A Covenant of Poppies

Chapter 52

Something akin to self-preservation and the desire to experience the pain she knew she should be feeling, kept Ulrika walking until she came to the elm tree—their tree. She relived the moments she and Stepko had spent there only last evening.

"Maybe they are right, Stepko," Ulrika had said as she stepped away. "Sofi said I must learn to be free before giving myself to a man. Seventeen is too young. Maybe when I come back from Vienna you can speak to father."

His look had turned to slow horror. "When you come back? You think your father is going to let you come back and marry some Serb when you might be pilloried for it?" He sat on the grass, shoulders hunched, fists pressed into his forehead. His helplessness burned into her. Do not leave me, his eyes said. Dropping his head between his knees, he muttered, "If you leave, I'll be here when you get back."

She had always known he loved her, but until then hadn't known how much. She knelt to him, and with a gush of emotion, gathered him in her arms. Like his smell, the feel of him went through her, and she clung to him until their love became soothing and endless. "All right, Stepko, you can go to father."

They'd lain on the wet mossy earth beneath the big elm tree, not caring who saw them or what the drunken shouts from her living room were about. They stayed like that until the sky filled with stars that were meant for only them. "I will never leave you," she told him, "no matter what happens."

Before her brother left that morning, Petar said she would never see Stepko again. Now she lay on the spot where she would have given her virginity to him had he not honored her too much to take it.

Sometime later, she sensed the cousin watching her. She didn't know him as a relation, but as someone who was simply there. She had murder in her heart and if she didn’t channel it people would be hurt, most likely, herself … without question, herself.

At that moment she had a desire to inflict pain that was overwhelming.

Her brothers came for her that night, sneaking around like dogs. They pulled her into the barn, where Ulrika screamed and tried to push past them. "Leave me alone, I tell you!"

Andric slipped and fell into the hay, and she darted away while holding her sides. "You don't obey your family. Not even your brothers!"

"Not when I hate you!"

"You choose Srbi traitors over your own family." Marco came towards her holding a rope. She started running and as Andric grabbed her, she screamed and pounded him. Andric clapped his hand over her mouth and she sunk her teeth into his flesh. He shook her off with a howl.

There was no way she was going to allow that rope around her wrists. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the rake. It was a few feet from Andric. She turned towards Marco and backed up. Two feet more, and she'd be able to grab it. As Andric lunged, her fingers curled around the wooden handle. She whipped it around and grazed his face with the prongs. As Marco reached out for her she got him in the thigh. She came around to meet Andric again, his face bleeding. She felt the hatred well up, and knew it had been there all along.

She swung hard, driving the points of the rake into his face. Andric clutched his cheek, screaming, and Marco seized her around the waist. She knew it was over. Andric raised his bloody face, and she smiled. He was no longer her brother.

Ulrika was placed in the coal shed. At Petar's instruction, Marco had readied it for her, and it held a cot and small table. As an afterthought, Marco placed some books and a small flashlight in there, as well. "You’ve gone soft," Andric accused him, drawing the bolt closed.

"You’re right; I’ll remove them."

"No, maybe they'll distract her."

On the other side of the door Ulrika opened her eyes. "Let me out, you beasts!"

"You’ll stay in here until it’s time to go."

"Go where?"

"Where you’ll forget knowing someone named Stepko Janovic."

"The hell I will!" Ulrika screamed in outrage.

"It doesn’t matter because Stepko has agreed to have nothing more to do with you."

She hammered her fists against the door. It was futile. She was bolted in.

"If you don’t want me to see Stepko, I won’t," she offered, her voice softening. "Okay?" They made no answer and she drove her fingernails into the doorframe, succeeding in getting splinters. "You can’t leave me in here!" she sobbed. "Does father know? Does Petar?"

She saw the books. Certainly, Petar knew. The two cretins outside would never have thought to leave books. She hammered on the door again. "I'll tell Sarafina, Andric. I’ll tell her you are sleeping with every girl in town! I’ll make sure she leaves you and takes your fat children with her, Andric!"

She sank to the floor, exhausted.

Outside, Marco hung back. He asked Andric, "Should I sit out here for a while?"

"She’s made her own bed."

"But, she hates us."

"Do you value her life?"

"Of course I do."

"Then shut the hell up."

Marco followed his brother up the cowpath and into Andric’s house, where he watched Sarafina patch his cheek. "It's okay, Marco," Sarafina said. "She'll get a little religion, and it will help wash the stench of Serb off her."

Marco didn’t really care about the stench. He only wished his sister didn’t hate him so.