arrangements.
I would be pleased to stay, she said, rising, and gently replacing Mamas hand upon the covers.
Excellent!
I showed her where all the medical necessities were kept in the bedroom: the syringe, the morphia, the bedpan and paregoric, the salve and bandages for the bedsores. She was well trained and quite intelligent, and we soon swiftly dispensed with the details of the patients care. The time then came to escort her down to my office so that I might pay her an advance portion of her salary.
But as I led her back towards the staircase, a sudden crymuted, so that I could not judge whether it was joyous or agonisedpricked the small hairs at the nape of my neck. For an instant, I feared it was Mama, calling out in pain; but then realisation dawned, so forcefully, so fearfully, that the gooseflesh on my neck branched downward to my spine and arms.
Twenty-two years had passed since I had last heard my wifes voice; thus I had not recognised it at once.
With neither explanation nor apology to Frau Koehler, I turned and ran at once down the hallway and into Gerdas room.
And there she sat in the bedeyes open, shining, all signs of weakness vanished. My heart felt as though it had flipped over in my chest, and for a fleeting instant I dared hope that she was returned to me, that Zsuzsanna and Vlad had both been destroyed and that my darling was now freed.
Alas! Her eyes, though open, remained fixed upon a distant and invisible vision. But she was strong, radiant, her skin no longer pale but slightly flushed, as though she had recently taken sun, and her hairher hair! Still dishevelled above the long, neat braid Katya faithfully tended each night but every streak of silver had departed from her sable-brown locks.
I peered again at her face, unable to believe what my own eyes perceived, but there it was: she had grown younger since the early morning. Every grey hair, every wrinkle and fold of sagging flesh, had disappeared.
Gerda! I breathed, then louder: Gerda, my darling, can you hear me?
She gave no sign of either hearing or seeing me, but something she regarded in the invisible distance made her face brighten with pure joy. She has come! she said, and laughed aloud. She has come
Who? I urged, as Frau Koehler came and stood in the doorway, watching in silent amazement. Who has come, darling?
She replied not a word, but began gradually to calm as I watched her in silence. After a time, her lips curved upward in a brilliant smile, revealing slightly elongated eyeteeth.
Amazing, the nurse whispered behind me. What shall I do, sir? Do you still intend to take your wife to London?
II do not know. I stared at Gerda, stricken. Her joyous cry had made me dare hope, but now I saw that all was lost. For Gerdas moods and health had, for the last twenty-two years, been tied to those of Zsuzsanna. If Gerda was now young and strong and healthy, it meant that Zsuzsanna was tooand Vlad.
And Gerda was beginning to Change.
What had the vampire done to strengthen himself and his consort?
I promised the good Frau Koehler that I should be in touch with her directly once a decision had been made, and quickly dismissed her so that I could return to Gerdas bedside.
Efforts to rouse my wife from trance failed, as did all attempts at hypnosis (which I knew would probably be futile, given the time of day). Yet I was determined to sit with her and learn what I could; so I locked the windows and rose, thinking to lock the door behind mefrom the outside, so that Gerda could not escape. There was little chance she would, since I had fastened crucifixes and the Host over the lintel of door and window, but. the extra safeguard reassured me.
Yet before I had passed over the threshold, she whispered a single phrase: The Dark Lord
It seemed at once a question and an admission of fear, voiced in an apprehensive yet curious tremolo.
I froze in the doorway, overtaken by terror at the abrupt mental image of the dark, devouring creature in my
I would be pleased to stay, she said, rising, and gently replacing Mamas hand upon the covers.
Excellent!
I showed her where all the medical necessities were kept in the bedroom: the syringe, the morphia, the bedpan and paregoric, the salve and bandages for the bedsores. She was well trained and quite intelligent, and we soon swiftly dispensed with the details of the patients care. The time then came to escort her down to my office so that I might pay her an advance portion of her salary.
But as I led her back towards the staircase, a sudden crymuted, so that I could not judge whether it was joyous or agonisedpricked the small hairs at the nape of my neck. For an instant, I feared it was Mama, calling out in pain; but then realisation dawned, so forcefully, so fearfully, that the gooseflesh on my neck branched downward to my spine and arms.
Twenty-two years had passed since I had last heard my wifes voice; thus I had not recognised it at once.
With neither explanation nor apology to Frau Koehler, I turned and ran at once down the hallway and into Gerdas room.
And there she sat in the bedeyes open, shining, all signs of weakness vanished. My heart felt as though it had flipped over in my chest, and for a fleeting instant I dared hope that she was returned to me, that Zsuzsanna and Vlad had both been destroyed and that my darling was now freed.
Alas! Her eyes, though open, remained fixed upon a distant and invisible vision. But she was strong, radiant, her skin no longer pale but slightly flushed, as though she had recently taken sun, and her hairher hair! Still dishevelled above the long, neat braid Katya faithfully tended each night but every streak of silver had departed from her sable-brown locks.
I peered again at her face, unable to believe what my own eyes perceived, but there it was: she had grown younger since the early morning. Every grey hair, every wrinkle and fold of sagging flesh, had disappeared.
Gerda! I breathed, then louder: Gerda, my darling, can you hear me?
She gave no sign of either hearing or seeing me, but something she regarded in the invisible distance made her face brighten with pure joy. She has come! she said, and laughed aloud. She has come
Who? I urged, as Frau Koehler came and stood in the doorway, watching in silent amazement. Who has come, darling?
She replied not a word, but began gradually to calm as I watched her in silence. After a time, her lips curved upward in a brilliant smile, revealing slightly elongated eyeteeth.
Amazing, the nurse whispered behind me. What shall I do, sir? Do you still intend to take your wife to London?
II do not know. I stared at Gerda, stricken. Her joyous cry had made me dare hope, but now I saw that all was lost. For Gerdas moods and health had, for the last twenty-two years, been tied to those of Zsuzsanna. If Gerda was now young and strong and healthy, it meant that Zsuzsanna was tooand Vlad.
And Gerda was beginning to Change.
What had the vampire done to strengthen himself and his consort?
I promised the good Frau Koehler that I should be in touch with her directly once a decision had been made, and quickly dismissed her so that I could return to Gerdas bedside.
Efforts to rouse my wife from trance failed, as did all attempts at hypnosis (which I knew would probably be futile, given the time of day). Yet I was determined to sit with her and learn what I could; so I locked the windows and rose, thinking to lock the door behind mefrom the outside, so that Gerda could not escape. There was little chance she would, since I had fastened crucifixes and the Host over the lintel of door and window, but. the extra safeguard reassured me.
Yet before I had passed over the threshold, she whispered a single phrase: The Dark Lord
It seemed at once a question and an admission of fear, voiced in an apprehensive yet curious tremolo.
I froze in the doorway, overtaken by terror at the abrupt mental image of the dark, devouring creature in my
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