Mary held up her hand. “I’m okay, Lorenzo. My health isn't great, but it’s good enough. Down-time drugs are coming along, not as good as up-time, but for what I have it’s working okay. It’s just a little frightening to hear you say it so directly. But direct is good, Lorenzo. I’m okay with direct. I guess.” She paused and nodded to herself. “I want you to be honest with me, as honest as you can. On everything. The good and the bad. Do we have a deal, Lorenzo?” Addie raised one of her still-dark eyebrows and looked at the man.
“Of course, Addie.” The curious little man put down his cup carefully, rose and shook her hand. As he did it, he looked into her eyes. They were handsome eyes, full of intelligence, brown and warm. She smiled back at him. “Please understand, what she is doing isn't really that dangerous. The Fugger are not stupid. They did not get to be one of the richest families in the world without keeping themselves safe and secure. And moreover – this is what I think, as well as others – the Fugger already know that Mary will be reporting back to us. In fact, I would be absolutely amazed if they did not expect it. So do not worry, Addie. She is as safe there as she would be anywhere, possibly even safer than Grantville.”
Addie nodded to him. She had been worried about this new assignment. With her husband in Magdeburg most of the time, and only home a weekend or two each month, she worried about her daughter more than she cared to admit. The little Jewish man smiled at her. “In fact, did you know where she is living is a magnificent castle? It was a summer home of the Holy Roman Emperor for many years before it came to the Fugger. So she has some very high living standards, even in the small town of Schwaz.” He folded his hands in front of him. “Do not worry, Addie. This is an assignment that I would send my daughter to, if I had one. And we have a person locally who is close to the family and keeping tabs on her.”
“Who is it?”
He smiled at her playfully. “Can’t really say. Spy stuff, you know,” he shrugged a little shrug.
“I see.” Addie smile again. “Thanks, Lorenzo.”
“Now.” His demeanor changed to one that was more businesslike. “I understand that you have received the first bank transfers from the Fugger for Mary’s employment?”
“Oh, yes! My goodness. So much! And it will be that every month?” Lorenzo nodded, eyebrows arched. “I really want to stay working at the flower shop, but with this much money every month I won’t have to at all. I mean, I could buy my own flower shop in another few months or so at this rate. Good heavens, she said it would be a lot of money, but, my goodness.”
“Mary told me that you should get some help around the house.”
“I've always taken care of my own house, but it would be nice to have a little help. I’ve never had a servant. Not getting any younger, you know.”
Lorenzo smiled. “I would be happy to recommend some people for you to interview.”
“That would be very nice, thank you. And did I tell you that her father sent a lot of her stuff to her? There were a couple of crates. Apparently this was part of her contract, too? Shipping her personal belongings. It was quite a lot of stuff she was asking for, including some old skis.”
Chapter 13 Lost and Found.
Something was wrong. Mary had been at Schloss Tratzberg for a couple of months now, and she was getting into a rhythm. A very challenging rhythm, to be sure, but a rhythm nevertheless. She typically arose very early, and took a meeting with someone from the mining group, or from one of the other Fugger subsidiaries that had some sort of a question about up-time techniques, or interpreting up-time techniques. Most of these she could not answer, and a large part she didn’t even understand the questions. But using a continual correspondence with multiple sources back in Grantville through the Fugger mail system, she began to answer what questions she could. Depending on what the questions were, some she would send inquiries to friends of her parents, some to her father for medical advice and clarification, some to a neighbor who was a retired coal miner who she convinced the Fugger to put on a stipend for the constant letters she sent, and a few – very few – she was able to answer herself. After that meeting, and writing whatever she needed to go back to Grantville for further explanation or research, she would start on the daily school segment of her day. It was hard, but she enjoyed learning something new every day.
