Yesterday Was Long Ago: Part Two Page 25

  “So you are a coward.”

  “Mother, you don’t understand.”

  “Like what, Paul?”

  “Facing her after all the things I have done and said. You should have seen Irene in her role, recalling everything I told her about Gaby, and me having no idea who she was of course.”

  “Well that makes it even easier,” said Victoria.

  “I think the whole thing is so romantic,” Elisabeth uttered joyously.

  The following day, the white, beautiful snow turned to gray, ugly slush, but the Reinhardts loved it. They all came to Victoria’s house to hear about Paul’s love story. Of course, the usually quiet and serene Elisabeth called Erika and Peter, who thought to himself that he would try his utmost to bring them together. All excited, Erika called Gisela, who never kept a thing from Rupert or the Fosters. They all were overjoyed, knowing about Paul’s sham of a marriage.

  Gisela’s children didn’t want to come along for a visit as they did not get along with Elisabeth’s five ‘boring’ ones. They were in every way so different, but it was carefully explained that they came from another continent. With five children there already, Victoria was rather pleased when Rupert and Gisela came alone. Paul had a good night’s sleep, and, after dinner, the men went in their smoking room for a card game while the ladies tried to forge a plan on how to bring Gaby and Paul together.

  21

  Right after her arrival at the hospital, Gaby couldn’t help but notice that she got treatment usually reserved for Reinhardts only. She was the only one who had the luxury to have a telephone. “Use it anytime at your convenience,” the nun told her. “Dr. Reinhardt also left word to call your mother and brother.” Astrid was more concerned about her sister Ingrid, who had Isabella, but she assured her that she stayed such long hours at school, had lots of homework, and they saw so little of her. However, they promised to surprise Gaby with a visit; she would talk it over with the Professor. Irene’s cold was also mentioned, but that would be over in no time.

  Gaby’s first visitors were, of course, her mother, Andreas and his wife. They, too, were surprised about that beautiful room, already full with flowers sent by the Reinhardts. Gaby told them about the mix-up of the housecoat and the setter Bello with his elusive master who stood there in the doorway unable to say anything.

  “Poor Paul,” said Astrid. “I bet he feels horrible about it.”

  “Well, Gaby, we have you a little longer,” Therese said sincerely.

  “And if it took a broken leg, so be it,” added Andreas with a big smile. “I think it’s about time you came back to Vienna.”

  “I thought about it, once Isabella’s school is finished,” Gaby replied.

  “We have good schools here too and we all can afford to pay for it.”

  “Andreas, I have money. But thanks anyway.”

  Peter made his entrance with some other doctors and they all agreed that her bruised arm was getting better and the traction could be taken away. Soon, she would be on crutches, and could perhaps stay with him and Erika, as they could set a special bed up for her.

  Gaby smiled and replied, “I’d like that.”

  ∼

  Professor Rousseau was more than happy to give Isabella all the time needed to visit her mother. He heard via phone about Gaby’s accident and Irene’s cold, and promised she would be on the train in a few days. Alain couldn’t wait to see Irene and visa-versa. It was their very own secret. And Ingrid, who was given the responsibility to take care of Isabella in case of any emergency pertaining to Gaby, took no time in packing to leave Lausanne for Vienna. She kissed Uncle Henry good-bye, who reminded his niece to take the skates along. A nurse was on call to look in on Henry Lebrun twice daily to check his health condition, so off they went in the best of spirits and were met at the train station by Astrid, Andreas and his wife Therese. The weather, in the meantime, turned cold again and Isabella was happy having her skates along. They surprised Gaby to no end at their unexpected arrival. With Isabella at her side, she was taking a walk with her crutches while Astrid and Ingrid went to see Peter.

  “Hello, sir. Remember me?” asked Isabella, recognizing the elegant man in the gray leather coat at once.

  Pleasantly surprised about the encounter he said, “Of course I do, Miss.”

  “Isabella Rosatti,” she replied, and he wondered where ‘Marie’ came from.

