From a High Tower Read Online Free PDF Page B

place. What do you do with your time?”
    She had to laugh at that. “We work, of course! There are all the animals to tend, the garden to care for, food to make, clothing to sew, cleaning to do—what do you think we do? Gaze out of tower windows all day?”
    â€œAnd here I thought you were a princess, who only had to do just that!” he replied, with an ingratiating smile. “May I come in to see your tower?”
    â€œWhen Mother gets home,” she replied truthfully. “She locks the door when she is gone, and she has the only key.”
    â€œDoesn’t she trust you?” He frowned.
    â€œShe doesn’t trust the things in the forest,” she corrected him. “I don’t mind.”
    â€œHmm. Well, there are gypsies in the forest, and tramps. She’s probably wise.” He nodded sagely. She smiled.
    â€œYou haven’t told me your name,” she pointed out. “I’m Giselle.”
    â€œAnd I am Johann Schmidt,” he replied, and swept off his hat in a flourishing bow. “At your service. Shall I tell you all about myself?”
    She felt herself coloring all over again. “Oh,” she replied. “Please!”

    Johann stayed until moonrise, then bowed again and took his leave, promising to come back on the morrow. Giselle could not remember ever having been so excited at the prospect of something, not even when learning new magic. After all, her magic had been a part of her for as long as she could remember, but handsome young men were things she had only read of in books, and a handsome young man standing beneath her window for hours just to talk to her was something entirely new.
    The men of the Bruderschaft that had visited Mother had not had much time for her; she understood that, of course, to come all this way to this remote part of the Black Forest, deep in the mountains, they must have had very urgent business indeed. They certainly had no time to spare for idle chat. To have another person besides Mother interested enough in her to regale her with tales was wonderful.
    To have that person be a very handsome young man was intoxicating.
    After Johann was gone, she spent a long time just dreamily staring up at the night sky, for once not watching for the shyer and more elusive sylphs and other Air Elementals that only came out at night.

    In the morning there was no sign of Johann Schmidt, not from any of the four tower windows, and with a feeling of disappointment, she went about her usual chores. Of her particular sylph friends only Linnet turned up, and she seemed listless, and soon left.
    The milk was set out in pans to rise; she skimmed off the cream and put the separated milk and cream in the “special” pantry where things were not allowed to spoil. Giselle made herself something to eat and had her breakfast up in her room with a glass of milk she had set aside. There still was no sign of Johann.
    As listless as Linnet had been, Giselle turned over pages in the history books that Mother had left her to study. Truth to tell, she didn’t think she was a very good scholar at the best of times, and right now, with vague discontent standing between her and the pages, she wasn’t making much headway with them.
    So she set the books aside and turned to another tedious chore, which at least had the virtue of requiring attention without concentration.
    She unwound her braids from her head, unbraided them, and began combing out her hair.
    This was a far different task for her than it was for Mother. Giselle’s hair grew at a rather astonishing pace.
    Right now, it was roughly twice as long as she was tall, unbraided, and when Mother returned it would be time for her to cut it again. There was an entire chest full of locks of hair as long as Giselle was tall. Mother said this had something to do with her magic; certainly the smaller of the Air Elementals, the pixies and other little things she had no name for, had