Red Magic (3 page)

She was patting her husband's back firmly
and rhythmically as if she were burping an enormous baby. Perhaps the entire
message could be delivered without causing an explosion. "She's really a
good child, but she knows you wish she had been a boy and so she plays the
son's part, following you and Herr Longenecker around, messing endlessly with
that horse of hers, but it's plain cruelty to let her go on this way. And, oh,
Wilhelm, just think. What if she refuses to marry and gets, gets—" Lady
von Velsen's voice dropped to a whisper, as if just saying the words aloud
might make them come true. "What if she gets like Aunt Teresina? You know
how she fascinated Caterina. And Grandpapa Tanucci always blamed himself, said
that her—oddities, were the result of his indulgence."

Just audibly, the Landrat groaned.
A case horribly in point.
For lack of a son he'd raised a
tomboy instead of a proper daughter. The awful consequences were just now
coming home.

Chapter Two

Almost a year later, when Christoph
returned to the valley, he arrived not dashingly on horseback, but reclining in
a chaise. Wili wept to see him, for her handsome darling was worn, gaunt and
pale. When he walked, it was frowning with effort and leaning heavily upon a
cane. Pain from the terrible wound he had taken fighting the Turks had aged
him, scoured deep lines around his eyes and mouth.

With tears in his eyes, Christoph took Wili
into his big arms. When he called her "my darling wife," hearts in
both families soared. Now, at last, after this near tragedy, the knot was to be
tied! The pair
were
allowed a long time alone together
in the study.

"He says he's sorry," Wili said
tearfully to Lady von Velsen. "He says that all these years he's been fond
of me, but that he just couldn't imagine being married. Now he says that he's
come to understand that a caring, tender friend is the best kind of wife there
is. He says he's ashamed and sorry. He swears to make it all up to me."

"Oh, my darling," Lady von Velsen
exclaimed, embracing her step-daughter, "I'm so glad! Your papa and
I want you to be happy so much."

Cat nodded, smiled, but said nothing. Of
course she was happy that Wili was to get her wish and be married to Christoph
at last. Nevertheless, there was a queer aching sadness whose source was a
mystery, a mystery which was hidden behind a dark forbidding door, one she
neither cared nor dared to open. A wedding date was set. Cat's sixteenth
birthday, just after the spring equinox, passed almost unnoticed in the whirl
of activity and planning.

The bridegroom-to-be came to
stay at the von Velsen Schloss while completing his recovery. Wili spent her
days with him. She tirelessly prepared delicacies to nurture him. Soon, with so
much care and comfort, the beloved invalid began to regain color and strength.
His limp lessened. The cane was discarded.

No one could quite believe how changed
Christoph was. He was always unceremoniously gathering Wili up to hug and kiss
her. Suddenly all Wili's tears were ones of joy.

As the wedding day drew closer, Christoph
took his bride-to-be for long, lonely drives from which Wili returned looking
rosy and tousled. This alarmed Lady von Velsen, but when the Landrat only
smiled.

"Never mind, lady wife. All it means
is that we may have a head start on a grandson. If I understand that boy, and I
think I do by this time, this means he's in earnest at last."

With his elders Christoph was solemn and
respectful. He spent his evenings having long serious talks with the Landrat
about land, law, tenants and farming. In every way he seemed much older. With
Caterina he was formal and proper, suddenly more a distant older relative than
playful cousin.

As weeks passed Wili floated
deliriously around the Schloss, babbling endlessly about her sweetheart, about
her wedding.
While Cat was truly happy to see
her so elated, at the same time she felt increasingly sad, as if she'd lost
something precious, although she didn't know quite what. In the hustle and
bustle of preparations, strict discipline relaxed and Cat spent a lot of time
out of the house, riding Star aimlessly around and trying not to think too
much.

* * *

One afternoon about a month before the
wedding, everyone went out for a ride. The physician had just given Christoph
permission to do so and he couldn't wait.

In the party
was
Oncle Rupert, Christoph and Wili, Landrat Wilhelm and Caterina. Wili wasn't as
bold a rider as Cat, but like most country gentry, she knew what she was about
on horseback.

As they cantered through a lush riverside
meadow, the bride-to-be laughed gaily, urged her little gelding on. Christoph,
delighted at being up on his Prussian again, kept daring everyone to ride
faster. The pace rose to a gallop.

Wili's mount stumbled. Letting out a sound
like a human scream, the horse pitched forward.

Wili's astonished cry mingled with that of
her mount. Swiveling out of the saddle in a classic side saddle fall, she
crashed straight onto her back among the flowers.

When Cat reached the spot, she leapt down
beside her sister. Wili's body was quivering all over in an ugly, spasmodic
shudder and her neck was oddly twisted. Heavy golden hair spilled from beneath
her loosened cap onto the green.

Nearby her poor horse staggered and moaned,
holding up a front leg from which bone protruded and blood bubbled. Cat
crouched in the grass beside Wili, too stunned to make a sound. Her sister's
gray eyes, usually benignly alight, were empty. There was not even a spark left
to which Caterina could bid farewell.

* * *

One by one, the other riders joined her.
Christoph, far ahead, was the last to arrive. He threw the reins over his
horse's head and dismounted in a single bound. Only too well did the soldier
know the face of death!

"No!" He went to his knees beside
Cat and seized her limp body in his arms. "No! Wili! No! This can't
be!"

An explosion split the air. Cat looked up
to see Wili's little horse tumble to the ground. Oncle Rupert had discharged a
hunting piece point blank into his head, ending the poor creature's agony. At
this crowning desolation, Cat began to sob.

