Gretel and the Dark (25 page)

Of course, there was another way of looking at things. If this Klingemann was connected with the Thélème, and if it was through such a base place that Lilie knew him, then she was already a … his mind slewed away from the term ‘fallen woma
n
’ and alighted on the delightfully evocative ‘bad girl’. One moreover, Josef thought, suddenly elated, who did everything asked of her. Such a wench could easily be induced to change allegiance. She could have whatever her heart desired. For surely nothing would stave off old age more effectively than a girl looking like an angel, possessing the legendary sexual appetites of Lilith and yet remaining biddable as Eve. Elated at his resulting tumescence, Josef threw open the door of his armoire, selected his second-best waistcoat and prepared to take on the day. Once he’d persuaded Lilie to admit her antecedents it would be necessary to leave the house in search of a charming little apartment.

He
took the stairs two at a time, dwelling on the pleasure of furnishing it with all the falderals and fripperies most women – not Mathilde, though she had once – liked to surround themselves with. And then his Lilie would simply disappear. Gudrun would be glad she’d gone; a simple story of sending the girl back to her newly discovered family would suffice. As for Benjamin, he’d offer the boy a reward for his silence – and for relinquishing any ridiculous hopes where the girl was concerned – better pay, a grander title, even a rudimentary education. If that didn’t work, he’d have to disappear too – sudden illness, a fever or an unfortunate accident with some poisonous gardening compound. Copper acetoarsenite, Paris Green, the current weapon used by Parisians against the plague of rats in their sewers, was easily procurable. And patently necessary: the boy had been as ineffectual in ridding the property of rodents as he had of these damned butterflies.

Today, Josef’s appetite for breakfast was not as pressing as his need to preen his amour propre. Making his way to his study, he cast his eye over the shelf bearing back numbers of the
Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift
, to which he’d been contributing from 1868 onwards: ‘
Zwei Fälle von Hydrophobie
’;
‘Das Verhalten der Eigenwärme in Krankheiten
’; ‘
Über Bogengänge des Labyrinths
’. Other periodicals, too: he’d almost lost count of the number of learned articles. It was not for nothing that five years ago he’d been elected a Corresponding Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. And then there was his work at the military medical school demonstrating the role of the vagus nerve. At the time, he was hardly older than Benjamin, nevertheless his findings revolutionized professional understanding of the link between the breathing apparatus and the nervous system. How could a penniless gardener cum
odd-job boy presume to compete with the physician who’d demonstrated the mechanism of the Hering–Breuer reflex? Josef poked thoughtfully at his scale model of the inner ear. He’d also laid bare the secrets of fluid in the semi-circular canal. Balance and breath: these were the fundamentals of human existence; those they held in common with God. He was not, after all, nothing, whatever Freud and his sycophants professed to believe. Neither was he the spent old man Mathilde perceived him as. Furthermore, he was master in his own house. Gudrun and her nonsense would get short shrift today.

After holding Lilie’s chair for her, Josef perched on the edge of his desk and smiled, hoping both to put her at ease and to hide his own anxiety. Not only were butterflies clinging to the curtain rail, but some seemed to have taken up residence in his stomach as well. He smoothed his beard. ‘You look lovely today, my dear. As always, of course, as always.’

Lilie plucked at the folds of her skirt. ‘I told the old woman I wouldn’t wear stripes, but she said I must.’

‘Never again,’ Josef said quickly. ‘In future you will select your own cloth – silks, satins, velvet, calico, with trimmings of lace or feathers, whatever meets with your approval. We shall find a seamstress –’

‘I don’t mind what I wear, as long as it hasn’t got lines pointing to the ground.’

‘Very well.’ Josef doubted Lilie’s avowed disinterest in apparel would last long. ‘Perhaps some jewellery, then.’

‘I already have a bracelet.’ Lilie pulled up her sleeve to reveal a circlet of plaited grass studded with the dried heads of common daisies. ‘Benjamin made it for me.’

Josef’s mouth tightened. ‘Oh.’

Selecting
one of the flower heads, she pulled off its petals, one by one. ‘He loves me, he loves me not …’

‘Diamonds and pearls would settle the question faster. Or perhaps you’d prefer sapphires?’ When Lilie didn’t respond, he returned to his chair and shuffled papers. One way or another, the boy would have to go. ‘Now, my dear, I have a few more questions for you. I hope you’ll answer frankly.’ She looked up. ‘Do you know a woman called Bertha Pappenheim?’ He strained forward, watching her expression intently.

