Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks

Author:Sebastian Faulks
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781473537163
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2021-09-01T22:00:00+00:00

4

One morning, when Lena was on her way back from the Emil Kraepelin Building, a place with locks on the doors but the best view of the lake, she was stopped by Daisy.

‘There’s someone come to see you. Says he’s an old friend. I’ve told him you won’t be free till two o’clock and he’s to wait. He’s in with Fräulein Midwinter at the moment.’

Lena couldn’t bring any friends to mind. There was Johanna, of course, but she was not a ‘he’. Herr Gustav had shown a passing interest. In her imagination she had once thought of the worker at the wharf with the blue shirt as a friend, but she had never actually spoken to him.

‘Where am I supposed to meet this man?’

‘You’d better wait at the back door.’

‘What’s he like?’

Daisy softened, as if for once not on duty. ‘He seemed nice,’ she said.

In retrospect, it was obvious who it would be – the man Lena saw coming up through the orchard and over the cobbles of the yard to where she was waiting … How could she have blocked Rudolf Plischke from her mind? How could it have been anyone else, sweeping off his hat and opening his arms in welcome?

‘How are you, little girl?’

‘Not so little now.’

‘You look well.’ He bent as if to kiss her, but, receiving no encouragement, stepped back.

‘What’s brought you here?’

Rudolf sighed. ‘The law. What else? I haven’t been able to give it up yet. The Schloss needs advice about selling some more land. I’ve been advising Fräulein Midwinter. What a nice woman, by the way. But how have you been, dear Lena? Shall we go for a walk? Down to the lake, perhaps?’

‘I’ve been all right.’

‘Is that it? After, what is it, three years? Or more? “All right”?’ He laughed and put his hand on her shoulder.

‘I’ve made friends,’ said Lena.

‘That’s good.’

They had gone through the cloister, out through the gates and onto the lawns, where a few patients were walking in the sun.

‘I think I’d like to sit down,’ said Lena, pointing to a bench beneath a chestnut tree.

‘Don’t you want to go down to the water?’

‘No, this is fine.’

She sat with her back to the lake, looking at the Schloss.

‘You disappeared from Vienna,’ said Rudolf, sitting down beside her.

‘I know.’

‘You left no word.’

‘My mother died.’

‘I’m sorry. But you might have written. I thought we were friends.’

‘I thought so, too.’

Rudolf pulled up a piece of grass from between his shoes. ‘So much has happened in Vienna. We’re drawing up a list of candidates. But there may never be another election.’

‘I read something about that. Herr Dollfuss had cancelled the Parliament.’

‘It’s a rather magnificent place, isn’t it?’ said Rudolf after a pause.

‘The Schloss?’

‘It looks like an old college with lecture halls. Or a hotel in a medieval spa town, but with a country house attached. They’ve given me a room in what they call Clock Court. Do you know if that’s nice?’

‘It’s the best. Are you staying?’

‘Just for a few days. It’s easier to stay than go back and forth.

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