I was wakened by the sound of pigeons love-making on the roof outside. It was a quarter-past four. I was not prepared for the comfort which was awaiting me.
A little run of stone steps went down from the roof door to a narrow corridor. Dust was thick on the floor and bat and mouse droppings crunched under my feet. At the end of the corridor a door led into a small kitchen. It had a stone sink with a cold-water tap, rows of tarnished copper pans, and a small electric grill festooned with cobwebs. Beyond the kitchen was a hallway with a moth-eaten carpet, an antique armchair, a dower chest, and an oil-painting of some white-haired old boy in court dress.
Off the hall I found a bedroom with a fourposter, stripped of everything except the mattress and uncovered bolster. There was a sitting-room with an alcove at one end which was lined with shelves that held rows of leather-bound books. Around a small marble-fronted fireplace were a couple of settees and a chair. The walls, which were lined with leather and studded with copper-headed nails, were covered with oil-paintings, most of them dark and dirty. At the end of the hall were two doors. One led into a tiny bathroom and lavatory, and the other, which was locked from the outside, led out, I guessed, into the main body of the wing. I tried to look through the keyhole but it was blocked by the key on the other side. It wasn’t hard to figure what kind of person had lived up here – some embarrassing old relative shoved out of the way and conveniently forgotten. As it stood at the moment, except for the dust, cobwebs and bat and mice deposits, it was all ready for occupation; water ran from the kitchen cold tap, the electric grill and lights worked, and there was water in the bathroom.
I cut myself a slice of sausage, drew a glass of water, and sat just back from the sitting-room window, looking down on to the front courtyard of the Schloss. At eight o’clock I heard Hesseltod overhead working on the roof and whistling contentedly.
I sat for four hours at the window, and a very interesting four hours they were.
The first person to appear in the courtyard was the old man who, I was pretty sure, was Professor Vadarci. He walked over to a wide, stone-rimmed bowl which was full of water. Through the glasses I could see goldfish and water-lilies. He spent some time fiddling with three or four big arc lamps set up around the pool. He was there for about ten minutes and then Madame Vadarci appeared. She was wearing a long white summer dress, one of her big floppy hats, and carrying a lace-bordered parasol.
She joined the Professor and they strolled over to the lakeside and sat down on a seat under a large weeping willow. The old man smoked and Madame Vadarci read a newspaper; a pair of simple, innocent people, enjoying the morning sun.
An hour later Siegfried appeared. He was wearing bathing trunks and white sandals and he joined them by the willow and did a few press-ups and back-flips. As he finished I saw Katerina come into the forecourt and walk towards the lakeside group. With her was another girl.
I put the glasses on them. Katerina was wearing a towelling tabard, and her head was bare, the blonde hair drawn tightly back from her forehead and caught at the nape of the neck with a ribbon. I got her face in profile and saw that she was laughing as she talked to the other girl. Katerina’s blonde hair, the blue eyes, the firm suntanned skin, the way she walked and smiled, all made enchantment for me. I gave her half a minute’s silent worship, didn’t care if I was a damned fool about her, and then slid the glasses to the other girl. She was a shade taller than Katerina, blonde and she carried her bathing wrap instead of wearing it. She went across the gravel in a white bikini. It had to be Lottie Bemans.
When they joined the group, Siegfried came up to them and put an arm around each one’s shoulders. I didn’t care for that. He looked altogether too matey with both of them.
He talked to them both and pointed down the lake, explaining something. The girls tossed their wraps aside, kicked off their sandals and lined up on the bank. I saw him drop his hand and both girls went in with long, racing dives and they headed away down the lake like a couple of torpedoes. The edge of the window cut off part of my view of the lake. When they passed out of sight I saw that there was nothing to choose between them. They appeared, heading back, in about thirty seconds and now one of them had about a yard lead. I could not tell which one it was until she came into the lakeside and Siegfried reached down and gave her a hand ashore. It was Lottie, and I had her face full on, panting and laughing.
Katerina came out of the water unaided, and for a few moments was ignored. I didn’t know how the elimination process was going to be worked – but she already had big competition from Lottie.
I turned away from the window, trying not to think of the Zafersee not many miles away. I took an angry swipe at a cushion that lay on the carpet. It exploded into
