A Marriage Proposal

A Marriage Proposal

October 30^th, 2007

Rome

“Sire, we landed twenty minutes ago,” the middle-aged stewardess told Konrad very softly. Years of experience had taught her to wear velvet gloves around her employer, especially when he was “in a mood”, and his chauffeur had told her that that same morning, right in the limousine, Mr. de Lisle had once more sent him to hell, right after a meeting with the children's teachers. 'He certainly deserves it. It's a mystery how he could cope with him for so long,' Marie thought as she kept a prudential safe distance from the Duke.

“Thank you, Marie. Tell the pilots to have the plane ready for Sunday afternoon. We will fly to New York,” he ordered as he stood from his seat.

The woman sighed at the prospect of a ten-hour ordeal with her boss as she collected his untouched tray, but cheered herself up with, 'It's New York for a whole week.'

* * *

Konrad loosened his tie once he was alone in his bedroom at his Villa Giulia residence. 'No way I'm going to San Capistrano. Too many sad memories. For a minute, I thought he was going to forgive me, but he didn't.

'I thought he was going to forgive me too when we were at the zoo, but he was only looking for a way to make his life easier.

'Maybe he’ll never forgive me. Not even for our children.

'It was his stupid father's own fault! He can't blame me for that!

'He leaves me no other choice than this. I've tried everything I could think of with my best intentions, but his stubbornness forces me to play dirty.

'Perhaps he’ll see reason and drop this stupid rebellion and return to me. Guntram was jealous of my shadow.'

Konrad sat at his desk and began to empty his pockets, leaving his mobile phone on top of the mahogany table. He switched it on and watched for a long time the picture of Guntram holding a baby Klaus and contemplating in rapture the baby's delicate features.

'I had everything, and I lost it in one go,' he thought bitterly. 'I wish I could have killed Roger with my own hands. Couldn't he leave us alone? No, the bloody snake had to run to my mother and ruin my life once again.

'It's a risky bet what I’m planning, but I can't think of anything else. He dared to defy me with that portrait of the Repin girl. It can only mean that he will leave me soon. It won't take long after that for him to find someone else. He just needs to stand in corner or in a restaurant to have dozens of wannabe lovers throwing themselves at his feet.

'Yet he chose me, and I never caught him even glancing at anybody else.

'But he was always jealous that I would get someone better than him.

'Maybe his jealousy brings him back to me.'

“Right, like with Marcello,” he bitterly said aloud. “Is he supposed to be jealous of a well-known call girl?”

'But my Guntram has no idea of who she is and never pried into my previous life. Maybe flashing Stefania in front of his eyes makes him change his mind.

'Perhaps he feels his boys' position is threatened by an eventual new heir and throws her out. With Guntram is almost impossible to tell what's going through his head.

'He knows I want him back. His resistance is about to break. I know it now. It's just a matter of time.’

The insistent pounding on his door made him to come out of his trance, and he barked, “Come in.”

“Mr. Elsässer is here, my Duke,” the young butler announced sheepishly. “He brought a priest along too,” he added in haste.

“Well, accommodate them,” Konrad answered, looking visibly upset.

“Mr. Elsässer insists on speaking with you tonight, my Duke.”

Konrad fulminated the servant with his stare but rose from his chair and put his jacket on again, furious that it had taken less than five or six hours for Friederich to explode and come to his house to recriminate him, bringing his spiritual director along. 'Typical of him.'

Tired, frustrated, cranky and certainly in a mood, Konrad descended the stairs towards the living room where in the old times he used to meet with his friends for a wild party. 'Befitting enough for Stefania, but I will never bring my Guntram here,' he thought briefly before he entered the room.

Friederich and Pater Bruno were standing in the middle of the room, and both men looked at him angrily, making Konrad's resolution gain new strength.

“This afternoon, Dr. von Kleist phoned me with the most astonishing news, Konrad,” Friederich started the battle, using his Christian name and that particular voice that always reminded him that he was in the presence of a superior. Not even the old Prince zu Löwenstein had dared to speak to him in such a tone after he had been named Hochmeister.

“Please, do sit down, gentlemen,” Konrad answered, ignoring the first challenge. “I trust your flight to Rome was pleasant, Pater Bruno.”

“Konrad, my son, this is a serious matter,” the priest said in a soft voice, and Konrad realised that he was more furious with him than he had previously estimated. “This is a sacrament.”

“No, it is not,” he answered flatly.

