Read Online Iron Butterflies by Andre Norton - Free Book Online Page B

slung cloaklike over one shoulder, stood there. His hand went up on the grill as if he wanted to jerk it open, and the look on his face was so grim that it startled me as much as had the pinch the Gräfin had delivered. There was no mistaking his anger.
    But he did not speak, and I had no intention of doing so. I hurried past, propelled by the urging of my companion, into a side corridor. Here were no bars to keep us in line and the crowd thinned out, so we walked a little apart. I made an effort and disengaged myself from the Gräfin's clutch.
    “What is the matter?” I demanded with some force. Had she seen the Colonel? I believed not, at least she had given no sign of having done so.
    Instead she looked about her, as if fearing notice still. Then she shook her head emphatically, so that I gathered I was not going to receive any answer at present, though perversely I determined upon having one. There was something about that fantastic court display which seemed to have disturbed her—or else my question had. Yet that had been the most common and reasonable one. The Gräfin had announced that it was the scene of some Electress's last birthday. But the woman on the throne had been quite young—so she must have died. How could a fact which must lie a hundred years or more in the past seem so upsetting?
    I was certain by now she had not sighted the Colonel. No, she had been so intent on getting me away that she had never glanced toward the gated stairway. The colonel himself? His anger had been plain—I could almost have said I felt the flame of it through his gaze at me. He had been both surprised and furious at our appearance there.

    We wasted no time strolling through that portion of the gardens which had also been opened to the public on this holiday. Once we were in the carriage, though the horses had to be kept to a walk, such was a press of the crowd, I turned to the Gräfin and asked with firmness:
    “What happened?”
    She did not pretend not to understand, but she was very sober of face. I think at that moment she wished nothing more than to forget my question. Since it was plain that I must have a reply, she said after a long pause.
    “To speak of the Electress's death—that is not done—ever! Any one hearing you ask such a question would know you were not of Hesse-Dohna. Her story— it is very well known—it is retold to every girl—it is flung into the face of every wife by her husband sometime during marriage as a warning—a dreadful warning—”
    The Gräfin was very serious, more so than I had ever remembered having seen her since our first meeting.
    “She was very beautiful, the Electress Ludovika. It was well know that her marriage to Konrad-Axel was not of her choosir. . . He was a soldier, a man who cared nothing for the things she enjoyed. He was older, not handsome, nor soft and charming of speech. To him she was all beauty and goodness, though anyone with true sight could see that she hated him, hated Hesse-Dohna, longed only to escape.
    “It was said that she dared to exile him from her bed, using the assurance of her physician, or her favorite lady, that she ailed. But she was also a woman of strong passions, you understand. What she would not give the Elector, as was her duty, she granted elsewhere. This, too, was a whisper which grew louder and louder.
    “She had her creatures, also, people who kept to the shadows, who obeyed only her orders, no matter what those might be. Twice those in high places who would have opened the Elector's eyes died—very quickly andnot without pain. It was said that one of her people was a true hexenmeister and knew not only powers of evil he could summon to protect her, but worse lore— that of vile plants and other substances which could kill. So she went her own way, doing as she wished. The Elector was much away with his troops and did not know.
    “At last she grew so free of any fear of him that she openly took, before all the court, a new