Maria stood behind Mary, and as usual Mary had to point to a chair to make the girl take a seat. Mary was not used to having a servant lurking about while she was eating, it was just too weird. She preferred Maria to sit, and she had to tell her every time.
“From what I heard from Andreas, one of the footmen from my village, is that the Munich gates were all locked, and nobody could go in or out. Sybilla and some others were outside the gates, along with the footmen. Everyone else was inside. The Count, and the whole family are working to get Regina released. They say she is innocent, but Maximilian is after blood, it seems.”
“And Johann Franz?” Mary asked through a mouthful of chicken.
“Nobody knows where he is, Mistress. He was seen in Munich before everything went crazy, but nobody knows.”
“Who was this Polyxena?”
“She was a friend of Countess Regina, from her days in the court at Vienna.”
“I didn’t know Regina spent time in Vienna.”
“Yes, mistress, she spent several years there.”
Before Mary could process that information, there was another knock on the door. Mary wondered if she was ever going to get to finish eating anything this afternoon. Maria opened it, and Father Huntsha was there. With him was a burly footman. She recalled the footman was in some sort of quasi-leadership position, and reported to Stadelmeier. She mentally had assigned him a second lieutenant rank, although the Schloss’s command structure wasn’t that formal. He was about the same age as Mary, barely twenty, maybe less. He was jock-like, and he reminded her of some football players back in high school. Not a bad guy, but needed a smart girlfriend to help him pass his algebra test. He stepped forward.
“Mistress Russo, I am Jacob Bertran. I am in charge of security until the return of Friedrich Stadelmeier. We are here to ascertain if you are a demon.”
Mary glared at him for a moment, and he responded with a stone-faced resolve that told her he was there to do his duty. A duty that included reporting back to Sybilla, and all that included. She sighed. “Can I finish my dinner, Jacob? I’m hungry. And I get grumpy when I’m hungry.” She turned to the priest. “Hello, Father. Busy day today.” She took a bite.
He ignored her friendly greeting. “Mistress Russo, this is a serious matter, and it must be treated seriously. I am here to examine you for signs of demonic possession.”
Mary rolled her eyes in disgust and frustration. “Aw, for…” Jacob took a step back, and she heard Maria gasp. Father Huntsha’s face was neutral. Mary looked about, confused. “What?”
“She rolled her eyes, Father!” exclaimed Jacob, worry creeping into his voice.
Mary looked at him as she took another bite of chicken. “It’s what I do when I'm faced with bullshit, Jacob.” She spoke as she chewed.
Father Huntsha held up his hand. “It’s also a sign of demonic possession.”
“Rolling of eyes is a sign of demonic possession?” She swallowed her bite. “If that’s the case, Father, every teenager in Grantville is a demon.” She glared at the two men, but did not roll her eyes again, even though her eyeballs itched with the desire. She took a sip of wine and turned in her chair to face them.
Father Huntsha continued. “If all the young adults in Grantville are demons, it’s a question for others to decide. Not for us today.” He took a step towards her, and his usually kind face was as grim as Mary had ever seen it. “I urge you to take this seriously. We need to decide this quickly and fairly.” The tilt of his head and a raised eyebrow communicated to Mary the need for her to try and play along.
Dinner, it seems, was going to have to wait. She figured he needed to be on the up and up in order to report back to everyone else. She suppressed a sigh, and then smiled at the men. “Okay, Father. What do you need to know?”
“Have you recently had any issues with entering a holy place, such as a church?” he began briskly.
“No, Father.”
“Have you recently been unable to take the holy sacraments of the church, such as confession or of holy communion?”
“I have taken communion every week, and gone to confession every week here in the Schloss with Father Anaverdi.”
“Can you say the lord’s prayer and offer me a hail Mary?”
She did, sincerely and calmly.
“Have you had any aversion to being in the presence of anyone who is of the church?”
Mary narrowed her eyes at the priest. “I spent the morning with you, Father. In your church.” She shook her head slightly. “You certainly know that.”
“Have you caused any objects to move under their own power, or by the power of a demon?”