“Marriage is a sacrament, boy!” Friederich lost his patience for the first time in many decades. “How dare you to stain it? Didn't I teach you better? Do you really believe I will let you insult your consort and God with this ruse you have devised now?”

“It will be a civil wedding, Friederich, and Stefania will have no access to the Order, my children or my fortune.”

“Do you admit it?” Friederich asked on the brink of a collapse. “I was hoping all this was a misunderstanding.”

“No, it is not.”

“Konrad, my son. Why do you this? Do you really want to marry outside the Church?” Pater Bruno asked softly, hoping to calm both men down.

“The Church does not allow me to marry inside of it any longer,” Konrad fired back.

“The Church has always been sympathetic to your inclinations, my son,” Pater Bruno said with an edge to his voice. “It welcomed Guntram, and all of us were glad of the good influence he exerted upon you.”

“As a Catholic, you are perfectly aware that the only valid marriage is the one sanctified by the Church,” Friederich said. “This is nothing more than one of your games designed to hurt a good person. A person who has never raised his hand against you.”

“What should I do then, Friederich? Sign him up in a convent and pay for his dowry?” Konrad couldn't refrain himself to ask, letting all his frustrations run free.

“Do not mock your Mother, boy!” Friederich shouted out of himself.

“I offer you my excuses, Friederich,” Konrad regretted his own words. “I will marry Stefania di Barberini in a civil ceremony whether you like it or not.”

“You can't marry that woman! You are perfectly aware of who she is! Do you want to sit a...” Friederich couldn't finish the sentence because of the suffocation provoked by his righteous fury.

“My son, I urge you to reflect upon the consequences of your acts. This civil marriage is an insult to our Church. It will never be recognized, and you would be living in concupiscence with a woman. This is a huge break of your vows as our Hochmeister, my son.”

“I'm taking a wife to ensure the succession, but she will not be introduced to the Order. I see no harm done or that my obligations have been neglected.”

“My son, there is no need to become technical with us. We all are very aware of the ecclesiastical law and the Order's code, but tell me, could you receive the Lord with a joyful heart if you know you are breaking His laws?”

“I lived with Guntram for many years,” Konrad challenged the priest.

“I have never refused the Eucharist to any of you. I have done my best to guide you both and hear your confession. God's mercy is infinite. You both have done your best to follow our codes.”

“Then, I will renounce to the Eucharist, if that eases your fears, Pater Bruno,” Konrad said seriously. “I will attend Mass but I will not commune.”

“Konrad!” Friederich shouted.

“I appreciate the risk you have taken all these years by not refusing to let Guntram and me commune, Pater Bruno, but this has to stop,” Konrad said.

“Konrad, I have known you since you were a young man, and you are trying to evade the main problem here. I will not speak in the Church's name but on my own. The canonical law clearly forbids me to grant you the Eucharist as you are living in sin, bedding another person without being married by our Church, regardless if this person is of the same gender. Over the years, especially after I saw how your behaviour changed for the good, I started to have my own doubts. You and Guntram were never concupiscent or scandalous in any way. Both of you loved each other as brothers. I saw a self-giving love and the joining of two souls. I do believe this love still lives and that both of you could never be happy or at peace with somebody else.”

Konrad was mute for a long time.

“Do you really want to hurt him?” Pater Bruno asked quietly. “This would be your greatest sin against a brother.”

“I don't want to hurt him, but I see no other way out. He's hurting himself with his stubbornness,” Konrad answered in pain. “I want the best for him, and I don't care if I lose my Church's support in the meantime. He is a gift from God, and I hope He forgives me if I insult His Church.”

“My son, I cannot grant you the absolution if you're aware of your lack of repentance for your sins. You are knowingly hurting an innocent person.”

“I only fear Hell because Guntram will not be there,” Konrad confessed.

“Hell is a state of the soul, my son. It's the soul who willingly leaves God. It's the soul who knows it will never be able to watch His glory.”

“Konrad, we can't let you marry this woman,” Friederich said. “I fear the consequences it could have on Guntram's heart condition. You have heard his doctor: his heart continues to deteriorate at a very fast pace. He will not be able to see his forties, and maybe not even his thirties.”

“I know,” Konrad admitted. “I only want him to be happy.”

“Then, don't do this to him. Let him be,” Friederich said softly.

“I can't. If I don’t do anything, he will die of sorrow,” Konrad answered.

“You will kill him if you bring this woman home. I know her kind very well, and she will do all she can to make his life miserable. This woman hates him with all her soul! Do you really want to be a mendicant in front of a whore?”

