As chess opponents, Kristal and Gustav were pretty evenly matched. The game, therefore, became a matter of will between two keenly-tuned minds, each trying to gain ascendancy over the other. Gabi sat quietly watching, but not near enough to prove a distraction.
The game was drawing to a close, with only a few pieces left on the board, and Kristal was daring to hope she stood a chance of winning. There was no question of either letting the other win. She glanced away briefly, meeting Gabi’s eyes, and surprised in them an unexpected glimpse of sadness. It proved Kristal’s undoing, sidetracking her from the game at a strategic moment. She made her next move and it was all over—Gustav had won.
He chortled with glee. “I didn’t expect you to give the game away like that,” he told her, mirthfully. “I thought you’d got it in the bag.”
“So did I! Which just goes to show—you shouldn’t count your chickens before they’re hatched! Are you all right, Gabi?”
“Of course!” Though her laughter was a little forced. “I wish I could play chess,” she added wistfully.
“You’ve never wanted to before.” Gustav frowned. “I would have been happy to teach you, liebchen. I still can, but why now?”
“Because you obviously enjoy it so much. You must get tired of my endless prattle.” She sighed. “I don’t do anything really useful. Not like Kristal. She holds down a responsible job, she speaks our language like a native—”
“Which my grandmother was, don’t forget—she and I often talked in German, especially towards the end.”
“Tell me about Analiese—was she happy with her English husband?” Gustav asked huskily. “Is he still alive?”
“No, I’m afraid he’s dead,” she admitted. “She never married again.”
“Kristal!”
She hadn’t heard Rudi enter the room and started at the sound of her name.
“I’d like a word with you, right away, Kristal,” he barked at her.
She shrugged and followed him from the room, aware of the curious eyes behind her. Rudi strode ahead to a room at the end of the corridor.
Beyond the doorway lay an obviously masculine room filled with solid pieces of furniture, large land and sea-scapes in oils on pale, stark walls, and a vast, carved four-poster standing squarely in the centre. It just had to be Rudi’s.
“I’m not in the habit of going into men’s bedrooms alone,” she declared.
Lean fingers closed round her wrist and yanked her inside.
“You’re not alone—you’re with me!”
He closed the door and turned to face her, removing his jacket which he threw on a chair nearby. His tie went next.
“Excuse me, but if you’re about to perform a striptease, I’d like you to know it’s a form of entertainment that leaves me cold.”
“Is that a fact? Well, don’t worry, this is as far as it goes.”
“You said you wanted a word,” she reminded him.
“I want to know what sob story you were feeding Gustav. There’s no way I’m going to allow you to usurp Gabi’s position, so you can forget all this nonsense about Gustav and Analiese.”
“It’s not nonsense, and I didn’t bring up the subject—he did. Why shouldn’t he wonder about what happened to her, even if he had her thrown out? Maybe he regrets it. And you needn’t worry—I’m not after Gabi’s inheritance, just her friendship. She’ll be the same rich heiress when you marry her as she is now.”
“Are you suggesting I’d marry Gabi for her money?”
“N-not entirely,” she admitted as his fingers closed cruelly about her upper arms. “B-but you can hardly be marrying her for love!”
“Why not?” he demanded softly, jerking her hard against him.
“Because if you did love her, you wouldn’t be interested in another woman. I’m sure Gabi would prefer a faithful husband.”
“We’re not married yet. Of course I love Gabi. I’ve always loved her, but there are different kinds of love.”
His dark, handsome head lowered towards hers, his eyes glittering with fury and passion. She struggled to avoid his lips but his fingers tightened about her arms. The more she struggled the closer he pulled her towards him.
With a moan of despair she clutched his shoulders, lifting her lips to his. His mouth descended on to hers, and the more he demanded, the more she gave, one hand about his neck, her fingers sliding into the thick darkness of his hair. Her other hand ran over the muscles of his chest, that tensed against her touch.
Her head arched backwards as he moved his lips gently over her throat. His fingers, so cruel about her arms now gentled on her tender curves, his lips tracing a path of agonising sweetness across her shoulders.
She murmured his name, over and over again.
He lifted his head, his amber eyes glittering. The next moment he had hoisted her into his arms and carried her to the bed, lowering her on to it and following her down, his body half covering her own. His lips sought hers again more urgently and she clung to him…
A harsh sound intruded, bursting the bubble of enchantment enclosing them both. The phone rang, shrill and unreal, through the haze of their desire. Rudi’s oath could be understood in any language as he reached over for the phone.
“Yes!” he snapped. “What is it, Andreas?” He listened intently, leaning against the pillow. Then he quickly sat up, turning his back on her, shutting her out. “That three-way currency deal? What’s the problem? Look, come round for dinner—we’ll discuss the best course of action, then. I have a few ideas.”