But the sense of ‘wrongness’ stuck with her in the classroom, and had for the last week. Mary felt like there was a secret, and everyone else knew what it was except her. She had spent this afternoon with the more adult group, doing basic algebra. One of the young men in the class made a connection to artillery from the theoretical lesson she was teaching, and that went very well. They spent the afternoon discussing the formulas for trajectories and how to chart those on a graph. They compared the down-time charts for plotting artillery against up time techniques. It was well within her math comfort zone, and while she knew next to nothing about artillery, the math was something that she was good at. The class was chattering excitedly at the end.
Mary felt gratified. She always played a little game with herself, envisioning light bulbs floating over her students heads, and mentally watching them switch on when they “got” something. There were a lot of light bulbs that day, and she was happy.
The lady with the toddler had once again been lurking in the back of the room. The child was quiet on the woman’s hip, fingers in her mouth and wide eyed. Mary caught her eye. Usually she would smile back, but today the girl simply looked sad, and eased out of the room.
Later in her room, her servant who was, like almost everyone else in the place, named Maria, served her dinner as she graded papers and tried to read about what the castle library had for artillery handbooks, which was very little. There was a sharp rap on the door. Mary nodded to Maria and she opened the door. Stadelmeier and Johann Franz were in the hallway. Johann had not been in class the last week, but absences were not unusual, as her students had other duties. This was her first visit by Stadelmeier. Both of them were frowning. Mary figured this wasn’t about algebra, and she began to rack her mind for any recent inadvertent transgressions. She came up blank, rose to her feet, and greeted them with a smile.
Johann looked grim. “Mary, a word.” He bowed, as did Stadelmeier.
Mary curtsied in return, glad she hadn’t undressed in her chambers like she usually did. The constant wearing of downtime clothing at first made her miss her jeans. The opulent downtime clothes were nice, but she missed the day when she came back from school and immediately went into sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt. Drafty castles didn’t accommodate t-shirts, even in summer. And without a doubt, Johann would be scandalized with her in a t-shirt. She snorted a bit inwardly. “Why Johann, Herr Stadelmeier, this is a surprise. What can I do for you?”
Johann glanced at Stadelmeier and then back to Mary, and cleared his throat. “We are looking for Maria Cecilia.”
Mary went through the list of names in her class in her head, Maria Cecilia had been gone from class for the last week. She was in with the younger kids, fairly bright but not ready for the full adult classes. Mary felt herself nodding. “Yes, she hasn’t been in class for the last week. I just thought she was ill or had gone home.” As she spoke, it occurred to her that if Stadelmeier was here, it was maybe more serious. “Has something happened?”
“She is not ill.” Johann was curt in his reply.
Mary felt her eyebrows arch. This guy was such a prideful, pompous fellow, and she swallowed back her frustration with him. “Oh. Well, you don’t- err.” She thought better of calling him rude to his face. “Do you know where she is?”
“I do not. Did you speak to her in the last week?”
Mary crossed her arms and looked at both of the men, their expressions distasteful, as if they really didn’t want to talk to her at all. “We were talking the other day after class if I reca-”
“What did she say to you?” Johann interrupted her and took a step towards her that had an energy that was almost desperate, and d
efinitely forceful.
Mary was caught off guard. “We were just talking about books, romance novels—”
“—And up timer behavior?” He wasn’t sarcastic, he was genuinely angry.
She was beginning to get angry with his questioning. But alarm bells were starting to go off in her head. “Well, yes.” She put her hands on her hips and stuck out her chin. “What’s this about?”
“None of your business. I have sufficient information. You are dismissed.” He waved an arm at her and started to turn and go, clearly frustrated about something.
“I beg your pardon? I am in my chambers, Johann. I don’t think you can dismiss me here.”
He turned to face her, sputtering. “Then go to your classroom, or wherever it is you spend your time!” He pivoted on his heel, and Stadelemier behind had just enough time to get out of the doorway as he stormed out. They both took off down the hall with purpose. Mary stood stunned at the exchange for a moment and then went to follow, not sure what she was going to say, but most assuredly going to say something.