“Friederich!”

“Hear me well, Konrad. If you marry her, she will have total power over you because it was you the one who looked for her. She will be mistress in your own house, boy.”

“I can control Stefania.”

“What if she mistreats Guntram? What if she turns the children against him?”

“She will not. She dislikes children, and this will be only temporary. I don't think I will have to marry her at all.”

“So do you freely admit that you are using one person to force another to do your will?” Friederich asked with an edge to his voice.

“I will do whatever I deem necessary to ensure the inner peace of my house,” Konrad answered very calmly, holding the furious regard directed at him. “Guntram is my consort, and I had enough of his rebellion and refusal to fulfil his obligations towards me and our children.”

Friederich rose from his chair and his arthritic hand crossed his former pupil's face with more strength than ever.

Konrad only looked at him furiously, making an astonished Pater Bruno rise from his chair ready to intervene.

“You should have gotten one years ago!” Friederich shouted. “If you behave like a spoiled brat, you should be punished like one. Your duty is to protect the innocent and the weak, yet you use all your power to crush them. I'm ashamed to be your tutor.”

“You are not my tutor any longer, Friederich. I'm a grown up man, and I forge my own fate. You may accept it or leave,” Konrad said without any kind of inflection in his voice.

“I'll do anything in my hand to protect that young man, boy,” Friederich said. “Otherwise, I would leave your father's house at this moment.”

“Do as you like, Friederich,” Konrad answered. “I will keep my promise to look after you till your death.”

“If you had an ounce of shame or decency in your soul, you would let Guntram leave your house. I make you the direct responsible for all the consequences your foolishness will bring upon us all. We are finished here, Pater Bruno.”

The priest followed Friederich, still keeping his distance from the old man, and Konrad was left alone in the large living room.

'What if Friederich is right? What if Guntram becomes too nervous? What if Stefania insults him? What if my marriage makes him think he can do the same, and he runs to Repin or Volcker? No, he wouldn't do that.

'…But what if this is the straw that broke the camel’s back?

'It's a stupid plan, but I have nothing else. I can't let him destroy himself like he's doing. Maybe I should do what Ferdinand tells me and buy him a flat in Zurich. It would be for the best, but I can't imagine my life without him at my side. I will turn mad in less than a week if I know he's sleeping alone and surrounded by those wolves. He was only out for one night, and he dragged Volcker home.

'I need to see him sleeping and know that he's well.

'I can't imagine my world without him.

'It's only a matter of keeping Stefania under a very short leash. He will not tolerate her presence for longer than a month.'

* * *

Carlo opened the limousine door and patiently waited at its side for three long minutes before he dared to speak. “Should we drive away, my Duke?”

Konrad shut the box encasing the large diamond shinning gloomily in its bed with a sharp movement. “No, it's all right,” he said, descending from the car.

'I'm supposed to stay here the whole night if she accepts me,' he remembered. “Carlo, don't wait for me tonight. Go home,” he said out loud.

In the elevator, the doubts once more assaulted him, but the picture in his mobile phone reminded him of all he had lost. 'I won't go down without presenting battle,' he thought and returned the phone to his jacket’s interior pocket.

'Maybe I’ll have to parade the cow in front of my friends,' he realised darkly. 'All women gloat when they get an idiot to marry them.

'Unlike my kitten. He never said a thing.

'Was he not proud of me? I was touching the skies since the minute he accepted me. Heck, since the minute I kissed him.'

The elevator's metallic clink forced him to come back to reality, and he cleared his throat before ringing the bell.

As usual, Stefania greeted him with a kiss, and he returned the kiss briefly. 'Let's get down to business.'

He sat in the comfortable sofa and absentmindedly took the bourbon Stefania offered him without asking, their old intimacy telling her what to do when he was “in a mood”. Her cocktail dress confirmed his suspicions that she wanted to be shown off, and he groaned on the inside at the prospect of an evening at a night club.

“I've been thinking a lot, Stefania,” he said, and she looked at him in alarm as those were the most dreaded words in her line of work. “About you and I,” he clarified.

“Did you, darling?” she asked in a falsely light tone.

“We have known each other for many years, fourteen to be precise, and all this time, you have been a very good friend to me.”

“You know I appreciate you, Konrad. Even after all what you put me through,” she said in an affected voice.

'Don't complain so much woman, your lay off cost me more than getting rid of a CEO,' the Duke thought incensed, but said instead, “Stefania, breaking up with you in 2002 was very stupid of me. I should have never done it.”

