PART II 14 page

" 'Leave the child!' said the woman abruptly, with a quick, imperious gesture.

" 'She's sleeping,' I said. And, rising, I followed the Englishman to the door at the foot of the stairs.

"There was a slight commotion as those nearest the door moved away from it. And we entered a

small parlor together.

"Only one candle burned on the sideboard, and the first thing I saw was a row of delicately

painted plates on a shelf. There were curtains on the small window, and a gleaming picture of the

Virgin Mary and Christ child on the wall. But the walls and chairs barely enclosed a great oak

table, and on that table lay the body of a young woman, her white hands folded on her breast, her

auburn hair mussed and tucked about her thin, white throat and under her shoulders. Her pretty

face was already hard with death. Amber rosary beads gleamed around her wrist and down the

side of her dark wool skirt. And beside her lay a very pretty red felt hat with a wide, soft brim

and a veil, and a pair of dark gloves. It was all laid there as if she would very soon rise and put

these things on. And the Englishman patted the hat carefully now as he drew close to her. He

was on the verge of breaking down altogether. He'd drawn a large handkerchief out of his coat,

and he had put it to his face. 'Do you know what they want to do with her?' he whispered as he

looked at me. 'Do you have any idea?'

"The woman came in behind us and reached for his arm, but he roughly shook her off. 'Do you

know?' he demanded of me with his eyes fierce. 'Savages!'

" 'You stop now! she said under her breath.

"He clenched his teeth and shook his head, so that a shock of his red hair loosened in his eyes.

'You get away from me,' he said to the woman in German. 'Get away from me.' Someone was

whispering in the other room. The Englishman looked again at the young woman, and his eyes

filled with tears. 'So innocent,' he sa id softly; and then he glanced at the ceiling and, making a

fist with his right hand, he gasped, 'Damn you... God! Damn you!'

" 'Lord,' the woman whispered, and quickly she made the Sign of the Cross.

" 'Do you see this?' he asked me. And he pried very carefully at the lace of the dead woman's

throat, as though he could not, did not wish to actually touch the hardening flesh. Thereon her

throat, unmistakable, were the two puncture wounds, as I'd seen them a thousand times upon a

thousand, engraved in the yellowing skin. The man drew his hands up to his face, his tall, lean

body rocking on the balls of his feet. 'I think I'm going mad!' he said.

" 'Come now,' said the woman, holding onto him as he struggled, her face suddenly flushed.

" 'Let him be,' I said to her. 'Just let him be. I'll take care of him.'

"Her mouth contorted. 'I'll throw you all out of here, out into that dark, if you don't stop.' She was too weary for this, too close to some breaking point herself. But then she turned her back on

us, drawing her shawl tight around her, and padded softly out, the men who'd gathered at the

door making way for her.

"The Englishman was crying.

"I could see what I must do, but it wasn't only that I wanted so much to learn from him, my heart pounding with silent excitement. It was heartrending to see him this way. Fate brought me too

mercilessly close to him.

" 'I'll stay with you,' I offered. And I brought two chairs up beside the table. He sat down heavily, his eyes on the flickering candle at his side. I shut the door, and the walls seemed to recede and

the circle of the candle to grow brighter around his bowed head. He leaned back against the

sideboard and wiped his face with his handkerchief. Then he drew a leatherbound flask from his

pocket and offered it to me, and I said no.

" 'Do you want to tell me what happened?'

"He nodded. 'Perhaps you can bring some sanity to this place,' he said. 'You're a Frenchman,

aren't you? You know, I'm English.'

" 'Yes,' I nodded.

"And then, pressing my hand fervently, the liquor so dulling his senses that he never felt the

coldness of it, he told me his name was Morgan and he needed me desperately, more than he'd

ever needed anyone in his life. And at that moment, holding that hand, feeling the fever of it, I

did a strange thing. I told him my name, which I confided to almost no one. But he was looking

at the dead woman as if he hadn't heard me, his lips forming what appeared to be the faintest

smile, the tears standing in his eyes. His expression would have moved any human being; it

might have been more than some could bear.

