Authors: Anisa Claire West
The cynicism on Luke’s face intensified. “I
was
an athlete. Now I’m a musician. Jonathan pushed me down the stairs in the middle of some ridiculous quarrel, and I broke several bones. My right leg has never been the same.”
As Luke conveyed this painful story, Rebecca recalled him sitting at the piano that first day how he had said that music was not his first profession. Now she understood why his tone had become so somber.
“Instead of becoming an Olympic athlete, I turned to music, which had previously just been a hobby.
I came to Vienna last autumn, and Mr. Graysen hired me on the spot.”
“Well I can certainly see why
he hired you so quickly
. If you were half as good an athlete as you are a musician, I have no doubt that
you would have taken home the Gold M
edal!”
Luke wore a countenance of modesty, but his eyes betrayed pleasure at her complimentary words. “Thank you, Rebecca.
I would have settled for the B
ronze, though.”
“Would you really?” She asked doubtfully, intuitively feeling that Luke was a competitive man
who
strove to
excel in every area of his life
.
He grinned and admitted, “No. But my coach might have.” They exchanged a protracted look, as Luke seemed completely lost in his own very private thoughts. “Should we walk around the streets a bit? I think we’ve seen enough of this museum, and it would be a shame to spend such a sunny day inside.” Rebecca nodded in agreement, thirsty for the
invigorating Alpine
air and pulsing sun.
*****
Lavender twilight
veiled the city
when Luke and Rebecca finally returned
to Vienna
, strolling hand in hand
from the train station
. She felt a chill in the air and, when Luke perceived her shiver, he
wrapped
his arm around her to offer warmth. She allowed him this
liberty and melted towards his body, close enough to detect the subtle acceleration of his heartbeat.
When they reached their apartment building, Luke opened the door for Rebecca and gestured for her to preced
e him. T
hey briskly climbed the five flights of stairs and were laughingly breathless by the time they reached the top.
Luke stood awkwardly outside the door, not wanting to bid her good night, but aware that requesting entrance to her chamber would be wholly inappropriate. She put her hand on the doorknob, slightly unnerved by the impassioned contortion his features had become in the flash of time from stairwell to doorway.
“Luke, thank you so much for everything you showed me today. It was a day that I will surely never forget.”
When she would have reached out her hand to shake his, Luke caught her delicate fingers inside his grip and lifted th
em to his mouth. One by one he
softly kissed her slender fingers as she stood motionless, unreasonably thrilled by that slight contact.
“It is a day I surely will never forget either.” Luke said in a low, intimate tone before clasping her face between his hands and kissing her firmly but tenderly on the lips.
Startled, Rebecca inhaled sharply before submitting to the sweet force of Luke’s embrace
, rubbing her lips tentatively against his.
As Luke began boldly to deepen the kiss, the door to Rebecca’s chamber swung open violently. Rebecca gasped, breaking off the kiss and cringing with bitter shock as she recognized the faces of
Gregory and Ethel.
Luke took a defensive step forward, furious for the interruption of these strangers
---
trespassers
---
who had somehow broken into Rebecca’s room.
“Just who do you think you are?” His voice was a beastly roar that caused Ethel to shrink back into the room and Gregory to glower menacingly. “How dare you invade these private quarters?”
Before he could rant any further, Rebecca hissed urgently, “Luke, please! This is my brother and sister-in-law!”
Luke’s eyes widened with this new knowledge,
and he refrained from spouting the enraged words
that were
rolling over his tongue.
Gregory stepped out into the hallway and sneered, “Thank you for that lovely introduction, Rebecca.
It’s hard to believe that you’re not even three months out of the United States and already behaving like a whore.”
Rebecca
flinched at her brother’s crude
words, then grimaced
as she noted the supremely haughty
look on Ethel’s chubby face.
Ethel Meadow stood barely five feet tall, but had an obnoxious personality the size of her blubbery body.
“How dare you speak to me that way?” Rebecca demanded angrily. “This is my friend, Luke Springwell.”
“Friend? That’s an interesting term for it.” Ethel taunted from the doorway, as the greasy, unkempt cape of her mousy brown hair tumbled past box
y
hips.
“Shut up Ethel!” Rebecca screamed, instantly mortified that she had let Luke see her temper flare, but unable
to
rein in her emotions at this
galling
moment. “What in the world are you two doing here anyway?”
Gregory explained gruffly, “After you so
viciously
broke Grandmother’s heart with that farewell epistle, we had to take the poor woman across the seas to see her precious little Rebecca.”
Immediately, Rebecca sensed that he was lying, as her grandmother’s heart might have been pained, but not broken
,
with the news of her trip to Europe. Her grandmother loved her too much to behave so selfishly. This cataclysmic arrival in Vienna could only be the artifice of Gregory and Ethel, the laziest and most egotistical parents ever to exist.
The words Gregory spoke next confirmed her viewpoint.
“Poor baby Annabelle was also devastated by your rude departure, crying all day and night. We couldn’t explain to the baby that you had decided on a self-seeking whim
to chase after a stage career, so she is here with us as well. You’ve done very well to turn all our lives upside down.”
Rebecca looked at him disgustedly, “
I’ve done nothing of the sort! Ryan and I made the joint decision to come to Vienna in search of a
more stimulating life. As unmarried adults, we have the right to do that, you know!
