Party of Liars

The house has always belonged to The Mother.

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Perched atop the highest cliff in Comal County, Texas, the Queen

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Anne–style Victorian was built in the late nineteenth century by Wilhelm Vogel. Wilhelm had fallen in love with young Ada Müller, a debutante, notorious for declining suitors, turning away their trinkets, poems, and various attempts to charm her. What she wanted was a castle. So Wilhelm, a notable businessman and stone carver, set his sails for the Texas Hill Country, like so many German immigrants before him. There he purchased the land. He brought an architect by train from New York City to draw the grand plans, and construction began. Limestone was quarried locally. Stained-glass windows and handcrafted woodwork were shipped from Europe. Finally, with calloused hands, Wilhelm planted tulips—Ada’s favorite flower—in the gardens along the lattice- work. Then he sent for her. Some months later, upon her arrival, she saw it from her carriage, so high up—asymmetrical facade, turrets and dormers, two-story wraparound porch—imposing against the back- drop of an endless Texas sky. Ada was pleased.

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The ranchers who lived in the house’s shadow saw Mrs. Vogel often, tall and slender, with pale skin and pale hair—combing out her curls in the upstairs window, tending to delicate blooms of yellow, cream, and pink that stood sentry around the estate. Later, they watched her pushing the baby’s pram through the grounds, and at sunset, standing on the balcony, face to the wind.

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Then came Ada’s death. So very soon after the magnificent house was completed. A story in and of itself. A fall, people repeated. An accident? they questioned. And some wondered and might have even whispered…