Chapter 9
Bzzz.........Bzzz...... Gabriel tried to make that stupid insect go away. It wouldn't. Bzzz.........Bzzz.......He opened his eyes. It wasn't a fly, it was his alarm-clock. It had been years since he last used it.
GRACIE!! Suddenly it came to his mind. Gracie was here and she mustn't find out about Friedrich. He jumped up from his bed and hastily got dressed. No one was to be seen or heard when he peered out into the hallway. All the bedroom doors were closed. No, there Friedrich's door was slightly open. Please, no!
Gabriel gently sneaked over to Friedrich's room, just as he was about to go inside he heard a door being opened at the other end of the hallway. He shot around. "Good morning. Gabriel!" Gracie cheered.
Gabriel's face went pale. "Um, good morning." He tried to close the door behind his back.
"Shh.., you shouldn't disturb them yet. They had a long night." Gracie smirked.
"You saw them?" Gabriel could barely manage to croak.
"No," she grinned "but I heard them!"
"You what?"
"Well you know!" Gracie went downstairs. "Care for some coffee?" she asked halfway down and disappeared into the kitchen.
Gabriel still stood at Friedrich's door. This time he took a look inside. There was no one there. Gabriel thought for a moment, maybe Friedrich found out that Gracie was here and had left again. His evening clothes lay across his bed. 'I bet he misses his butler.' Gabriel thought for a second. He walked over to the window. No, Friedrich's car was still parked outside the castle. Gabriel left the room again. He looked at Gerde's door. Friedrich wouldn't have....or would he? No, he wouldn't. But.....maybe....?
Gabriel walked over to the door and put his ear to it. Even with his acute senses he couldn't hear anything.
Slowly he walked downstairs. Gracie had already prepared breakfast in the kitchen.
"Gabe, I'm really astonished at what time of the day you get up now. You have changed a lot."
"Oh, I don't think I have. I just got used to it." He felt uneasy.
"Say, what do we want to do today? Maybe Gerde and her friend would like to join us."
"I don't think so. They like to keep to themselves." Gabriel felt sweat on his forehead.
"How did they get to now each other anyway? What is he like. Come on tell me." She enjoyed every single second of his obvious agony.
"Gracie, I don't like to pry into other people's business. You ask her all about it later. Why don't we drive off to Munich. We leave a note for Gerde."
"No, maybe in the afternoon. That wouldn't be polite. Anyway, I promised to have breakfast with her."
Gabriel was lost. All was lost. He stood in the kitchen, arms dangling at his side and felt his whole world collapse.
The telephone rang and he went outside to answer it. Damn, it was Herr Meierhofer, the plumber who was in charge of the new installations here in the castle. While Gabriel tried to communicate with Herrn Meierhofer; he definitely had to learn some more German, he heard something coming from upstairs. Quickly he raised his head to find Friedrich and Gerde, obviously very, very refreshed, coming down the stairs. His hand holding the receiver, he tried to gesture to them, to go back upstairs, not to go into the kitchen. But they clearly only had eyes for each other.
"Hallo...Herr Knight......Hallo?" Gabriel could hear Herr Meierhofer's voice coming from the receiver.
"Psst.... no.....stop! Hey!" Gabriel tried to warn them. Grace mustn't hear anything of it.
He saw Gerde kissing Friedrich on his cheek as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Gabriel waved his arms at them but without noticing they walked over to the kitchen. Gabriel closed his eyes as they entered. "Hallo.... Hallo...!" click. Herr Meierhofer had hung up.
Silence, nothing, Gabriel stood in the great hall still holding the receiver waiting for the worst sounds he could imagine. Screams, howling, breaking dishes or.... Still nothing.
Slowly he opened his eyes again, let go of the receiver and stumbled over to the kitchen. His hands trembled as he reached for the handle, very slowly he opened the door expecting at least one or two dead bodies inside the kitchen.