  Gaby and he exchanged glances, she being completely relaxed, he being still upset but happy there was Isabella to do the talking.

  “I assume you came all the way from Lausanne to see how your mother feels?”

  “Yes, sir, and she is fine, and will soon be leaving the hospital. Right, Mother?”

  “You know I caused your mother’s fall?” Paul asked very seriously, looking at Gaby and Isabella.

  “No, you didn’t. It was your setter, sir… and I am glad you told me you never punish any of your animals.” Both couldn’t help but laugh this time.

  “I have to talk to you one of these days, Mrs. Rosatti,” he finally managed to say, thanks to Isabella’s presence.

  “I am not sure how much longer I will stay here,” she replied, watching his facial expression change. “I will be staying in your brother’s house, most likely.”

  “Oh,” he replied with the most obvious sigh of relief, when Isabella spotted Astrid, Ingrid, and Peter.

  “So sorry my daughter talks so much. I will have to remind her again.”

  “Mrs. Rosatti, please… I am delighted to have her helping me… you know what I am talking about.”

  “Yes, I do,” was all she could say, turning finally to her room, expecting her visitors.

  Isabella accepted Victoria’s invitation to spend one night as her granddaughter and Ingrid permitted her to stay at the Reinhardts’ castle.

  ∼

  Adam and Elisabeth’s five children were raised to speak French, Dutch, and English. At the dinner table, they found Isabella very congenial, as she remembered each one’s name immediately. The oldest girl, at seventeen, was called Wilhelmina, doubtless after the Queen of Holland. Juliana, fifteen, was named after the Queen’s oldest daughter. Twelve-year-old Desiree had a French name but was named for the former Queen of Sweden. The oldest son was Adam III who, at ten, was looking very aware of whom the van Dreesens were in South Africa, and the seven-year-old, Gustav was spoiled and got his way with his sisters and brother.

  Isabella conversed with each of them in French, never overlooking anyone. They all loved her for it and Paul was so proud that he said very frankly, “I am taking Miss Isabella tomorrow for lunch to Demels, with her mother’s permission of course. She is leaving in a few days and I owe her one day of a good time.”

  “You will like Demels a lot, Isabella,” Juliana verified, having been there frequently with her family.

  She glowed but still looked at Paul, agreeing that she needed her mother’s permission, which wouldn’t be too hard to get as they had always talked about going there but never went.

  “It’s quite expensive,” said Juliana.

  “I have plenty of money saved,” she replied proudly, causing the grown-ups to laugh.

  Victoria, of course, corrected her. “Isabella, you are still too young to know, but whenever a young man or any man for that matter invites you, he has to pay.”

  “Excuse me, Madame. Not in Lausanne… except with my uncle. But when my mother and I go to a concert or a theater with my school’s headmaster Professor Rousseau, he only pays his and we pay ours.”

  “Then he is not a gentleman,” Juliana commented grandly, in the know-how.

  “Really?” Isabella replied, astonished.

  Adam laughed aloud. “Have you ever been asked out?”

  “Many times, Father, but I never liked any of them.”

  “Our daughter is growing up, Adam,” Elisabeth said wistfully. “Where have all our years gone?”

  “I know. We spent them happy together,” he replied lovingly. Victoria was still ast
onished that her daughter was still so much in love with the balding man twenty years her senior. But like she told her handsome Philip years ago, her children needed love.

  The following day, Isabella, very proudly on the arm of Paul, entered Gaby’s room asking for permission to have lunch at Demels, while his own voice failed him completely. “And why not?” she smiled sheepishly. “We’ve never been at this fine place before.”

  “I know, Mother; too expensive.”

  “I offered to pay,” he said, tongue-in-cheek, somehow relaxing.

  “Sweetheart,” Gaby said to Isabella while opening the night table beside the bed, taking out her purse. “bring me a small box of truffles. Demels is known to have the best.”

  “Grandmother said they have the best of everything. But I’ll take my own money and buy one for you.”

  “No, sweetheart. Here, take it.”

