Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 07 - Nemesis

“Are you telling the truth?” asked Dieter. He sounded very serious.

“Yes,” Tancred assured him emphatically. “And everything was death and decay. But there was light so I walked inside. And there sat the woman ...”

“A woman?” Dieter’s voice trembled slightly. He had a shifty, worried glance.

“A fantastic woman. She ...”

Tancred was silent. His whole body ached. What was it that had actually happened?

“I was served wine, and then I must have lost consciousness,” he said quietly.

Dieter was silent for a while.

“Are you often in the habit of ... fainting like this?”

“Me? No, certainly not!”

“Tancred ...” said Dieter, breathing deeply. “There’s no ruined castle here.”

“Yes, there is!”

“But there was one.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“There’s a legend .... About Old Askinge.”

Tancred felt weak. “Old Askinge?”

“Yes, they built a castle about a hundred years ago. That’s where the Holzensterns now reside, after the Cross Family had owned it for many years. But the old castle ... a medieval castle ...”

“Yes?”

“Weather and wind corroded it and it was demolished. It disappeared several hundred years ago. It’s only referred to in legend.”

Tancred began to feel rather unwell ... for various reasons.

“What more does tradition say?”

Dieter had problems getting the words out. “That castle was bewitched just as you said about the forest. A witch used to live there, which was why the castle was deserted. A real, proper witch in the worst sense of the word resided there. She was beautiful as sin, and men were drawn to her. She made love with them ... and then abandoned them.”

Tancred pressed his lips together. His stomach was beginning to ache. Then he said slowly:

“What was her name? The witch, I mean?”

Dieter wrinkled his brow. “I’ve heard it. It was something along the lines of ... It sounded like Messalina. And she was said to be very sensuous and cruel like the Roman empress.”

Tancred nodded. “Salina. Yes, that was her name.”

There was silence in the forest.

“Dieter, take me home on the horse! I’m feeling somewhat under the weather.”

Without a word, they got on the horse and rode back to Ursula Horn’s estate.

When they arrived, Tancred got down from the horse and thanked Dieter.

“I hope I don’t meet Aunt Ursula because I won’t know what to say.”

“It was a dream, Tancred. It must have been,” Dieter said almost pleadingly.

Tancred bit his lip. “Yes, I suppose so.”But he was absolutely convinced of the opposite.

He tiptoed inside and managed to walk unseen into his room. There he tore off his wet clothes, washed himself in plenty of water and tumbled into bed. He dared not think and was afraid of becoming perplexed if he tried.

At some point during the morning, he heard a sharp voice from the courtyard say, “Say hello to my nephew, who is fast asleep, and take good care of him.”

Then he heard the creaking of wheels that disappeared.

‘Now I don’t have to go to Askinge and make superficial conversation with the Holzensterns’, he thought.

‘Or maybe I should? Maybe I would then get to know more about Salina, the witch?’

He shuddered at the thought. No, he had better forget her. But ...

All of a sudden, he was wide awake.

Good heavens. Where had his thoughts been drifting to?

What was it Dieter had said? About the new Askinge, which the Holzensterns now owned after the Cross Family had lived there for many years.

Jessica Cross ...That was where Jessica had escaped from! The Holzensterns had offered their home to her after her parents had died of smallpox.

And Molly had fled with Jessica.

His little Molly.

His tiredness had vanished completely. He went down to the dining room and ate a solid meal from the leftovers from the party the evening before.

Then he rode out again. In the stable, he asked for directions to Askinge and was told that it was also situated at the fringes of the forest but so far away that it could not be seen from Aunt Ursula’s estate.

Something else was troubling him as he rode on this grey, cold day in March.

Dieter had said something more at the party.

“They’re trying to pair me with Stella. Only I’ve got other interests. If only they knew ...”

What if he was in love with Jessica? Or ...

Heaven forbid! Tancred’s own Molly?

Molly, whom he had almost forgotten for a while after that frightening adventure with Salina.

Now it felt warm and good to think about Molly. He had to find her and ask what it was all about and why they fled time after time.

Surely she was not interested in Dieter, a nonentity? If you really had to make comparisons, then Tancred had more to offer.

He did not notice that he had turned shamelessly subjective, which is often the case when you are hit by jealousy.

Tancred Paladin honestly believed that he was superior to such primitive impulses.

Chapter 3

Finding Askinge was easy. The estate was new – not as big as Aunt Ursula’s, but certainly impressive.

Tancred was cordially greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Holzenstern and their daughter Stella, who still looked like a wax doll in her yellow-white dress.

‘I must be very careful not to exaggerate my visits here’, he thought, concerned. ‘The mother seems intent on marrying away her daughter.’

‘Not that I have high thoughts of myself’, smiled Tancred to himself. ‘But the name Paladin draws people in. I’ve learned that. Even though Mum married Dad without the faintest idea of how aristocratic he was! I’m sure he appreciated that. I shan’t tell Molly that I belong to high nobility. I want her to love me for my own sake.’

Love ... it was a word that Tancred had never used about a girl before. After all, he had only seen – and put his arm around Molly – for a short moment.

He must be crazy!

But wasn’t that what you became when you fell in love?

He was shown into an elegant drawing room.

It did not look as if they were short of money. All the furniture was the latest fashion – although he would prefer proper furniture that was inherited. Of course, you could add on, but surely you did not throw out all the furniture, which had been passed through generations, just to be modern? This was what they seemed to have done here.

Count Holzenstern was a somewhat stout man, stylish but maybe he dressed too ostentatiously. I suppose he’s trying to act younger than his years, thought Tancred with youthful tolerance. Countess Holzenstern was rather boring, which was why he could not remember what she looked like. Her stiff and anxious face was a kind of façade. She seemed afraid of having wrinkles if she smiled too often.

While they were talking to one another across the table, Tancred discovered that Mrs. Holzenstern was of very noble birth, something she did not forget to emphasise. Maybe this was to make Tancred understand that Stella was a good match for a Paladin? And had not Aunt Ursula mentioned something about Mrs. Holzenstern’s sister, the Duchess?

But Tancred did not give a damn for noble birth. He wanted Molly!

Where was she, he wondered.

Afterwards Holzenstern took Tancred out to show him the fields. The ladies stayed behind indoors because it was too cold for them.

Tancred tried to fish for information from Holzenstern. “This estate doesn’t seem very old does it?” Tancred asked.

“No, it was built in the late 1500s. It’s not a hundred years old yet.”

“But Askinge ...is an old name, right?”

“Yes, it is. There was a castle or fortress here before. But no matter how hard I’ve tried to find traces of it, I’ve never come across anything.”