Sunlight spilled through the generously large windows, the smell of fresh rolls and coffee drifted in Gabriel's direction. He could see an arm moving, Grace's arm, she was holding something in her hand....
"NO!" Gabriel stormed inside. Everyone froze, Grace's left hand, holding a can of coffee, still hovered above the empty cup of Friedrich, Gerde stared, still clutching her knife and a glass of honey.
"What..?" Gabriel stared in disbelief, his heart pounded up to his throat.
"Gabriel," Friedrich's voice was soothing "would you care to join us for breakfast?"
Grace continued pouring coffee and Gerde gestured towards Gabriel to sit down.
"We have to tell you a few things." she said.
"A few things?" Gabriel barked. "I mean, how stupid do you think I am? What is this all about, if it is supposed to be funny, please tell me so, then I can laugh a little."
"Please Gabriel, sit down with us and talk about everything." Grace tried to calm him down.
"Last night Friedrich came into my room to tell me your story. It was his idea to get me over to Germany and Gerde helped him."
"Oh great!" Gabriel couldn't believe what he had just heard. "Did it ever cross your mind to ask me? Oh why should it. You were right, I prefer to mind my own business and not to care about others, but you clearly are forgetting that I am not one of your 'bondsman', Baron. You don't arrange things for me. Do you hear!" His voice skipped as he turned to Friedrich. Gracie's face went pale. "So I was right", she said. "You don't want me here." And left the kitchen. Gabriel stared at the two others. "Ah yes one more thing Mister. It's one thing to pry into other people's business but I don't like it, that my friends are being taken away from me behind my back!" Friedrich's calm look outraged him but Gerde very slowly got up from the bench. "That did it Gabriel. My life is not your thing. I've been sitting around here doing your work and hardly got to know other people. It was fine for you as long as I was always available. You wanted Friedrich here, so do you think we should have asked you before we got to know each other a little better. Should we have called you yesterday night to ask for your permission to flirt and maybe fall in love with each other? I am not your property!".
Gabriel was stunned, he sat down. Friedrich looked very calmly at him. "Maybe you should go after Grace! It has been a tough night for her but she took it better than I had expected. Would you have preferred her not to know? Hide me somewhere, throw me out and what about yourself? She would have found out eventually, she would have come over here by herself some time. And then? You wouldn't have told her, now would you?"
Gabriel sat on the chair, beaten, lost and torn between anger and relief. In the end the relief won. "Sorry" he said quietly to Gerde and Friedrich. "I think, I'll try to find Gracie and see what I can do."
He got up and left the kitchen. Gerde sighted and leaned her head on Friedrich's shoulder.
Gabriel found Gracie up in her bedroom, packing her things together. She was obviously very much in anger, judging by the way she threw her things into her bags. Half of them landed beside them.
Gabriel went into the room and started picking up the clothes that had fallen on the ground. "Please Gracie stop that. You don't have to leave. I don't honestly want you to leave. Sorry for what happened in the kitchen. Guess I was overreacting."
Gracie now stood right in front of him, clutching a bundle of clothes in her arms. "I don't believe you Gabriel. You sent me away once too often. I'm not a puppet to toy with. Friedrich must have been wrong to assume you missed me. On the other hand your mind is pretty unreadable anyway. It was a wild shot to come here and after last nights conversation with Friedrich I seriously had thought about helping you in your quest, but with the break of dawn the old Gabriel has come back. So go on, live your life and let me live mine. I'm just glad to think that Gerde might leave you as well and you will be alone soon. Maybe it's for the better."
"Gracie, no don't go, please. I need you and your help."
"You always need my help."
"Um, ... you know ... well ... Friedrich was right somehow. I think I really missed you. It's just all so complicated. I mean after what happened and what I have become."
"Gabriel, you left your shop, you left me. You live in an old drafty castle and now you have become some mystical figure called a Schattenjäger. That was pretty harsh in the first place, and you really think I'm not able to put up with some more irrational facts? I don't approve of the fact that you are still a werewolf and I would like to find a way out of it as much as you do. But for the time being you here in Germany and I in New Orleans."
