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May 20, 2008 Author's |
Book DisplayConcerto
 by Tereza Poole | Availability |
Description | |
It is the year 1878, and Leah von Salton is a seventeen year old titled Swiss woman whose father sends her to her aunt in Vienna along with her sister Annette to acquire polish and refinement in order to marry well. Leah is a talented musician, linguist, skier, and horsewoman, having been educated by private tutors. In Vienna she is introduced to Freddie Bucher who presents himself as a titled German merchant. He courts her in Vienna and in Prague and she comes to trust him enough to run away with him. Freddie takes her on a dangerous journey through Bohemia and Austria and ultimately Switzerland, telling her he is going to take her home to her father in Berne and also they will be married. They must however accomplish some business, which he refuses to explain, during the journey. Leah decides to compose music during a long train ride and thereafter she continues to compose music whenever she can find something on which to write. Leah insists on a wedding during the journey saying her father will be displeased if they are together alone too long. Only after the wedding does she discover he is a messenger carrying secret documents for the Austrian and Russian governments for delivery to the French. She is shocked to find out she has been fooled and he has taken her along only to use her ability to speak several languages. He tells her about his family, and she discovers, although they have very different cultural backgrounds, they are also very similar. When they reach Switzerland, Leah discovers she is pregnant, and Freddie subsequently observes her changing belly and demands she abort the baby. Leah refuses. She begins to doubt Freddie will keep his promise to take her home to Berne. After they cross into Switzerland, Freddie contracts diphtheria while escaping a storm in a village where most of the villagers have died of diphtheria. Leah is about four and one half months pregnant. She takes care of Freddie, but he never thanks her. Dr. Fleiss, a marksman in the employ of Bismarck of Germany, has been following Leah and Freddie and he passes by the village where Freddie is lying ill. Fleiss misses the chance to help Leah escape Freddie, not imagining they could be in the devastated village. As he passes the village, he vows to quit his job as a spy and a marksman and return to his medical practice out of pity for the many who have died in the diphtheria epidemic. When Freddie recovers enough to travel, it is six weeks later. His mood is surly and somber and Leah begins to fear he will kill her. She tries to give birth early while they are in Leukerbad where Freddie is using the spa to help him heal, but a midwife refuses to help her. Freddie rents a cabin in a secluded place just outside Zermatt and brings Leah there just before the baby is to be born. Leah dreams three angels are keeping her safe and protected after she sits on a rock outcropping viewing the Matterhorn at sunset, and the next day Freddie tries to kill her by hitting her with his gun and leaving her for dead at the bottom of a cliff. A woodsman finds her just as the sun is going down and takes her to his cabin. Leah’s baby is born with the help of a midwife, but the midwife takes the baby to another woman while Leah is unconscious. Leah suffers from amnesia and no one will tell her what happened. She becomes nanny to the woodsman’s two sons. Freddie tries to kill her again while she is caring for the woodsman’s sons but is foiled by a brief sudden rain storm. He gives it up, and decides to resume his journey toward France, but while skiing across the mountain pass toward Italy he falls in a crevasse and dies. Dr. Fleiss, who has been searching for Freddie and Leah, comes to Zermatt and views Freddie’s body before the crevasse closes and buries Freddie. With the help of a local Catholic priest, Fleiss reunites the baby with Leah, and Leah’s memory begins to return. She remembers that she has hidden the music she has created during the journey at the foot of the bed in the cabin. She retrieves it. Leah’s father and sister come to Zermatt, and they return with Leah to Berne along with the woman who has been mothering the baby and Dr. Fleiss. | |
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