Borne in Blood (13 page)

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Authors: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Tags: #Fantasy, #Fiction, #General, #Historical, #Horror, #Occult & Supernatural, #Guardian and Ward, #Vampires, #Nobility, #blood, #Paramours, #Switzerland

BOOK: Borne in Blood
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“Friday evening I am having a reception,” said von Ravensberg.
“Then, perhaps, Saturday?” Ragoczy proposed.
“Oh, no, no. You must come to the reception. A little dancing for the youngsters, cards and conversation for their seniors. Supper at midnight, and wine throughout the evening—mostly Italian wine, since many of the French vineyards have had poor harvests these last two years. No matter. Many of the Dutch prefer beer in any case, though it isn’t suitable for such a reception; champagne will be offered at midnight, of course. The hotel has managed all for me. My ward and I will be receiving fifty guests, all from families of stature and merit; I insist you must be among their number.” He waved one arm as if to banish the press-room. “It is a chance to step out in society, to make new acquaintances and renew old friendships. I suspect you may have the same problem I do: I have so little time to spend here that I am determined to make the most of the occasion, as you must be. So you have to come, or I will not have the opportunity to entertain you in a manner appropriate to your rank for the remainder of my visit. Let me have your direction and I will have an invitation carried around to you tomorrow morning.”
“I thank you for your offer,” said Ragoczy, taking a half-step back from the Graf. “I do not yet know what my guest will want to undertake, but if you will permit me to wait until tomorrow, no doubt I will be able to tell you if I will be able to attend.”
“Bring your guest. Of course, you must bring him.” Von Ravensberg gestured emphatically.
“My guest is a widow, Graf.” Ragoczy could see the surprise von Ravensberg felt before he was able to conceal it. “She is the daughter of a distinguished Italian scholar, whose husband died during the wars.”
“Such is the fate of women who marry soldiers,” said von Ravensberg.
“Her husband was an engineer,” said Ragoczy.
Van der Boom came up to Ragoczy, his posture self-deprecatory and his tone uncharacteristically subservient. “If I may have a word with you, Comte?”
“Certainly, Heer van der Boom,” he said, and looked up at von Ravensberg. “If you will excuse us?”
With an expression that showed his disdain for van der Boom, von Ravensberg picked up another sheet of paper. “I have my work to do.”
Ragoczy and van der Boom moved away from the tall Austrian to the corner of the room where the bindery was set up, about as far from von Ravensberg as it was possible to be and remain in the same room. “I don’t know how you want to deal with his changes. I fear he intends to make a great many of them.”
“A problem, to be sure, but a reasonable expectation for a man in his position.” Ragoczy considered this briefly. “I will do what I can to discourage too many alterations. Perhaps I should attend his reception; it would be a useful place to encourage him not to rewrite his book at this stage. But you may want to be very observant of any corrections, as opposed to interpolations.”
“I will do my best to keep that in mind,” said van der Boom. “And I will try to accommodate the man when his demands are not too outrageous.”
“Most sensible of you,” said Ragoczy, and then waited while van der Boom brought the business ledgers for him to inspect. “I will take this to the front office, if you do not mind.”
“Away from the Graf?” van der Boom said with a knowing wink.
“And the noise, and the heat,” said Ragoczy, aware that in such an environment, his inability to sweat might draw unwanted attention.
“I’m used to both,” said van der Boom. “I’ll come in an hour to see how you are faring.”
Ragoczy took the ledger and slipped it under his arm. “You keep excellent records, Heer van der Boom, for which I am most grateful.”
“May you say the same thing when you are through perusing them,” said van der Boom.
Von Ravensberg was glaring at the page in his hand as Ragoczy passed by him on his way to the outer office; noticing the ledger Ragoczy carried, von Ravensberg transferred his disapproval to that volume. “The demands of tradesmen! Do you not have factors to do that for you?” He waited for a suitable answer.
“I have been cheated by factors before, Graf, so I am now inclined to trust myself in such matters.” He patted the side of the ledger.
“You assume that the figures entered are correct,” said von Ravensberg.
“Yes. That much I do expect, and if they are incorrect, I should see the pattern of it in the pages.” He had caught more than one factor shifting the sums in the records in years past, and had learned how to recognize such manipulations. He kept on walking until he reached the front office and found a work-table with two tall stools set in front of it. He perched on the stool, laid out the ledger, and began to read.