Mary was beginning to get frustrated. This whole thing was so unnecessary, performed just to satisfy Sybilla. She glanced over at her chambermaid, looking for support. Maria averted her eyes. Mary gritted her teeth. “No, Father. Nothing has jumped off the shelves as I walked by.”
“Have you spoken a language which you are not familiar, a language you do not know?”
Mary shook her head. “Everyone makes fun of my West Virginia accent all the time; that much I know.” She glanced over at Maria again, this time her maid met her eyes and had the decency to look embarrassed. “I’ve been trying to pick up some Italian, and read some Latin in books, but nothing beyond that.”
“Have you expelled anything from your body, anything beyond the ordinary? Any objects?”
“The fish didn’t agree with me last Friday. That was unpleasant. But no, nothing beyond the ordinary.” She looked at Maria again, and this time she nodded in agreement. The men looked to Maria for confirmation as well. As her chambermaid, she would know. Her feelings of violation grew with this intrusion, but knew she had to play along.
“One last question. Have you had any instances of supernatural strength? Where you were stronger than you normally would be? Lifted a large object, perhaps?”
She smiled at that one. Maria wouldn’t even let her lift her own shipping boxes and trunks in the room. She hadn’t lifted anything heavier than a book since she got here, the servants wouldn’t allow it. It was good thing she walked everywhere, otherwise she figured she would have gained twenty pounds. “No, father. They don’t let me lift anything.” There was a brief pause. “You said we were done?”
The round-faced Father smiled, finally. “Yes, Mary. We are finished. You have answered everything quite perfectly, my findings agree with Father Anaverdi.”
“One moment.” Jacob, the high school football player and second lieutenant, stepped forward and spoke to Father Huntsha. “What about when she defeated two men in a corridor? That was extraordinary, don’t you think, Father? Not something a normal girl could do. Not without help, anyway.” He looked very smug as he finished his sentence.
Mary swore silently under her breath. His accusation wasn’t something this defensive linebacker could come up with on his own. Someone was prepping him. Probably Sybilla. Her eyes itched again, she wanted to roll them so badly. Instead she squinted at him. “So you think a girl is unable to protect herself from a couple of idiots, Jacob?” Mary was about done with this crap. She stood up from her desk, pushing her now cold dinner away, then pulled herself to her full height, went up on her toes a little, and was able to look Jacob-the-middle-linebacker in the eye. “I'm not some little girl, Jacob. And while I'm not nearly as strong as you, I would put up a lot of resistance if you tried something. And if you were drinking, I bet I could take you.” She tapped him on the chest with her finger, getting right up in his face, and he edged back a half step. “So that thing in the corridor was just me fighting, Jacob. If those two assholes had to make up a story about a demon to save face after being beaten by a girl, that’s their problem, not mine.” She came down off of her toes to normal height and turned to Father Huntsha. “Are we done here, Father?”
Father Huntsha was grinning ear to ear. “Oh, yes, Mary. Quite finished. I am satisfied.”
“Good. Thank you, Father.”
&n
bsp; Jacob and Father Huntsha bowed and turned to go. Mary held up her hand. “Wait a minute, Jacob. What is the situation in Munich? Are Regina and the rest of the family safe?”
Jacob looked uncertain.
“Jacob, tell me what is going on with Regina. She is my friend.”
The young man sighed, then relented, accepting his defeat. “She is still held by Maximilian’s men. Stadelmeier is working on plans to escape Munich with her, but there are also negotiations under way. Bavaria is in chaos, even the members of the privy council for Maximilian are under investigation, and several are being held under suspicion.” He shook his head, in an attempt to be succinct and at the same time get his head around the massive changes in the status-quo. “And the Swede’s forces are moving, so the situation is very complicated. We don’t know what is going to happen.” He shook his head again. “I am sorry, Mistress. We don’t know if any of them will be back soon.”
“What are your orders from Stadelmeier? You have communication, don’t you?” Mary put her hands to her hips again, pushing her point. The kid was intimidated now, and she wanted answers.
