Echoes from the Past

Echoes from the Past

April 23^rd, 2006

Zurich

Dieter poured the hot liquid into the white china dish, glad that the chef had had the good idea of making it. As the Duke's favourite broth, perhaps it would lift his mood a little after Mr. de Lisle broke up with him two days ago. The butler stoically ignored the furious look he received from the nobleman once he had finished serving.

'He must be the guilty party, if Mr. Elsässer does not even want to speak to him,' the servant thought as he slightly bowed his head to the fuming Duke and took several steps backwards, clutching the tureen in his hands.

“Leave it here,” Konrad growled as he took the spoon in his hand, and Dieter obeyed.

'Guilty and furious. Bad combination.' The butler closed the door behind him. 'I hope Mr. de Lisle turns a blind eye to his misdeeds as usual. Nobody has so much patience as he has.'

* * *

Konrad's eyes were fixed on the steaming soup, left untouched in the plate.

'It's all her fault. He was the happiest man alive, and she destroyed him. She destroyed my family.

'I will make her pay in the same way she did. It's total war now, Mother.'

* * *

April 25^th, 2006

“Honestly, Konrad, I don't think this is a good idea,” a mortified Ferdinand repeated for the fifth time, feeling tired and cranky. 'All this mess is his fault. I told him a hundred times that this was a mistake.' “The lad is still a bit upset at the news,” he added softly.

“His place is at home, with his children, our children, not at your house,” Konrad repeated stubbornly for the sixth time.

“He gives me no trouble at all. Cecilia is delighted to have him, and Johannes is good friends with Guntram,” the man said in a hurry, trying to soften his friend's blind rage at everything that moved. 'Konrad mess things up, and then he lays the blame on the rest of the world,' he thought bitterly. “But perhaps I could convince him to walk my dogs, and then we would be even,” Ferdinand joked miserably. 'How can he believe that this is an elaborated conspiracy? How? His mother just ruined his life as she has been doing since he was born!'

“Walk your dogs? Is that your solution for this situation?” Konrad huffed.

“In the meantime, it's the best we can do. You are asking too much of him, my friend. It's simply impossible! What is your plan? To force him to go back to your house and live there as if nothing had happened?” Ferdinand said slightly raising his voice.

“My children miss him!”

“Guntram has every right to move to another country if he wants so! You were in a relationship with his uncle and ordered his father to commit suicide!” Ferdinand shouted now enraged at his friend's blind stubbornness.

“I never thought the idiot would do it! He was a rat like the others! I thought he would just disappear!”

“I agree he was a treacherous rat, but this whole mambo simply makes no sense! Why would he give you the boy if he was going to run away?” Ferdinand asked once more as he had done over the past four years. “If he had cancer, as that lawyer said, it makes perfect sense to me that he committed suicide! He knew that the disease would kill him slowly and painfully, and he played the knight in front of you. Can you not see it, Konrad? He sold you the boy for Roger's pardon, at the same time he secured a place for his offspring at the Council, no less! The de Lisles are back in power although they should be ashes! The bastard used you to save his own bloodline; that's all what mattered to them! I'm sure now that Jerôme was the one who put me on the right track to the traitors so as to get rid of his family! He was as power hungry as them all! That letter of his is pure sentimental rubbish written for your eyes! He was expecting you to read it and feel guilty, or who knows what else! Can you not see it?”

“Those are only speculations, Ferdinand,” Konrad replied in an oddly soft voice, raising all of Ferdinand's internal alarms. He was convinced in that moment that Konrad knew something he had deliberately left out of the picture.

“You can't accuse Guntram of having a lust for power,” Konrad continued with great dignity. “He never had the slightest interest to participate in the Council, and I would have never let him do it. He does not even agree with our methods, though he supports our beliefs and goals.”

“What did you really trade with Jerôme de Lisle?”

“Guntram is my consort,” Konrad ignored Ferdinand's question blatantly. “His place is at home. He has proved his value to the Council, even to you.”

“All right,” sighed Ferdinand knowing he would not get the truth out of his friend, “the boy is not on trial,” he mumbled.

After a long silence, Ferdinand spoke again. “Let's assume for a minute that Guntram calms down and decides to go back. What then?”

“I don't know,” Konrad admitted.

“Start looking for a poison tester, and ask Goran to move into your bedroom, because the lad has every right to kill you,” Ferdinand smirked. “Do you have any idea of how he feels? He does not speak, does not eat, does not move. He does nothing else but looking through the window the whole day!”

