Red Magic (10 page)

The stallion Black Lady had blinded was too
good to destroy, but even for breeding the poor fellow was at a disadvantage
now, so any mares he was to service were tied in a box stall

The next time Black Lady looked ready to
breed, the Landrat had her harnessed, her feet tied to rings in the floor in a
big box stall. Then he'd had Longnecker bring a stallion to serve her. It was
done several days in a row.

"That she-devil will throw a
foal this time."

Cat had happened upon it, the grooms joking
as the stallion leapt. Face
burning,
she'd slunk away,
out of the barn. How terrible to see this brave female creature bound and
forced.

Now, sooner or later, one way or another,
just like Black Lady, Caterina herself would be bred. The thought produced a
violent shudder.

Her husband, his arm around her, noticed.
"What's the matter, sweetie?"

He made as if to draw her close, to give
one of those warm, cousinly squeezes he'd been giving her, but the endearment
was too much. Caterina yanked her arm out of his and then pelted away towards
the house as fast as she could go.

Chapter Seven

Christoph's estate had the same name as the
looming mountain upon whose shoulders it sat: Heldenberg. The surroundings were
wild and the nearest town, the tiny village
of Heldenruhe, was about
seven miles away.

As the time of Cat's departure grew closer,
Lady van Velsen seemed increasingly apprehensive. She fussed and fussed over
her daughter, insisting that she spend her days overlooking housekeeping in
every detail, from kitchen to the linen closet.

"A quick
course?"
Christoph teased when he
discovered them at it. He leaned across a gleaming table and lifted a fat, ripe
greengage from a basket in the center. After biting into it, he sent a nod of
approval towards his mother-in-law. Inside the thin green and
purple skin was a juicy golden center.

"Herr Graf," said Lady von
Velsen, drawing herself up very straight, "I have always done my best to
instruct Caterina in the duties she would be expected to perform as a
gentleman's wife. I have tried persuasion and I have tried whippings. Both, as
you probably know, to little avail." She looked so distressed that Cat
felt she should say something.

"It's not Mama's fault, Graf von
Hagen. It's just as she says."

For the first time she could see her
mother's point of view. In a few days she would be mistress of a large
household and she knew next to nothing about how to manage it.

"Housekeeping just wasn't as
interesting to me as horses."

A ferocious look from her mother
interrupted.

"No apologies, please, from either of
you ladies." von Hagen said smiled.
"Especially
from Lady Albertine who has been trying to sow grain on stony ground.
I
have a capable staff in residence. They shall, I'm sure, continue to manage as
they have in the past. When my wife becomes interested, as I'm sure she will,
she can assert her own notions about housekeeping."

He finished the small fruit and dropped the
pit upon a plate set beside the basket. It was awful to Cat to see her proud
and capable mother standing there, apparently so embarrassed on account of her.

"Until she has notions, though,"
Christoph said with a sudden grin, catching one of Caterina's long red braids
and tugging, "she can climb trees and play with Star all day and still an
adequate dinner will find its way onto the table."

"Oh, Caterina," her Mama
exclaimed after Christoph, a fresh greengage in hand, had taken his leave.
"How on earth are you ever going to manage?"

No servants from home would come along.
Christoph had insisted upon that, had been quite adamant that his own people
could adequately attend them.

This had upset Lady von Velsen. She'd
wanted to send one of the older servants along to advise Caterina. Of course,
though none of them would have dared argue with their mistress, not one of them
wanted to be exiled to far away Heldenberg either. When the word about Graf von
Hagen's decision went out, there was much muted rejoicing in the servant's
quarters.

* * *

The afternoon before Cat was to
leave,
a summons came from her mother. When she arrived at
Lady von Velsen's room, she found it darkened. Her mother was afflicted
occasionally by migraine and the silent, dim room attested to an attack.

"Oh, Mama," Cat whispered,
approaching the bed. "I'm sorry. Is it very bad?"

"Rather, my darling. But don't you
worry, it will pass." Lady von Hagen was pale, prone, her dress loosened,
her stays opened. A maid beside the bed was wringing out a cloth in a basin of
cold water.

"Hanna, dear," Lady von Velsen
addressed the servant, "please go out now, but don't go far. I'll soon
want you again."

As the girl curtsied and retreated, Cat
stepped into her place. "May I help, Mama?"

"Yes, please. Do as Hanna was doing
while I talk to you. It's a very serious talk too, Caterina, so please
attend."

There was a pause, a tinkle of water as Cat
wrung out the cloth and applied it to her mother's white brow. Finally her
mother said, "There are a few last cautions I want to give you, my angel,
especially about your husband the Graf's housekeeping arrangements."

"Yes, Mama."
Cat was demure, thinking it was going to be another lecture about
lazy servants or counting the hams.

"Caterina, as I believe you are aware,
Christoph kept a mistress at Heldenberg for many years."

"Yes, I know," Caterina shifted
uncomfortably. "Wili told me."

"This spring when your husband
returned to marry, he told your father and me that this lady had married
another man, a captain in his regiment, and that she had gone to live in Vienna with her husband
and their new baby. But now, from something Uncle Rupert said to your father, I
am not so sure this is the case."

"What?" Cat dropped the cloth
into the basin and stared at her mother with dismay. "Surely you and Papa
don't expect me to live under the same roof with a—a—concubine!"

"Has your husband talked to you about
any of this?"

"No."

Lady von Velsen seemed to be waiting for
some enlargement, but no more was forthcoming. After the wedding morning,
Christoph had politely kept his distance. The most uncomfortable part of every
day was when they were left alone together in the bedroom. Every night her
husband, docile as a lamb, climbed into bed by himself and went off to sleep.
Except for the cousinly kisses and caresses which happened in public, he never
offered to touch her.

