Chapter 2: A Festival to Forget
The Captain hadn't seen so many covered wagons gathered in one place since his childhood. There were wagons with ornate curtains adorning them. There were wagons that advertised medicinal cures and fortune telling. There were wagons from one story to three stories high. If he thought that the obvious preferred mode of transportation was odd, the horses themselves left him in a bit of a shock. Never before had he seen such decorated horses in his life. Even the King and Queen of the once Austro-Hungarian Empire hadn't dressed their horses quite as fancy as these.
He would have taken it all in a little more, but their gracious hosts seemed to be in a bit of a rush as they ushered them through the crowded streets of the very small town. He was trying to get his bearings and looking around the small village for any sign that would give me a hint as to where they had ended up for the night. However his quest was made quite difficult in the fact that the town seemed to have become overrun with gypsies from all over the country. Which country he wasn't sure for he had driven him and Maria fairly close to the Austrian border when the car decided to land itself into the sink hole. He was almost positive that they weren't in Austria anymore. Other than that he was at a loss for he didn't understand one spoken word any of the people were speaking in the village. It was as if an entire European village had become over taken by this band of merry Gypsies.
Merry was the word that his mind was nicely calling them at the moment. For in reality, it seemed, he and Maria had unwittingly traveled into a giant gathering that these people were having. Some sort of celebration and the celebrating had started way earlier for most. He noted this as he took in a group of elderly men, half of which could barely stand on their feet at this point, who had just yelled out a most ridiculous 'hoopaah' throwing their arms around their brethren while the younger men poured a pint of beer over their heads.
The Captain watched as the wasted liquid made a dark puddle on the muddy street. What he wouldn't give to have that pint of beer back in its glass waiting for him to guzzle it down. He wasn't normally a heavy beer drinking man, but after the day he had had today, he wouldn't mind losing his mind to in its dark ale.
In fact as he faintly heard the Fraulein say, "I don't think we're in the right place," he was quite sure he utterly deserved it.
"No," he whispered in his fiercest voice, "we aren't. But," he continued as he stripped off his mud caked shirt and grabbed a hanging clean garment from outside a village home that's windows were darkened, "we're going to pretend that we are and fit in with these people." Thrusting the stolen garment into the Frauleins hand, the Captain dusted off what mud was dried to his body. Even that simple action was enough to make him feel like a new man. He could only imagine how he'd feel after a shower. Meanwhile the Fraulein with her mouth hanging open watched him in utter shock.
"Fraulein," he sneered at her, damn even he balked at the way he sounded right now, "decorum was lost somewhere on platform 12 back in Salzburg. If you don't want to see then …TURN AROUND."
"Uggg" she sighed while twirling around towards the street. "Hurry, we're losing our friends down the street."
"I'm going as fast as I can! I couldn't spend another minute in that shirt." Throwing the shirt on he grabbed her by the hand and tugged her down the street towards their hosts who had stopped to wait for them. The gypsies had noticed their absence and had impatiently waited for them at the entrance to what appeared to be a small inn. Oh thank God! Georg shouted in his mind. The town had an Inn. For a while he had feared that he and the Fraulein were going to have to brave the outdoors for the night. Hopefully there luck was changing and the Inn still had rooms available. But of course…luck just wasn't on his side today.
The inside of the Inn was more chaotic than the street outside. People were shouting at the manager who was complacent behind the desk. The manager was speaking in German so Georg only understood half of the shouted conversation, but what he got made him panic on the inside. It seemed there was only one reserved room left. And whoever it was that had reserved the room had another five minutes to claim it.
"Ah yes, sir. I'm here." Georg shouted over the yelling tribe standing in front of the desk. "And with five minutes to spare." Maria stood in shock next to him and was about to open her mouth, probably to ask him what in the hell he was doing when he stomped on her foot to shut her up. In a whispered tone he said into her ear, "Do you want to spend the night out in the pouring rain?" She violently shook her head while rubbing her hurting foot, "Then follow my lead."
He tugged Maria through the crowd of agitated people who were all now looking at them with death in their eyes and made his way to the desk.
"You're Bavel Boswell?" The old German behind the desk asked incredulously, looking back and forth at his registry and Georg.
"My uncle made the reservation for us. Good old Uncle Bav, he must have put it into his name instead of mine."
Georg produced his papers for the man and quickly took out a wad of cash. This put the manager's mind at ease as Georg starting putting one large bill after another on the counter. Even if the manager didn't believe the reservation was his before, he could truly care less now. That is until a Gypsy man and woman came out of the back room flanking the manager's side.
