The Gossamer Cord Read Free Page A

enchanted land. We had traveled through mountainous country of pine-covered slopes with waterfalls and little rivulets which glittered in the sunshine. We had seen the occasional little village with tall brick buildings and cobbled streets, which reminded me of illustrations in Grimm’s Fairy Tales from my childhood.
    Kurt was waiting to greet us which he did with such joy and made us all feel like honored guests.
    “How glad I am that you have come!” he said. “Ach, but it is a long journey and so good of you to make it to see us.”
    “We thought it was worth it,” replied Edward lightly. “Kurt. It is good to see you.”
    “And the young ladies are here…Violetta…Dorabella.”
    “We are here,” cried Dorabella. “You don’t think we should have let Edward come without us, surely?”
    “They are all eager to meet you. My family…I mean,” said Kurt. “Come. We will waste no time. They are impatient. Is this the luggage?”
    Kurt took our bags and we went out of the station and settled into his waiting car. Then we drove through the pine-scented air.
    “It is beautiful!” I cried. “Everything I thought it would be.”
    And so it was. We were soon in the forest.
    “The schloss is five miles from the station,” Kurt told us.
    We looked about us eagerly and soon came to a small town, with its church and old belltower, its cobbled streets, and the square in which were the post office and a few shops. The small houses had clearly stood there for hundreds of years. One almost expected the Pied Piper to appear.
    The schloss was about a quarter of a mile out of the town, which I discovered was called Waldenburg. The road to it was slightly uphill. I gasped when I saw the schloss. In the afternoon light it was like another illustration from the fairytale books.
    It was a castle, yes, but a miniature one. There was a circular turret at each end and it was built of pale gray stone. I thought of a princess at one of the turret windows letting down her long fair hair to enable her lover to climb up to her. I could hear Dorabella’s voice: “It’s silly. He would have pulled it all out, and think how it would hurt!” But I was more romantically minded than she was, and I thought it was an example of true love to suffer for the joy of receiving one’s lover in the turret.
    I would have reminded her of this but there was no time, for standing at the door of this fascinating edifice was a group of people.
    Kurt shouted in German: “We’re here,” and they all clapped their hands.
    We got out of the car and were introduced to them. Edward they knew already, and greeted him with great pleasure. And Kurt presented them to us with that dignity with which I was beginning to become accustomed. There were his parents, his grandfather and grandmother, his brother Helmut and his sister Gretchen. Standing to one side were the servants—a man, two women, and a girl who, I guessed, would be much the same age as Dorabella and me.
    When the first formal introductions had been made, the welcome was very warm.
    We were shown to our rooms. Dorabella and I shared, which we were delighted to do. We stood at the window looking out on the forest where a faint mist was beginning to settle, giving the scene a mysterious aspect and, just for a moment, I felt a certain apprehension which made me shiver. That mist once again reminded me of the forest in the Grimm books, where evil was so often lurking.
    It was gone in a moment, for Dorabella hugged me suddenly—a habit she had when excited.
    “It is wonderful!” she cried. “I know it’s going to be fun. What did you think of Helmut?”
    “I am afraid it is too soon for me to have made an assessment. He seemed very pleasant.”
    Dorabella laughed at me. “You are such a pompous old darling, dear sister. I’m glad all that side of us went to you.”
    She often said that she and I were one person, really, and the vices and virtues which fell to the lot of most people at birth