Love Seed Sown
by
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"Very well, then, Lady Teresa, we shall begin at once. I have already spoken to Bierton; and this is what worries me most, for she had not even enlisted the help of that most trusted, old family servant, but made all the arrangements and carried them out personally." "I thought she would be very careful," said the Lady Teresa, "but, I did not think she would carry the secrecy that far, Bartos. I now fear for our chances." The doctor came into the drawing room to inform them that he had finished his ministrations and they could now go in to visit if they so choose. "Doctor, you may think me overbearing and, perhaps, even cruel, when I question my mother; but, unless you fear I am jeopardizing her condition - no, her life - please do not stop me for I mean to discover what she has done and where in Poland she has secreted my child," if indeed she is sill alive," the Baron said, his lips compressed to a fine live showing his determination. They all entered the sad chamber. The Lady Teresa bad Ludmila a good day and took her customary place in the chair by the window, where she usually sat working at her tapestries, speaking to Ludmila, as if things were perfectly normal, only on this day, her husband, Sir Andrjey, sat by her side. The Baron alone stood beside his mother's bed. "Mother, today, there is another purpose to my visit. I will speak with you regarding a very serious matter (his tone imperious, for he wished to remind her of his station as the Baron); and I expect you to answer me by using certain signals which I will now give you. If the answer to the question I ask is yes, blink your eyes, do you understand?" The Countess fluttered her eyes, she did understand. "Good, mother, thank you." "Did you take my daughter away?" he asked, for he had to have it from her before he could truly convince himself she had done such a thing. Ludmila hesitated, her eyes fixed on Bartos, and the pain showing on his face; but, she had done it for him, the mother was dead, he must forget. How could he forget with the child as a constant reminder. So, he had remembered his entire sordid affair with the actress and the fact that she had had a child. She did nothing, only continued to look into Bartos' face. Bartos frustrated at his mother's behavior, said. "Mother, I know you can hear me. Please, you must answer me. I know it was wrong to marry in secret; but, your threat to go to the Emperor made it a necessity. We came home from America to tell you, ourselves. We thought when we told you of the child we were expecting, you would have a change of heart; but, you were taken ill at Niedzica and Helena wished to spare you until you were well and strong." "This child is truly your grandchild in every sense of the word. We must find her again. I ask you have you, yourself, taken the child away?" This time, Ludmila did not hesitate, a smile of triumph on her distorted lips, but blinked her eyes, several times. The Baron's intake of breath was so sharp it could be heard by Teresa half way across the room. "How could you have, mother?" He spoke the last word with a cynicism as to make Ludmila wince inwardly (children never knew or understood when their parents were acting in their best interests). Bartos perceived the condescending look his mother bestowed upon him, but said only. "My lady, (in a tone that Ludmila recognized as unforgiving and demanding) did you take her some place in Krakow?" Ludmila's eyes remained fixed. "Do you hear what I am saying and will you answer me truthfully?" Yes, Ludmila blinked, for he would never think to ask if she had taken the child to Szczawnica in a century of years, she thought, her sick mind still scheming. "Is my child a Niedzica?" No, her staring eyes told him. "Did you give her to the church?" Again, no movement of her eyes. "My God," Bartos said in frustration. "Teresa is so right, you would not tell us even if you could," his hands clenching and unclenching in desperation until finally he could think of no more places where his child could be; and the doctor, knowing Bartos was walking a fine line himself, removed him from the room. All departed Ludmila's presence except Teresa, who dismissed the nurse, saying she would look after the Countess, so the nurse may refresh herself. She stood by the bed and said to the Lady Ludmila. "You have caused me to lose my child, Mil," using her old pet name for her friend only now with sarcasm (for that part of Ludmila's name is the equivalent of "dear one). Noticing the Countess' eyes widen in surprise. "Oh, yes, I was expecting a child at last, which because of my misguided concern for you at the shock of your stroke, I miscarried. Hear me, Ludmila, you think to take the secret of the child's whereabouts to your grave; and, God forgive you, you probably will. But, somehow, your son will find her; and when he does, it shall be I who will hold her to my breast and love and nurture her as my very own while you rot in your grave, as you deserve for your perfidious meddling," then turned and left the room. "Let the now barren bitch cuddle the slut's child all she pleases, if they ever find it," her mind now totally gone. Yes, for her son's sake she would go to her grave with her secret; and in time, he would marry and beget a son and hair by a woman worthy of the Oliszczewski title and name. And she did. Two days latter, Ludmila had another stroke and died before anyone, save the nurse, could reach her bedside.