“I will let him move to another room,” Konrad accepted grudgingly.

“Get him a flat in Zurich! Let him move in with Goran for a few months! Do you think he's going to live under the same roof as you?”

“No. He’ll live at home. Outside is too risky.”

“Konrad, you are perfectly aware that Repin will not set a foot in Zurich!” Ferdinand huffed. “This is our land!”

“He's like a wolf. The minute he smells there's something amiss between us, he will show up and drive my Guntram mad! I know him! He's only bidding his time to go against me!”

“Repin has nothing to do with this mess! He had no way of knowing what happened between you and Roger!”

“What if my mother told him?”

“Marianne von Liechenstein visiting Constantin Repin? She would die of disgust before setting a foot inside his house,” Ferdinand snorted at the ridiculous idea. “No, this is her doing, and probably the whole story is just as Guntram said. Roger told her, and she ran to tell him.”

“When? He's out since December. The people in Madrid saw to it.”

“Maybe your mother waited for the right time to act.”

“She? No, never. She's mean and impulsive, like a rabid scorpion. No, there's something else behind this whole business,” mused Konrad. “She's nothing but a tool in someone else's hands.”

“Konrad, now you're seeing a conspiracy behind what was a disaster waiting to happen,” Ferdinand sighed tiredly. “I said it once and I'll say it twice: Guntram was never meant for you. That boy, no matter how much I like him, was forbidden fruit for you. His family almost destroyed us, but the minute you saw him, you wanted to have him no matter the consequences. Bad idea, very bad idea, my friend.”

“He is perfect for me. He changed my life for good.”

“I don't argue that. He's the best thing that ever happened to you, but that doesn't mean he was right for you. Leave the boy alone, Konrad. He's sick, and all this may well kill him.”

“I wish I had killed Roger with my own hands,” Konrad mumbled once more, not listening to Ferdinand's words any longer.

* * *

The old man folded the sweater with a heavy heart before placing it inside the open suitcase. 'Will this be enough for a week?' he thought. 'Maybe I should pack for longer.'

Friederich closed the eyes at the painful memory of the words spat at him. “If you were concerned about me, you should have prevented your protégé to commit incest with the son of the man he murdered. Or does the Griffin have a special dispensation from the Church to do it?”

'I do care about you, my child. You are like the son I never had. Konrad was Karl Heinz' son in every possible way, but you were exactly as I imagined any child I would have had. I should have forbidden Konrad to live with you since the first day, but I couldn't do it. You were both so radiant since you found each other.'

The memory of a nineteen-year-old Guntram, standing at the rear entrance of the house in Venice, flashed through his mind, and Friederich needed to sit in the armchair facing the bed, feeling defeated, discouraged, as a wave of guilt washed over him.

'He looked like a wet puppy, unable to hurt a fly, and how right I was. He always put Konrad's needs before his own well-being.'

The mental image of the boy running across the luxurious bedroom, oblivious to everything, to watch the ships sailing on the Grand Canal moved him. 'He was a child when he came back to us. Nothing else. He was so afraid of everything.'

Friederich was assaulted by the memory of that early morning when he had entered his pupil's bedroom as usual to find him still in bed, dearly holding a deeply asleep Guntram in his arms.

'Konrad had many lovers in the past, but not even Roger was ever inside his house, much less in his bed. Exactly as his father was. 'I only share my bed with the person I love.'

“I hurt him last night,” his pupil had whispered, his voice laced with remorse. “I didn't mean to, but I exploded. I don't know why he forgave me.”

“Control yourself better, boy,” Friederich had rebuked him in a tone that had forced Konrad to bend his head in shame. The Duke had left the bed while Guntram readjusted his position to sleep better, oblivious to Friederich's presence in the room.

“He is nothing like his family,” the former Tutor had said once both men were out of the bedroom. “He is still a child, and you are going to hurt him.”

“No, Friederich, I could never hurt him. I would give my life before harming him. He needs me as much as I do.”

“This is a sin, Konrad.”

“No, it can't be. The other was a sin. For the first time in my life, I feel loved for myself. He is not deceiving me. I only want the chance to feel close to somebody. To feel human for once in my life.”

“Do you want to build the rest of your life upon a lie?”

“I will tell him the truth at some point. But I can't let him go. Not now. I'm sure he will forgive me,” had replied Konrad. “Please, help me out, Friederich.”

The old man closed his eyes to prevent the tears clouding his eyes to fall.

'Guntram has a generous soul. Perhaps he soon forgives our deceptions.

‘Perhaps.’