Yesterday Was Long Ago: Part Two Page 40

  “Give us two minutes,” Isabella said as all rose from their chairs.

  “Two minutes means twenty in Austria,” Gromov laughed.

  “For a lass like this one, I’ll wait two days.”

  “What is a ‘lass’?”

  “To us Scots, a beautiful lady in this case.” General Gromov gave a deep sigh, possibly thinking the Scots are crazy too.

  The six Americans lined up next to the Scotsmen, whose bagpipes already started ‘Going Home’. They stood in front of the dining room door which was closed by Gromov. Then he walked on the other side to join Niemev, their two doctors, Peter, and Isabella who held little Karl’s hand. Next to her stood Reinhardt’s servants in black dresses and snow-white aprons, holding baskets. Each wounded soldier on crutches had a healthy one next to him, saluting the Americans and Scotsmen, who sang their favorite song, ‘Come along, Come along’. The healthy guards marched to this tune with a shy smile, hoping they could stay in Vienna and hear those many songs again. Even the hardcore Russians showed their emotions, never expecting such a sendoff. Isabella ran from one stretcher to the next with big tears rolling down her cheeks, shaking hands and telling them they would be in their other hospital.

  Little Karl had a paper-made military cap, saluting and making his heart signs simultaneously. He was everyone’s friend. Isabella was now stroking the hands of soldiers who lost their legs and the medics gave her their nicest smile with their warmest thanks, unable to shake her hands. The last were the blind ones who had lost some limbs on top of it. She cried openly, “Shalom, aleichem,” and this time it was up to a teary-eyed Phil Feingold to translate, as a sobbing Sheila wanted to know the meaning of it.

  “Peace be with you,” he replied, looking at all the other Westerners. Since everyone was somber too, he felt maybe there was hope in this pitiless world after all.

  Major McAllister was no different. He followed Isabella’s every move and admired her bravery, emotions, and tears even more if it was possible. He was totally in love.

  ∼

  Ian McCain’s personal driver gave Major McAllister a ride to Vienna’s airport. They exchanged a few kind words, especially about their new beautiful location in the city’s First District. William was glad to have arrived quite early and walked around the rather small airport while waiting for the plane, which was one hour late. It didn’t matter to him, but it did, of course, to his mother. She now descended the plane slowly on the hand of a stewardess with his father and Uncle Bill behind them.

  “I’ll never fly again,” she greeted him without an embrace.

  “No one told you to fly. The weather is perfect for crossing the ocean,” William replied tartly.

  His father came next with the usual embrace. “How are you doing, son?”

  “Fine,” he replied, and turned to Uncle Bill, who was always in a jovial mood regardless of the situation. He explained their bumpy ride, exchanging planes in London for Paris, where they decided to stay for a night in Orly’s Airfield Hotel, but the food and service were dreadful, and the plane arrived late for Vienna. His mother sounded worse than a soldier after a heavy battle and was in need of a glass of gin.

  “Naturally,” William thought, and told her he brought a small bottle in case the hotel didn’t have some in reserve. “It’s crowded with Americans who like to drink a lot,” he commented when they entered a taxi. They only made small talk, and someone would have thought they had seen each other yesterday and lived around the corner.

  Hotel Imperial was, to her great pleasure, the same as always. Nothing had changed. Even the owner, Mr. Raymond Klein, and his handsome son, Toni, were waiting to greet them, with every porter ready to take their suitcases. The old-timers remembered these generous tippers. Now a dollar or a few cigarettes meant much, much more.

  William was now alone in the taxi and it felt good. This day was something else altogether. He never expected anything like it, and he let the morning until the departure of the Russians run like a film in front of him. Of course, the main role went to Isabella. He never came close to meeting a woman like her, so beautiful and her demeanor topped it by far. Aside from her perfect mannerism and control of every given situation, her outlook on morals was also to his liking. But how to get a lady like this to date him was another story.