"You're here for the festival, right?" The manager asked while looking Maria and Georg up and down. "I can only rent to participants of the festival. The group has rented my Inn for the weekend."
Georg turned and looked at Maria. In the light he could see how horrible she looked. The mud was thick in her hair and it colored her normally perfectly pink complexion into a glowing brown.
"We had a bit of car trouble. Lost everything in the rain. But yes, we are here for the festival."
While the two Gypsy's and the manager conversed in the language that Georg was lost to, Maria tugged on his shirt sleeve.
"What festival? What are you telling them?" Georg began to panic when he saw the manager break eye contact with the gypsy man and look over at them. If she kept talking she was going to ruin it for the both of them and get them kicked out on the streets. Why oh why did he have to be cursed with a governess that couldn't keep her mouth shut he wondered? The manager started walking towards them and he quickly needed to shut the talking governess up. In an act of desperation he pressed his lips against hers in a fake kiss and whispered into her mouth. "One more word out of your mouth and I'm going to put you over my knee and spank you."
Georg was sure that only he heard what he had whispered to Maria. He was fairly certain the noise in the room had masked it. Although he wasn't sure if it was the noise that blocked his hearing or the rushing of his blood as it coursed through his veins. When everyone stopped to take them in, he momentarily wondered if they could all hear it as well.
And for once he had rendered the good Fraulein speechless. For she herself had stood with eyes half closed for just a second longer than necessary. When she had finally opened her eyes to him it wasn't so much the shock that he had registered but the strong flash of desire that he saw shoot from within her. It seemed to leap out to him and reach within his chest. Suddenly everyone else in the room disappear and he trembled against the need to thread his hands into her hair and give her the first true kiss of her young cloistered life.
The spell was broken for Maria when everyone in the room threw their hands up in the air and expelled the loudest, "hoo-paa" on this side of the Adriatic Sea. For Georg it had been broken when the word 'cloistered' had entered his brain. She was to be a nun. She was under his protection. For God's sakes, he was supposed to protect her innocence from every man in the world. But who the hell was going to protect her from him?
The only good thing that had come out of his whispered stolen kiss was that everyone in the room now seemed to be on his and Maria's side. He was being congratulated for something – what?-he was unsure of, nor did he care. For in an instant the key to their room was being thrust into is hand and the old Gypsy woman behind the counter as well as some merry maids that had appeared out of nowhere were now taking care of Maria. They seemed to be measuring her for something. He figured some clean dry clothes.
People were talking at them at all angles. And he understood nothing that they were saying. An even older woman came out of the back room with some sort of paperwork in her hand. She layed the papers on the counter then motioned for Georg and Maria to come over to her. She took a pen and pointed at Georg then pointed to a line on the paper. He had no idea what he was signing, and hesitated for only a moment before laying down his signature. Sure he wanted a room for the night, but for all he knew he could have been signing over the rights to his first born child. He was about to question what the paperwork was but then a clap of thunder and a show of lightning shook the little Inn on its foundation and he quickly laid pen to paper. He loved Liesl and all…but you know…he also liked to be warm and dry. Hey, you never know, she might just enjoy the life of a Gypsy. He did have five daughters; he could afford to spare just the one.
He handed the pen back to the Gypsy who took it and gave it to Maria. The old woman motioned to the young Fraulein to sign adjacent to his name. Now it was Maria's turn to hesitate. She turned questioning eyes to him and he answered her with his fiercest "I'm going to kill you if I have to sleep out in the rain" stares. Needless to say she quickly singed her name with a flourish right next to his.
Now she was returning his little half smile with her over the top "You don't have to be so mean" grins when someone grabbed his hand and in a sudden movement jabbed something sharp into one of his fingertips. When the Fraulein echoed his "oww" he realized they had done the same to her. Both of their assailants took their fingers and laid first his down on the paper leaving a bloody fingerprint and then the Frauleins on top of his, essentially mixing their blood together onto the piece of paper. They had literally signed the document in blood.
"What was that for?" Maria questioned him as everyone around them continued to get them ready for the festival. Still with no inkling as to what lay ahead for them. But he was certain it was important to these people…so therefore..it was now important to him.
"Security deposit." He answered her while watching the old lady behind the counter pour herself a tall glass of water from a jug. She had caught Georg's eye and must have seen his dying thirst in his obvious drool as the liquid spilled into the glass. Laughing she offered him up the glass and then found another one under the counter and poured one for Maria as well.