”
She shook her head in wild despair, still not quite believing that Gregory and Ethel were in
her
private space. Suddenly, she remembered Luke and how he had been standing quietly by,
beholding
the whole disastrous scene. She turned to him with
a grave expression.
“Luke, this is terribly humiliating.
I don’t even know what to say.”
“Say goodbye to your paramour because w
e need to have a family meeting!
” Ethel interjected outrageously and, in that moment, Rebecca could have derived enormous pleasure from whacking her oily face
until it bruised
dark purple
.
Luke spoke up finally, but in a voice as intimate as though he and Rebecca were the only ones present. “Rebecca, would you like me to stay, or would you be more comfortable if I left?”
She looked gently at him, relieved that he
did not seem aghast
by the antics of her family. “I need to sort out some business with my family, but
thank you for asking.”
She then fell mute, desperate to be alone with him and continue the kiss that they had started, to carry on her life like the grown woman she was. But first she had to battle with her ill-timed relatives. That was likely to be a display of fury that he would not want to see.
“Very well, Rebecca. You know where to find me if you need anything.” Luke squeezed her hand reassuringly before turning to leave.
She stared after him with a swelling heart, wondering frantically if Gregory and Ethel had just ruined
any future possibilities with
the man
.
In slow motion, Rebecca turned to face her relatives with a murderous glower in her dagger-spewing eyes.
“How dare you? What is the meaning of this? I live and pay rent here, and I will not have you barging in on my property nor on my personal affairs,
in which you have no interest whatsoever
!
” Rebecca was just getting warmed up, but Gregory nonchalantly interrupted her escalating tirade.
“Dear sister, your behavior is appalling. I never heard you speak this way to me before. Perhaps there’s some sort of poison in Viennese drinking water
that strips one
of all decorum
? That could be the only plausible explanation for
this
unacceptable treatment of your eldest brother.”
Gregory’s arrogant monologue
made Rebecca feel as though she were about to implode if someone didn’t explain to her, in a considerate adult manner, just what was going on here.
“Gregory!” Rebecca gritted, exasperated, “stop dancing around the subject and tell me why
in the world
you’re here!
Don’t you have a job to worry about back home?
”
Gregory and Ethel exchanged a secretive look that made Rebecca arch a suspicious eyebrow, but she said nothing. If she were going to get the truth, it would have to be from Ryan. These two evil jesters clearly had no intention of explaining themselves.
“Fine, don’t answer me, but please get out of my way. I’ve been out all day and need to retire to bed. I start a job tomorrow and need to awake refreshed.” Rebecca pushed her way past Ethel, thinking
glumly
of her pending first day as a maid.
Unbelievably, Ethel said, “My husband and I will
inhabit
this room now. You’ll have to find yourself another.”
If Rebecca had wanted to strike Ethel before, the impulse was exponentially greater after the
portly
woman uttered those callous words. Clenching her hands into fists at her sides, Rebecca said through clenched teeth, “No, you and my brother will have to find yourselves another room. Today is Sunday, and the leasing office is closed. But if it were open, I am quite certain the secretary, Beatrice, would support me in the fact that this floor is reserved only for women, not for married couples.
You will have to see
tomorrow
if there are any more rooms to rent.” Rebecca concluded, praying that all the rooms would be occupied. Then, assaulted with a fresh concern, she demanded, “Where is Grandmother?”
“We put her in a hotel with Annabelle.” Gregory clipped.
“Which hotel?” Rebecca persisted
, further outraged by Gregory’s lack of concern for the matriarch of the Meadow family
.
“Just down the road,
number
five hundred twenty-five
, I believe,
not far from the
Ringstrasse
.” Gregory provided, and Rebecca felt a little comforted, as the
Ringstrasse
was a lovely area of Vienna,
a large circular
boulevard
bustling with museums, cafes, and
universities
.
“Then I suggest you and Ethel find yourselves rooms there as well.
Now please leave me alone. I have
just been stricken with a pounding headache and must go to
sleep before I faint.”
Rebecca exaggerated, though her head had begun to dully throb from the stressful encounter.
To Rebecca’s relief, Gregory finally relented. “Ethel and I will find accommodations for tonight, but this discussion is not over.
We shall
be back in the morning.”
Rebecca smirked triumphantly, knowing that she would be at work when he came back. Gregory really was a poor listener, she thought, as she had moments ago told him that she was to begin a new job
on the morrow
. Gregory and Ethel filed out of the room, and Rebecca marginally resisted the compulsion to slam the door so hard that the impact would
rattle
the window panes.
Minutes after they left, Rebecca hurried downstairs to find Ryan. From the hallway, she could hear a somber melody
flowing
from his violin. Rebecca did not
want to
interrupt her brother in the midst of his art, but she had no choice. She knocked firmly on the door.
“Becky, come on in.” Ryan opened the door and looked at her with a compassionate expression that told her indisputably that he knew what was going on.
“Ryan, will you please tell me why Gregory and Ethel are in Vienna? They concocted some ridiculous story about Grandmother and Annabelle missing me so much that they had to bring them here!
But I want you to tell me the truth.
”
She implored
desperately
.