  “You should listen once in a while to your child, Mrs. Rosatti. Don’t refuse her the joy of giving,” said Paul with a wink and a smile.

  “Is this man ever handsome,” Gaby thought, but then imagined repeating her sentence when laying in pain on the pile of potatoes. “If you say so, Mr. Reinhardt.”

  He remembered this statement very well and bit his lips. “We’ll talk about it this evening as there is so much unsaid which still pains me.”

  “Glad to hear it, Mr. Reinhardt.” Isabella didn’t know the extent of their conversation but was so happy both smiled.

  “I’ll have your daughter back at four… if this is all right.”

  “Yes, of course,” she stammered, wondering about his plans.

  ∼

  The head waiter at Demels bowed deeply, not very unlike their own servants to any of his guests whenever a Reinhardt gave a party. They also got one of the best reserved seats. Isabella was all in navy blue except a white collar on her dress. After a short compliment, he was told her mother sewed everything, including the coat and her white beret. “She also designed it.”

  “What a smart mother.”

  “Not only mother; we are really the best of friends since my father died in a car wreck before he got to see me.”

  “I am very sorry,” he said, feeling shame anew about his terrible thoughts upon hearing about it. But tonight he would clear up everything, hoping she forgave him.

  The many lessons about behavior paid off, as much as she disliked Aunt Ingrid frequently for insisting on it. She ordered her menu like a lady and behaved like one. Paul was extremely proud of her, having no idea how good she felt to be in his company. On the way out, they went to the famous chocolate counter to pick up the ready-made, beautifully wrapped boxes.

  “I always bring some to my family and there are now many of them who want something sweet,” he sighed. “Also, my brother and his wife… a little box for the nuns who treated your mother so well… and no, I didn’t forget your mother.”

  “For how much?” she asked honestly, fearing her own money wouldn’t cover his taste.

  “Miss Isabella, I caused your mother lots of pain, which I will explain some other time, so the truffles are on me.”

  She stood for a moment before replying. “My mother will never stand for it.”

  They walked towards a special shop which only dealt with skating outfits, and he insisted she get one, as her grandmother and Aunt Ingrid had told him she brought only the skates and could skate in her pleated skirt. He also wanted her skates transferred on new light gray shoes. He even noticed her loud heartbeat and she was, for the first time, lacking a comment, with only an astonished expression while deciding on a peach-colored dress.

  “When I grow up and make some money, I’ll pay every schilling back,” she promised, and he knew she meant it.

  He gave her the box of truffles in front of the hospital, assuring her his brother Peter would bring her at six to their castle again. “I have to ask my grandmother,” she told him seriously.

  “I did all ready.”

  “You did? What did she say?”

  “Fine. She will be there with her sister too. You’ll all have dinner together, then you skate for the five children and family.”

  “I don’t know if I’ve ever had more surprises in one day.”

  “Why do you think I let you select a skating dress?” he smiled with a wave and left.

  “Mother, I don’t know where to begin!” she exclaimed, handing her the huge box of truffles.

  “I said small, Isabella.”

  “I didn’t even see it until now, myself, Mother. Mr. Reinhardt bought so much, saying his family loves sweets too. And Grandmother and Aunt Ingrid will have dinner there… I mean at the Reinhardts. Then I get to skate for the children from South Africa. Imagine all that, and Mr. Reinhardt bought me a skating dress and shoes to have my skates transferred. All in one day, I told him!”

  “And?”

  “He smiled and said at six Dr. Reinhardt will take me to their home, which is really a palace. I was there last night. Oh, my God, mother! Aunt Ingrid will faint. Gosh, why did you have to break a leg? You could be there too.”

  “One day you will understand that I had to break my leg so everybody can be there.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t get it.”

  “I know, darling. Tell me more about your day.”

  “Gladly. It was the grandest day in my whole life!”