"Drink," she ordered them in odd German, "you need, yes?" Yes, Georg answered her in his mind as he and the Fraulein gratefully downed the water. It wasn't until after the first three gulps that Georg felt the fire in his throat. It wasn't simply water in that glass. The Fraulein must have realized it at the same time as he did for she also removed the glass from her lips and then looked upon him. The old woman laughed and then pushed the glasses back up to their mouths. "Tis good for you. Make it all good."
He didn't want to upset their hosts, so he wrapped his lips around his glass and then as he tipped it up to finish the liquid he whispered to his uncooperative partner in crime, "Drink it."
Of course life was not that easy with Maria. So with her lips around her own glass she tried to debate, "But.."
"Drink it!" He ordered and when he saw that she didn't dare disobey his command and started to gulp down the rest of her glass he did as well.
Before he had even gotten the glass back down to the counter top, he began to feel the effects of its contents. His head was warm and fuzzy. And his vision blurred for an instant and then focused again. Another glass of that stuff and he was going to be completely inebriated. He feared for the Fraulein though, for she was much more petite than he and was already swaying from the liquid.
He would have been more concerned but he didn't have time to care. For a group of men had come and grabbed him by the elbows dragging him away from the Fraulein as she was being dragged in the opposite direction by a group of woman. He tried to argue with them but they simply continued to carry him in a hurry down a long corridor where they dumped him into a shower room.
He was still standing there turning in circles when only a minute after they had locked him in there one of them opened the door again—with the entire group still standing behind him—and handed him an ornate suit. He looked at the garment that had been thrust into his hands and then back at the group of Gypsy men. The leader who had handed him the suit to begin with, rolled his eyes at Georg, then entered the shower room. Taking the garment he hung it on a hook behind the door and ordered something at him in the foreign language. When Georg didn't react, he made motions with his hands indicating to hurry, and then started to undress Georg.
If it hadn't been for the effects of the liquid Georg was sure he would have reacted much quicker than he had. As it was the man had gotten the shirt that Georg had just stolen less than a half an hour ago and his pants off before Georg had thrown his hand up to stop his willing helper.
"I have the rest, thank you." Georg spoke in his own language. He knew the man hadn't understood a word of what he had just spoken. However, in the world of men…there was some language that was inherently understood no matter what the barrier. And this situation required absolutely no interpretation.
The man laughed and patted Georg on his bare shoulder. Before he left the room, he turned the shower on for him and then motioned with his hands to hurry.
When he was finally left alone, Georg finished his undressing and then stepped into the steam of the shower. The heat from the water was making his head swirl faster than before. Time after time he had to grab ahold of the wall to steady himself. He didn't know what had been in that water, but man, if he could bottle it for himself he'd be a happier man at home.
Or maybe it was just the Fraulein that made him happy, he mused as he lathered soap into his hair. Yes, the day had been hell, but…it also had been wonderful.
WONDERFUL!
How absurd! He argued with himself as he rinsed. How could he even call today wonderful? It had been a day full of follies and aggravation! Yes, his mind said, but it had also been fun. When was the last time we had fun? When she hadn't been driving him insane with her crazy ways she had been entertaining him with her mind. She had told him little stories about her childhood and life at the abbey that had either made him laugh or want to hear more. Each little tale had given him a little insight into her soul. Unwittingly he had found throughout the day that a little just wasn't enough and he may never truly be a satisfied man until he owned the entire thing.
What in the hell was he thinking? He tried to argue with himself. Either he was completely out of his mind or he was completely intoxicated. He had just settled his mind of the first when the room took another violent spin that sent him straight to the floor on his bare behind. Through his laughter he surmised he had been wrong…he was drunk. And not just drunk…but DRUNK…the kind of drunken intoxication that led to dangerous things in the night.
Hmmm…scary, he thought. Hmmm…the little drunk devil in his brain answered back…dangerous things in the night with the little Fraulein. What's so scary about that?
He picked himself up off the floor and then turned the water off all the while trying to sober up the dangerous part of his brain. All you have to do is get through the night, he reasoned with himself. Tomorrow will be another day. You'll return to your family. With a fully intact and still completely innocent governess(it was so hard to reason with your drunken self, sometimes one needed to talk to oneself as if it were a child) and go on with the rest of your life. Tonight will have no impact on the rest of your life or your reputation!
Little did he know those would be his famous last words of a fool speach, as he dressed in his borrowed suit and headed out the door.