A LITTLE RED MAGIC

 
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"Why are you doing this?  I don't need a tutor; I need time to ride the manor.  I know how farm things should be.  And," she ended, meeting his eyes, "haven't I‑‑done my duty?"     

          "Splendidly." His arms crossed around her waist and touched his lips to her shoulder.  "But tutoring is not punishment.  Learning should not be confined to childhood."    

          He was so close, a bit whiskery and dusty from the road, but the smell of him, the touch of his hand, rekindled all kinds of memories, not only of the mountain, but of the tenderness between them on the morning he'd gone away.  When he came to a kiss, she let him and promptly felt a thrill at the touch of his mouth.

          "There, there, my cat woman, please stop scratching.  I was thinking about your sweet backside every other minute I was away."         

          "You must excuse me, Herr Graf," Cat muttered, head close against his great chest, "but I'm really getting cold and my arm hurts."

          "My poor Caterina," he said, shifting to a warm rubbing of her long back.  "Damn Heidelburg.  Is it deep?"       

          "Herr Goran says I'll live."      

          "Well, then, you will.  He kept telling me that last year when I thought I was dying, swelled up and covered with pus and leeches and attacked every other hour by surgeons with sharp knives." He pushed back the sleeve of the morning gown to look at her bandage again.  "We'll undo his bandage before you go to bed and I'll look at it again. I've grown to be a pretty fair surgeon myself."

          With as much dignity as she could muster, Cat started to rise. 
         
          "I would like another kiss before you go," Christoph said.      

          "You shouldn't have got the first!  You did--what you did--before you left and then you come back and treat me like a child !  Why do you want to waste my days so that I won't be able to ride and watch over your land as I should?"  Frustration built with every word until she shouted:  "I hate this dreary snow pile and I hate you."  

          He did not let go.  Because the hand he held was attached to her throbbing arm, she couldn't bring herself to jerk that away, either.

              "I think I'm right about bringing Stocke here and I hope that in time you will understand why.  Come on, dear little Cat.  Just for a minute pull in those claws."              

          She found herself against his chest again, cradled in his arms, her mouth repeatedly and softly kissed. 

          "I've been on fire for more of those sweets I stole on the mountain.  Why can’t you believe I'm in love with you?"      

          "Because you say it too easily." Nevertheless in the next instant she was kissing him back with answering warmth. 

          Not only did it feel good, but Cat was beginning to understand that his wanting bestowed upon her a kind of power...         

          "Our marriage is in its seventh month.  Must we go into the New Year quarreling?"   

          "Yes."  In spite of his words, in spite of the warm excitement she experienced in his arms, she still felt cross with him.          

          "By God," he chuckled softly, "the next time we see your Papa I'm going to tell him this is no red filly he's married me to, but a tough little red mule."   

         

~~ Juliet Waldron

 

 RED MAGIC

 