Lilie shook her head. ‘People often lose their names. Names fall into holes or get eaten by wild animals. Sometimes they’re carried away by the wind.’

‘Just so, just so.’ Josef chose to ignore this nonsensical statement. ‘It is possible Fräulein Pappenheim may have been using another name.’ He hesitated, then added softly: ‘Anna, for instance.’

‘Did she fall in love with you?’

Josef gasped. ‘How –’ he recovered himself. So Lilie did know Bertha. He must tread carefully if he was to find out whether the girl was here to make trouble on his ex-patient’s behalf. ‘Is Fräulein Pappenheim well?’ he enquired. ‘The last I heard, she’d gone to Munich with her mother.’

‘I never met her. Just heard about it somewhere,’ Lilie said vaguely. ‘Didn’t she become a writer? Or was it a slave trader? I don’t believe she’s still alive.’

‘I think she is.’ Even as Josef contradicted her, he was dismissing the idea. She knew too little. ‘And what about
Herr Doktor
Sigmund Freud?’

‘
Ficken
,’ said Lilie.

Josef’s eyes bulged. ‘Go on.’

‘Someone
told me he had
Geschlechtsverkehr
on the brain,’ she said, with an impish smile he’d not seen before.

‘You’ve met him?’

‘Oh, no. How could I have?’

‘He only lives a short walk from here,’ Josef said, again watching her carefully. ‘Berggasse 19.’

‘In Vienna?’ Lilie’s brow furrowed. ‘But I thought he …’

‘Yes?’

‘No, that’s right. I was confused.’

Josef waited, but Lilie had turned her attention to the butterflies. One alighted on her outstretched hand. Her lips moved and he became convinced she was spinning either a spell or a tale, though he couldn’t catch a single word. He cleared his throat. ‘Have you seen Benjamin this morning?’

‘He’s in the garden, eating bread and honey. Down came the blackbird and pecked.’ She glanced in his direction and the butterfly immediately took flight. ‘It’s our favourite food next to apricots and cherries. And we both hate soup – especially the old woman’s.’

‘His injuries were quite severe.’ Josef paused. ‘I believe you know the man who inflicted them.’

‘The white crow.’

Josef made a note of this. He rather thought a white crow pointed mankind to its final journey in the mythology of some obscure race. It could be checked later. Then he remembered Benjamin’s description of Klingemann: fair hair, almost white. ‘Tell me about him.’ And when she didn’t respond: ‘Has he also hurt you, Lilie?’

‘
One for sorrow
,’ she murmured.

‘
Two for joy
,’ he countered, picking up the thread of the
children’s song. He walked over and placed his hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. He let his fingers travel down the side of her neck towards the sweet hollow just visible above the lace edge of her bodice. ‘One may be for sorrow, but two makes for joy –’

‘
Seven for a secret
–’

‘Tell me your secret, Lilie. Is it about the Thélème? Were you a prisoner in that accursed club? What happened there? How were you mistreated? It will never happen again. These things won’t be forgotten.’ He bent closer, his lips grazing the short curls on the crown of her head. ‘Come, you can trust me. Tell me everything.’

‘So many secrets never to be told,’ whispered Lilie. ‘Can I really trust you?’

‘Of course, my dear. You have no better friend … and indeed, I would like to become far more –’

‘But I trusted you before and look what happened.’

Josef’s hand dropped to his side. He straightened, looking at her questioningly. ‘I don’t –’

‘What about your promise to help me destroy the monster?’

‘Only tell me his name and I’ll see him brought to justice.’

Lilie shook her head. ‘His name is the most secret of the secrets. Only one other person knows. He doesn’t remember yet.’ Josef noticed her fingers creep under her sleeve to fasten on the plaited-grass bracelet. ‘I’ll tell you this’ – she lowered her voice – ‘the monster’s hiding in the safest place on earth.’

‘Oh? Where’s that?’

‘In the past.’

‘I see.’ Josef hid a smile. ‘And can we travel there?’