He nodded again, still a little uncertain of how much he should say. Mary watched as he again paused, and then made the decision to talk openly. “We are using our normal couriers, and have added men to the routes. We can get messages in and out. I have been told to secure the castle here, and make ready for family members, and others in our organization, to possibly arrive here as they can. You know the Brenner pass is south of here, and there is a lot of traffic as people come from Munich to Innsbruck or further south towards Italy. It’s only a few days travel to Munich, so there will be a lot of movement, and I have been told we need to prepare.”
“Prepare for what?”
He shrugged. “Anything, and everything, was the exact message I was given, Mistress.”
Mary thanked them both as they left, and finally got to finish her dinner. She thought all night about what she should do, and how she should handle things. There was little she could do to help Regina. If Mary, as an up-timer, showed up in Munich, or anywhere in Bavaria, she would be imprisoned --or worse. In fact, she worried that her relationship with Regina as an up-timer wasn’t helping with Maximilian. As much as she wished it, there was nothing she could do. Nor was there anything Grantville could do for her. Regina might as well be on the moon, for all that she could do for her.
Her other problem was here, at Tratzberg. It was obvious that Sybilla was the key. That girl was the source of her problems, and quite frankly, if she analyzed it enough, she was a threat. Defending herself from charges of witchcraft was going to be next, if things continued. And the thought of where that could lead was chilling. Mary had always managed to get along with people rather well. She was reasonably popular in school, and while there were some minor instances in grade school that carried over into junior high school, she never really had anyone hate her before. There were disagreements, sure. One time there was a girl who thought she was flirting with her boyfriend, and there was a time during junior high where a girl on the track team tried to bully her more than once, but that girl ended up moving away. After that, she wasn’t bullied much back in school, but she knew girls who were. Mary never understood the whole bullying thing, it was just cruel and stupid, and it made her angry when she saw it. This whole Sybilla thing felt like that, only with even less support than she had back then. Back up-time, there were her friends and family around. Here, she was alone. She sighed. Alone again.
But what do I do? she thought. This can’t go on. She tossed in her bed. It can’t continue. Sybilla can’t continue to do this to me. I need to do something to make it stop.
The next morning, Mary woke, stretching in the early morning sunshine. She felt rested, and finally resolved. Her next step was clear now. She would talk to Sybilla. She wasn’t sure how it would go, or what the outcome would be, but she had to give it a shot. She had a contract here, and she had to build bridges, not be an enemy, and not be petty. It was not only her job, the one the people here were paying her for, but also her other job, for Grantville and the government back home. She considered it her duty to at least make the effort. Properly analyzed, and in the proper perspective, she nodded with satisfaction.
Maria brought in breakfast, and Mary used the new bathroom down the hall, with a flush toilet modeled after an up-time design. Face washed and hair pulled up, she turned to her chambermaid. “So, Maria. Do you know Sybilla’s chambermaid?” Maria looked at her suspiciously. “Don’t worry, I just want to talk to Sybilla, alone.”
It took several days to set up the meeting with Sybilla. During that time, Mary continued to teach only a couple of classes, and spent most of her time meeting with a man from the silver mine in the town of Schwaz. He ran the local mining operation for the Fugger family, and Ulrich Trufer was focused and detail oriented. They were about to get a new boiler to make steam, a steam engine to create action from the boiler, and a series of pumps to keep water out of the deep mine. The pumps had to go to the bottom of the mine, where the boiler could not go. Trufer was a very practical, smart man, who reminded Mary of her father. They looked to be about the same age, and like her father, this guy really knew his job. Mary knew the project would be challenging, and she was looking forward to it. In spite of living in a coal mining town her entire life, she had never been inside one, and the idea of a silver mine held a certain fascination for her. And the mine was located almost directly across the river on the northern end of Schwaz.
Finally, after a week, she was meeting with Sybilla. They were to meet in neutral territory, so they were in a sitting room on the first floor of the Schloss, a semi-public area where the Count often greeted guests for business, when those guests were not of sufficient rank to meet in his private offices.
