Chapter Text
Sarah watched the snow falling behind the window. The flakes swirled in a hypnotic ballet and despite the chimney fire burning in the room just behind her, she couldn't help shivering. Tightening the shawl she wore around her shoulders, she wiped the condensation that had accumulated on the window and left her vantage point to return to the chair she had left, the book she was reading lying abandoned on the coffee table next to it. Her parents' library had always been her favorite room in the house.
With its high ceilings and all the oak woodwork, the Williams library was a place that was both refined and comfortable. The huge blue silk carpet on the parquet floor muffled most footsteps and gave the room an elegant touch. Framed by two terrestrial and celestial globes that her father had brought back from one of his trips, the imposing dark marble fireplace created a warmth throughout the room that made long winter evenings almost bearable.
In their display cases made of glass and wood, books covered the walls and dealt with the most diverse subjects : medicine, history and geography but also agriculture, astrology or even mythology. There were only the horrible plant moldings and that awful mythological fresco on the ceiling that spoiled the warm atmosphere of the room a little. Robert, Sarah's father, was very fond of it, but fortunately, her mother-in-law, Irene, had promised Sarah that as soon as the good weather returned, a beautiful starry sky would replace the loves of Zeus.
Looking at the time on the gilt copper enameled wooden wall clock, Sarah sighed and went to put the book she was reading in its place on the shelf. Normally, the carefully bound scarlet book should have captured her attention but it was not a usual time.
The rest of the year, Sarah could walk past the mirrors of the house without shaking, see her reflection in the windows without blinking, walk in a room plunged in darkness without startling at the slightest scratch.
The rest of the year, she didn't sleep with a light in her bedroom and a paper cutter under her pillow.
The rest of the year, she could almost think it had all been a dream.
But when the days started to shorten, when the wind became cold and howling, when the mist invaded the streets at night, when Christmas was approaching…
It’s been ten years now but for Sarah it was like it was yesterday.
“Miss Sarah ?”
Sarah turned around. One of the servants was standing in the doorway. Lost in thought, Sarah hadn't heard the door open.
“Miss, they're waiting for you downstairs.”
“Thank you Marie, I'm going down immediately.”
Marie nodded and closed the door behind her.
Sarah took a deep breath and adjusted her long gloves. Her black hair raised in a bun held in place by a golden net, she wore a Greek-style dress in sumptuous dark green silk. The fitted bodice highlighted her waist and if the dress was rather low-cut in keeping with the fashion of these days, the long pearl gray cashmere shawl she wore covered her chest just as well.
Knowing that she could no longer back off, Sarah left the library and went down into the large parlor. About twenty people were in the room, chatting about politics and gossip in the shade of the huge red and golden Christmas tree that the family had finished decorating the day before. The dinner was supposed to be a family meal, but Hans, the fiancé of her half-sister Cecilia, couldn't help but invite some of his wealthy friends. Sarah lingered for a moment at the top of the stairs, watching them. Chatting in small groups while the servants moved around the room to serve them refreshments and small appetizers, the guests were all great city notables accompanied by their wives and children, dressed in their best assets and waiting for dinner to start.
Raising her skirt, Sarah discreetly went down the stairs and was about to go sit aside when she heard someone calling her.
“Sarah here you are !”
Turning her head, she saw Robert beckoning her to join them. Irene was standing beside him as were Toby, Cecilia and of course Hans.
Too late to run away now Sarah.
Ignoring the sarcastic voice in her head, she walked over to them.
“My daughter”, said her father, taking her in his arms to kiss her on the forehead. “Look at yourself, you are resplendent !”
Irene smiled at her playfully.
“Robert is right, after this evening, I will have to warn Jesper that he will have to face a real invasion of suitors.”
“Don't worry Sarah”, Toby adds with a falsely serious face. “With the wooden saber that Dad promised me for Christmas, I would be there to help Jesper defend your honor.”
Robert and Irene laughed and even Sarah couldn't help but smile. Her mother-in-law might tease her about it, but Sarah knew that the day a suitor would show up at the door, Irene would welcome him with open arms. When Albert started courting her two years ago, Irene was so enthusiastic that Robert couldn't help but point out that she was already supposed to be married and happily married. Of course, Albert had the imagination of a sparrow and the intelligence that went with it, but that didn't stop Irene from hoping.
"Your parents are right Sarah," Hans said in a smooth voice. “You are more and more beautiful with each passing year.”