Book #1 of The Magic Colours Series

~~~~

Red Magic

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Cave of the Red Horse

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The enigmatic, treacherous Rossmann shows Caterina a magical place, one that he has known since his childhood...

 

His tone was encouraging--and his light was receding--so, having no other choice, Caterina dropped to her knees and followed.  After a few twists and turns of scuffling, claustrophobic crawling after his outline, she saw him get to his feet.  When she reached the same spot, he extended a hand to help her up.             

The candle flickered. Caterina saw that they were at the bottom of a dripping, and, except for the dim candle light, utterly black, fissure.  Rossmann was turning, shining the candle on the walls, seeking and finally finding the mouth of yet another hole.    

"Inside of this one is what the old ones painted.  It's just as I told you the night Star dropped her foal.  You‑‑of all people‑‑must see."

"What?  I thought you were showing me an escape."          

"It's through here."  On hands and knees, neatly balancing the light, Rossmann disappeared again.      His enthusiasm for the tour they were making seemed high, innocent.  Cat swallowed back her fear, got down on her knees again and awkwardly followed him.   

After a blessedly short crawl, she found Rossmann and the light again.  He had already got to his feet and held the candle high.     

As soon as Cat looked up, she forgot her fear.  The walls of this tiny space were covered with paintings, paintings of animals.  The colors were bright and fresh, the execution spirited.    She recognized cattle, elk, deer and horses, but besides these more ordinary creatures, there were animals she'd never seen before.  One, very large, was bulky, furry and seemed to be sporting a trunk.  "An‑‑an‑‑elephant?"  She'd had to make a brief mental search to find the name of the creature.  "Here?  On these plains?"           

"Yes," Rossmann answered.  "So it seems.  It must have been much wetter then.  Elephants are very big, you know, eat very much."    

"Have you seen elephants, Herr Rossmann?"

  "Yes.  They are wise, perhaps the wisest of creatures, and they are very, very dangerous to their keepers."      

"Where did you see them?"   

His small bright eyes turned on her, dark and sardonic.  "In Africa," he said.      

"I thought these lands were your home place."        

"They are, but I've traveled." The mystery of Rossmann seemed never ending. 

Cat returned to studying the beauty and energy portrayed on the walls, tried to ignore the persistent unsettled feeling she'd had from the moment they'd entered the cave.        

Among, and sometimes atop, the gamboling animals were hand prints, spirals and squiggly lines.  In spite of the fresh, bright colors, Cat instinctively felt that this had been painted a very long time ago.

"This is the Cave of the Red Horse," said Rossmann.  "It's a place a woman with your gift should see."    

He raised the candle high and threw light upon a painting Cat hadn't noticed.  Almost directly overhead, a huge red  horse galloped.  A long legged foal was in full stretch, close by its mother's side.    

"Oh!  She's beautiful!" Cat exclaimed.    

After a moment, Rossmann's eyes lowered from contemplation of the ceiling. 

"Yes.  She's the guardian of the cave, the center of power.  Long ago a witch lived here.  It was said that if a man took her, he'd be a Lord with many sons, many cattle and horses.  If her magic resisted him, though, he must die..."      
       

 

 

Red Magic

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RED MAGIC ~ excerpt ~

 

 

 

Christoph's estate had the same name as the looming mountain upon whose shoulders it sat:  Heldenberg.  The surroundings were wild and the nearest town, the tiny village of Heldenruhe, was about seven miles away. 

          As the time of Cat's departure grew closer, Lady van Velsen seemed increasingly apprehensive.  She fussed and fussed over her daughter, insisting that she spend her days overlooking housekeeping in every detail, from kitchen to the linen closet.

          "A quick course?" Christoph teased when he discovered them at it.  He leaned across the gleaming table and lifted a fat, ripe strawberry from the basket in the center. After biting into it, he sent a nod of approval towards his mother‑in‑law. 

          "Herr Graf," said Lady von Velsen, drawing herself up very straight, "I have always done my best to instruct Caterina in the duties she would be expected to perform as a gentleman's wife.  I have tried persuasion and I have tried whippings.  Both, as you probably realize, to no avail."

          She looked so distressed that Cat felt she should say something. 

          "It's not Mama's fault, Graf von Hagen.  It's just as she says."

          For the first time she could see her mother's point of view.  In a few days she would be mistress of a large household and she knew next to nothing about how to manage it.

          "Housekeeping just wasn't as interesting to me as horses and‑‑"

          A ferocious look from her mother interrupted.

          "No apologies, please, from either of you ladies," von Hagen said with a smile.  "Especially from Lady Albertine who has been trying to plant on stony ground.  Let me assure you that I have a capable staff in residence.  They shall, I'm sure, continue to manage as they have in the past.  When my wife becomes interested, as I'm sure she will after a time, she can assert her own notions about housekeeping."

          He finished the small fruit and dropped the pit upon a plate which had been set next to the basket.  It was awful to Cat to see her proud and capable mother standing there, apparently so embarrassed on account of her.

          "Until she has some, though," Christoph said with a sudden grin, catching one of Caterina's long red braids and tugging, "she can climb trees and play with Star all day and nevertheless an adequate dinner will find it's way onto the table."

          "Oh, Caterina," her Mama said after Christoph, a fresh greengage in hand, had taken his leave.  "How on earth are you ever going to manage?"

          No servants from home would come along.  Christoph had insisted upon that, had been quite adamant that his own people could adequately attend them.

          This had upset Lady von Velsen.  She'd wanted to send one  of the older servants along to advise Caterina.  Of course, though none of them would have dared argue with their mistress, not one of them wanted to be exiled to Heldenberg either, especially with Caterina!  When the word about Graf von Hagen's decision went out, there was much rejoicing (albeit muted) in the servant's quarters.

    The afternoon before Cat was to leave, a summons came from her mother.  When she arrived at Lady von Velsen's room, she found it darkened.  Her mother was afflicted occasionally by migraine and the silent, dim room attested to just such an attack.