‘You don’t need to. He’s there, all right. The past protects him so well that anyone who finds him by chance won’t lift
a finger to harm him. But I know. And because the monster doesn’t know that I know, I’m the only one who can …’ She paused to blow away the butterflies hovering before her face. ‘Yes,
I’ll
take him by the left leg and throw him down the stairs.
’

‘Run along now, my dear.’ Josef sighed. ‘We’ll talk again later.’ For now, he would keep their sessions short and sweet. Short and bittersweet, he corrected himself, with another sigh, for little progress had been made. At least she hadn’t flinched from his touch. He straightened his shoulders. It was time to tackle his rival.

Josef cornered Benjamin in the
Küchengarten
, digging up carrots with a surprising reverence, tapping free loose earth, twisting off the yellowing leaves and laying the roots in his basket as if they were delicate blooms. He watched in silence for a few moments, his mood lightening as he was beset by schoolboy thoughts regarding their phallic shapes, for large and small, thin or stumpy, the roots were as knobbed and twisted, knotted with veins or curiously kinked as any human organ.

‘You like carrots?’ he asked gruffly. Benjamin glanced at him, nodded and continued to dig.

‘I’ve developed a healthy respect for every kind of food, sir. We’ve had a good crop – enough to see us through the winter, however long. Others are not as lucky.’ He pushed the fork into the earth and straightened. ‘Things are getting worse in Vienna. Meat’s hardly affordable. Bread prices are rising. Vegetables are expensive, even now in the autumn when they should be cheap and plentiful. We’ve talked of it before,
Herr Doktor
, and agreed such things breed trouble. I’ve heard the incomers are selling everything of value they still own in order to buy bread.’

Josef nodded, discomfited by the boy’s display of social
conscience. He felt the need to re-establish his position while softening it with a compliment. ‘You manage my garden very well. We’ve never had such splendid crops.’ And felt rebuffed when Benjamin simply responded with another nod and returned to his harvesting. Perhaps the misguided young fool was selling garden surplus to feather a nest for the two of them. How far had it gone? Had the boy’s hands travelled more of Lilie’s body than had his? Did they already have an
understanding
? He gritted his teeth. ‘I require you to go back to the Thélème.’

Benjamin’s back tensed. ‘I can’t.’

‘From what you said the fellow is expecting you to return,’ Josef persisted, ignoring the boy’s white face. ‘You must. We still don’t know for sure if Lilie was held there.’

‘Sir, I was taken on to look after the garden and stable –’

‘You were taken on as a favour to your father,’ retorted Josef.

Benjamin glanced towards the ancient walnut tree. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but appeared to change his mind, for his lips tightened.

‘As an odd-job man,’ continued Josef. ‘To do whatever is required of you.’

‘In the Breuer house and garden, with the greatest respect, sir,’ argued Benjamin. ‘No mention was made of roaming the city acting as private detective being part of my job … or getting beaten up for my pains. Besides’ – he coloured – ‘the man is a … he is a sexual deviant,
schwul
… I fear he may have other expectations.’

Josef looked at him askance. ‘Which no one is obliging you to fulfil.’

‘And there’s the other man, Klingemann. If he should turn
up …’ Benjamin shook his head. ‘No,’ he repeated, ‘I don’t consider going to such a dangerous place to be part of my job.’

‘It is when something impinges upon the safety of this household, young man. Having brought a stranger into my household, you have a certain responsibility. Questions remain unanswered. Who is she? Where did she come from? Is she really what she seems? Could someone have … Well, that apart, the point is, we may not be safe until we’ve discovered the truth, which I am convinced will be found in that club. This is why I must insist you return.’ Josef paused. ‘Naturally, I would not expect you to carry out this task without generous recompense.’ Again he saw Benjamin stiffen. ‘Leave the gardening and look to your appearance, if you please. You will go back to the Thélème today, as arranged.’ He turned away, indicating that the discussion was closed.

Lilie stepped from behind the tree and stared at Josef’s departing back. ‘What does he want you to do?’

‘Same as before.’ Benjamin shrugged. ‘He’s still trying to find out who you are. Where you came from. Your … your … How you made your living.’ He sank on to a mossy root and took two apples from his pocket. One he polished on his sleeve before offering it to Lilie. ‘He wants me to go asking questions … somewhere.’

‘Don’t go,’ she said urgently. ‘It feels dangerous. Promise me you won’t go.’

‘I’m not. Why should I? None of it matters to me. In time the past fades and becomes like a half-remembered dream.’

‘Or a nightmare.’

‘All that matters is that we are alive. Here. Now.’ After a moment’s hesitation, he added: ‘Together.’