From a High Tower (40 page)

She looked up and met Leading Fox's eyes, then Captain Cody's, then Fox's again.

“Why, it's simple,” she said, quietly, suddenly flooded with joy. “I'm going to send you all home as rich as you came here to become.”

It was spring before the much-shrunken company left. “We are not going to
get
out of here before all this snow melts,” Leading Fox had observed, once their initial excitement had died down. “And I am told that winter travel upon the great salt water is exceedingly disagreeable and even dangerous.”

Since both these things were true . . . and since the company was, quite frankly, greatly enjoying their comfort, Elfrida's cooking, and their leisure, it seemed a sensible plan. Kellermann let it be known, just about Christmas, that a second and more careful accounting had revealed to him that all the money they were saving by staying at the abbey was going to enable every man and woman to go home in the spring with tidy sums in their pockets—as much as they had expected to when they had set out from America. There would be no need for a second tour, after all. They could all go home as prosperous as they had hoped to become.

When one is told that one has not less money than one expects, but very much
more,
one is not inclined to question the accountant, or the source of the money. Only Kellermann, Cody, the girls and the Pawnee were aware that Cody, Kellermann and the Pawnee were . . . going back considerably
richer
than their wildest hopes. There would be enough to buy Cody that cattle ranch he had talked about, and enough to buy the Pawnee several thousand acres of land in their ancestral home on the Platte River in Nebraska.

And that still left Giselle with a tidy sum to take care of
her
expenses, plus a ready source of money for the future.

And now, in the lovely spring sunshine, with the meadow full of flowers and no sign that
anything
terrible had ever taken place here, she and Rosa were saying goodbye to their friends.

The cavalcade had been reduced to a few luggage and passenger wagons. No show-tent wagons, no equipment, no sideshow. They were keeping the smaller tents and camping on their way to Freiburg and the railway, then taking the rail all the way to Italy and the ship that Kellermann had booked for them. Kellermann had already disposed of all of the show equipment; a circus had come to get it a month ago.

The horses, the cattle, and the four buffalo were staying with Giselle. Even Lightning, the Wonder Horse, was staying. He had taken a liking to both Giselle and Lebkuchen, and Cody declared that he could not bear to break up such a loving couple. Truth be told, Lightning was not as young as she had thought, and she suspected Cody had both a sentimental and an utterly unsentimental reason. He didn't think Lightning had good odds of surviving a second sea voyage . . . and he was going to need good cattle-horses, not a trick horse.

Kellermann had arranged for the cart horses that they needed to take them as far as the railroad to be bought by a trusted gypsy friend at the railhead. Gypsies could always use horses for their
vardos.

“Well,” said Cody, standing beside the wagon he was going to drive. “I guess this's goodbye. Sure you don't want t'come to America? Iffen I don't make you a star, somebody sure will.”

“But I don't actually want to be a star,” Giselle said patiently. “The only reason I went along with the show was for the money. I didn't care for fame before, and once I got a taste of it, I cared for it even less.”

Cody laughed. “Suit yerself, darlin',” he said, getting up into the wagon seat. “Like we say back home, takes all kinds. Iffen I get tired of ranchin' I might try that there vaude-ville I hear tell 'bout iffen I get too bored. Or I might hook up with Buffalo Bill. Let
him
do all the work of runnin' the show, an' I'll get me all the purdy girls. Try not t'get inta more trouble'n y'all can handle, gals. Write to me!”

“We will!” Giselle promised, and he tipped his hat to her.

“Wagons! Ho!”
he shouted, and they were off. The much shorter caravan snaked out of the meadow and down to the road, while the girls watched and waved until they were gone.

“Well. Now what?” Rosa asked Giselle as they walked back to the abbey.

“Kellermann asked if he could come back,” Giselle said, as two sylphs and a zephyr zoomed by her, playing a game of “chase.” “He has the idea that the abbey could become a sort of lodging for young men on hiking trips through the Schwarzwald.”

“That is not a bad thought,” Rosa observed. “Many artists, musicians and writers go on walking tours through the Schwarzwald. They don't have much money, and they'd be perfectly happy to pay a little for a bed in one of the dormitory stalls and a meal or two from Elfrida.”

“That is what Kellermann said. He also said that many artists, musicians, and writers were Elemental Magicians.” She exchanged a look with Rosa.

“I think that Kellermann fancies you,” said Rosa.

“I think . . . I would not discourage that,” she replied, blushing. “But regardless of that, I think you are of the same mind that I am. This could be . . . perhaps another Brotherhood Lodge, of sorts?”

“And it would be a good Brotherhood Lodge in a sort of disguise, and no one questioning the coming and going of young men.” Rosa looked around, at the mountains, the meadow, and finally the abbey. “You and I still have our
vardos.
With Kellermann in charge, and Elfrida to manage housekeeping, if
we
were needed, by the Graf or by the Bruderschaft, we could go at a moment's notice.”

That gave Giselle an unreasonably happy feeling. “So, you think I am up to the job of joining the Brotherhood?”

“I think we would be idiots not to ask you to join, and so does Papa Gunther. Not as a Hunt Master just yet—let's get a few more Hunt's worth of experience in you first.” Rosa smiled. “But yes. And I cannot wait for you to meet Markos.”

“The good werewolf?” Giselle grinned. “I shall be delighted!”

“That's excellent, because I expect him here within two days,” Rosa replied, with a laugh at Giselle's expression. “Maybe sooner if he runs fast enough!”

“You
had better run fast enough, or I shall certainly make you regret not telling me sooner!” Giselle replied. In answer, Rosa took off. Giselle gave her a head start.

“Run, Rosamund von Schwartzwald!” she cried, then called up Flitter, Luna, and Sparrow. “Go get her, my friends,” she said, “And make sure there is not a hair on her head that is not in tangles when you do!”

Giggling madly, the sylphs dashed after Rosa. With the wind in her own hair, she paused for a moment to take a long look around.

Somewhere there might be someone who is happier than my friends and I are today,
she thought.
But . . . I doubt it.

Then she laughed, and ran after Rosa.

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