While he concluded the call, Kristal slid off the bed the other side, shakily smoothing down her dress and putting her appearance to rights. Rudi put down the receiver and stood up, turning to face her.
“You’ve had a narrow escape. You won’t get away so easily next time.”
“There won’t be a next time,” she muttered. “Just keep your hands off me.”
“I can’t seem to help myself,” he replied, as if the fact surprised him. “Just remember what I said about Gustav. He’s an old man. I won’t have him upset.”
“I don’t intend to upset him. In fact, I could easily grow very fond of him.”
“How convenient!” he sneered. “You’d better run along now.”
With a little cry, she fled back to the relative safety of her own room.
Rudi concluded his business with Andreas before the meal began and when they sat down to eat, they were in very good spirits, the problem at the bank obviously dealt with to their satisfaction.
Kristal could hardly be unaware, however, of the various undercurrents that flowed between the group—the brief, hungry glances Andreas gave to Gabi. There was a certain preoccupation beneath the usual, unfailing cheerfulness of the dark-haired girl.
Rudi’s dark gaze held a glow of passion and an unmistakable glint of triumph, as if he had already possessed Kristal.
Then there was Mathilde, as unfailingly spiteful and malevolent as ever, her every comment subtly informing Kristal that there was no place for her in their household, and certainly not with Rudi.
“Has Rudi told you we’re having a charity ball right here?” Gabi demanded of Mathilde. “Kristal’s going to help me to organise it. Aren’t you, Kristal?”
“If you think I can help, Gabi.”
“Of course you can! I’ve decided it will be a masked ball—I thought we’d all dress up in mid-nineteenth-century costume. What do you think, Rudi?”
“Well, if it’s that or a bunch of gorillas and Roman centurions, then I would prefer it, I must say.”
“Good, then that’s settled. We’ll have it about ten days from now, if we can hire an orchestra in time.”
“No problem,” Andreas said. “Would you like me to hire one? I have several contacts who might help.”
“Oh, would you, Andreas? That would be very sweet of you.”
“If it’s so soon, we’d better see a printer tomorrow, to get the invitations done,” Kristal put in. “You did say by invitation only, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did, Kristal. Rudi, darling, can we use the bank’s printers? I’m sure they could come up with some stunning design.”
“Of course, liebchen. Just let them know what you want.”
“Prima!” she exclaimed with delight.
“Perhaps you could help Gabi to draw up a list of guests, Mathilde,” Kristal suggested tentatively. The older woman looked startled.
Perhaps she would be more pleasant to have around if she were included in their plans, Kristal reasoned. She was quite certain that if Gabi invited those whom Mathilde did not consider the right people then she, Kristal, would be the one held responsible, by both Mathilde and Rudi.
“I’ll draw up a list after I’ve said good-night to Gustav. Excuse me.”
When Kristal glanced up Rudi was nodding his head slightly, whether in approval or because he had guessed her reasoning, she did not know, but she had a pretty good idea it was the latter. The wretched man seemed to read her mind, but did he know it was him she wanted to please most of all? Though why that should be, even she did not understand.
“What shall we do now?” Gabi demanded into the silence, and without waiting for an answer, declared, “I know! Let’s take Kristal to the Prater Park.”
“Now?” Rudi asked, barely disguising the dismay of a man who had a hard day’s work behind him, and another to face in the morning.
“Darling, don’t—”
“If you tell me not to be stuffy again, Gabi, liebchen, I shall be tempted to put you across my knee.”
Gabi’s initial astonishment was followed by a gale of laughter.
“I wasn’t going to say any such thing, Rudi, darling. I was merely going to say don’t come if you don’t feel up to it—I’m quite sure Andreas would escort us.”
Rudi’s eyes narrowed, his shoulders shaking with laughter. “You, young lady, are incorrigible. It would seem I have no option but to come…I can’t have you leading my second-in-command astray!”
Dusk was just falling when they arrived at the park. The four of them wandered along as a group, so that Kristal found herself talking at various times to Andreas, Gabi or Rudi, beneath trees threaded with lights, and past cafés from which emerged the sounds of Strauss and Lehar, the notes lingering on the balmy night air.
“How you Viennese love your own composers!” she commented to Andreas.
“But why not? Do they not contain that essential element of gaiety and flippancy that characterises the Viennese?”
“I don’t see you as flippant.”
“Perhaps that was a poor choice of word, but we do like to enjoy ourselves, and we have so much to enjoy in our city—culturally, artistically, visually. Wherever you look, beauty meets your eyes.”
He glanced pointedly at Gabi then at herself, a gesturing hand reinforcing his meaning. Both men were displaying commendable gallantry, each managing to hide the fact that Gabi was their preferred companion, but at his words, Rudi, who was just behind with Gabi, and whose ears must surely be ultra-sensitive, met Kristal’s amused eyes with a scowl of disapproval.