As she went out into the hallway she caught sight of the men rounding a corner. Also at the corner was the woman with the toddler, this time without the child. Her name popped into Mary’s head, Maria Juliana. She had been listening, and she too followed the men, saying nothing.
Mary stood in the empty hallway, hands on her hips, incredulous. She replayed the conversation, trying to figure out what she had done to make Johann so angry. And what was Stadelemier doing involved? She was standing there scratching her head, when she heard Maria, who was, Mary supposed, her actual chambermaid. Mary had been so busy, she had barely had time in the last month or so to talk to her, other than day to day routine. It had been an uneasy relationship. Mary wasn’t used to having a servant, so the whole thing had been awkward from the start. It also didn’t help that Maria was the servant who had escorted Mary to the cell her first night at the castle. Mary figured that was just Hofer’s little game. Mary sighed. “Maria, can you tell me what is going on? I'm quite confused.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
“I asked you to call me Mary.” Mary was reasonably fed up right now with seventeenth century formalities.
“I know Mistress, but I have instructions.”
Mary sighed. “From Hofer?”
“Yes Mistress. And others. The Count also.”
Mary was puzzled. She could understand Hofer, but the count actually telling a servant how to address her struck her as an odd detail. She filed it away under ‘more strange Fugger Household Stuff’. “Very well, Maria. What in the world is going on?”
“Maria Cecilia. She is missing.”
“Missing? How Missing? Kidnapped?”
“They think she ran off with some boy from the village.”
Mary looked around and decided the hallway wasn’t the place for this conversation. She gestured to Maria to go back into her chamber and closed the door. Mary’s concern grew. “Tell me, Maria. How old is she?”
“Maria Cecilia just turned thirteen, Mistress.”
Mary felt her knees go a bit rubbery, and her stomach clenched. “Oh, shit.” She needed a chair. Maria appeared with one. While one part of her brain reeled with concern and questions, another part realized that Maria might be pretty good at her job, anticipating her need to sit down. Mary took a breath. Where to start? “Okay. What are they doing to find her? Will they find her? Do they know if she went off by herself or was it because of coercion, or worse?”
Marie looked a little conspiratorial, and crouched next to Mary. “Apparently the reason she left was one of the most ridiculous. It was because of a boy. From the village. She left a note saying she knew the boy was her true love, and that was why she was going away, to be with him.”
“Her true love?” Mary rolled her eyes, exasperated.
“She is very fond of up-time romance novels, and – I shouldn’t tell you this -- but she said it’s what an up-timer would do!”
Mary leaned back in her chair, recalling the conversation she had with Maria Cecilia in her classroom last week. Her stomach clenched again. “Oh shit. Oh shit! What can I do to help?”
Maria shook her head. “Nothing, Mistress. Stadelmeier will find her, have no doubt, and Johann Franz is very good.”
“What about the police, the authorities? Surely someone will be able to locate them?”
Maria smiled slightly. “Mistress. The Count is the Authorities.”
Mary felt drained. “Oh.” She rubbed her face, and started to feel a little hopeful. “If they find her, and I assume they will, what will happen to her?”
“The Count and his men will find her, have no doubt, Mistress. It’s a surprise they have not yet found them, but they will.” Maria stood up. “But what happens when they find her, that remains the discretion of the count, and her mother and father.”
Two mornings later, Mary was running late for her first class. She had finished a meeting with a gunsmith who had a series of questions about up-time firearms, and the meeting had run longer than it should. One thing she decided, is that there were obsessive gun-nuts up-time and down-time, and they both were focused on the minutia of guns and their workings. Some things just don’t change, she thought wryly.
In the hallway outside the classroom, stood Stadelmeier, Hofer and Johann Franz. The missing girl, Maria Cecilia, eyes fixed firmly on the floor and looking somewhat thinner, stood to the side. Mary halted, and felt her chest tighten. A woman stood behind them, who Mary recognized at Maria Cecelia’s mother. The woman would not meet her eyes. The three men had no problem staring directly at Mary.
