“I’m afraid I have been guilty of conveying to Ingrid more certainty in our position than either we or Sabina feel,” replied Marion with a sigh. “I now see the folly of allowing such idle words. Ingrid, and apparently Gustav as well, consider it a foregone conclusion.”

“What do you think now?”

“Ingrid has changed, Heinrich. It was a sad exchange. I feel so badly for her. She has nothing to live for but Gustav.”

“Are you saying you have changed your opinion on the matter?”

“I never did really take it seriously. It was just dreamy talk when the children were young. They are not about the same business in life that we are, Heinrich. Unless that changes…” Her voice trailed off. Her husband knew well enough what she meant.

“I know what you mean,” replied the baron, sighing now in his turn. “I am worried too for Ernst.”

“Have you and the count spoken of it together?”

“Ernst and I have spoken together about very little of anything,” answered Heinrich. “I haven’t spent more than ten minutes, I don’t think, with him in the last two years. His head is being turned, I fear, by the elitist circles in Berlin in which he moves. He will probably be asked to join the government in some capacity before long. To answer your question, however, in years past whenever the children came up in conversation between us, it was more in the way of chuckling lightly at the feminine whims of their mothers—no offense meant,” he added with a smile.

“None taken,” returned Marion, though without a smile on her lips. “What ought we to do, Heinrich?”

“I don’t see that there is anything we can or should do. Events of this kind, as all kinds, must take their course. God will reveal his will in time. Sabina is young yet. And Gustav is not yet a man. We must see what becomes of them both. Both we and Sabina, I fear, will face more ominous decisions, perhaps even crises, than this if events continue on their present course.”

A long silence fell between them. By now it was quite late. The house was silent, and the night nearly black.

24 Noises and Dungeons

24

Noises and Dungeons

Thursday morning, where he lay sleeping in the guest room into which they had moved him across the hall from the courtyard parlor, Matthew was awakened by an irregular tapping noise. As he came to himself, he realized he had been hearing it for some time. Even before consciousness fully returned, the sound had intruded into his dreams and then had eventually led to his waking.

He sat up as best he could in bed and glanced around.

It was still early, six or six-thirty he guessed, though he could hear the sounds of servants and laborers outside making ready to begin the day’s work.