"Grace, I told you I am sorry. Don't do this to me!"
"Do this to you? Have you ever spend a single thought on me? No my dear Gabriel, things don't work that easy."
"Please Gracie ... "
"Don't 'Please Gracie' me! It's over and done. I will ask Gerde to get me a flight back home." Grace continued packing her stuff together. Gabriel couldn't do anything but watch.
After a while he left and went downstairs. 'Damn Gracie' he thought. What the hell, he had other friends.
Friedrich and Gerde were sitting in the living-room, both reading. They looked up as Gabriel entered. "Have you talked to her?" Gerde wanted to know.
"Yes, she is leaving anyhow." Gabriel slumped down in one of the armchairs. "She wants you to organize a flight back home for her."
"What a pity, but I'll get right to it." Gerde got up and went to her desk. Gabriel could faintly hear her talk to a lady at the travel agency. He tried not to show the emotional state he was in. Instead he gave Friedrich a lopsided grin. "Hey when are we going to go to that house of yours? Have you thought of a plan yet?"
Friedrich regarded him with a thoughtful look. "Yes, in fact I have. But do you really think this is the right moment for it?"
"We have to do it sometime. And besides, I need some distraction right now. By the way Friedrich, what happened last night? I mean you weren't in your room this morning."
"You are correct, I was in Gerde's bedroom. But this is hardly the time to discuss my private matters, isn't it?" Friedrich closed his book and put it aside. "We really thought Gracie's presence here would do you good. I felt your misery and talked to Gerde about it. So we invited Gracie over. I would never have thought you dislike her that much."
Gabriel's smile faded. "No, I don't dislike her. In fact I like her very much, but she is so headstrong and not willing to give in the slightest bit."
"Oh, so she is a copy of you, is she?"
"What? No she isn't. But you understand I can't go to her again and plead her to stay. If she wants to leave so be it. I won't stop her. I'm not going to beg!"
"Of course you won't." Friedrich's eyes sparkled with irony.
Gerde came back. "I have got a flight for Gracie the day after tomorrow." She eyed Gabriel. "Are you not going to tell her, Gabriel?"
"No you go!" Gabriel turned back to Friedrich. Gerde shot a questioning look at Friedrich, but he only shrugged his shoulders, so she left to tell Gracie.
"So what's your plan" Gabriel insisted.
"First of all we will go and check out the situation. We shouldn't go all the way with my car. They might recognize it. We can park it somewhere near the Perlacher Forst and walk the last meters. After we found out what the situation is like we can think of a way to get inside."
"You really want to walk on foot? Don't you think we would have a better chance as wolves?"
"I think two wolves loose in Munich won't help us in our secrecy. But we will see when we are there."
"When will we go?"
"What about tonight. We nearly have a new moon, so it won't be so light outside. Less chance to see us. We could leave at about 10.00 p.m. and be there at about midnight."
"Where will you be at midnight?" Gerde had come back downstairs.
"We want to have a look at my house." Friedrich stretched out a hand to her.
"I don't think you should go," she said as she took his hand and sat down beside him. "What do you think will happen if they recognize you? Maybe it's better if I would go with Gabriel."
"No, besides who of you two knows the place and area as well as I do? I will take my handy with me, so if anything happens I can call you, okay?"
Gerde wasn't satisfied with the idea, but what was she to do? If Friedrich had made up his mind there would hardly be a chance to make him reconsider.
"All right, I will go to a restaurant near your place and wait there for your call when you are finished. And in the case something happens I am nearby. Maybe Gracie will come with me. I'll give you the telephone number of the place later on. And pray for mercy if you don't come back to me!"
Friedrich laughed as he took her in his arms to give her a hearty kiss.
Gabriel watched in disbelieve, he still wasn't over the fact that those two were... . No, how could Gerde? What was it with this guy?