Ferdinand's mother, however, would not consent to their marriage, as she had promised her late husband that Ferdinand must marry Clotilde; Baron Hainthal asked her to join them at the reading of Ditmar's will, when all would be explained. Ditmar had accompanied the Holy Roman Emperor Otho to Italy, where he found and became engaged to Bertha of Pavia. However, his rival Bruno Hainthal demanded her of the Emperor as his wife, who had promised Bruno anything in his power. Ditmar was imprisoned for refusing to give her up, until the day of the wedding, when he relented in exchange for the tower he was imprisoned in and a new castle, and he plotted his revenge, building secret passages between the tower, his castle and that of Bruno. Once it was built, he killed Bruno and Bertha's son by kissing him with poison, but spared their daughter; Bruno remarried and divorced Bertha, who became a nun, but fled to the tower to confess her fault of marrying Bruno, and died there. Ditmar, finding her dead, went and attacked Bruno, and left him in the tower to starve. Ditmar was given Bruno's lands, and brought up his daughter with Bertha, who went on to marry Adalbert Meltheim. However, Bertha's ghost appeared to her, and said that she could never rest until one of her female descendants was killed by her (which was fulfilled by the death of Juliana Meltheim) after which the families of Ditmar and Bruno would be united by love. Ditmar was cursed too, and his portrait, painted by Tutilon of the Abbey of Saint Gall, was changed each night to be deathlike. Ditmar explained what he had done, and was absolved, but would remain as a ghost and would administer the kiss of death to every male descendant but one in each generation, until the tower fell down. As Ferdinand was a descendant of Bruno and Bertha, and Emily was a descendant of Ditmar, Ferdinand's mother accepted that Emily fulfilled the condition of her husband's dying wish (intended to lift the curse described in a parchment attached to Bertha's portrait) and was happy to agree to their marriage. When Ferdinand and Emily had their first child, they all decided that he should be called Ditmar, and the ghostly portrait of his namesake at last faded away. The Fated Hour Sisters Maria and Amelia are worried about their friend