped out of her seat. She was not the type to be frightened easily so her fleeting moment of panic passed as suddenly as it came and was replaced by curiosity. The man stood up and spoke in a different tongue, Wallachian, but this was one of the languages Isabella had taught herself, so she was able to understand him.

“Please sit down. I did not mean to frighten you.”

Not wanting to let him know that he had even slightly intimidated her, Isabella answered, “You didn’t. I was just surprised to see anyone here, that’s all.”

The man curled up his mouth into a smile. “So was I,” he said. “This is my home. You are the one who is not supposed to be here.”

“Your home. You’re a Dracul? I thought Vlad was the last of you.”

“You have heard of my family.”

“My grandfather fought in the Crusades. He was in Vlad Dracula’s army,” Isabella stated with a certain amount of pride.

“Vlad was my…” he hesitated, “grandfather.”

“Your grandfather. I thought Vlad’s only son was lost during the wars.”

Dracula was used to people blindly accepting everything he said and not questioning him. This girl was different. She would not be fooled by his usual story.

“He was found,” he said, sternly enough to silence her for a moment.

She carried on in another vein of questioning. “Have you come back to the castle to stay?” Isabella asked.

“For awhile.”

“I suppose I am a trespasser here?”

“I suppose you are.”

“I come up here to read the books. I’m from the village below.”

“You speak Wallachian very well, but I suspect it is not your native tongue?”