Up-Time Pride and Down-Time Prejudice
Page 40
“No, no, no. I'm not going to ask you for your hand again!” He held his hands up in surrender, and they both laughed. “My request is something much simpler, at least I hope it is.”
“Okay, that’s fine. No marriage proposals. Not now, anyway. What do you want to know?”
“I wish to start over.”
Mary looked at him, puzzled. He was being so careful, trying hard to swim in waters that were very strange for him, trying to be precise in his language. “Wait. Are you asking to ‘date’ me?” She used the English word and air quotes around it.
He was struggling. “I'm not sure what that means, to ‘date’. Like a day on a calendar?”
She paused, thinking. She was really good at describing a steam engine in German. Words for romantic relationships were not part of her normal vocabulary. There wasn’t an exact German phrase for ‘boyfriend’ that she knew of. She had heard people use the word liebling, which was sort of like ‘darling’, but that wasn’t right either. She thought back to some of the earliest phases she learned in high school from some of the new German kids.
“To be two who are together? Is that what you are asking?” Saying that made her feel better inside than she thought it would.
His eyes got a little bigger. “Is that like betrothed?”
“No. Definitely not.” She shook her head. “No.” Shook it again. “Not betrothed. It’s like a trial period, a before-betrothal but it’s non-committal. We agree to spend time together, do things together, get to know each other better. What an up-timer would consider ‘dating’.”
He smiled and looked at her, a relaxed smile that put crinkles next to his eyes. “Okay, where, or how, do we start?”
“Like this.” She scooted closer to him on the bench and held his hand. He looked startled, and then smiled warmly. She leaned into him, their bodies touching on the bench, and gently kissed him on the cheek.
He froze, and she leaned back from him, puzzled. After a moment, he started to breathe again. He turned to her. “This is a good start.”
The End
Epilog
Schloss Tratzberg, Late May 1635
Count Georg Fugger was in his office on the second floor of the schloss. Stacks of reports and files tied with different color ribbons, each signifying a different type of file, surrounded him. Before him was a file with a ribbon that indicated it was a personnel file, belonging to Mary Margaret Russo. Glancing through some of the papers in the file was his wife, the Countess Anna Maria, seated across from him. His cousin Regina stood at the window overlooking the courtyard below, listening to the discussion.
The Countess put the papers back into the pile and sat on the edge of the chair. Her posture was erect, hands folded in front of her as she spoke. “It’s fortunate Johann likes her. This whole affair certainly worked out much like you anticipated. You are to be complimented, husband. Perhaps we will soon have a married up-timer for the family? Our very own Fugger Von Uptime.” She tilted her head in query, in a way the Count liked. He smiled, and she smiled knowingly back. “Marriage bonds are always the best.”
Regina turned to them from the window. “Was this your plan all along, cousin? To improve the family fortunes by marriage? There were other candidates, but she was certainly the most beautiful.”
He waggled his hand. “Maybe. Maybe not. One never knows how a scheme will turn out in the long run, but as the up-timers say, so far, so good. They do seem to like each other. Quite compatible.”
Anna Maria agreed. “She does have a fine brain, for one so young. Not a well-trained mind, at least not by our standards. Accent is atrocious. But, as time goes on, she should become more pliable, more understanding to our perspectives. I think we will be able to bring her into the fold rather nicely. At long as this odd ‘courtship’ with Johann goes well.”
She used air quotes around the word ‘courtship’.
“Pliable?” Regina laughed. “Have you not paid any attention to her this past year? I’m very afraid that we are the ones who must learn to be pliable, no matter how this ‘courtship’ goes.”
Regina used air quotes too.
Magdeburg.
Spymaster Francisco Nasi was meeting with Mike Stearns in Mike’s office, where they were discussing the recent wedding of Claudia De Medici and Bernhard Wettin in Burgundy, which lead to a discussion of Tyrol, which lead to a quick discussion of a certain intelligence asset embedded with the Fugger in Tyrol, a young woman by the name of Mary Russo. Mike, as the soon to be outgoing prime minister of the USE, was asking him a question.
“She is happy, you think?”
“Yes, Mike. By all the reports we have. She does seem to genuinely like him. And he, her.”
“And her injuries?”
“She should have no long-lasting issues, according to the doctor we spoke to on site. The medications we sent were a help. She has built a support system there with a priest and her servants. Our local asset thinks highly of her.”
“I don’t like sending kids into things like this. Never have.”
Nasi shook his head. “She’s not a kid, Mike. You know that. We send people her age into danger all the time. Mary volunteered for this job. She has performed above and beyond. Any better and we will put her with Harry Lefferts and his crew. And Mike, there are far worse fates that can befall a young woman. She is dating a handsome count, a sterling member of the richest family in the world. By all accounts he worships her. Strategically, it’s a very good ongoing result for us. She will probably have an influence on the family, and their organization, for years to come. It’s the best possible outcome, all parties considered. Even her parents are well taken care of.”
Mike smiled at him with that mischievous grin he got on his face when he was formulating some scheme. The spymaster mentally braced himself. “I guess you’re right.” Mike continued. “After all, the Count Johann Franz Fugger must marry someone. Speaking of marriage, Rebecca and I were talking about you the other day.” More mischievous grin. Here it comes. “You should try to find a good woman, settle down a little. I’m sure there are candidates. You’ve made a lot of money in Grantville over the last couple of years. You should think about it.” If his grin was any wider, his face would crack. Nasi started to protest, and Mike held up his hand to forestall the objection. “After all, it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”