  ∼

  His parents called after breakfast and told William they were all well fed, rested, and ready. His mother apologized for her poor conduct.

  “It’s quite all right,” he said comfortingly, looking forward to seeing Isabella, who promised to be there. It was her day off, but she was in charge of rearranging the room to the General’s and his staff’s convenience. Also, she wanted the tapestry, paintings, and portraits hung back to give the entrance hall the old look again.

  Peter was in his brother’s office to get some of his paperwork and Isabella went with little Karl in the garden to cut some late blooming roses. The two Russians were having their second breakfast when all six Americans from the previous day, and William’s parents and Uncle, appeared.

  Fanny smiled at them with a slight bow and went for the Doctor in a hurry. All the newly arrived McAllisters were in awe of William’s new headquarters. Kathryn McAllister didn’t know where to look first when Doctor Reinhardt entered, dressed in the customary Austrian gray suit with green lapels and trimming. All three McAllisters liked his secure and authoritative appearance without giving the slightest hint of being a snob. He offered the upstairs balcony for the view, away from the noise.

  The Reinhardts had many of their Lindenfels servants there to get the work done as quickly as possible. Arriving on the large balcony with the usual iron work to match the staircase, they sat down with Peter, who had ordered refreshments. They were completely at ease discussing many subjects and Peter was surprised to learn how well they knew Vienna and Salzburg. It gave him an opportunity to ask if they would take a letter to his family, as mail took a long time and was unreliable.

  They were only too happy to do it. All four McAllisters smiled, almost in unison. They planned to see Scotland after a two-week stay in Austria. Peter noticed how proud they were being of Scottish descent. Peter, having been more than two years in America, knew all about the ‘right people’, who were not much different from anywhere else. ‘Old family’, ‘Old money’ had always played a great role in any society. Kathryn now spotted Isabella and Karl with their rose baskets and pruning shears. William sat sideways, listening intently to their conversation, never glancing anywhere.

  “Excuse me, gentlemen. I noticed a young lady and a boy with roses. I just have to see them.”

  “By all means,” Peter replied, rather surprised.

  She left the balcony on the arm of Peter, who introduced her to his niece and little Karl. He returned quickly to the balcony for a discussion about William’s times during the war after arriving in Sicily. It was ‘men’s talk’, and for Kathryn the war meant only the loss of Don Reed.

  Isabella saw in her a pretty woman in her middle fifties, rather tall, dyed light brown hair, big busted, and shapely. But her dark navy dress was only adorned by an expensive brooch of pearls in the setting of a rose. Isabella wore a navy blue dress too, but with large white lapels and a small strand of pearls. They started with their variety of roses and Isabella gave some history of the beautiful garden which was, in 1940, turned into a field of potatoes, cabbage, and carrots. “But it will change again as soon as food is available,” she sighed.

  “Glad you left those English boxwoods standing. They are so impressive.”

  “Yes, and here are our flowering trees, more roses, and wisteria, which form the entrance to our next garden with a small lake of swans. Would you like to see it, Madame?”

  “I’d love to!”

  She explained Karl’s deaf-mute condition and the way the Reinhardts got him. They took a seat in front of the pond when Lillian came galloping their way. “My prized possession,” she said proudly. “I always forsook my vacation for her.�
��

  “We have many horses in Virginia.” They talked like two women who had a lot of catching up to do and Lillian stood next to them like an invited guest. Reinhardt’s goat, Nelli, made her presence known nearby, bleating very loudly.

  “You have quite a collection of animals here,” Kathryn acknowledged, laughing. “She also looks like she is ready to give birth.”

  “Oh, yes, and she may do it right in front of us,” Isabella laughed. “She is of a good Saanen breed, and has never disappointed us with her steady milk supply.”

  They now heard men’s voices and Kathryn remarked, “My husband and Bill probably thought I got lost or I am boring you to death with my talk about roses.”

  “It just so happens that we like the same things,” Isabella responded seriously. Kathryn McAllister found her not only charming and beautiful, but knowledgeable as well.

