"I want a look."

At quarter to two, the tires leaving a path across previously unbroken snow, the Opel Admiral pulled up before the hunting lodge. It was a long, low wooden building with elaborate scrollwork, now covered with dripping icicles, along the roofline. There was a chimney at each end and a much larger one in the middle. Smoke rose from one of the end chimneys, and as Canidy got out of the car, he could smell wood smoke.

"I think it would be better if you spoke German," the Countess said.

"Who's in the house?" Canidy asked.

"The caretaker and his wife," she said.

"And there are foresters in small houses behind the lodge."

"And they can't be trusted?" Canidy asked.

"Of course they can be trusted," she said.

"They have been with my family for hundreds of years. But if the Black Guard comes here, I don't want to ask them to lie any more than necessary. They don't speak German, but they recognize it.

I want them to be able to report they saw me with two German-speaking men."

"They're going to know what's going on," Canidy said.

"They will do what I ask them to do," the Countess said, "and then, because I ask them to, they will forget having done it."

Canidy's disbelief showed on his face.

"My father was active in the Independent Hungary movement," the Countess said.

"Crown Prince Rudolf used to come here secretly. If my people could forget that he was here, they can forget you."

The look on his face confused her.

"Crown Prince Rudolf was the.. she started to explain.

"Heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne," Canidy filled in.

"The one who shot his girlfriend, and then himself. At Mayeriing."

"Like Standartenfuhrer Muller," von Heurten-Mitnitz said, "the Countess ems to have underestimated you, Canidy."

"And not you?"

"A good diplomat never underestimates anyone," von Heurten-Mitnitz said.

As they approached the hunting lodge, the door was opened by a hefty, large-bosomed woman with jet-black hair. The hair was parted in the middle and done up in elaborate braids.

She curtsied to the Countess, then to the men.

"She says," the Countess said, "that if she had known we were coming, her husband would have of course been here, and there would be a meal prepared.

As it is, all there is is simple boar gulyas. Paprika gulyas."

After they had eaten, Canidy was outfitted, from a wide selection, with a green loden cloth coat and lace-up boots, which were, he suspected, older than he was. Laughing, the Countess added a black cap of heavy wool.

"A real Magyar!" she said.

The caretaker showed up as the Countess -was lacing up her boots. With him was a man Canidy's age, with a double-barreled shotgun hanging upside down on a woven leather strap from his shoulder.

"This is Alois, the chief hunter," the Countess explained.

Tags: W.E.B. Griffin Men at War Thriller
Source: readsnovelonline.net