“It’s not,” he said ominously. “At the time of their meeting, Violetta had already been promised to another man, which was also common for the time. Marriages were often treated like business transactions, to keep land and money in the right hands. Because of her virginal beauty, Violetta had been pledged to an older man with a lot of money. She was marrying several ranks above her class.”
“That’s so gross. Awful.”
“It was, especially because Violetta had made her feelings about the man clear. She didn’t want anything to do with him, and I couldn’t blame her. He had the face of a pig and was known around town for his cruelty.”
I shivered.
“Despite being promised to another, Violetta was helplessly in love with Luther,” he said. “I remember the night he came to our village—and that was only when I ever saw him, Olivia, at night. He was from a different world than the locals; he had anothernessabout him. He spoke and dressed differently. It was understandable how a small-town girl like Violetta could have fallen in love with a man so exotic. The men in our village were?—”
“Rougher around the edges?”
“Yes, that’s a perfect way to put it. They were mostly good men, but when Luther was around, they simply couldn’t compete. He captured the attention of all the women in town, even those who were married. It didn’t make him popular. Though Violetta wasn’t the only girl spellbound by Luther, Violetta was the only girl Luther wanted.”
“What was he like—Luther?”
“Oh, he was very kindhearted, a real class act. He was a lot like Violetta in that respect. He was also charitable to peasants and the ill, which was not common for a man of his wealth.”
The way Sebastian described Luther made me think of Robert. He treated everyone, regardless of wealth or background, with respect. I’d found that to be true with most vampires I’d met. Not all, of course, but most. Which was ironic. Society regarded vampires as savages—ghoulish creatures to be feared or parodied—though it was often vampires who behaved more uprightly than humans.
“In a village as tiny as ours, the courtship between Luther and Violetta didn’t stay a secret for long,” Sebastian continued. “Violetta’s mother, Caterina, who was not so much evil as she was shrewd, strongly opposed their courtship.”
“Because Violetta had been promised to someone else?”
“That was a huge part of it.”
“But wouldn’t Caterina have still been happy? Luther was rich, too.”
Sebastian shook his head. “Violetta had brought a great deal of shame on the family by refusing her original suitor, since the deal had already been made. That’s how her mother saw it, at least. The bigger issue was that Luther was a vampire.”
“The villagersknew?”
“It wasn’t so black and white. Nobody referred to Luther as such. I’m not sure anyone in our village even knew what avampire was. Caterina, like most people where we lived, was superstitious, though she also possessed a kind of supernatural magic.”
“Like a witch?”
“Yes, but we never would have used the term back in the day. But Caterina did ‘witchy’ things, yes. She was said to be a healer, and she created potions for those who were ailing. She also instinctively knewprivate details about villagers, despite barely knowing them,” Sebastian said. “She sensed straightaway that something was off about Luther.”
“It probably didn’t take a witch for that,” I commented. “He stood out like a sore thumb, right?”
“He did. Villagers found it peculiar that Luther, a rich stranger with extravagant clothing and an obscure accent, would only come out after sundown. They didn’t trust him to begin with because of his differentness, and now here he was, stealing the heart of a young girl that had already been promised to a prominent family.”
“It also probably didn’t help that all the village women were drooling over him.”
Sebastian chuckled. “It certainly didn’t, though once it became evident that Luther was taken with Violetta, the women became jealous and turned on him. Caterina also engaged in a smear campaign, spreading malicious gossip about Luther. Despite his kindly ways, he became the village pariah.”
“Did Caterina ever confront Luther?”
My grandfather shook his head. “I was young at the time, so I can only guess. Like I said, a lot of this is hearsay, but the basics are true. I don’t believe she did. Caterina likely would have been too afraid to provoke Luther, who she believed was a literal demon. She did like to interfere in Violetta’s life, though. She was quite meddlesome.”
“What about Violetta’s father?”
“He’d died a few years prior from what would now be diagnosed as pneumonia.”
“He probably died just to get away from Caterina,” I sniped, and Sebastian laughed.
“Anyway, Caterina demanded that Violetta stop seeing Luther. Being a teenaged girl, Violetta denied ever being involved with him. She claimed she hardly knew him.”
“Sounds about right for seventeen,” I said.