" 'I did this,' he said, nodding. 'I brought her here.' And he raised his eyebrows as if wondering at it.

" 'No,' I said quickly. 'You didn't do it. Tell me who did.'

"But then he seemed confused, lost in thought. 'I'd never been out of England,' he started. 'I was painting, you see... as if it mattered now... the paintings, the book! I thought it all so quaint! So picturesque!' His eyes moved over the room, his voice trailing off. For a long time he looked at

her again, and then softly he said to her, 'Emily,' and I felt I'd glimpsed something precious he

held to his heart.

"Gradually, then, the story began to come. A honeymoon journey, through Germany, into this

country, wherever the regular coaches would carry them, wherever Morgan found scenes to

paint. And they'd come to this remote place finally because there was a ruined monastery nearby

which was said to be a very well reserved place.

"But Morgan and Emily had never reached that monastery. Tragedy had been waiting for them

here.

"It turned out the regular coaches did not come this way, and Morgan had paid a farmer to bring

them by cart. But the afternoon they arrived, there was a great commotion in the cemetery

outside of town. The farmer, taking one look, refused to leave his cart to see further.

" 'It was some kind of procession, it seemed,' Morgan said, 'with all the people outfitted in their best, and some with flowers; and the truth was I thought it quite fascinating. I wanted to see it. I

was so eager I had the fellow leave us, bags and all. We could see the village just up ahead.

Actually it was I more than Emily, of course, but she was so agreeable, you see. I left her,

finally, seated on our suitcases, and I went on up the hill without her. Did you see it when you

were coming, the cemetery? No, of course you didn't. Thank God that carriage of yours brought

you here safe and sound. Though, if you'd driven on, no matter how bad off your horses were...'

He stopped.

" 'What's the danger?' I urged him, gently.

" 'Ah... danger! Barbarians!' he murmured. And he glanced at the door. Then he took another

drink from his flask and capped it.

" Well, it was no procession. I saw that right off,' he said. 'The people wouldn't even speak to me when I came up---you know what they are; but they had no objection to letting me watch. The

truth was, you wouldn't have thought I was standing there at all. You won't believe me when I

tell you what I saw, but you must believe me; because if you don't, I'm mad, I know it.'

" 'I will believe you, go on,' I said.

" 'Well, the cemetery was full of fresh graves, I saw that at once, some of them with new wooden crosses and some of them just mounds of earth with flowers still fresh; and the peasants there,

they were holding flowers, a few of them, as though they meant to be trimming these graves; but

all of them were standing stock-still, their eyes on these two fellows who had a white horse by

the bridle---and what an animal that was! It was pawing and stomping and shying to one side, as

if it wanted no part of the place; a beautiful thing it was, though, a splendid animal---a stallion,

and pure white. Well, at some point---and I couldn't tell you how they agreed upon it, because

not a one of them said a word ---one fellow, the leader, I think, gave the horse a tremendous

whack with the handle of a shovel, and it took off up the hill, just wild. You can imagine, I

thought that was the last we'd see of that horse for a while for sure. But I was wrong. In a minute

it had slowed to a gallop, and it was turning around amongst the old graves and coming back

down the hill towards the newer ones. And the people all stood there watching it. No one made a

sound. And here it came trotting right over the mounds, right through the flowers, and no one

made a move to get hold of the bridle. And then suddenly it came to a stop, right on one of the

graves'

"He wiped at his eyes, but the tears were almost gone. He seemed fascinated with his tale, as I

was.

" 'Well, here's what happened,' he continued. 'The animal just stood there. And suddenly a cry

went up from the crowd. No, it wasn't a cry, it was as though they were all gasping and moaning,

and then everything went quiet. And the horse was just standing there, tossing its head; and

finally this fellow who was the leader burst forward and shouted to several of the others; and one

of the women---she screamed, and threw herself on the grave almost under the horse's hooves. I

came up then as close as I could. I could see the stone with the deceased's name on it; it was a

young woman, dead only six months, the dates carved right there, and there was this miserable

woman on her knees in the dirt, with her arms around the stone now, as if she meant to pull it

right up out of the earth. And these fellows trying to pick her up and get her away.

