“And you must protect your wife. Yes, I get that. But now I intend to find some bottles and get drunk.”
* * *
“You know, my dear Charlotte, this is the first time I’ve ever met your husband’s officers. Not quite what I had expected of Melchior.” Irmgard’s suppressed laughter made her voice quiver in the dusky light inside the Eigenhause's light town carriage.
“Sister! Don’t tease Charlotte.” Frau Benedicte’s voice was reproving, but Charlotte could hear that her hostess too was trying not to laugh.
“If that Bavarian hussy had kept fingering my husband one second more, I would have drowned her in that bowl of spiced wine!” Charlotte knew she was overreacting to what she would merely have considered a light flirtation, if any woman had paid that kind of attention to her first husband. In fact: the Danish countess, who had come visiting from Holland, had offered a far more direct invitation to Wolfgang without arousing more than a light irritation in Charlotte—and that mainly due to the woman’s vulgar laughter and bad manners at the table.
“If so, then I made a mistake in interfering. That wine truly was awful.” Dame Anna’s beautiful voice masked her amusement better than the Eigenhause sisters, but Charlotte could see the twinkle in her eyes despite the dim light.
“Well, joking aside, Anna,” said Irmgard. “What was going on with those two women among the officers? That this Madeleine had somehow attached herself to your brother was obvious, but Melchior didn’t protest when Wolf introduced the big girl in trousers as Melchior’s quartermaster.”
“A quartermaster isn’t usually invited to that kind of social affairs, so my brother was obviously bent on teasing Melchior—as well as stirring things up with the councilors to keep the official party from getting too dull. The last bit works better in a place where all the officials haven’t known him since childhood, and our cousin Melchior has obviously gotten used to Wolf’s pranks as well.”
“I didn’t mind Allenberg. She seemed quite stoic and patient about people starring, and while only that nice young Simon Pettenburg seemed in any way protective of her, the other officers seemed…” Charlotte shrugged. “Accepting I guess. Certainly not leering or disapproving.”
“Well, get the story from your husband tonight, and tell us in the morning,” said Frau Benedicte, opening the door to the carriage. “Anna, I want you to promise me to let the carriage take you all the way to your door step. I know it’s only a short walk, but the town is filled with soldiers.”
“Thank you, Benedicte, but I want to stop by the infirmary on the way, and I might stay for a while.”
“As you wish. Irmgard, do you plan to join her?”
“Yes, but we’ll return the carriage and ask Karl Mittelfeld to walk us home. He has been sitting at his daughter’s bedside since he came back. We need to get him up and walking around. Pay some attention to the world around him again.”
Chapter 34
Bonn, Eigenhause House
January 30, 1635
“I do think it’s a little harsh of Melchior sending your young man into the snow after so short a rest.” Irmgard set down her goblet of wine and smiled Allenberg.
“Young man?” Allenberg looked up from the papers Charlotte had given her to sort.
“Yes. That nice young Simon has seemed quite protective of you at the parties.”
“Oh, that.” Allenberg gave a slow smile. “I believe that has been a case of mutual protection. Simon tells me he sometime feels like a hunted fox at balls and other social functions. The young girls can be quite forward—and the older women even more direct.”
“And Simon is of course such a helpless little ninny, that you were positively doing him a favor by protecting him.” Irmgard was openly laughing now. “That is one very clever young man.”
“Ah, I see.” Allenberg’s placid surface seemed a little ruffled. “I had not considered that he might have been exaggerating his problems. He is after all a most charming young man.” She fiddled a little with some letters and said with a small smile towards Charlotte walking around the room with her baby fretting in her arms. “I do not know if the general has told you, but Simon and I share a background with problematic relatives. I suppose that might have formed a bond between us, but our relationship is not of a personal nature.”
“Melchior has told me your—problems—were not your doing, and that your experiences and skills could be very useful to me as a secretary and perhaps later as manager of some of my properties.” Charlotte lifted little Bobo up to rest on her shoulder. The baby’s cold had block his nose, and the women were taking turns walking him around to sooth him and ease his breathing. “You have been a very competent quartermaster for my husband, and I definitely have no problem with women wielding authority on their own.” She stopped and looked straight at Allenberg. “But I need to know what you want from your life.”
“Want?” Allenberg picked up her pen and smooth out the feather with her fingers. “To leave the past behind me, and start a new life.” She smiled a little wryly. “And never, ever have a mob after me. I like money as much as the next person, but some risks just are not worth the possible gain.” For the first time she now met Charlottes eyes full on. “If you accept me into your service, Milady, I’ll protect your interests to the best of my ability. My skills are not those one would usually find in the secretary of a noble woman, but no one will be able to cheat you, and since nobody else is likely to give me such a chance, your interests would also be mine.”
