Виктория Холт - On the Night of the Seventh Moon

“I must go back to Klocksburg,” I said.

“I shall tell Fritz I am his mother. I shall care for him. And I shall never let him out of my sight.”

She nodded.

“I will tell Prinzstein to drive you back immediately.”

I looked at the Duchess.

“I shall care for her,” said Ilse, her face softening.

“Oh, Helena, what a lot of trouble would have been avoided if you had not got lost in the mist that day when you went out on the school picnic.”

She called Prinzstein. He looked astonished. Doubtless he was surprised to be ordered to drive me home instead of to assist in throwing me down to death from the Tower of the Screaming Cats.

As the carriage clattered into the courtyard, Frau Graben came running out.

“It’s you. Where have you been? He’s back.”

My heart leaped with joy. I could have forgotten everything in that moment but that Maximilian was back and that he would be here under this roof with me and our son.

“Where is he?” I cried.

“Come along in,” replied Frau Graben, ‘and calm yourself. He’s back, I said. Back in Rochenstein. I didn’`t say he was here in Klocksburg. He was here. He’s gone looking for you. “

“Where has he gone?”

“Now, now be calm I said. It’s not like you. Miss Trant, to be otherwise. Maxi came here shortly after you’d gone. He’s just home and the first thing he did was come to you.”

“But where is he now?”

“It was Dagobert. He said he’d heard Prinzstein say you were going to the Landhaus to see the Duchess. My goodness! He was in a fret then.

He was as bad as you. He wouldn’`t stop a minute. He was off. “

“He would have been too late if...

She looked at me oddly.

“Here, you’d better come and sit down. I’ll get you a cup of tea.”

“Not now. I couldn’'t drink it.” I had to talk to someone. I had to tell the news that I had a son and he was alive and that I already loved him dearly. I wanted to tell Maximilian, but Prau Graben would have to do.

I blurted out: “I have just heard that Fritz is my son.”

“There,” she said beaming.

“I guessed that. It all fits, doesn’`t it? I knew a good deal, but there were things I wasn’`t sure of. You sit still for a minute. You’re shocked or dazed or something. What happened up at the Landhaus? She sent for you. I was worried and, by the looks of him, so was Maxi. He wouldn’`t stop a minute. He was off and no explanations either. Yes, I guessed about Fritzi. Hildegarde put two and two together. She knew it was a true marriage, I suspect, and she thought it best that you were spirited away to England and forgotten. That was what she would think was best for Maxi and what was best for Maxi was what she wanted.”

I was scarcely listening. I was thinking of Maximilian’s arriving at the Landhaus. He would find his wife drugged and helpless . and Ilse. She would explain to him and send him back. So there was nothing to do but wait until he came. But I must see Fritz. I must tell him that he had a mother after all. Perhaps Maximilian and I ought to tell him together. We could all three share the wonderful moment.

Frau Graben went on talking.

“Hildegarde took Fritz when he was born.

She knew who he was and loved him dearly. She connived at the gunpowder affair and she confessed a good deal to me when she was dying. That was when I took over Fritzi. Then of course I began to learn things. What a situation I’ She chuckled. How she loved to interfere in people’s lives, to bring about dramatic situations and watch people’s reactions to them.

“You were for Maxi, there was no doubt about that. He changed after he lost you. One night he was ill feverish rambling. It was all about you, your name .. that bookshop and the town where you lived. I got it all by degrees and I thought: My Maxi will never be the same without her and so I brought you here to him my gift to Maxi on the Night of the Seventh Moon. Of course I planned for you to be happy in some little schloss.

No one would have known what it was all about . except me. You would have been his true love. Princes lead their state lives with their state wives and have their loves in secret. Why not Maxi? “

Oh, Frau Graben, how you have meddled in our lives! ” I cried.

“But what have I brought you but good, eh? And now what will happen?

This could be trouble with Klarenboek. They’ll say we’ve insulted their Princess. Maxi never wanted her, though. Cold as an icicle. She was no wife for him. I thought we’d all be happy together and there’d be the babies, and no one know the truth but me and what a chuckle I’d have over that. And up at the big schloss there’d be the Duchess and her son who’d be the heir and none the wiser. That was how I’d planned it. And then things started to happen. There was the arrow in Fritzi’s hat and the bandits who took Dagobert by mistake, and there was that silly affair in the turret-room that gave them away. They put a sedative in Fritzi’s milk and he only drank a little which didn’`t put him to sleep properly.

Dagobert took the rest and went off altogether. Then Fritz went on about the horse and the man with a crown. I know that it’s in their room. It’s a carving Prinzstein made himself and polished and is very proud of. It was Prinzstein who was waiting for you up there when Frieda took you up, but the silly creature by good luck dropped the candle and the matches caught fire. If you’d turned and seen Prinzstein the game would have been up. So he fled. He was hiding behind the door as I came up and slipped down the stairs after me. But I knew what had happened. I’d suspected he was working for Klarenbock and that silly little Frieda would do as he said. “

“They were going to kill me,” I told her, ‘and she was going to do it this afternoon. I wish Maximilian would come. “

“He’ll come straight back here when he finds you left the Landhaus.”

“I must see Fritz. I can’t wait to tell him. This is going to make him so happy.”

“He loves you. I’ll swear if he could choose a mother she would be you. Talk about dreams coming true! You took to him from the start, didn’`t you? I wonder if it’s true that mothers would know their own no matter what had separated them.”

“I was drawn to him and he to me. I must find him. I’m going to him now.”

I left but she followed me out to the Randhausburg, into the fortress.

I went up to Fritz’s room. He was not there. He was nowhere in the fortress.

As we came down the stairs and out to the courtyard I saw Dagobert.

“Have you seen Fritz?” I called.

Yes, he’s gone off. It’s not fair. “

“Not fair? What’s not fair?”

“My father took us into the forest riding and then sent me back.”

I felt as though my blood had turned cold.

“Sent you back,” I repeated.

“Yes, and Fritz was to go alone to the Island of Graves to the empty grave with the planks across.”

“Why?” I stammered.

“Because he’s a coward and he’s got to learn not to be. He’s got to row over there by himself and wait there and stay till it’s dark.”

I didn’`t wait for any more. I ran to the stable.

Frau Graben was behind me.

“Where are you going?” she demanded.

“I’m going to the Island of Graves. Tell Maximilian, there’s not a moment to lose. Fritz may be in danger.”

I rode through the forest seeing only Fritz, my son, a forlorn figure alone on the Island of Graves with a man who was determined to kill him. I myself had faced death twice in a very short time. Who knew? I was probably coming face to face with it again. I did not care. All I thought of was my son.

“On the Island of Graves alone!” I kept hearing those words.

Oh Fritz, my son! I prayed: “Let me be in time to save him.”

I did not ask myself how I could save him from a man who had determined to kill him. I only thought that I must be there. If Maximilian had not gone to the Landhaus . if he had waited, but how could he wait when he believed me to be in danger?