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About the Book
Helena Wasilowska, a famous actress, has no dreams other than to become a star of an international acclaim until one night after a beautiful performance, she received a bouquet of roses, accompanied by an invitation to have dinner with a polish Baronet named Bartos. She has had many offers by men and even lordlings, but no note had impressed her as this particular one had. After all she had the love of Zaslow, her manager and mentor, but she needed something else, she desired someone else to give herself to only her one true love. She accepted the invitation and when she arrived at the assigned place, she found the man of her dreams. Champagne and a dinner of exquisite fare lies before her. The setting was perfect, and she was enamored of this handsome man. Dinner was delicious, the wine superb, and suddenly she found herself in the arms of a man who would seduce her, here and now, and she welcomed the seduction. In all of her experience as an actress, she had given herself to no one. This was the passion she had never felt, and as he caressed her breast, she was totally and deeply lost. A loud pounding on the door, "who would dare interrupt me" for the Baronet was as wildly excited as she . . . Another loud knock! "Come in!" Bartos shouts. "My lord, Bartos, I have bad news, your father the Baron is dead! Your mother summons you to her side immediately." Helena in her state of dishabille flushed, her passions running wild was wounded to the quick when the Baron abruptly left her unfilled and bereft. Thankfully he had arranged for a carriage to take her home. Confused and still disheveled she arrived home embarrassed and alone. She would never love again. Her heart was hardened forever due to such treatment. Zaslow, her mentor was there to try and pick up the pieces, but to no avail Helena would never be the same. Her face flamed at this excruciating embarrassment. Her life transpired, time went by and when most unexpected, the Baron, reappeared in her life, and managed to reawaken the passion between them in only a instant and changed her life forever. From the moment he spirits her to his family castle, high in the mountains of Poland, nothing goes as planned. His mother the Baroness, Ludmila, spurns her as a common whore and all of Bartos demands for her acceptance go to no avail. The Baroness had closed her mind. How could he consider sullying a royal line, hundreds of years old. They have no choice, so they marry in secret and revel in a love and life that Helena had only imagined Bartos spurns all his mother's attempts to separate them, and the union continues and the happy couple conceive a child. A dangerous way to conceive a child, born in secrecy with only her one retainer to help her labor to give birth. A beautiful girl, the very picture of her mother who wails for food while her mother writhes in pain, struggling for life with no one but a peasant midwife to attend her. Finally, she fails in her struggle to live literally bleeding to death. Bartos bereft, not able to help or face what has happened, snaps as his mind turns to a black void in his grief. This cannot be happening! My beautiful Helena cannot be dead, and in is turmoil leaves her, the child and the castle, his mind gone. What happens to his child with no one to nurture her but servants, and a grandmother that would wish her never born? The Baroness is informed of the birth and death of the mother and Bartos's departure. Acknowledging his child as a royal member of the family is not to be even considered. Totally unacceptable a whore, an actress to be the mother of her sons child. Never! She would never give her consent nor sanction the acceptance by the rest of her royal family. His mother seizes her chance to secret the baby away, to where she could never be found. Eventually, the Baron regains his senses and remembers all of the events of his past. Upon his return, he finds his mother in dire health, and she at the sight of him her condition regresses realizing his memory has returned. The Baron pleads with her for a sign of the whereabouts of his daughter, but to no avail. She, reveling in her triumph and success at concealing the plight of his daughter, goes to her death without revealing the whereabouts of his child. Fulfilling his responsibilities to his dead mother, the Baron, desperate, begins the search for the child. Where can she be? Is she even alive?
About the Author
How to describe Renee Stephens? Renee with a finger in so many pies – member of the International Women’s Writers Guild (IWWG), Ocean City Flower co-chairperson, community activist, operator of first High Tea Room in South Jersey, with a compliment of eight different entree's of High Tea presented beautifully in silver tea pots, china cups, and silver flatware by a handsome footman to pour your tea when you delicately summon him by ringing a small bell. What a novelty! A TV segment filmed at the tea room called the "Lilac House" featuring a script written by me in which I explain the custom of "High Tea" aired on the local TV station. The actual food and tearoom were also filmed. My mother, the daughter of a Baron herself, had always maintained the custom brought over from Europe faithfully and beautifully. So, I decided it would be my first business venture and simply treated my customers as if they were my royal guests with parlor maids, and footmen scurrying back and forth to serve the people at a tinkling of a bell. Where could I, as a Philadelphia girl born and raised in a family of Polish immigrants from a region in the Carpathian Mountains, accomplish this alone? My answer to that was I learned it at my Mother's knee, listening to her regaled me with stories of crystal chandeliers in grand palaces of the Barons and Baronesses, stories of balls, hunting in the Carpathian Mountains, where skiing and skating parties would culminate, of course, with High Tea. I listened with awe while I stared at the portraits on the wall of the people my mother was so vividly describing imagining the scene as if I myself was there. Those portraits, incidentally, display a Baron in full Austrian cavalry uniform (my grandfather) and a beautiful girl with very long hair done up and entwined in pearls, garbed, not in peasant mountaineer clothes, but in an elegant white gown, with gloves above her elbow (my Mother). These impressions upon me have lasted to this very day and I believe, have prompted me to write this book.