" 'Now I almost turned back, but I couldn't, not until I saw what they meant to do. And, of

course, Emily was quite safe, and none of these people took the slightest notice of either of us.

Well, two of them finally did have that woman up, and then the other had come with shovels and

had begun to dig right into the grave. Pretty soon one of them was down in the grave, and

everyone was so still you could hear the slightest sound, that shovel digging in there and the

earth thrown up in a heap. I can't tell you what it was like. Here was the sun high above us and

not a cloud in the sky, and all of them standing around, holding onto one another now, and even

that pathetic woman...' He stopped now, because his eyes had fallen on Emily. I just sat there

waiting for him. I could hear the whiskey when he lifted the flask again, and I felt glad for him

that there was so much there, that he could drink it and deaden this pain. 'It might as well have

been midnight on that hill,' he said, looking at me, his voice very low. 'That's how it felt. And

then I could hear this fellow in the grave. He was cracking the coffin lid with his shovel! Then

out came the broken boards. He was just tossing them out, right and left. A nd suddenly he let out

an awful cry. The other fellows drew up close, and all at once there was a rush to the grave; and

then they all fell back like a wave, all of them crying out, and some of them turning and trying to

push away. And the poor woman, she was wild, bending her knees, and trying to get free of

those men that were holding onto her. Well, I couldn't help but go up. I don't suppose anything

could have kept me away; and I'll tell you that's the first time I've ever done such a thing, and,

God help me, it's to be the last. Now, you must believe me, you must! But there, right there in

that coffin, with that fellow standing on the broken boards over her feet, was the dead woman,

and I tell you... I tell you she was as fresh, as pink---his voice cracked, and he sat there, his eyes wide, his hand poised as if he held something invisible in his fingers, pleading with me to believe

him---'as pink as if she were alive! Buried six months! And there she lay! The shroud was

thrown back off her, and her hands lay on her breast just as if she were asleep.'

"He sighed. His hand dropped to his leg and he shook his head, and for a moment he just sat

staring. 'I swear to you!' he said. 'And then this fellow who was in the grave, he bent down and

lifted the dead woman's hand. I tell you that arm moved as freely as my arm! And he held her

hand out as if he were looking at her nails. Then he shouted; and that woman beside the grave,

she was kicking at those fellows and shoving at the earth with her foot, so it fell rig ht down in

the corpse's face and hair. And oh, she was so pretty, that dead woman; oh, if you could have

seen her, and what they did then!'

" 'Tell me what they did,' I said to him softly. But I knew before he said it.

" 'I tell you...' he said. 'We don't know the meaning of something like that until we see it!' And he looked at me, his eyebrow arched as if he were confiding a terrible secret. 'We just don't know.'

" 'No, we don't,' I said.

" 'I'll tell you. They took a stake, a wooden stake, mind you; and this one in the grave, he took the stake with a hammer and he put it right to her breast. I didn't believe it! And then with one

great blow he drove it right into her. I tell you, I couldn't have moved even if I'd wanted to; I was rooted there. And then that fellow, that beastly fellow, he reached up for his shovel and with both

his arms he drove it sharp, right into the dead woman's throat. The head was off like that! He

shut his eyes, his face contorted, and put his head to the side.

"I looked at him, but I wasn't seeing him at all. I was seeing this woman in her grave with the

head severed, and I was feeling the most keen revulsion inside myself, as if a hand were pressing

on my throat and my insides were coming up inside me and I couldn't breathe. Then I felt

Claudia's lip against my wrist She was staring at Morgan, and apparently she had been for some

time.

"Slowly Morgan looked up at me, his eyes wild. 'It's what they want to do with her,' he said.