“Flirtation is a favourite Viennese pastime,” he informed her, “but one which can be dangerous.”
Gabi had pulled Andreas away to watch a wandering busker and Kristal now found herself next to Rudi, once again.
Stalls selling everything from hot-dogs to souvenirs grew increasingly numerous as they approached the funfair, which was dominated by the famous Ferris wheel. An ear-splitting cacophony of sound assaulted their ears, a total contrast to the cheerfully sedate cadences of the café orchestras.
Unable to talk without shouting, Kristal gave up trying. As she looked round, she noticed the four of them were attracting curious eyes, that saw four exquisitely beautiful people, one couple, for she was again beside Andreas, crowned with gold, the other dark as night. She was proud to be with the three Austrians—she almost felt a sense of belonging. Gabi was obviously having a friendly argument with Rudi, and from their gestures he was losing the battle to enjoy—or endure—a ride on the nearby carousel. With a resigned shrug he helped Gabi up and turned to Kristal, but she had already accepted Andreas’s hand, to Rudi’s scowling disapproval.
“That was brilliant!” Gabi yelled above the surrounding noise, when the ride was over and they had all climbed down.
She clutched Kristal’s arm, leading her firmly towards the massive Ferris wheel, leaving the men to follow.
“Oh, no! You’re not getting me on that thing!” Kristal declared.
“You can’t come to the Prater and not go on the wheel!” Gabi laughed.
The gondolas were slowly filling up, disgorging their previous occupants. As each gondola was filled, the wheel moved on gracefully, pausing as the next one reached the landing stage. They were impelled forward by the surging crowd.
Rudi climbed aboard and Kristal waited for Gabi to join him, but instead, she found herself helped aboard, a hand at either elbow. She landed beside Rudi. She tried to leave, but the official closed the gondola door, trapping her.
“Sorry,” she apologised, knowing Rudi would have wanted Gabi’s company.
“I’m sure you are,” he replied, “but you’ll just have to put up with me.”
The wheel revolved slowly. As it did so, they were presented with an amazing panorama of the city and its environs. Rudi pointed out the various sights around them, an arm about her shoulders and leaning close as he did so.
“There’s the Danube, and over there the Donau Kanal,” he said, pointing to the stretch of black water encircling the city, reflected lights shimmering in its surface. “You can see quite a lot of the Ringstrasse from up here, too.”
She looked down on the wide road cutting a swath round Vienna and still teeming with traffic.
“There’s the harbour,” he whispered, his face close to hers. “Don’t you sometimes have an urge to climb aboard a ship and sail off into the blue?”
There was something in his tone that made her realise it was not just an idle question.
“Is that what you would like to do?” she asked softly.
“Sometimes the weight of responsibilities becomes too much to bear alone,” he surprised her by confiding, and she knew with sudden certainty that the cheerful, light-hearted Gabi would probably not lessen that burden. “Well?”
“Oh.” She drew her thoughts back to his original question. “I think most of my life I’ve felt quite the reverse—like a ship adrift at sea, longing for an anchor.”
With one lean finger he tilted her face to his, and saw the sincerity of her words reflected in her eyes. It was a feeling from deep in her heart which she was perhaps unwise to reveal.
“Poor Kristal,” he murmured. “But I’ve offered you a temporary shelter from life’s storms. Why do you reject me?”
“Perhaps it’s because it is only temporary,” she replied.
“We’d be good together, you and I,” he murmured, and in the semi-darkness his lips sought hers and she shivered in his arms with desire.
“You’re cold,” he whispered. “We’ll have coffee when we return to earth.”
How mundane! The trouble was Kristal was unlikely to return to earth at all, for she knew, with absolute certainty, that she had fallen hopelessly and head-over-heels in love with Rudi.
Before their ride was over he had pointed out other landmarks: the airport with the occasional plane zooming in, lights flashing, to land on the runway. St Stephen’s blue-tiled roof was lit up now, and, on one side of the city, the dark, exciting shadow of the Vienna Woods, the Wienerwald.
“I have a hunting lodge in the Woods,” he told her. “That’s my real home.”
“I thought the von Steinberg residence was your home.”
“I moved in there shortly after Gabi’s parents died. Gustav thought it would be a good idea—the house seemed so empty when they were gone. I’d given up my job to work at the bank by then, anyway, so Gustav and I were able to discuss business matters, which were new to me, at home. I had a lot to learn, though I’m not sure I enjoy thinking about banking morning, noon and night.”
She wondered fleetingly whether Andreas was taking advantage of his time with Gabi, and whether it was what Gabi wanted, realising with a pang of guilt that this was the first time she had spared a thought for the other two since they had forced her into this gondola. When she was with Rudi he filled her heart and mind, and that was foolish—all he wanted, as he had just unequivocally stated, was a little light relief, and there was no way she intended to comply.