  Sheila, after hearing the goat’s bleating noise, ran the last few steps. “What on earth happened?”

  “Good morning, Miss Brown.”

  “Oh, good morning, Miss Reinhardt.”

  They all entered the second garden with Peter introducing William’s father and Uncle. “We had a great war talk when my wife spotted you with flowers, which are more to her liking,” Don McAllister said kindly.

  William saw Isabella out of uniform with her French chignon hairstyle and thought, “How could God make such a beautiful creature?”

  Since everyone’s attention was turned to the goat, he had little choice but to do the same. “Talk about romance,” he smiled to himself.

  Now Peter stated with a smirk that with a surgeon, an RN, and so many Americans ready to assist, there should be no problem for Nelli to give birth.

  “We should call her something else; she never is birthing on time,” Isabella smiled, trying to get the attention to her horse, who stood hidden behind large evergreens.

  Ian McCain laughed. “I may take her home with me, Miss Reinhardt, as I was raised on a farm.”

  “With horses too?”

  “Of course! It was our only transportation when I grew up.”

  “Then take a look at my beauty. Come on, Lillian.” She took a big jump with a turnaround, acting again like a circus horse.

  “What a beauty,” Ian McCain remarked sincerely, patting her neck. Joel looked slyly at William, having been the first one to see her.

  “Boy she is something else,” Sheila said awestruck, looking at William, knowing his love for horses.

  “I would say Lillian is exactly befitting her owner in every way.”

  “How kind of you, Madame,” she replied, looking mischievously at Brad and Joel. “What a beautiful body.” With the exception of Ian McCain, they roared with laughter.

  William got almost a jolt in his back at his mother’s compliment, as for some reason she never found anyone worthy of one. Isabella looked around, wondering about the Russians. To them she was always a string bean who would never be able to get a man. But then again, they always had a Russian on their minds. “Where is Gromov and Niemev?” she asked, overlooking their titles.

  “They just left our table happily to get some of their own work done,” Peter replied.

  “I can honestly say I like them,” Uncle Bill said truthfully. “Although the relationship between our two countries has changed.”

  “They may be like us Reinhardts,” Peter challenged. “We are above caring unless caring is connected with helping someone, and I mean anyone whose heart is beating.”

  “Great speech for a surgeon,” Don McAllister said approvingly. Once more, William was surprised.

  ∼

  As the time came for Nelli to give birth, Isabella went on her knees, stroking Nelli’s forehead gently while Peter pushed on her belly. The Americans formed a semi-circle with their arms crossed and stared in amazement at the actions of the other two. Sheila held Karl’s hand, but looking at her expression of anxiety, one would think the little boy held hers. After a loud outcry, the little legs showed up and with the next push, the rest followed. All applauded spontaneously.

  “It’s one more thing we can add to our war stories,” William said, keeping his eyes on his future wife, to whom he had yet to utter his first sentence.

  “Yeah, and without any help from the Russians,” Brad said in jest.

  “Or Americans for that matter, Brad.”

  “What are you talking about Sheila? We were all standing here.”

  “What a day,” Kathryn said fondly, looking at Isabella.

  “Yes, Madame. I only wish you were here yesterday.”

  “It was an event not one of us will likely forget,” Ian McCain muttered, reflecting. “Somehow it will always stay with me for as long as I live.”

  “Same here,” agreed Phil Feingold who, as always, was overlooked.

  “Where are you from?” Uncle Bill asked.

  “New York City, formerly Stuttgart until Hitler arrived,” he replied rather arrogantly.

  “And you had to fight your own people?” Kathryn frowned.

  “I wish I was in a position to shoot each one, but being in logistics meant we got shot at and many of our men got killed, but our job was to supply the troops so they could go on shooting, eating, and keeping warm. We all marched together, forward or retreating, depending on the strength of the Krauts.”

