Eva Ibbotson - Madensky Square

‘How did I know you? How did I know you? Dear God grant me patience!’

We had reached his carriage. The man in the driving seat jumped down, saluted — and grinned at me. Another person undeceived by my disguise.

‘Hatschek,’ I said, ‘oh, Hatschek .’

The carriage was closed and snug. Gernot drew the curtains and we drove slowly back towards the city.

‘It was bad when you didn’t come, Susanna,’ he said quietly. ‘It was very bad.’

‘Oh God, darling, it was bad for me too — you can’t imagine how bad — but I couldn’t help it.’ And I told him about Sigi and the accident.

‘Yes. I know. I trusted you. I knew you’d come if you could.’

I hung my head. I hadn’t trusted him. ‘I thought that you no longer… that because I had failed you… you didn’t want…

‘You thought what?’ he said furiously. ‘You were capable of that… meanness… after twelve years of knowing me? My God, don’t we have enough difficulties in our life without that kind of rubbish? Every meeting is like wading through shifting sand to an oasis. Don’t you ever do that again, Susanna. Don’t you ever dare to doubt me!’

Then he told me what he had been doing.

From Trieste he’d been sent straight to Potsdam for another useless conference with Wilhelm’s lackeys. It was the end of October before he got back to Vienna, to find that Egger had got his way about Madensky Square at last.

‘And I just saw red. That swine isn’t going to lay hands on her shop, I thought. I’d suspected there was something disreputable in his past ever since you showed me that button, so I planned a quixotic little enterprise: confronting Egger, offering him a chance to cancel his plans and leave the country, or face exposure and ruin.’

‘Blackmail you mean?’

‘What words you use! Anyway if I’d known what was to come I’d have let your shop go hang and set you up in a villa in Hitzing like all good mistresses. First of all I had to get evidence that he was the man I thought he was and that meant going off to Moravia and searching the records in the barracks, and tracking down people who might have known him. I’d never have done it without the Countess von Metz. Her brother was Colonel in Chief there and she was indefatigable. Incidentally I wish you could have seen Elise trying to get the name of her dressmaker out of the Countess! You’d have enjoyed that.

‘It was December before I had what I wanted — and all the time I kept away from you — it only needed Egger to connect my interest in the square with you and I lost any leverage I had. He’d have dragged you into the mud in no time. Anyway, I went at night to confront him and it all seemed perfectly straightforward. He was obviously terrified and he said he’d rescind his plans and go. And then a week later he suddenly arrived and challenged me. I thought he’d gone completely mad, but there was no way of shaking him off. I suppose in his way he loved the army and preferred death to dishonour.’

‘But what had Egger done? What did you find out?’

Gernot opened his cigar case.

‘Listen,’ he said, ‘and I’ll tell you.’

In the year 1882 the Pressburg Fusiliers were stationed at Gratzislek, in Eastern Moravia. There was only one other detachment stationed there: the 19th Imperial Uhlans under the command of Colonel von Metz, the Countess’s brother who was a martinet and unpopular with his men. Nor was the social life of the garrison town exactly scintillating. There was one café, one hotel… and as far as the eye could see, flat country which in summer became a dust bowl, and in winter a desert of ice.

Into this unprepossessing place there moved a merchant who had acquired the local schloss, a run-down gabled monstrosity in which he proposed, by painstaking bribery, to ennoble himself and his wife.

The wife, who was pretty, was even more bored than the soldiers. The merchant was frequently away in Prague or Budapest or Vienna, and she began to flirt her way through the garrison’s officers. Most of the men seemed to have taken her measure, but one fell seriously for the lady and a proper liaison began.

‘You can guess who it was, can’t you?’

‘Egger?’

Gernot nodded. ‘Only he had a different name then.’

The lady was expensive. She didn’t so much want furs or jewels as to get out of Gratzislek as far and as fast and as often as she could. Lieutenant Egger spent his free time wining and dining her, ran out of money… saw a rival begin to gain on him. Even then, it seems, he had a head for figures. He was in charge of the mess funds… he began to borrow money. A little at first, then more and more.

‘It’s an old story. It happens in every mess at some point. One minor crook. They’re found out, sometimes they shoot themselves, sometimes there’s a duel. Mostly they’re just removed one night, stripped of their rank, not seen again. But Egger was cunning. He managed to frame his corporal, the chap who helped him with his accounts. The man he accused was a poor devil — a Jew from some obscure place in Ruthenia who lived for the army, but was never really accepted — oh, read the Dreyfus case; it’s all in there. The corporal was confronted with his crime and went back to his hut and cut his throat. Which of course was seen as proof of guilt. Everything would have gone on as before, but the lady came to see the Colonel. She knew Egger had been borrowing money and the corporal had been engaged to one of her servants. There was an investigation but before he could be brought to trial, Egger vanished. A couple of years later the regiment was disbanded and no one heard of him until he reappeared under a different name, married a wealthy woman and started to crawl his way up the Ministry.’

‘I see. And you got proof of this?’

‘I and the Countess. She remembered a man in her brother’s regiment who’d known him and we managed to track him down. It’s to her you’ll owe your shop, Susanna, as much as to anyone.’

‘Are you sure Egger’s plans will be cancelled? Will the square really be safe?’

He nodded. ‘Heinrid will leap at the chance. There’ll be some kind of face-saving manoeuvre about unexpected expense and so on, but it’ll be all right, you’ll see.’

‘And the duel? Will it mean trouble for you?’

Gernot shrugged. ‘I may have to resign.’

‘Oh, no!’

He took my hand, decided I didn’t need my glove, removed it.

‘There’s no need to look like that, my love. I can live without the army. If I’m right about what’s coming I’d a great deal rather be in Uferding planting trees than sending men half my age out to be slaughtered. And it would be easier for us to meet.’

We jolted on towards the lights of the town. ‘You know, Susanna,’ he said, ‘it isn’t warm, passionate women like you who make the Great Lovers of this world. It’s cold-hearted devils like me who are generally bored or discontented and frequently both. When it all stops for us, the ennui, the frustration… when we find a place of sanctuary, then we’re totally caught. Yes, we’re the ones to watch where loving is concerned.’ He leant his head against the back of the seat and I saw the weariness in his face. ‘It isn’t every day I kill someone,’ he murmured. ‘One loses the habit.’

‘You could sleep, Gernot. Close your eyes. I’ll wake you when we’re there.’

His head turned. He frowned.

Try not to be stupid,’ he said — and took me in his arms.

Madensky Square

Vienna

I woke early today, just a year since I started to keep this journal. Looking out of the window I could see the pigeons stirring on the General’s head and hear the plash of the fountain into which people have started throwing coins, for it is becoming known, our square. When Alice moved in next door, using Rudi’s money to start her millinery business, the fashionable world really took notice. The best dress shop and the best hat shop side by side — outfits that could be designed, in toto — brought the carriages smartly to our door. We’re being sensible, Alice and I, keeping our businesses separate, not knocking down the wall between us, but knowing what friends we are makes life agreeable for our customers. And oh, it is lovely having her so close!