More than an hour later, van der Boom joined him, saying, “The Graf has corrected ten sheets of four pages, each side.”
“That must be a relief for you,” said Ragoczy, slipping a sheet of paper into the ledger to mark his progress; he closed the book, saying, “It all appears correct thus far.”
“It should be. I try to keep full records of everything. No matter what von Ravensberg may suspect, I conduct my trade honestly.”
“I have never thought otherwise,” said Ragoczy quietly.
Van der Boom was quiet for a short while, then asked, “Will you go to his reception?”
“Probably,” said Ragoczy. “It would seem odd that I, a participant publisher, did not accept his hospitality.”
“That’s plausible,” said van der Boom as he thought about the possibilities.
“For the sake of Eclipse Press, I will make an appearance,” said Ragoczy, making up his mind.
“On behalf of Eclipse Press, I thank you.” He chuckled. “Strange, what business may demand of us.”
“Strange, indeed,” said Ragoczy.
“He’ll be back tomorrow, to find more errors.”
“No doubt,” said Ragoczy.
Van der Boom leaned on the table. “It is good that he takes so much care, given that his text is so … technical, and the topic is such a daring one. The work is bound to generate discussion, which should mean good sales. But he is also going to be criticized, and not just by the Church, but by physicians and students of anatomy.” He looked toward the hazy window. “It’s getting on to evening. He will have to wait until morning if he wants to read carefully.”
“You will be closing the press-room shortly,” said Ragoczy.
“And you may want to be gone before the Graf can offer to take you to your house. You will have him with you all evening if you permit him that courtesy.” Van der Boom righted himself. “I’ll tell him that you have departed, if you like.”
Ragoczy rose from the stool. “Very well. I will call again at mid-day tomorrow, if that suits you.”
“It should do,” said van der Boom. He tapped his nose. “The Graf has a ward. You heard him say it.”
“A ward is a child,” said Ragoczy.
“Child or no, he may be looking to find her a husband,” van der Boom cautioned Ragoczy. “You have a fortune and a title. He may hope you will be something more than a dance partner for her.”
“Since I never dance, I think I will be safe,” said Ragoczy. “But your timely reminder is appreciated,” he said as he made for the front door and went out into the long, angular shadows that spread along the narrow streets, under a sky that lit the canals with sunset fires.
Text of a letter from Helmut Frederich Lambert Ahrent Ritterslandt, Graf von Scharffensee at Scharffensee in Austria, to Hero Iocasta Ariadne Corvosaggio von Scharffensee at Château Ragoczy near Lake Geneva, Yvoire, Switzerland; carried by private messenger and delivered in four days, but was not read until Hero’s return on September 9
th
.
Graf von Scharffensee sends his greetings and condolences to his daughter-in-law, on this, the 16
th
day of August, 1817, with the assurance that her daughter received the finest medical care possible.
It is my sad duty to inform you that your daughter, Annamaria, took a fever in late July. At first it seemed nothing more than the usual summer fevers that one endures, but in your daughter’s case, the fever spread to her lungs and they became putrid. When the usual remedies failed, a physician from Salzburg was called, Herr Doktor Schalter, whose reputation is of the highest order. He prescribed purging and a course of poultices to draw out the putrescence, but in spite of all that was done, she could not rally, and last night passed into that deadly lethargy that indicated the end was near. The priest from Scharffensee was sent for to administer Last Rites, and she died at two in the morning. I have arranged for her to be interred in the family chapel at Scharffensee, and will place an appropriate plaque on her tomb.
Her brothers are much shocked by her death, and so I have promised them a special entertainment at Christmas, which must, perforce, delay your visit until next summer. I am sure you can see the wisdom in this, and will not embarrass them, or me, or yourself in emotional protests at this most difficult time. I have no doubt that you will want your sons to put their grief behind them as quickly as possible, and you must see that your presence, with the loss of their sister so new in their lives, can only aggravate their sorrow. Better to give them time before visiting them.
With Annamaria dead, I will discharge her teacher, Frau Linderlein, with three months’ pay and a letter of commendation. She, I must tell you, is most distressed by the loss of her pupil, and has spent the morning in weeping. This unseemly display of copious tears has caused Berend great anguish, and I feel the sooner Frau Linderlein is gone from Scharffensee, the better for all of us.
Know that my sympathies are with you, and that your daughter is in the care of God’s Angels. It is no easy thing to part with a child—as I have cause to know—but it is what has been sent for us to endure. I pray you have fortitude enough to weather this sorrow.
Your father-in-law,
Helmut Frederich Lambert Ahrent Ritterslandt
Graf von Scharffensee
 