'With Emily! Well I won't let them.' He shook his head adamantly. 'I won't let them. You've got

to help me, Louis.' His lips were trembling, and his face so distorted now by his sudden

desperation that I might have recoiled from it despite myself. 'The same blood flows in our veins,

you and I. I mean, French, English, we're civilized men, Louis. They're savages!'

" 'Try to be calm now, Morgan,' I said, reaching out for him. 'I want you to tell me what

happened then. You and Emily.'

"He was struggling for his bottle. I drew it out of his pocket, and he took off the cap. 'That's a fellow, Louis; that's a friend,' he said emphatically. 'You see, I took her away fast. They were

going to burn that corpse right there in the cemetery; and Emily was not to see that, not while I...'

He shook his head 'There wasn't a carriage to be found that would take us out of here; not a

single one of them would leave now for the two days' drive to get us to a decent place!'

" 'But how did they explain it to you, Morgan?' I insisted. I could see he did not have much time left.

" 'Vampires!' he burst out, the whiskey sloshing on his hand. 'Vampires, Louis. Can you believe

that!' And he gestured to the door with the bottle. 'A plague of vampires! All this in whispers, as

if the devil himself were listening at the door! Of course, God have mercy, they put a stop to it.

That unfortunate woman in the cemetery, they'd stopped her from clawing her way up nightly to

feed on the rest of us!' He put the bottle to his lips. 'Oh... God...' he moaned.

"I watched him drink, patiently waiting.

" 'And Emily...' he continued. 'She thought it fascinating. What with the fire out there and a

decent dinner and a proper glass of wine. She hadn't seen that woman! She hadn't seen what

they'd done,' he said desperately. 'Oh, I wanted to get out of here; I offered them money. "If it's over," I kept saying to them, "one of you ought to want this money, a small fortune just to drive us out of here." '

" 'But it wasn't over...' I whispered.

"And I could see the tears gathering in his eyes, his mouth twisting with pain.

" 'How did it happen to her?' I asked him.

" 'I don't know,' he gasped, shaking his head, the flask pressed to his forehead as if it were

something cool, refreshing, when it was not.

" 'It came into the inn?'

" 'They said she went out to it,' he confessed, the tears coursing down his cheeks. 'Everything

was locked! They saw to that. Doors, windows! Then it was morning and they were all shouting,

and she was gone. The window stood wide open, and she wasn't there. I didn't even take time for

my robe. I was running. I came to a dead halt over her, out there, behind the inn. My foot all but

came down on her... she was just lying there under the peach trees. She held an empty cup.

Clinging to it, an empty cup! They said it lured her... she was trying to give it water...'

"The flask slipped from his hands. He clapped his hands over his ears, his body bent, his head

bowed.

"For a long time I sat there watching him; I had no words to say to him. And when he cried

softly that they wanted to desecrate her, that they said she, Emily, was now a vampire, I assured

him softly, though I don't think he ever heard me, that she was not.

"He moved forward finally, as if he might fall. He appeared to be reaching for the candle, and

before his arm rested on the buffet, his finger touched it so the hot wax extinguished the tiny bit

that was left of the wick. We were in darkness then, and his head had fallen on his arm.

"All of the light of the room seemed gathered now in Claudia's eyes. But as the silence

lengthened and I sat there, wondering, hoping Morgan wouldn't lift his head again, the woman

came to the door. Her candle illuminated him, drunk, asleep.

" 'You go now,' she said to me. Dark figures crowded around her, and the old wooden inn was

alive with the shuffling of men and women. 'Go by the fire!'

" 'What are you going to do!' I demanded of her, rising and holding Claudia. 'I want to know

what you propose to do!'

" 'Go by the fire,' she commanded.

"'No, don't do this,' I said. But she narrowed her eyes and bared her teeth. 'You go!' she growled.

" 'Morgan,' I said to him; but he didn't hear me, he couldn't hear me.

" 'Leave him be,' said the woman fiercely.

" 'But it's stupid, what you're doing; don't you understand? This woman's dead!' I pleaded with

her.

" 'Louis,' Claudia whispered, so that they couldn't hear her, her arm tightening around my neck

beneath the fur of my hood. 'Let these people alone.'