    "Oh, Mama," Cat whispered, approaching the bed.  "I'm sorry.  Is it very bad?"

    "Rather, my darling.  But don't you worry, it will pass."  Lady von Hagen was pale, prone, her dress loosened, her stays opened.  A maid beside the bed was wringing out a cloth in a basin of cold water.

    "Hanna, dear," Lady von Velsen addressed the servant, "please go out now, but don't go far.  I'll soon want you back again."

    As the girl curtsied and retreated, Cat stepped into her place.  "May I help, Mama?"

    "Yes, please.  Do as Hanna was doing while I talk to you.  It's a very serious talk too, Caterina, so please attend."

    There was a pause, a tinkle of water as Cat wrung out the cloth and applied it to her mother's white brow.  Finally her mother said, "There are a few last cautions I want to give you,  my angel, especially about your husband the Graf's housekeeping arrangements."

    "Yes, Mama."  Cat was demure, thinking it was going to be another lecture about lazy servants or counting the hams.

    "Caterina, as I believe you are aware, Christoph kept a mistress at Heldenberg for many years."

    "Yes, I know," Caterina shifted uncomfortably.  "Wili told me."

    "This spring when your husband returned to marry, he told your father and I that this lady had married another man, a captain in his regiment, and that she had gone to live in Vienna with her husband and their new baby.  But now, from something Uncle Rupert said to your father, I am not so sure that this is the case."

 

~

 

 

 

(Which cover do you like better?)

 

    "Gottesblut, Mama!  What?"  Cat dropped the cloth into the basin and stared at her mother with dismay.  "Surely you and Papa don't expect me to live under the same roof with a‑‑a‑‑concubine!" ...

 

~~Juliet Waldron

 

 

 

 

 

Read more about Caterina's journey from teen to wife in:

 RED MAGIC

 

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A LESSON FROM A WITCHY AUNT

 

 

 

A lesson and a present from Auntie T

 

   "This is a sort of late name day present for you.  Now," she went on, taking the locket in hand.  "I'm going to show you a secret.  Pay close attention, Caterina Maria Brigitte!"

     Those old, rough fingers pressed one of the wooden rosettes that ornamented the case.  Cat was surprised when the locket popped open again, this time in the back.

     "See how it opens?  See?"

     Cat examined the newly revealed second compartment.  Inside was a gleam.

     "It's a Protector for you now that you are growing to be a woman.  Take it out, but be very careful."

     It took Cat a moment to extract the object.  It turned out to be an extremely thin blade, almost a needle, set on a small section of horn.

     "If anyone ever tries to harm you, just fetch it out.  Keep it in your hand like this," Auntie T demonstrated, palming the blade so that it disappeared.  "Then take it like so," she said, her fingers moving deftly, "and do this!"

     In a flash the gleaming point was against Cat's neck.  She sat still, hoping that Auntie T would be very, very careful.

     "There, where the big vein swells!  Don't hesitate, just jab it in.  If you cut that vein, they won't trouble you for much longer."

 

 

~~ Juliet Waldron

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BLACK MAGIC, an excerpt

From the beginning of BLACK MAGIC, a creature-filled sequel to RED MAGIC. Red Caterina's twins are all grown now, and this is the first of their stories, coming soon from Books We Love.

.

 

...Veronique of the golden eyes! How often he’d imaged her delight at the natural wonders along the way, the waterfalls, the tall, whispering pines, the black-tailed deer and golden meadows! How often he’d imagined her, warm and yielding in his arms...

 

Around his military companions, where news of her defection was already public property, he’d tried on a pose: “It’s only a woman! Plenty more of those in Vienna!” He’d hoped to bully himself out of lovesickness, but it didn’t seem to be working.

 

Goran remounted. Reining around, he started down the gravel lane which ran between a avenue of trees leading to the front entry of the manor. The von Hagen family might be a bit threadbare after the long decade of war, but he would have felt almost naked riding in on anything less than this fine stallion.

 

It was quiet, even when he passed the barn and open paddocks which had once bustled with activity, either with his father’s military company or farm business. During the war, through the terrible years of shortages, famine and plague, Heldenburg lodge had been short-staffed. Goran noticed the shuttered cottages behind the trees, one of them beginning a lonely collapse. How much needed to be tended to here, on the estate!

 

            He and Mina—twins--had spent much of their childhood happily in this secluded house. Today, however, instead of beauty, the snow-capped mountain leaning over the place now seemed a malicious presence. Looking up at the still icy peaks, he wondered if the evil had always been lurking there. His old sense of security and familiarity were lost. The mountain, whose moody beauty his parents had both loved so greatly, now seemed a sinister, violent presence. 

 

            A gray rubble scar sprawled across the upper pasture, clearly visible. Beneath tons of gray rock lay the body of his mother, Caterina. She and three others had been moving cattle out of the upper pastures when the rock and mud avalanche had caught them. It was the first time he’d been back since the tragedy, and he was surprised by the pain he felt--pain on top of pain--as old loss and grief combined with the new. Goran, although a brave and much decorated soldier, felt exhausted, defeated—finished before he’d even begun to live.

 

~~Juliet Waldron

 

 

 

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FANTASY, ROMANCE, ADVENTURE~~RED MAGIC

 

 

 

 

Riding to find her estranged husband who is at war in the East, Caterina is betrayed, captured and sold into a harem.

 

~~~

She still couldn't believe what she saw when she opened her eyes.

 

There was the same morning light, the same sun that shone on her at home, shining through the bars of a room that had become her cage.

 

Her past, the wild Heldenberg, her freedom—all of it, gone!

 

Lost to a chimera, a dream that she would ride to find her man, that this would prove her true, true love, this facing danger for him…and what had it brought? Nothing but death and destruction to those who had bent to the folly of her desire and will.

 

And Rossmann—that traitor!

 

 

He was everything Cvitjeto had said and more--who had encouraged her, who had ridden with her knee to knee, who had smiled and taught her from his store of knowledge, who had so completely gained her trust all through the lonely, fatal summer...  

 

 

~~Juliet Waldron

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