“You don’t like the count, from the sound of it?”

“It’s more than just not liking him, though, come to think of it, I probably don’t like him much. But let’s don’t talk about that now. I’m having too pleasant a time today. Let’s enjoy the view.”

“I’m sorry I asked,” said Matthew, then turned his gaze once again to the Dortmann property. “It’s almost like looking at the whole countryside from an airplane, or a picture of it.”

“You see, there’s the Frühlingsgarten sloping down to the left below our house, and the stables to the right. And there, on the far rooftop, is the balcony.”

“This is great,” said Matthew. “Being up high like this gives you such a feeling of the whole area.”

“I love high places,” agreed Sabina.

“Like Alps?” suggested Matthew.

“And the rooftops of houses, and hunting boxes in the middle of the woods.”

It was quiet for several long minutes as they continued to gaze at the nearby forest, the valley beyond, the fields, and the knoll and the estate.

“We probably should go,” said Sabina. “It’s getting close to dinnertime. If they are not already waiting for us, they will be by the time we are back. We still have some ride ahead of us!”

14 House of Intrigue

14

House of Intrigue

“Your home amazes me, Baron,” said Thaddeus McCallum as they sat around the table in the dining room finishing their midday meal. “You have shown me all around outside. I have beheld it from many angles, front and back. There are windows everywhere that reveal what must be a host of rooms and passageways. Yet I cannot account for but the tiniest fraction of it from what I have seen on the inside.”

The baron laughed.

“It is an enormous old place. I even forget myself what some of its out-of-the-way corners are like. I don’t doubt there are rooms I haven’t laid eyes on since I was a boy.”

“How many rooms does it contain?”

“I don’t know, now that you mention it. I used to know—do you recall the number, Marion?”

“Isn’t it something around a hundred and twenty, Heinrich?” replied his wife.

“That sounds close to the number.”

“It is like a castle!” exclaimed Matthew. “Over a hundred rooms—I can’t imagine a house so big!”

“I think it is more than that, Mama,” said Sabina.

“You could be right,” added the baron. “Just our ancient, but comfortable, country cottage.”

“Like no cottage I have ever been in,” laughed McCallum. “It must have been some undertaking to install electricity and plumbing.”

The baron laughed. “You cannot imagine! Ten bathrooms, all told, on the three floors, and electricity in every room—yes, it was a feat of engineering genius!”

“Would you like to see more of it?” asked Sabina.