"The others were moving into the room now, encircling the table, their faces grim as they looked at us.

" 'But where do these vampires come from!' I whispered. 'You've searched your cemetery! If it's

vampires, where do they hide from you? This woman can't do you harm. Hunt your vampires if

you must'

" 'By day,' she said gravely, winking her eye and slowly nodding her head. 'By day. We get them, by day.'

" 'Where, out there in the graveyard, digging up the graves of your own villagers?'

"She shook her head. 'The ruins,' she said. 'It was always the ruins. We were wrong. In my

grandfather's time it was the ruins, and it is the ruins again. We'll take them down stone by stone

if we have to. But you... you go now. Because if you don't go, we'll drive you out there into that

dark now!'

"And then out from behind her apron she drew her clenched fist with the stake in it and held it up in the flickering light of the candle. 'You hear me, you go!' she said; and the men pressed in close

behind her, their mouths set, their eyes blazing in the light.

" 'Yes...' I said to her. 'Out there. I would prefer that. Out there.' And I swept past her, almost throwing her aside, seeing them scuttle back to make way. I had my hand on the latch of the inn

door and slid it back with one quick gesture.

" 'No!' cried the woman in her guttural German. 'You're mad!' And she rushed up to me and then

stared at the latch, dumbfounded. She threw her hands up against the rough boards of the door.

'Do you know what you do!'

" 'Where are the ruins?' I asked her calmly. 'How far? Do they lie to the left of the road, or to the right?'

" 'No, no' She shook her head violently. I pried the door back and felt the cold blast of air on my face. One of the women said something sharp and angry from the wall, and one of the children

moaned in its sleep. 'I'm going. I want one thing from you. Tell me where the ruins lie, so I may

stay clear of them. Tell me.'

" 'You don't know, you don't know,' she said; and then I laid my hand on her warm wrist and

drew her slowly through the door, her feet scraping on the boards, her eyes wild. The men

moved nearer but, as she stepped out against her will into the night, they stopped. She tossed her

head, her hair falling down into her eyes, her eyes glaring at my hand and at my face. 'Tell me...'

I said.

"I could see she was staring not at me but at Claudia. Claudia had turned towards her, and the

light from the fire was on her face. The woman did not see the rounded cheeks nor the pursed

lips, I knew, but Claudia's eyes, which were gazing at her with a dark, demonic intelligence. The

woman's teeth bit down into the flesh of her lip.

" 'To the north or south?'

" 'To the north...' she whispered.

" 'To the left or the right?'

" 'The left.'

" 'And how far?'

"Her hand struggled desperately. 'Three miles,' she gasped. And I released her, so that she fell back against the door, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. I had turned to go, but suddenly

behind me she cried out for me to wait. I turned to see she'd ripped the crucifix from the beam

over her head, and she had it thrust out towards me now. And out of the dark nightmare

landscape of my memory I saw Babette gazing at me as she had so many years ago, saying those

words, 'Get thee behind me, Satan.' But the woman's face was desperate. 'Take it, please, in the

name of God,' she said. 'And ride fast.' And the door shut, leaving Claudia and me in total

darkness."

"In minutes the tunnel of the night closed upon the weak lanterns of our carriage, as if the village had never existed. We lurched forward, around a bend, the springs creaking, the dim moon

revealing for an instant the pale outline of the mountains beyond the pines. I could not stop

thinking of Morgan, stop hearing his voice. It was all tangled with my own horrified anticipation

of meeting the thing which had killed Emily, the thing which was unquestionably one of our

own. But Claudia was in a frenzy. If she could have driven the horses herself, she would have

taken the reins. Again and again she urged me to use the whip. She struck savagely at the few

low branches that dipped suddenly into the lamps before our faces; and the arm that clung to my

waist on the rocking bench was as firm as iron.

"I remember the road turning sharply, the lanterns clattering, and Claudia calling out over the

wind: 'There, Louis, do you see it?' And I jerked hard on the reins.

