A Date with Castle Ruins E-Book

Claudia Haase

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 74

Beschreibung

Babsi is frustrated. The short vacation that was planned for her and her family in Bergfels Village is cancelled. The Christmas market in Bergfels, which her wife wanted to report on, will not take place. Furthermore, the bazaar, which her daughter, Hannah, was involved with planning this year, is in the balance. As if that wasn't annoying enough, Hannah and her friend also run into trouble with the law. Their jaunt to the local ruins of Sturmstein Castle has unexpected consequences, in which a certain Countess Ida of Bergfels-Blumenheide is not uninvolved. What none of them suspects: within the ruin's wrecked walls, the mouse, Murina, has to stand trial - only for doing people a favor, of all things. In this short story about the ruins of Sturmstein Castle, the main characters of Claudia Haase's previously published short stories all join up, but the volume can also be read independently.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1 – ANTICIPATION

CHAPTER 2 – MICE COURT HOUSE

CHAPTER 3 – OTHER PLANS

CHAPTER 4 – GOODBYE VACATION

CHAPTER 5 – NO DAYLIGHT

CHAPTER 6 – PLAN B

CHAPTER 7 – AN OWL OR A GHOST?

CHAPTER 8 - TROUBLEMAKERS

CHAPTER 9 – A DREAM OR FORESHADOWING?

CHAPTER 10 - CAUGHT

CHAPTER 11 - JEALOUSY

CHAPTER 12 – THE VERDICT

CHAPTER 13 – MOSAIC BRICKS

CHAPTER 14 – GUESSING GAME

CHAPTER 15 – DAMN GENEROUS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ALSO BY CLAUDIA HAASE

CHAPTER 1 – ANTICIPATION

It was bone-chillingly cold, but the sun shone down from the sky with all its might and enveloped the old ruins of Sturmstein Castle in glistening light. Babsi happily enjoyed the morning walk with her wife Theodora. It was not often that she could be persuaded to leave work and go for a walk. Especially not in the snow-covered Citadel Park that is right outside of the city. Her attempts to avoid it still rang in Babsi's ears: "I'd rather relax at home. Do you really want to drive in this weather?"

But somehow, she had gotten Theodora out of the door. The walk through the park put her in good spirits for the approaching Christmas season. Before the holidays, they would spend their first vacation together with their daughter, Hannah. Babsi was looking forward to exploring the snowy area around Bergfels Village with her two sweethearts.

Over the past year and a half that Babsi and Theodora had been a couple, there has been a lack of occasions for a trip. After their wedding a few months ago, they had planned and longed for their first summer vacation together, which they had to postpone again and again and finally cancel.

It had been Theodora's suggestion to go to Bergfels and visit Bergfels Palace and the famous Christmas Market. She had wanted to report on the market while they were there.

Who knows if Hannah will travel with us without grumbling in the next few years, Babsi thought. Soon, her almost 15-year-old daughter would surely prefer to go on trips with her girlfriends.

Babsi looked over at Sturmstein Castle. It certainly couldn't compete with the palace of her vacation spot, but the thick, partly caved-in walls still provided an impressive setting. The icicles hanging in front of the wall openings looked like curtain tips, and made the masonry look inviting and cozy.

For a moment, Babsi imagined what it would be like to sit at a richly set table inside the vault. She dreamed of a hall brightly lit by candles with melodic harp music in the background. Sighing, she snuggled up to Theodora's warm cashmere coat.

"It's a wonder that Sturmstein Castle hasn't been flattened yet so that a real estate tycoon or grasshopper investors can build apartments on the property," Babsi marveled. "The view from here over the park and the city is phenomenal, isn't it? They could charge rents..."

"It is only a castle ruin and not a well-preserved castle. The property probably belongs to several people, making the ownership unclear," Theodora guessed.

"I wonder if any kings or princes lived in it before." Babsi hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe it belongs to the descendants of a German emperor?"

"I don't think so. In that case, I'm sure there would be a museum or an archive there and the structure wouldn't be in such disrepair."

"Too bad it's not occupied." Babsi laughed briefly and stopped. Theodora looked at her questioningly.