“I had great hopes regarding us, Konrad.”

“I thank your generosity for accepting me again. Not many women would do the same. You have been a great comfort over the past year.”

She looked at him but preferred to be quiet, only batting her big, green, tearful eyes.

“We have been together for so long that I feel that it's time to make this more permanent,” he finally said.

“More permanent?” she repeated a bit shocked.

“Would you marry me, Stefania? I promise to make you a happy woman,” he said.

“Do you want to marry me?” she asked very slowly. 'He’s not kicking me out?'

“I would be honoured if you would accept me, dear. Your beauty and education make you perfect for me. I was very dumb to fail to realise it much earlier. You were always there for me.”

“Konrad... We broke up because of...” The voice of her manager rang loud and clear: 'Don't you ever mention that thing, girl! If he fucks with a boy, he doesn't want to have it rubbed in his face. Be quiet and let him be!' Stefania swallowed her words and reproaches, and only sobbed falsely, “I did love you with all my heart!”

'You loved my credit cards,' Konrad thought. “I'm sorry for the pain I caused you in the past. You didn't deserve it.”

“If we marry, how would my life be like?” she asked still batting her tearful eyes.

“We will sign a prenuptial agreement, and I will give you three properties of your choice plus five million dollars per year of cohabitation in case of a divorce. If we have children, the amount will double. You will get a yearly allowance of a million Swiss Francs to cover your expenses as the Duchess of Wittstock.”

“No, Konrad, I don't mean the money,” she said flatly. “It's the other thing.”

“The other thing?” he asked nervously, thinking that she would go against Guntram.

“Your children. Do you think they will accept me as their mother? We can't form a family if they hate me.”

“Why would they hate you? You're very beautiful and kind. You should not worry about them, Klaus and Karl are always with their tutor or nanny.”

“That's what I mean,” she said, and Konrad's expression darkened. “How could I be friends with them if there is another person in the middle of our family? I want to choose my own staff at the house.”

“Darling, you can bring in anyone you want,” Konrad said with a false smile. “But my staff remains as it is. Friederich chose them himself, and I will not argue with him over something as trivial as the servants. He's like a father to me.”

“He's just your butler!”

“Dear, he's not a butler, and you know it. His ancestors were Electors, while the Lintorffs never bore such an honour. He's a Habsburg-Kassel and my superior in rank, even if prefers not to mention it.”

“Very well, but I meant the tutor. I understand he's very young and inexperienced for the position.”

“De Lisle does his job very well, and my sons love him. Besides, where would he go? I swore to his late father to take care of him, and he suffers from heart failure. Firing him is almost like murder, Stefania. He can't work like a normal person. He will not bother you at all. He spends the whole day painting while the children are in school, and he stays with them till they go to bed. Some days, I don't even know that he's there.”

“There were rumours—” she started, but bit her tongue in time.

“Rumours? People say a lot of things, and yes, he moved in with me after he finished his secondary school. I promised to his dying father that I would take care of him. Jerôme de Lisle named me his legal tutor.” Konrad shifted his position on the couch, upset that she had even mentioned it. “If I were to believe all what rumours say, I would never be asking you to be my wife, darling.”

“But why would you promise to do such a thing?” she asked still upset, but well aware she was skating on thin ice only by watching those blue eyes adopt that well-known greyish shade that forbade nothing good. 'Get the ring and the title! You'll get rid of the little faggot later.'

“His father was an excellent lawyer at our firm and part of one of the oldest houses in France. Things were very hard for the boy, and I took pity on him. That's all. After he finished university, he remained with us as my children are very happy with him. If I were to dismiss him, he would die in a few years. His medical condition is so serious that, if he were not so proud, he could ask for a significant tax reduction based on it. Only his medical bills amount several thousands per year. As a Catholic, I can't ask him to leave.”

“Do you think it is wise to keep him at home?” she pouted with big eyes but conceded defeat. “I don't want people gossiping at our backs, darling.”

“We will try it. I promise you that, if he importunes you in any way, I will send him away,” Konrad said with certainty. “You will be the next duchess.”

“As you say, dear. You know best,” Stefania answered with a sweet smile, bending her slim body to kiss her future husband.

'I'll get rid of the little tramp in two days maximum,' she thought, pleased with herself as she kissed the most boring man in the universe. 'Once I'm married, nothing can stop me. This prude would never dare to divorce me.'