"She was on her knees, pressed against me, and the carnage was swaying like a ship at sea.

"A great fleecy cloud had released the moon, and high above us loomed the dark outline of the

tower. One long window showed the pale sky beyond it. I sat there, clutching the bench, trying to

steady a motion that continued in my head as the carriage settled on its springs. One of the horses

whinnied. Then everything was still.

"Claudia was saying, 'Louis, come...'

"I whispered something, a swift irrational negation. I had the distinct and terrifying impression that Morgan was near to me, talking to me in that low, impassioned way he'd pleaded with me in

the inn. Not a living creature stirred in the night around us. There was only the wind and the soft

rustling of the leaves.

" 'Do you think he knows we're coming?' I asked, my voice unfamiliar to me over this wind. I

was in that little parlor, as if there were no escape from it, as if this dense forest were not real. I think I shuddered. And then I felt Claudia's hand very gently touch the hand I lifted to my eyes.

The thin pines were billowing behind her and the rustle of the leaves grew louder, as if a great

mouth sucked the breeze and began a whirlwind. 'They'll bury her at the crossroads? Is that what

they'll do? An Englishwoman!' I whispered.

" 'Would that I had your size...' Claudia was saying. 'And would that you had my heart. Oh,

Louis...'

And her head inclined to me now, so like the attitude of the vampire bending to kiss that I shrank

back from her; but her lips only gently pressed my own, finding a part there to suck the breath

and let it flow back into me as my arms enclosed her. 'Let me lead you...' she pleaded. 'There's no

turning back now. Take me in your arms,' she said, 'and let me down, on the road.'

"But it seemed an eternity that I just sat there feeling her lips on my face and on my eyelids.

Then she moved, the softness of her small body suddenly snatched from me, in a movement so

graceful and swift that she seemed now poised in the air beside the carriage, her hand clutching

mine for an instant, then letting it go. And then I looked down to see her looking up at me,

standing on the road in the shuddering pool of light beneath the lantern. She beckoned to me, as

she stepped backwards, one small boot behind the other. 'Louis, come down...' until she

threatened to vanish into the darkness. And in a second I'd unfastened the lamp from its hook,

and I stood beside her in the tall grass.

" 'Don't you sense the danger?' I whispered to her. 'Can't you breathe it like the air?' One of those quick, elusive smiles played on her lips, as she turned towards the slope. The lantern pitched a

pathway through the rising forest. One small, white hand drew the wool of her cape close, and

she moved forward.

" 'Wait only for a moment...'

" 'Fear's your enemy...' she answered, but she did not stop.

"She proceeded ahead of the light, feet sure, even as the tall grass gave way gradually to low

heaps of rubble, and the forest thickened, and the distant tower vanished with the fading of the

moon and the great weaving of the branches overhead. Soon the sound and scent of the horses

died on the low wind. 'Be en garde,' Claudia whispered, as she moved, relentlessly, pausing only

now and again where the tangled vines and rock made it seem for moments there was a shelter.

But the ruins were ancient. Whether plague or fire or a foreign enemy had ravaged the town, we

couldn't know. Only t he monastery truly remained.

"Now something whispered in the dark that was like the wind and the leaves, but it was neither. I saw Claudia's back straighten, saw the flash of her white palm as she slowed her step. Then I

knew it was the water, winding its way slowly down the mountain, and I saw it far ahead through

the black trunks, a straight, moonlit waterfall descending to a boiling pool below. Claudia

emerged silhouetted against the fall, her hand clutching a bare root in the moist earth beside it;

and now I saw her climbing hand over hand up the overgrown cliff, her arm trembling ever so

slightly, her small boots dangling, then digging in to hold, then swinging free again. The water

was cold, and it made the air fragrant and light all around it, so that for a moment I rested.

Nothing stirred around me in the forest. I listened, senses quietly separating the tune of the

leaves, but nothing else stirred. And then it struck me gradually, like a chill coming over my

arms and my throat and finally my face, that the night was too desolate, too lifeless. It was as if

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 671