Read Online Valerie and Her Week of Wonders by Vitezslav Nezval - Free Book Online Page B

hens whose blood he’s sucked.”
    “Let’s be going.”
    “Just a moment. Just let me get this sinner buried.”
    “What we’re doing is wrong.”
    “A little way off to the right is a crypt. All we have to do is raise the stone cover and the body will be buried.”
    “Are people also buried here?”
    “I don’t wish to frighten you, but if you were a bit braver you would see several human victims.”
    “No, no, I don’t want to see.”
    “Stay here then. I’ll bury the priest myself.”
    “Why have you initiated me into these secrets? I’ll never be able to sleep in peace in this house.”
    Orlík lifted the corpse and dragged it through the vault. In horror Valerie watched the shadows cast by the candle flame.
    “I wonder what Grandma’s going to say when she notices her guest has disappeared,” she thought.
    Orlík was coming back. Looking exhausted, he said: “Now I’d like nothing more than to go to bed.”
    They returned to the cellar. Then they replaced the bricks in the hole leading to the vault.
    They went quietly up the stairs down which the ghastly phantom of the missionary had disappeared.
    “Careful. We’ll be passing Grandma’s door. She’s a light sleeper and I don’t want to wake her.”
    “Is my room all the way up in the attic?” Orlík asked.
    “Yes, we go up these stairs.”
    Dawn was breaking. Valerie had her first sight of Orlík’s face in the early light of day. He was so exhausted his eyelids were drooping with the weight of sleep.
    “Here we are,” said Valerie, opening the door to the guest room.
    But what was her surprise when a girl of exquisite beauty came forward to meet her.
     
     
    Chapter XIX
DISQUIET
     
    “Excuse me,” said Valerie. “I didn’t know there was anyone here.”
    “I arrived on the night coach,” the other woman replied.
    “The night coach?”
    “You seem not to recognize me.”
    “I don’t know you.”
    “I’m your distant cousin.”
    “I see ...”
    “Just call me Elsa.”
    “I’m Valerie and this is my ... brother.”
    “I didn’t know you had a brother.”
    “Orlík,” the boy introduced himself.
    “I seem to have taken your room.”
    “I’m not the least bit sorry,” Orlík said.
    “I can put it back at your disposal.”
    “Oh, no.”
    “You’ll find me a different room, won’t you?” the girl asked Valerie.
    “I’ll speak to Grandma.”
    “Your grandmother has left. She won’t be back for several days.”
    “Really?”
    “Can I move into her quarters?”
    “As you like.”
    “So, the room’s yours,” the young woman said.
    “Thank you,” said Orlík.
    “We shall meet at breakfast,” she added pointedly.
    “Good-bye.”
    Orlík entered the room.
    “Will you see me down?” Elsa asked.
    “With pleasure,” said Valerie.
    The girls went down the stairs and headed for Grandmother’s part of the house. Valerie felt tense. She couldn’t help comparing herself with this sudden arrival and had to admit that she was not as beautiful as her cousin.
    “It’s a gloomy room,” the lady said, turning back the heavy drapes of the grandmother’s bedroom.
    “Grandma likes it.”
    “I trust we’ll be good friends.”
    “I would truly like nothing better.”
    “Your brother is young.”
    “Yes, very young.”
    “Won’t you miss your grandma?”
    “I’m surprised she left without saying good-bye.”
    “Old people have odd ways.”
    “I’ll be rather helpless without her.”
    “You really don’t recognize me, Valerie?”
    “Not at all.”
    “You swear?”
    “My dear friend, you’re embarrassing me.”
    Elsa laughed.
    “Of course, how could you recognize me when we’ve only just met?”
    “I’ve never seen you before.”
    “What a glorious morning. I’d love to go for a ride.”
    “I’ll lend you my horse.”
    “And you?”
    “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”
    “May I give orders to the maids without you?”
    “Please do.”
    “Sleep well then.”
    “Good-bye.”
    “We