Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

The three men quickly agreed to accept Ortaladze’s apologies and his offer to send
Dato into exile to Jena, where he was to stay until he had successfully finished his medical
education.
To avoid any further gossip in Tiflis, Ilia would keep the other two culprits locked up in
Kvareli until their parents could pick them up. They hoped that the affair would quietly die of its
own accord without any further publicity or the involvement of the authorities. Dato took his
banishment without a show of emotion; he was ready to fall off his chair.
Early in the morning Alexandra and the three men, hapless Dato in tow, set out for the
long ride home.
Konrad, trailing the others next to Alexandra, was deep in thought.
"Would you tell me the whole story again?" he asked.
She had expected his question and pained by the difficulty of explaining her complex,
archaic role between two her cultures and the two men, she described the happening a second
time.
Konrad listened quietly. He was immensely relieved to have her back alive and was
quite prepared to accept her explanation.
After the first emotional welcome Alexandra’s parents did not mention her abduction
again. To them it was an embarrassing adolescent prank of a love-sick young man. Alexandra,
however, was unusually quiet and withdrawn.
She tried hard to unravel the events and her mixed emotions which the melodrama at
Shuamta had put into such strong perspective: her separation from her parents and her
Georgian childhood, the approach of her wedding, and the difficult obligations which marrying a
foreigner would put on her.
She longed for advice by an understanding person who was not connected to her as
intimately as Olga or her mother. She finally decided to visit Persephone, not as a medium but
as a woman.
She found her in her chaotic room under the tower at Shavnabada, very much
Persephone the Queen of the Underworld, an entirely different person from Brimo the sheik.
Alexandra thought to have seen a man disappear through a rear door when she entered.
If Persephone was surprised to see her, she did not show it. She cleaned some wine
spots and breadcrumbs from the table and removed a half-empty bottle of wine. Then she
offered Alexandra a chair.
"Does Deda or your fiancé know that you are here?" asked Persephone after Alexandra
had told her that she wanted her advice in the emotional tangle resulting from her abduction.
"No, they don’t, and I don’t want them to know," said Alexandra.
Persephone nodded. "Good, it will be better that way. I will be able to talk to you more
freely."
Persephone prepared a pot of strong tea for them, brought two chipped cups, and sat
down opposite Alexandra. A strong smell of alcohol reached Alexandra on Persephone’s
breath. With sunken eyes and two deep, embittered furrows radiating from her pursed mouth,
she looked much older than at the sema. Her cold, dark eyes pierced Alexandra without mercy.
"You do know that your mother was here when you had disappeared? I tried to see you, but
those visions are always vague. The important minor details often escape me. So, will you
describe the episode to me and all of the experiences that were important to you?"
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