Blood Ties by Warren Adler Page B

conversation. Continuing to sit in the
chair, he heard the sound of an elevator descending, then the clank of the
heavy metal elevator door. His aunt's familiar footsteps moved slowly across
the stone floor, stopping finally near him.
    "You?" It was Aunt Karla's voice, strong,
domineering and arrogant.
    "I want to see him." It was the voice of the
other woman, equally strong and assured.
    "You have no right. Not now. That matter was disposed
of years ago." The voices were clear. The women were standing directly
behind his chair.
    "I will not leave here without seeing him." The
woman's voice was firm, intense, each word articulated with equal emphasis. She
means business, Siegfried thought, searching his memory. An old mistress
perhaps, he decided. What a bore for the old man.
    There was a long silence. Then his aunt's voice began
again.
    "What do you want? He is sick. He is dying."
    Knowing the truth of the observation, Siegfried was oddly
disturbed by the reference to death. He was suddenly on his aunt's side now,
annoyed that the idea of his father's death would occupy strangers.
    "All the more reason."
    "I think you're making a mistake. I could be far more
generous...."
    "Generous..." For the first time, the woman's
voice rose. She emitted a hoarse low laugh.
    "Whatever it is you want, I can provide. Only, you
must not see him. He is not to be upset. Dealing with me would be far more
fruitful."
    "Him," the woman said. "And him alone."
    There was another long silence.
    "All right..." his aunt said, an uncommon retreat.
He had always thought of her as "The Iron Duke," unbending, without
any sense of compromise. It was totally out of character. "...but it must
be tomorrow. I will arrange a meeting for tomorrow. As you can see, it is the
first night of the reunion."
    "I saw."
    "You went in?"
    "I stood by the door."
    "Tomorrow then?"
    "Early."
    "He barely sleeps..." Karla began. It seemed the
beginning of further entreaty. But she interrupted herself, waiting.
    "And you will provide a room for the night," the
strange woman said.
    "That too," his aunt sighed, her surrender
complete. He had never, ever seen his aunt bested. She wore her arrogance like
a heavy corset. Never soft or loving, always an imperial presence, she
engendered fear in all of them. And her influence on their father was total as
long as he could remember.
    "Are you certain that we cannot solve this matter
between us?" his aunt asked.
    "Him only," the woman's voice said.
    "Tomorrow then. Not tonight. You have agreed. Not
tonight."
    "You distrust me?" There was an air of sarcasm.
    "Your presence is a violation," his aunt said,
recovering her arrogance.
    The woman apparently ignored the remark. He heard the
familiar snap of Hans' fingers, assuming that his aunt had signaled him.
    "Tomorrow..." There was an edge of anxiety in his
aunt's tone. Then the woman was visible to him as she followed the boy across
the stone floor to the opposite end of the lobby, and disappeared.
    His head had cleared, the exaggerated sense of perception
gone, leaving only uncertainty and confusion. But there was no time to linger
in the pursuit of unanswered questions. Hans' clear fawning tone reverberated
in the lobby.
    "My dear Baron. How wonderful we look!"
    Then he heard the old man's faltering footsteps, the
rhythmical tap of a cane on stone, as the Baron moved to assess the state of
the von Kassels.

CHAPTER
4
    The Baron's cheeks were rouged, like spilled wine on white
parchment. Leaning on his cane, he moved slowly through the group, nodding
briefly toward every face, his lips tight, unsmiling. The Countess walked
behind him, the intimidating dowager's carriage untouched by age. Heavy diamond
earrings hung from her ears, under what seemed like an elaborately curled gray
wig. On her crenelated neck hung an expanse of red and green teardrops, rubies
and emeralds. She was heavily powdered, giving her face a ghostlike look.
    All conversation had ceased. Heads bowed silently in
awesome