* * *

A few days later, in the first hot days of
June, they laid Wili beside her mother, the Landrat's gentle first wife.
Kinfolk and neighbors, as well as a crowd of servants, all stood together,
faces pinched and eyes red. When it was over, the terrible last words said, the
coffin delivered into the crypt, Lady von Velsen and Caterina, breathless with
crying, walked wordlessly out into the bright sunlight.

It was the Landrat who had something to
say. He went straight up to Oncle Rupert on the church steps and loudly
declared, "In the name of God, Rupert von Hagen, promise me here and now
that your son will marry Caterina."

Everyone froze. Rupert's mouth opened and
closed like a fish out of water. When not even a croak came out, Wilhem von
Velsen declared, "By God, we'll still have a wedding.
On
the sixth Monday hence."

Rupert stammered, his round cheeks pale,
"'Pon my honor, Wilhelm von Velsen—it shall be as you say."

Like everyone in hearing, Rupert was
shocked, but he understood his kinsman's now desperate need to arrange the
matter. Upon the Landrat's death, the bulk of the von Velsen lands would revert
to Christoph as the nearest male heir. The grafting of the two family branches
by marriage was the only way Wilhem von Velsen had to pass his beloved land on
to his grandchildren.

"Marry him?" Caterina turned to
stare at Christoph, who, white faced, was just emerging from the dark passage
that led to the crypt. "No! I won't!" She caught her heavy black
skirts, prepared to run somewhere, anywhere, but her portly father anticipated.
One great hand, moving with astonishing alacrity, took immediate, rough
possession of her arm.

"If you disgrace me now, I shall beat
you black and blue right here in the street."

He never let go, not during the carriage
ride home, not until he had dragged Cat all the way up the long, curving
staircase toward her bedroom.

"There will be no nonsense. You will
do as I say, Caterina. In six weeks you'll be married. While we wait, you will
remain in your room. It will give you time to prepare."

"But Papa," Cat cried, "I
don't want to be married. Not to him. Not now. Please don't make me.
Please!"

"Husband," Lady von Velsen seemed
equally alarmed by turn things had taken, "This may be right in a few
months, but do you really think—"

"Not another word from either of you!
A wedding is planned and a wedding there shall be. The idea came to me in
church, and as nothing much ever comes to me there except sleep, I believe it
is a sign from God."

"You act as if Wili and I are of no
more importance to you than one of your mares," Cat shouted. "One is
dead, so another takes her place in the breeding barn."

"This defiance is the punishment I
deserve for indulging you, for not teaching you a woman's place and duty.
Heaven knows, your mother has warned me a thousand times."

Instead of the expected fury, the Landrat's
face was grave. Cat thought she'd never seen her father look so cold.

"The law, Caterina, says that you are
mine and just exactly like those mares. You know that our lands will revert to
my cousin's family when I die, as it seems I am fated to do, without sons. By
God, girl, my name may vanish, but that good black earth down by the river shall
not pass away from my blood!"

The Landrat was like a mountain peak in a
storm, scowling, intractable. It took all
Cat's
strength to speak again.

"But Papa—Christoph is a rake, and—oh,
I despise him."

"Enough, Caterina.
Our cousin was unkind to Wili, unkind and thoughtless. I know you
grieve for your sister. We all do, but see what ruin delay has brought us! If
I'd forced them to it last summer, why, my heart near cracks when I
remember..."

"But, but—I'm not ready to be married.
Mama will tell you." In the face of his stony resolve, Caterina was
prepared to humble herself

"I know, Caterina, but it can't be
helped. Now just remember that I am your father. Yes, if you like, your master,
and I say you shall marry him."

"I won't! I can't!"

"Too late I see," her father
roared, "you are nothing but an ungrateful brat! By Christ and all his
Saints, you shall do as I say!" The Landrat's head spun. The death of one
beloved child, the defiance of the other! One huge hand
came
flying, but Cat was so furious that the head-rattling slap didn't stop
her.

"Hit me! Go on!" Cornered, she
feared nothing, not even her father's towering rage. "I shan't marry that
lying rake. I shan't!"

Her father, who had hold of her arm,
slapped again. Cat's head rang.

"Wilhelm! Have you lost your mind? You
wouldn't treat a serving girl—or even a dog this way." Lady von Hagen
flung herself upon her husband's thick arm.

"A serving girl wouldn't act the way
this hussy does! Not a creature on two legs or four acts—she thinks she's
master here!" The Landrat panted, his square face was purple.

"I won't marry him! I won't!" Cat
repeated, still struggling with all her might and main to escape.

"Shame!
Shame on you both!"
Her mother cried.
"Caterina!
How dare you defy your father?"

"Damn her! She has driven me
mad!"

"Leave this room at once, sir,"
Lady von Hagen exclaimed, "and let me speak to my daughter alone."

"Your daughter?
Entirely yours, I think!
The red-headed
she-devil!"

"Wilhelm! How dare you?" Lady von
Velsen gave her own red head an imperious, wild horse toss.

Faced by two outraged and exceedingly tall
women, the Landrat prudently retreated. The bedroom door crashed shut behind
him and then the key ground with awful finality in the large, square lock.

* * *

"Oh, Mama!
Please don't let him make me marry Christoph." Caterina threw
herself into her mother's arms. It wasn't unusual for girls of sixteen to be
married, but up till this moment Cat had considered marriage only the remotest
possibility. Now it was rushing in with all the finality of a death sentence.

Lady von Velsen soothed her daughter,
stroked the flaming hair and reflected with melancholy upon how long it had
been since she'd had the pleasure of holding this fiercely independent child in
her arms. Finally, she took Cat's chin in her hand, tipped it up to gaze into
her eyes, so exactly like her own.

"If you're ready now, Caterina Maria
Brigitte, we'll talk. And I will talk first, because I'm your mama."