Mary was nervous. She had a lot of time to think about this, too much time in fact. But the delays had all been about Sybilla. The maids had said “she didn’t feel well after her trip”, “she wasn’t up to meeting anyone”, or “she had to go to Jenbach and see to something important.” But Mary persisted, and eventually wore down the resistance. She knew she had to try. She had hopes, but tried to be realistic as to the outcome. Mary arrived first, and stood as Sybilla came into the room.
“Sybilla, thank you for coming,” Mary said, smiling at the pretty dark-haired girl. They stood facing each other in the elegant room, a darkened fireplace to one side, and a sitting area before it. The ceiling like so many others in the Schloss was of carved wood panels and beams, and candles burned on a table by the wall. Windows faced the mountainside, and they were slightly open, allowing a breeze scented with pine to drift into the room, to be pulled up the seasonally dormant chimney.
“What is it you wish to discuss, Mary?” Sybilla stood, rigid, hands clasped in front of her, meeting Mary’s gaze with cool defiance. “I'm quite busy, with so much in disarray.”
Mary nodded. “Would you like to sit?” She gestured to the two small couches in front of the fireplace.
Sybilla considered. “Will this take long, Fraulein Russo?”
Mary smiled again, remembering that she wanted this meeting, and focused on not taking the bait of Sybilla’s jibes. “Let’s be comfortable, Sybilla. And talk. Just you and I.”
Sybilla paused and considered again. She made a show of considering, then barely consenting to the suggestion, and eased her way to one of the two small couches. Mary sat across from her, smoothing her down-time skirts as she perched on the edge of the couch. Sybilla’s posture was similar.
For a moment they looked at each other. Sybilla tilted her head and raised one of her eyebrows, a motion that Mary had seen used to send staff scrambling in pursuit of some task that the girl wished done. Mary decided that she was immune to it, and simply smiled back. There was a brief narrowing of Sybilla’s eyes, as she realized, and then subtly acknowledged the fact that it would not work on Mary.
“I am here, and ready to listen to what you have to say. Plea
se proceed,” said Sybilla.
Again, Mary let the implied permission wash over her without comment. It wasn’t important today. She had thought a lot about how to start. Ultimately, she figured she should just get on with it. So she did. “Sybilla. I'm here to do a job. I was hired by the family, your family, to be an instructor and an advisor. It’s what I've tried to do to the best of my ability since I arrived here.”
The expression on Sybilla’s face was polite, but under it was a look of judgmental disbelief. Mary continued. “And since I arrived, you have done nothing but impede my work.”
Sybilla’s eyebrow again elevated slightly, the only change in her expression.
“I heard what happened to your brother, and I'm sorry for that. It was tragic. I'm truly sorry.” Mary shook her head, she was sorry. The little girl roaming the hallways without a father was a painful reminder. She steeled herself and continued. “We have all lost people in this stupid war. But I had nothing to do with what happened to him. I was still in school when the battle happened.”
Mary paused, waiting for a response to her apology. There was none. Sybilla’s look changed from judgmental to contemptuous as Mary finished. Her lips were pursed together. There were a few moments of awkward silence.
Mary let the silence lay, and met Sybilla’s contempt with what she hoped was a look of sympathy. She had to try.
Sybilla’s expression finally changed into one of disinterest. “Is there anything else you care to apologize for, Mary? I have some things to do today.”
“No, Sybilla. I have nothing else to apologize for.” Mary shook her head again, and leaned back into the floral print couch, consciously trying to make herself less confrontational. It was very hard with Sybilla not to confront her; she was the kind of girl who could bring that sort of thing out in a person, make you upset with a well practiced sideways look. But she had to try to fix this, whether Sybilla wanted to or not. “Sybilla, I understand your world, our world, is changing. And it can be frightening. Terrifying. There were days, like during the Croat raid on my school, that I was scared witless. We were certain that we were going to be murdered. I could have been a casualty, just as easily as your brother was. But the world is changing, Sybilla. The family knows it. And it will change whether you want it to or not. You need to be prepared for what is coming.”
Up-Time Pride and Down-Time Prejudice Page 24