Stiffening, Sarah settled for responding to his compliment with a tense smile. Tall, blond and attractive, Hans was the very promising mayor of Hamelin just like his father and his grandfather before him. He was also the fiancé of her half-sister Cecilia for several months now and everyone adored him : her parents, her half-sister and even Toby, who was usually rather reserved with strangers, liked him very much. Sarah was more skeptical : she didn't like the way he looked at Mr. Schwarzwald's daughter sometimes, or the way he was a little too close to her when he spoke to her. But Cecilia loved her and Sarah couldn't say anything because it was Cecilia.
After the death of his first wife, Sarah’s mother, Robert didn’t want to remarry and it took several years to recover. The fact that she died with her lover in attendance didn’t help the matter. But when he met Irene at a ball given by Hans’s father, it was love at first sight and a year later, they were married. Irene was also a widow and from her previous marriage, she had Cecilia, older than Sarah, who had come to live with them when her mother remarried.
At first, Sarah had been delighted to have a sister to play secret games with but she quickly became disillusioned. Petite, blonde, with big azure eyes, a porcelain skin and cute as a button, Cecilia had quickly made Sarah realize that she was just a patch of mud on her elegant dresses. Even though Irene and Roberts had tried to ease the tensions between the two children, Sarah had struggled to get used to her new family and when Toby was born, she had the impression that her father had no more place for her in his new life. However, after the "incident", she and Toby had become very close and in the process, she also got closer to Irene, regarding her as a second mother. But Cecilia had remained Cecilia and once adults, the two young women had continued to keep their distance.
“Well, wouldn't it be my favorite niece in this dress worthy of Titania ?”
“Uncle Drosselmeyer !” exclaimed Toby with a big smile. “You came !”
Turning around, Sarah found herself face to face with a tall, thin, salt-pepper-haired man dressed soberly but tastefully. She smiled and hugged him.
“Uncle Drosselmeyer, I'm so glad to see you !”
And she was. Besides her father and Toby, Drosselmeyer was the person she was closest to in the family : he was the one who supported her when her mother died, the one who helped her cope with the coldness and pettiness of Cecilia, the one who had helped her when she believed that all was lost and what he created with a few pieces of wood… Real works of art.
“Me too my little one, me too.”
After greeting the rest of the family and congratulating Irene on the splendor of the Christmas decorations, he turned to Sarah again, eyes bright.
“Would this beautiful girl please accompany the old man that I am to the tree ? I thought I saw one of my old friends there.”
Sarah laughs.
“Come on uncle, you're not that old. Would you like me to ask the widow Jenkins what’s her opinion ?”
Irene laughed and Toby almost choked on a toast he had just swallowed.
“Oh cruel cruel child. All the more reason for you to accompany me, you wouldn't want to leave me alone facing her, would you ?”
Shaking her head with a smile, Sarah took the arm he held out for her and accompanied him to a group of old gentlemen who were very happy to hear all the gossip that Drosselmeyer brought to them.
Half an hour later, a crystal tinkle was heard and someone asked for silence.
Standing straight, Hans stepped into the center of the room, Cecilia regal on her arm in her burgundy silk dress.
“Ah I see the peacock has not changed much”, muttered Drosselmeyer.
Sarah stifled her laughter with a fit of cough.
“My friends, it is a real pleasure to be here with you this evening. Thank you for accepting the invitation of my esteemed future father-in-law despite the snow that threatened to engulf us all this evening.”
Some polite laughter burst out. Sarah rolled her eyes.
“I will spare you a long speech but I just wanted to take advantage of this evening to announce that Cecilia and I have finally set a date for our wedding. In a month, my sweet Cecilia will make me the happiest of men.”
He leaned in to kiss her and applause was heard from all sides. Beside a Cecilia beaming with happiness, Hans spoke again.
“If I had known ten years ago that I would stand there in front of you, beaming with happiness ... But this dark era is now behind us and it is now towards the future we must turned. (He raised his glass.) To happiness and the future !”
The guests followed suit.
“To happiness and the future !”
Conversations resumed, the guests hastened to personally congratulate the young couple and soon it was time to go into the dining room for the meal. But when Uncle Drosselmeyer and Sarah followed the other guests, they both carefully avoided looking towards the fireplace, where a magnificent silver nutcracker with pale blond hair and unusual eyes sat on the mantle.