"My grandma used to tell me that the ghost of a princess lived there and wrote love letters every night, lamenting her suffering. After her accidental death in the nearby river, the princess returned to the castle as a ghost. And during her writing breaks, she supposedly preys on curious little children."

"How creepy. Not very responsible of your grandmother to tell you this."

"Oh, my grandma only said this to prevent us from sneaking to the ruin. Of course, we were insanely curious, but didn't dare to go and play there. We were afraid and actually believed that the ghost of a princess or others lived there. When we rode our bicycles, we stopped far away and wondered what was going on behind the walls."

Babsi absorbed the sight of the ruin. "Yet it lies there so peaceful and abandoned. There was certainly no drama going on behind those walls. Otherwise, the public would have noticed."

CHAPTER 2 – MICE COURT HOUSE

"The defendant, mouse Murina, is accused of going to the office of the Lesbian Line, a telephone counselling service in the Recreational Center for Girls and Young Women, in the pre-Christmas period last year and stealing a lottery ticket, as well as transporting it outside the office into a wastepaper box."

Murina looked down at the ground. She wished that her friend—Athena, who is an owl—could make herself small enough to join her in the depths of the ruins of Sturmstein Castle. Both to stand by her and to explain the whole incident in her always calm and thoughtful way. Especially since this incident was almost one year ago and she had almost forgotten it.

Why, only now? Was there not a limit on how long it could be before she couldn’t be charged? Murina remembered with a shudder how the mouse police had picked her up in the garden of the Recreational Center for Girls and Young Women two days ago. Paralyzed by the shock, she had only dimly remembered the way to the old castle ruins, in the basement of which the mouse prison and the court were located.

"Witness Sori observed the defendant do this and recorded the course of events in detail. By doing so, the defendant has violated section 15 paragraph 2 CCM, Civil Code of Mice," Judge Arvalis announced in a stern voice.

"Objection, Your Honor!" Murina wanted to shout. But she had to admit that it had happened that way. She had almost slipped on the lottery ticket during one of her walks through the office. Neat and tidy as she was, she had dragged the paper to the trash can and thrown it in. Stupidly, she hadn't noticed Sori, who must have been hiding in the hole in the wall like an informer.

Sori and her family clan belonged to the shrews, equipped with pointed noses to sniff around. In the time before her arrest, she had often run into Sori and her evil pack, and they always had nasty things to say.

Sori even said that Murina, as a refugee from the country, had no right to enter the Recreational Center for Girls and Young Women. But the whole thing belonged to the people and not to the shrews.

Thanks to her clever cellmate, Murina knew by now that Section 15(2) of the CCM allowed the nibbling or moving of small objects that belonged to people but punished the carrying of things to other rooms.

Murina would have liked to run away. Not that she was afraid of Judge Arvalis. With her impressive appearance, plump body, small ears, and short tail, she looked like Murina's grandmother. Granny had been strict, too—as strict as Judge Arvalis—but had had a big heart. She hoped the same was true for the jurist. But Murina had never attended a court hearing, especially when she was the reason for the hearing.

Meanwhile, Sori sat with a smug smile in the front row of the crowd of mice, flanked by two companions who nibbled on a piece of earthworm without a second thought. They weren’t in the mouse cinema after all!

"Well, Murina, what do you have to say in your defense?" the judge asked.

"Your Honor," Murina began stammering, "I just wanted to get the chit of paper out of the way because I almost slipped on it."

"So, you admit to the crime?"

"Yes, but ..." she began, but Sori and her friends burst into loud cheers and Murina's voice died.

The audience in the courtroom shouted wildly.

"Look, she admits it!"

"She should be locked up!"

"Clearly, this Old World mouse has committed a crime!"

Murina couldn't make a sound. Yet it was so important to clear up the matter. In the end, despite Murina's intervention, the visitors of the Recreational Center for Girls and Young Women had not been harmed at all. They would never be harmed by Murina!

"Quiet!" Arvalis knocked on the table.

"Ahem," Murina's public defender spoke up. She had been forcibly assigned to her, because Murina had no savings to afford her own lawyer.