  “What a waste. What a terrible waste,” Don McAllister replied with his voice cracking. They all walked back in silence.

  “Do I hear a piano playing?” Kathryn McAllister inquired as they came nearer to the mansion.

  “You do, Madame. The wives of our two Russians are here. They probably feel hard work is made easier with music,” Isabella replied cheerfully. “And our servants are very grateful since our radios were confiscated.”

  “Strange people. We only heard they liked watches and wore, at times, five or six on one arm,” Uncle Bill joined in, but kept quiet as they re-entered the place with Lillian right behind them.

  “Is she permitted to come in?” Don McAllister asked, surprised.

  “Lately, yes. Many of our wounded Russians were at one time or another in the cavalry, so we brought Lillian in as she loves to be petted,” Isabella replied.

  “And for us, it was good to know she was well taken care of, as my niece and I spend most of our time working or sleeping. She is my assistant on the operating table, which is quite a chore.”

  “I’ll say,” grimaced Kathryn McAllister.

  “Now she stays for a while here with us as an interpreter,” Ian McCain said with relish. “We have to find someone who translates in Russian, English, French, and German.

  “You know all those languages?” asked Kathryn in shock, who seemed to have taken to Isabella, practically monopolizing her.

  “Yes,” she replied, very humbly.

  Uncle Bill looked at his watch and decided that it was time to go. “We kept you quite long enough and enjoyed every minute of it.” All four McAllisters started to depart.

  “Until tomorrow in Lindenfels,” Peter reminded them.

  “What is there?” Kathryn had to ask.

  “Our other place,” Peter smiled.

  ∼

  The two women, Mrs. Gromov and Mrs. Niemev, were told the ‘Amerikansky’ were in a hurry to return to their hotel and they would meet them tomorrow. They were looking forward to it, although no one spoke a word of English.

  The mansion was getting back to its good old days and Ian McCain had Phil Feingold drawing the layout, as McAllister had his first official furlough day. They took a taxi to the hotel for their lunch and William would have given anything to be with his crew. However, he was very pleased about the way his mother acted towards the Reinhardts, as she once wrote in a letter that Austrians were like Germans during wars. And the Germans killed her Don Reed. So far, not a word was mentioned in that regard, and William was not about to bring it up.

  William and Uncle Bill were finally alone in the Hotel Imperial’s garden while his brother and Kathryn too
k their naps. Both had to recuperate from the time change of six hours, as well as that horribly bumpy ride. Now they could talk confidentially.

  “Are you planning to return next year, William?”

  “It all depends.”

  “Depends on what?”

  “On that beautiful young lady you couldn’t have helped notice like every other man does.”

  “Glad to hear it, William. I was sort of afraid that the female Captain Brown was on your mind. She kept so close to you with her eyes fluttering each time you spoke. I assumed she was ‘the one’.”

  “God, no! What made you come to that conclusion?”

  “She is very pretty, for one thing, and you always went for red heads.” Now William began to tell the Reinhardts’ story and Bill was quite impressed. “You need someone like her, very special, and a debutante from Vassar may not be enough. As in some ways, our household is not much different from theirs. I don’t mean the mansion or their country place, but all our many holdings put together may equal theirs and will be yours someday.”

  “Don’t I know it. I had my share of it already years ago. But it’s still for love only, providing everything else fits too.”

  “Then try your darnest to bring her back.”

  “Dear God… I am trying my darnest to get her to look at me,” he laughed. “You are way ahead of me. She may not even want to come to the states. That’s why I said, ‘It all depends.’ I can re-enlist and would if that’s the only way to be near her.”

  “That bad, William?”

  “Yep. That bad. And believe me, I wish there was an easier way.”

  “You wouldn’t want an easier way, William. A man always likes to be the hunter. So far, you have always been the hunted one. Like we old-timers say, if it’s meant to be, it will be.”

  “With my luck, she will be gone when I return.”

  “Gone where?”

  “Out of the office, when they find an interpreter.”