Pegasus: A Novel Read Free Page A

will be upstairs with them in a minute. I want you to get well
     so you can come and see the new foal in the barn. He’s a beauty, even better looking
     than his father. I took Nick to see him after the hunt. You can come and watch me
     work with Pluto tomorrow if you like. He’s doing well.” Her father gave her the latest
     report, and Marianne sank back into her pillows with a sigh, and he could see she
     didn’t feel as well as she claimed. He was greatly relieved that she hadn’t gone out
     that day. It would have been madness if she had, but she was stubborn enough to try.
    Marta and one of the housemen came in a few minutes later, with their dinner on trays,
     and her father let her get up and sit next to the fire, wrapped in a blanket, while
     he told her all about the hunt. Shelooked tired afterward when she went back to bed, but she was cool when he felt her
     cheek and kissed her.
    “Goodnight, my angel,” he said, smiling at her, as she looked at him with gentle eyes.
    “I’m the luckiest girl in the world, to have a father like you,” she said softly,
     and he melted at her words. He felt the same way about her. And then she thought of
     something she had forgotten to tell him at dinner. “I listened to the radio today,
     and there was some kind of rally in Berlin. You could hear the soldiers marching in
     precision, and they sang a lot of songs that sounded like there was a war on. The
     Fuehrer made a speech asking everyone to pledge loyalty to him. It scared me.… Do
     you think there will ever be a war, Papa?” She looked young and innocent as she asked.
     Hitler had convinced everyone that occupying Austria would avoid a war, and that “lebensraum,”
     annexing Austria, would be enough.
    “No, I don’t,” he said reassuringly, although Hitler had mobilized the military two
     months before. “I don’t think it’s as dangerous as it sounds. And nothing will touch
     us here. Sleep tight, my darling … sweet dreams. I hope you feel better in the morning.
     But I still want you to stay home from school for a few days. You can keep me company
     in the barn.”
    She smiled as he left the room and she felt better after what he’d said. As she listened
     to the Fuehrer’s speech that afternoon, she had felt a chill of fear, as though the
     whole world were about to change. Hitler had said it would, on the radio. But she
     was sure her father was right. Their leader was just speaking to the masses to excite
     and inspire them. It had nothing to do with them here at home. She fell asleep thinking
     about their Christmas ball, and how much fun it was going to be. She had to start
     planning for it, it was only two months away. And Nick had said that Toby could come
     this year for the firsttime. He had told her that day that he was going to get his first tailcoat and top
     hat, and she had laughed at him. He was a handsome boy, but he still seemed like a
     child to her. She felt like one herself, as she drifted off to sleep. She could hardly
     wait to see the inky black Lipizzaner foal in the barn. She remembered the first time
     she had seen one and had been so shocked it wasn’t white. And then it had grown up
     to be a beautiful snowy creature like the others that seemed to dance in midair. She
     was dreaming about her father’s Lipizzaners as she fell asleep. They were magical
     beings in a perfect world. A world where she knew that nothing bad could ever touch
     her, and just as her father said, she would always be safe.

Chapter 2
    In the morning, Nick drove his bright blue Bugatti to the large manor house where
     his father lived on their estate. He had moved there when Nick married, and he had
     given Nick and his wife the use of the schloss, as he thought was fitting for his
     son and his bride. He’d been urging Nick to run the estate then, and he was still
     trying to get him to do so, without success. Nick was perfectly content to visit their
     tenants, spend time with his