  While she talked, Gaby listened only partly as Peter came by earlier explaining that Irene was, thank God, much better, and would come to say good-bye in a couple of days; possibly to his place as she would not face either Victoria or the rest of the visitors. “She will see you in Lausanne just in case things don’t work out, but will call you anyway. And speaking about phone calls, she calls Professor Rousseau every day.” Gaby was not too surprised. Irene loved charming men and the Rousseaus loved money. Irene will have a rude awakening should it ever come to pass. Mother and son are one.

  ∼

  Paul needed a quick meal before going to see Gaby and ate in the kitchen at his corner table, strictly reserved for him alone. It was his habit whenever he was busy. The kitchen help was in full swing too for tonight, but they loved it. Adam made it his practice to tip them well once a week. They never had it so good. At the exact hour of seven, Paul entered Gaby’s room. “I see the nurses took your traction away,” he stated, not knowing how to begin.

  “Take a chair, Mr. Reinhardt, and make yourself comfortable. Also have some of the truffles my daughter bought me. I am sure she wouldn’t mind.” She smiled warmly at his worried face to break the ice. He looked from her to the floor and then to his intertwined hands, still not knowing where to begin his well-rehearsed speech. “Why don’t we skip the encounter at the skating rink so many years ago?” Gaby urged, watching the uncomfortable predicament he found himself in, while finding herself more and more in love. His good looks came more from his mother’s side, though his father was known equally for being handsome, but never without having mentioned his womanizing.

  His dark brown eyes now looked straight at her, before he said uneasily, “Thank you. I’d like that very much, knowing we both were children at an awkward age.”

  “Yes, Mr. Reinhardt. I am sure my father must have told you that I was known as ‘Gaby the tomboy’.”

  “Hard to imagine!” he smiled, it being one of his rare occasions to do so. “But there is more to it than that. I was raised… well raised is not the proper word… rather, influenced by my late grandmother about the ‘dreadful von Waldens’ who took some of our land in the sixteenth century.” Both smiled at the few hundred years difference.

  “I took those stories from my early childhood very seriously and was kept informed about everything your stepbrother, Bertram, did.”

  “There is much truth to it. However, my late father hated him since birth, because he had a miserable arranged marriage,” she replied sadly.

  “I feel for him,” he replied somberly. “My father met your late father a few times and respected him highly.�
��

  “Thank you.”

  “Now I got off the subject for one of many reasons I came to see you.” There was his sad look again.

  “I have nowhere to go, so take your time,” she smiled encouragingly.

  “One of many times that I saw you and your sweet little girl was on the beach in Locarno in 1929.”

  Gaby’s eyes widened and she gulped in disbelief. “How strange. My daughter, the one you call ‘Miss Isabella’ spends every year in Locarno, as my late husband’s relatives live there. Once my daughter finishes school, we may move there permanently, as my aging in-laws retired there for health reasons.”

  “God forbid!” he thought, but said, “Don’t laugh, but I was there on my ill-fated honeymoon and at the lowest point in my life, having not a single soul to turn to.”

  “Sorry,” she said simply, not wanting to interrupt his thoughts again.

  “But the, let’s call it ‘happy’ interruption, came when I watched that little black-haired girl giving it her utmost to build a sandcastle. She was so intense and so engrossed, when a huge beach ball destroyed her work and I noticed you getting up and settling the matter in the kindest way possible.”

  “I remember it so well. That poor little boy was more upset than we were. We knew that the following day another sandcastle would make its entrance. I also remember that kind French couple who took us to their favorite outdoor cafe for ice cream, having no idea they were our relatives. We had the greatest time and the next day, four grown-ups built ‘Versailles,’ with Isabella being in her glory with so much help.”

  “I cannot explain until this day why I went back to Locarno year after year, at the very same spot mind you, just to see both of you again.”

  “You did?”

  “Yes, and frankly I didn’t feel bad because I was married, which as you well know was no marriage at all.”

  “So I was told.”

  “But I did feel bad because you wore the widest wedding band I have ever seen.”

  She laughed aloud. “My late husband bought it and wanted to make sure everyone else would notice it too.”