 
SAINT-GERMAIN RAGOCZY, COMTE FRANCISCUS
 
T
ext of a letter from Edgar St. Andrews, Scottish merchant resident in Amsterdam, to Wallache Gerhard Winifrith Sieffert Graf von Ravensberg at his Amsterdam hotel, written in Dutch and delivered by messenger.
To the most excellent Graf von Ravensberg the greetings of Edgar St. Andrews on this, the 18
th
day of August, 1817
My dear Graf,
I have to thank you for the many displays of hospitality you have shown me and my wife in your stay in this city which is foreign to us both, as it is to you. In the two years I have resided here, I have not, until now, been so graciously and magnanimously entertained by anyone, Dutch or foreign, so your kindness to me and my wife is welcomed for its novelty as well as its benignancy. I am sincerely obliged to you for your courtesy.
This being the case, I am deeply sorry that I cannot recommend anyone known to me as a potential suitor for the hand of your ward, lovely young woman though she is, and worthy as she must be of finding a suitable spouse, a man of rank and character who will maintain her consequence—and yours—in the polite world. Even so charming a girl as your ward is at a disadvantage in these difficult times, and I am all sympathy to you in your plight; her future happiness is in your hands, and the fate of your House. So many matters to consider, and you with your own work to do.
Since the wars and the many upheavals that have convulsed the Continent, it must be doubly difficult to launch a young woman of noble birth into a union that is acceptable not only to you, but to the family of the apposite men. My employers make it a policy only to employ married men, and therefore all my colleagues are constituted as I am. But I will keep your request in mind, and if any appropriate fellow should make himself known to me, I will at the first opportunity inform you of it.
Having two daughters of my own, I understand how you are concerned with establishing your niece well in the world. With the loss of so many men in the Great Army in Napoleon’s dreadful Russian Campaign, it is astonishing that there are not more unmarried women in the world. As it is, there are far too many widows. I have been considering sending my daughters to their aunt in London for their coming-out, for just the same reasons as you have discussed with me.
I look forward to the publication of your book, and wish you every success with it. I cannot, myself, imagine what work it must be to undertake such an enterprise; I am in awe of your attainment, sir, and I cannot tell you what a privilege it is to know a man who has done as much as you have.
I wish you a safe journey back to Austria. I am pleased to hear that the roads are supposed to be clear most of the way: I trust they will remain so. Let me reiterate again my thanks for your kind invitation to call at Ravensberg if ever I reach Austria. Rest assured that I will do so when I have the good fortune to visit that land.
With cordial personal regards,
I am,
Edgar St. Andrews
Campbell & Ochie, Importers
Amsterdam
 

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