Wolf Hunt

CHAPTER 29

MARGONT made his way amongst the cohorts of regiments, crossing long convoys of artillery that blocked the roads, regiments that were behind schedule, recovered invalids looking for their battalions, impatient couriers ... In Vienna, he skirted round the large avenues, his horse splashing through the mud of the narrow streets, while the large thoroughfares rang to the sound of the hoofs of the squadrons.

Luise was watching the troop movements from her window. She was hoping to see Relmyer or Margont pass by, unlikely as that was, and she despaired at the size of the army that was about to be unleashed against her own side. She was dumbfounded when she saw Margont silhouetted against the garden gate. She hastened to go to open it for him, deaf to her mother’s protestations, and led him into a back room, while Margont apologised profusely.

‘How are you? Has your wound healed?’ she asked immediately.

‘Yes, I’m very well, completely recovered.’

‘And Lukas? Has he finally found Teyhern? Did he confess?’ Margont brought Luise up to date with everything that had happened. Her face clouded. Old sorrows resurfaced, mixing with her present worry.

‘This has been going on so long, and each time we think we’ve got him, he disappears again. Will it never be over? It’s as if we’re being tortured by a ghost.’

Margont was struck by that last word.

‘Luise, you’re going to have to find out as much as possible about Teyhern. He’s very close to the man we’re after, and knows him extremely well.’

‘I’ve already started. I knew that it might be useful to you. But it’s not easy ... Vienna is in turmoil ... Like our lives.’

‘We don’t have much time. I think our man will flee as soon as he has the chance ...’

Margont put the portrait of the culprit on a chest of drawers.

‘This picture is small, so easy to carry about with you. Show it whenever possible to the people you question.’

Luise studied the face, which she was seeing for the first time. He was smiling enigmatically. She had the impression he was laughing at them. When he had posed for the painting, had he considered the possibility that one day people trying to catch him for his crimes would look at this portrait? Was that the explanation for his ironic, scornful smile?

Luise turned away and looked Margont in the eye.

‘Your regiment and the 8th Hussars - will you be held in reserve or will you be first in line?’

‘Only the Emperor knows that.’

‘I forbid you to get yourselves killed, you and Lukas! I don’t care what you have to do to stay alive.’

Madame Mitterburg called through the door, asking if everything was all right. Luise replied briefly that it was. Suddenly a dam broke inside her and she felt frail, insignificant and derisory. It was perhaps the last time she would ever see Margont. In just a single day, the war could kill him and wipe out Lukas. So she might lose everything all over again! She had reproached Relmyer for reviving the past at the risk of committing the same errors, but now she was acting in exactly the same way by attaching herself to two people who might well be dead the next day.

‘When will the war finally be over?’ she murmured.

But that particular fear was only a small part of the wave of terror that submerged her. Suddenly she took Margont in her arms and held him as tight as she could. And just as suddenly she kissed him, more and more, unable to stop, fearing that when she released his mouth, he would immediately tell her that he was obliged to go. Her mother knocked at the door. Margont pulled away. Luise whispered in his ear, so softly that he almost did not hear her: ‘Desert...’

He freed himself from her embrace, pretending that he had not heard her.

‘I have to rejoin my regiment. As soon as we can, Lukas and I will come and see you and we will look together at what you have gathered about Teyhern. When the investigation and the war are over we will all be free. Then you and I will be able to—’

‘No promises!’ she interrupted. ‘Come back safe and well, the two of you, that’s all I desire at the moment. Lukas dragged you into this affair and you swore to me that you would watch over him. If one of you two dies, I will never forgive the other. So concentrate on staying alive.’