On the Night of the Seventh Moon

She followed me into the room. I sat on the bed while she settled comfortably into a chair.

“Well,” she said, ‘he’s happy again . happy as he hasn’t been for nine years. You have a big responsibility.

Miss Trant. Oh, I mustn’`t call you that now, must I-but just for old times’ sake until your title’s known. Well, you`’ve got a lot to answer for. You`’ve got to keep him happy. ” She laughed.

“My goodness, I’ve never seen him so pleased with life. Fancy that!”

“And you knew who I was all the time.”

She was overcome with secret mirth.

“You must admit I did it well. I said, ” I want a phrase book . something to help me along with the language. ” And you hadn’`t a notion. And weren’`t you frightened, eh, when you thought I wasn’`t going to ask you to come along and teach the children!”

“Yes,” I agreed.

“And when you came I was hard put to it not to confide in you. And he was away in Berlin! I couldn’'t wait for him to come back. Mind you, it’s a bit more than I bargained for. Hildegarde thought it was a mock marriage and it would have been a lot easier if it had been. That’s something people understand. But married to the Duke’s heir and him having made a state marriage to a princess that’s brought us closer to Klarenbock and that being so important well, I don’t know!” Then she laughed as she studied me.

“But you can’t think of what’s to be, can you? You can only think of him and that you’re together again.

Well, that’s how it is. But the reckoning has to come. What a man our Lightning is! They still talk about his great-great-grandfather, Maximilian Carl. He was a great duke and a great lover, too. He’s a legend in these parts and I used to say to Hildegarde when Maxi used to go off riding in the forest or practising his archery and shooting in the courtyard, I’d say: “Look at him, Hildegarde. There’s another Maximilian Carl. A legend, eh?” And so will he be. The Duke who found a schoolgirl in the forest and married her. What a story! And that’s not the end, eh? ” Her shoulders shook with secret mirth.

“We’ve got to wait for that. Now what’s going to happen?” Her eyes sparkled at the prospect.

“We shall see in time. But my word, this is going to take a bit of untangling.”

The thought of the tangles stimulated her, though. I had never seen her quite as excited as she was on that night.

“You won’t sleep, will you?” she went on.

“No more will he. No more will I. In any case, it’s morning. They’ll see him riding back to the schloss-some of them.

“Oh,” they’ll say.

“His Highness has been out for the night!” And they’ll laugh and nudge each other and they’ll say “Another Duke Maximilian Carl, he is.” They won’t know, will they, that he was with his wife. “

I tried to speak calmly.

“We must wait, and Maximilian will know what is the best thing to do.”

“Well,” she said, ‘it could be your secret, you know. You could live here, or in one of the castles, and he could call on you. Very romantic like. And no one need ever know that you were the true duchess . because that’s what you’ll be soon. The old Duke is failing fast, believe me, and soon our Maxi will be in his shoes. And what of you then, eh? And what of Wilhelmina? “

“We shall have to see,” I told her.

“Now I think I should try and sleep for an hour or two.”

She took the hint and left me. I did not sleep, of course. I lay awake thinking of the wonder of that night just passed and the undecided future.

As soon as I was up Frau Graben was knocking at my door. Her hair was out of its curlers and was now crimped about her head; her rosy cheeks shone and she was as lively as ever.

“I didn’`t think you’d sleep long,” she said with a chuckle.

“I’ve got something for you. A message from him. My word, he is impatient.

Always was when he really wanted something. ” She handed me the note as though I were a child and she a benign nurse offering a special treat.

Eagerly I took it.

“Read it,” she said unnecessarily. I knew she had already.

“My darling Lenchen, ” I’ll be in the forest at eleven o’clock at the first copse from Klocksburg by the stream.

M.

“

It was like a command but then, I supposed indulgently, he was accustomed to giving commands.

“You`’ve got two hours,” beamed Frau Graben.

“What of the children’s lesson?”

Frau Graben flapped her hand at me.

“Bah! The old pastor can take them through their history.” She laughed like a conspirator.

Not that I wanted to makfe excuses. The thought of seeing him again was an intoxicating one.

I dressed with care, realizing that this would be the first time he would see me in daylight for nine years; but the prospect of seeing him made me radiant.

I saddled my mare and rode out. I found him waiting at the appointed spot on a white horse and I was taken back all those years to when he had loomed out of the mist, I said: “You have changed very little,” “You have grown more attractive,” he replied.

“Is that really true?”

“Experience has left its mark. You are more exciting. There is so much I want to discover. The young girl from the Damenstift was a promise . now that promise is fulfilled.”

He leaped from his horse and lifted me down from mine. We stood in a close embrace and I was so gloriously happy that I should have liked to hold that moment for ever: the forest smells; the faint sound of the breeze as it moved in the trees; the distant lowing of cows and the tinkle of the bells about their necks.

“Never to part again,” he said.

“What is going to happen, Maximilian?”

“I don’t know yet. There is so much to consider. I have been trying to work out a way, but last night I could think of nothing but our being together again.”

“That’s how it was with me.”

We tied up the horses, and, arms entwined, walked through the forest as we talked.

Here was the position: He had thought me dead; he had seen the charred remains of the lodge; he had listened to the account Ernst had given him and believed it. He had not cared after that what had happened but he had had an abhorrence for marriage with anyone else. His father had tried to persuade him, implore him and even threaten him with the loss of the dukedom unless he married. Klarenbock had been an antagonistic state and more powerful than Rochenstein. The marriage had been one of the clauses in a treaty, and a few years ago he had allowed himself to be drawn into it.

“That is the story, Lenchen. If only I had known.

“And while I was in Oxford looking after Aunt Caroline, you were thinking of me, longing for me, as I was for you.

If I had come to England to look for you I should have found you as Graben did. I can’t forgive myself for not doing that. “

“But everything seemed so clear to you. You had always trusted Ernst and there was the burned-out lodge. And surely there was something I could have done? But it’s no use blaming ourselves no use looking back. I can forget all that now.”

“We’ll put it behind us, Lenchen. It is what we have to do now that is important. My father is very feeble. Trouble with Klarenbock now would be fatal. I believe the French, too, are determined to make war on Prussia. If they did all the German states would be involved. They say that Napoleon III has the best army in Europe and he is determined on con quest.”

“Does that mean that if there was war you would have to fight.

“I am the Commander-in-Chief of our army. Oh, Lenchen, I’ve frightened you. There may not be war. Let us hope not. But we must waste no more time. We have been apart too long. But I do believe the French are determined on war. You have seen our people. They are gay and pleasure-loving; but we of Rochenstein are not typical of our race.