my great-grandmother Queen Victoria would have been proud of.
The young man gave an unearthly moan of horror. Then he turned and melted back into the shadows.
Chapter 14
A bedroom in Bran Castle. Darkness.
Wednesday, November 16
For a while I couldn’t move. I sat up, my heart beating so rapidly that I could hardly breathe. Was the creature still in the room with me? How did one ward off vampires anyway? I tried to remember from reading Dracula. Some sort of herb or plant? Parsley? No, that wasn’t it. I thought it might be garlic. Had I eaten enough of that on the venison to breathe on him? I wasn’t about to try to find my way down to the kitchen to locate some. I also thought I remembered that crosses might work, but I didn’t have one of those either. Stakes through the heart? I didn’t think I could pull that one off even if I had a stake at my disposal.
Then I thought of something more solid, like maybe one of the large candlesticks on the mantelpiece. Surely even a vampire could be kept at bay with a whomp over the head with that. I slipped out of bed, made my way across the room and picked up the candlestick. Then I crossed the room cautiously until I reached the light switch. I turned it on and found nobody there. Of course then I had to lift the various curtains, one by one, experiencing at least one heart-stopping moment when a blast of cold air hit me in the face and I realized that one of the windows was open.
I tried to close it but it didn’t latch properly. I told myself that Siegfried’s room was next door, but I pictured myself standing at his door in a nightdress again, trying to explain that a vampire had just been trying to bite my neck. Somehow I didn’t think he’d believe me. Then I noticed a large tapestry bellpull beside the bed and was half tempted to yank on it and see who it brought. But since they probably spoke no English and I would have felt equally foolish explaining a vampire attack to them, I left it and got into bed, still clutching the candlestick. At least I was relieved knowing that the bellpull was there and if he came back I could summon help before he could get his teeth into me.
The moment I was in bed I realized that I remembered the chest that I hadn’t managed to open before. I could never sleep not knowing what was in there. I got up and crossed the room slowly while the portrait of the young man looked down with a mocking smile. I jumped again as I caught sight of my reflection in that wardrobe mirror and it did occur to me that I had never seen the young man’s reflection as he came toward the bed. Wasn’t that another thing about vampires—that one couldn’t see their shadow or their reflection? I shuddered. The lid was too heavy to lift. I struggled and struggled until at last I had it open. To my intense relief it only contained clothing, including a black cape. The interesting thing was that there were some half-melted snowflakes on it, which made me suspect that my vampire visitor had climbed the wall into my room.
I stayed awake for most of the night but received no more unearthly visitors. Toward dawn I drifted off to sleep, then awoke to that strange lighting that indicates the presence of snow. I opened my window and looked out. It must have snowed hard all night, as the turrets and battlements each wore an impressive white hat. The road up the pass was untrammeled whiteness. It would have been pretty in Switzerland with the hillsides dotted with meadows and chalets. Here it just made the crags and the pine forest even more gloomy. And such a feeling of remoteness. I felt as if I were trapped in another time, another world far away from everything safe.
I looked at my watch and realized it was after eight. I would have welcomed my cup of tea but there was no sign of Queenie. In the end I got tired of waiting. I had to dress myself and found my way down to breakfast. The breakfast table was deserted save for Prince Siegfried. He rose to his feet and clicked his heels as I approached.