Hofer stepped forward, and he looked at Mary with his typical contempt. Whenever Mary had any interaction with the man, she had to suppress an urge to punch him, or to punch a wall. She had taken to punching a wall, as she deemed it safer in the long run. Hofer looked down his nose at her.
“Instructor Mary Margaret, you will follow these instructions with Maria Cecilia.” He began to read from the paper “For the next two weeks, any disruption in class will be reported to me directly. She is not allowed any up-time literature, absolutely no exceptions. Any reading will be from the bible or as assigned by Father Huntsha. She is allowed math and science instruction.” He put the paper in his pocket. “Any questions, Instructor?”
Mary chose to ignore Hofer and focused on Maria Cecelia. Mary knelt in front of her to catch her eye. She had been staring at the ground the entire time. “Maria Cecelia, are you okay?” The girl nodded slowly, still looking at the ground. “Do you want to come back to class?”
She looked up at that. “Oh, yes, Fraulein Mary. Oh, very much.” There were tears in the girl’s eyes.
“I see.” Mary looked at Maria Cecelia’s mother, who was now looking back at Mary, a very careful and neutral look. Mary decided the best thing to for the girl was a return to something that resembled normal. Mary smiled at the mother, and then a big smile at Maria Cecelia. “Well, we have missed you this last week! You're going to have to work extra hard on catching up, young lady. You're way behind on homework.” Both girls hesitated for a moment, and then Mary held her arms out, and they briefly hugged. Mary stood and smiled at the mother, who smiled back for the first time. “Run along to class, I will be there shortly.”
“Yes, Fraulein Mary.” The girl bobbed a curtsey and walked quickly off, suppressing the urge to run while wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Her mother also curtsied and left the other way. Stadelmeier grunted and turned away and left, while Hofer handed her the paper and sneered. He too left, leaving her alone in the hallway with Johann Franz. They stood awkwardly for a moment. He looked strangely nervous.
Mary decided to restart the conversation. She assumed he was waiting for her to thank him for his gallant retrieval. In truth, she was grateful for the girl’s safe return. While she logically understood she couldn’t have known what the outcome might be from her talk to the girl in her classroom that day, she still carried internal guilt for no
t realizing what might happen. “Thank you for bringing her back, Johann.”
“No thanks are required. Stadelmeier needed help, and we assisted. It was our duty.”
“What will happen to Maria Cecelia?”
Johann nodded to her. “She is on probation. She must not see this boy. She must obey implicitly, or she will be sent to a school at a church, run by nuns only. They also want to make sure she isn’t pregnant. If she is, then she will likely be placed with the Sisters until after the event.”
“I see. So, ‘get thee to a nunnery’, is the answer.” She felt very tired.
To her surprise, Johann actually sighed a little. “Yes, Fraulein. It would make me sad, I have always had a special feeling for Maria Cecilia, she is a charming young lady, and I have known her since she was an infant. I have always called her my favorite.”
Mary felt her eyebrows arch slightly. This was the first time she had sensed Johann actually demonstrating some feelings other than that of Strong Bavarian Count. She nodded at him. “And the boy? What will happen to him?”
Johann’s face became rigid again. “He will not see her again.”
Mary sighed. “How sad.”
Johann almost snapped to attention, the kindness rushing away from him. He turned to Mary. “No.” He made a chopping motion across his body that reminded Mary of a saber slash. “Not sad. Necessary.”
There was an awkward pause, and Mary watched him turn on his heel and march off down the corridor.
Chapter 14 The Dinner
Mary turned to Maria, her chambermaid. “What should I wear? This is the first time I have been invited to dinner with the Family!”
Maria was rummaging through a one of the trunks that Mary’s father had sent from Grantville. There were several stacked about Mary’s chambers. She held up a pair of jeans from one of the trunks and made a face that was politely judgmental. “Most certainly not these, Mistress.”
Up-Time Pride and Down-Time Prejudice Page 12