"Well, Christoph had talked to
Wilhelmina about this woman and they'd come to some sort of agreement. I know
because she told me a little, but I certainly wasn't entirely happy about it.
Wili, of course, was always willing to believe him, even his tale that although
the woman stayed on at Heldenberg, he hadn't shared a bed with her in several
years."

"Why are you telling me this now? I
thought you believed in his miraculous reformation."

"Caterina," her mother hissed,
her red brows contracting in a wave of pain. "It's all I can do to talk,
so just hush, please, and listen. I'm at my wit's end myself, but perhaps the
reason he hasn't spoken about her is that she really is gone. Heaven knows
there is no reason to rake up trouble, there's enough as it is. What I
particularly want to say is that I don't have the feeling that she's been gone
for long. As a result, the servants may resent you, may feel that you have
driven her out."

There was a pause while Caterina wrung out
another cloth and applied it to her mother's brow.

"The only advice I can give you, as
your husband so unreasonably refuses to let you take an experienced servant of
your own along, is to keep your eyes open and your opinions to yourself, at
least until you see the lay of the land. Don't trust anyone too quickly. It
will take a long time to sort out who your real allies are in the house. And
you will need allies, Caterina. A noblewoman, isolated in a place like Heldenberg,
is in great need of friends."

Caterina stared at the pale long form of
her mother stretched out on the bed. Was it all going to turn out to be a lie,
this reformation? And was her husband's reticence based, not upon the
impropriety of bedding her so soon after he'd lain with her sister, but upon
the fact that his heart still belonged to a mistress?

Lady von Velsen lifted a hand wearily to
her forehead. "Perhaps she is gone, but if not this will be the first test
of your woman's bravery. You must control your temper, Caterina, at least for
awhile until you understand the situation. Don't jump to conclusions. Try to
trust your husband, but keep your eyes open. Above all, my angel, remember your
duty to your family."

"Yes. Oh, yes! My heifer's duty! To be
leapt, swell up and calve!"

"By the Blessed
Brigitte!"
Her mother, two red patches
flaring on her cheeks, raised herself unsteadily on one elbow. "I endured
it myself, Caterina. I wasn't much older than you when I was given to Theodor's
father, Herman von Ployer. I shall not detail his abuse of my trust and person,
his many cruelties, both large and small, but on the day I gave birth to Theo
and Valentin—"

Theodor had had a twin, another half
brother whose face Cat could not for the life of her remember. Valentin had
died sometime during her fifth year and Cat distinctly recollected watching
with dry eyed curiosity while Theo and the grown-ups had wept over his not very
large coffin.

"—Upon that day," Lady von Velsen
was saying, in the flat monotone of someone speaking of things she'd far rather
forget, "Herman von Ployer congratulated me by saying that I had turned
out to be a better brood mare than I looked. That very night, contented with
having sired two sons, he returned to his townhouse in Passau, to the arms of the creature he kept
there. From then on, thank The Blessed
Mother,
I was
spared any more of his—attention."

A thrill of horror went through Caterina.
She had never heard her mother speak like this, although she'd had a strong
sense that Lady Albertine hadn't liked her first husband. As a child Theodor
had lived much of every year with his von Ployer grandparents, but that wasn't
an unusual occurrence when a widowed noblewoman remarried. In fact, by law, her
late husband's family could have taken Theo away.

"Listen to me, Caterina. I want you to
go to Heldenberg with Christoph and find out what the truth is. I think that in
spite of all his wanderings, he is by nature too warm-hearted and imaginative
to be like my brute of a first husband. But—" Lady von Velsen clearly in
pain, rubbed her forehead hard and subsided into the bed again, "if your
personal honor cannot endure what you find at Heldenberg, ride Star home and I
will do whatever I can to protect you."

With those astonishing words, Lady von
Velsen collapsed into the pillows. Caterina started to speak, but her mother
waved her hand imperiously.

"Open the box by my bed and take out
the golden chains. They can be broken apart by hand, and used as money. Utterly
astonished, Caterina silently did as her mother
directed
.

"Good," said Lady Albertine,
watching Caterina settle them around her neck.
"Now, not
a word to anyone.
Call Hanna and go out. My head feels as if it's going
to shatter."

* * *

"Mama says that she has heard you
still have a mistress at Heldenberg."

Her husband paused on his way into bed,
raised a dark eyebrow. Clearly he had been taken by surprise. Still on edge
from talking with her mother, Cat stepped forward and blurted, "Is it
true?"

"No, Caterina, it is not." His
denial came without hesitation.

"I will not stay if she's there."

"Caterina, in the first place, I am
done with mistresses, as I have already told you. And in the second—do you
think I'm out of my mind? You, I think, are going to be quite enough for me to
deal with."

As if this settled the matter, Christoph
threw off his morning gown and climbed into bed. As he settled in, he said in
an encouraging tone, "I know you're going to love Heldenberg, just as I
do. It's a horseman's paradise."

His eyes had brightened. "Would you
like to ride out there instead of driving? You and Star could both get some
exercise."

"Oh, could I?" Cat cried,
delighted at the idea.

"You don't think it would be too hard,
do you, after all the time you've been kept out of the saddle?"

"Too hard?"
Caterina, imagining a splendid summer ride of many days, was well
on her way to forgetting how the conversation had begun. "My backside
might get sore, but that's nothing to worry—" Her voice died away,
apprehending the oncoming joke.

"In spite of the Landrat's attempts to
educate you to womanliness, you still prefer astride, don't you?" She was
relieved when Christoph avoided the obvious.