“Sound reasonable. I'll pay enough that you should be able to either assemble a good dower over a few years, or eventually retire, but if you need or want more money faster for some specific purpose, I want you to tell me instead of trying for something shady—or something just not in my best interest.”
“Yes, Milady.” Allenberg was now grinning broadly. “The General has already said something similar—if a bit more forcefully expressed.”
“I can imagine.” Charlotte's tone was dry, but her grin as broad as Allenberg's. “How about you, Irmgard? I do not expect Frau Benedicte and Dame Anne to leave their lives here behind, but would you be willing to come with me to Jülich? Wolfgang drove away many of his most loyal people in his rages, and those who replaced them are of very mixed abilities and morals. I hope I can get Frau van der Berg to come to me from Dusseldorf and take charge of the more practical aspects of running my households, but I'll need some kind of a Lady-in-waiting, and I will not invite my sister Elisabeth to fulfill that position.”
“No, Charlotte. I'm sorry, but Karl Mittelfeld is barely keeping himself together, and whether or not his two last children lives, I think he is going to need me.” Irmgard gave a slight smile. “At least I hope so. I've always been quite fond of him.”
“I'll come with you.” Dame Anna's quiet voice made everybody look at her in surprise.
“But . . . You're a Stiftsdamen! Why?” Charlotte's startled voice had woken her son, who started crying again.
“I'm bored.” Anna smiled. “I am a Wildenburger too. Am the recent excitement has woken my old lust for adventure.”
“Excitement! Anna, are you out of your mind? Have you forgotten, what's filling the hospital? All the new graves in the graveyard?” Irmgard looked as if she wanted to hit her friend.
“Not at all, my dear. And I'm not planning to follow Allenberg's example and trying to disguise myself as a man.” Anna sighed. “But I've been moldering. Slowly crumbling into dust with nothing stirring me out of my rut. It's time for me to go somewhere else for a while, and if Charlotte doesn't want me in her household, I'll go nag Wolf and Melchior into taking me along.”
“Oh, I want you. Definitely.” Charlotte started to laugh, while patting her son on his back. “You know, between Anna and Allenberg, and with Melchior to handle the military matters, I expect it'll only be a matter of time before Jülich becomes the center of a thriving little empire.”
Chapter 35
Magdeburg, House of Wettin
Eva put down her pen, and straightened her back. Grape blight. The American books were quite clear about the menace, and the destruction it had caused when the tiny root-destroying pests had reached the European vineyards from America. And now they were here. Spreading out from Grantville following the rivers. So far only along the Saale, where grapes were rarely the main crop, but eventually the aphids would reach and destroy those fields along the Rhine and Main, where entire valleys with towns and estates depended completely on wine. In the American world the solution had been to graft every single grape plant growing in the European vineyards unto a root hard enough to hamper the pests. The Americans had brought along some of those roots too, and a project of producing rootstock for grafting was going on around Freyburg. But it would take millions of roots just for Germany, not to mention that the pests must eventually reach Spain, France, Italy, and all the eastern countries. She was not going to find a solution to a problem of that scale in her beloved still-rooms or even in the bigger facilities in the school at Quedlinburg, but what if she came up with a plan? Magdeburg right here and now would be the best time and place to get backing for whatever she came up with.
“The dress-maker’s here.” Eva turned as her older sister entered and went straight to the padded box holding Eva’s precious new microscope.
“Please ask them to measure you and the other first, Anchen. And don’t touch that.”
“They already did, and are having a small lunch with the housekeeper. You’re the one everybody knows have no interest in dresses, so they saved you for last. And I’m not going to break it. Getting our brother to buy you a microscope, even if it isn’t an American original, almost took divine intervention.”
Eva turned back to her papers, and fiddle a bit with closing her inkwell and cleaning her pen. With Eleonore’s husband hoping to become the Prime Minister of the USE there would be occasions that Eva would have to attend. Hiding in the still-rooms in order to study would not be acceptable. And unless she was dressed in proper style, she would shame the family. Pox might be considered an act of God, and thus beyond human control, but a scruffy dress on a woman from a wealthy and prominent family would be taken as an insult to your host and his guests.
As the two sisters left the airy still-room in the back of the house, and went along the corridors towards the front, Anchen kept glancing towards her younger sister until Eva had enough. “What’s on your mind?”
“Just thinking.” Anchen shrugged.
“Be careful with that or you might sprain something.”
“Don’t be rude, little sister.” Anchen hesitated. “Friedrich and I are announcing our engagement.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” Anchen hesitated again which finally made Eva pay attention as her sister was normally extremely straight forward and rarely hesitated before doing anything.
“Would you like to come with us?” Anchen said.
“To Zweibrücken?”
“Yes. Cologne first, but we’ll probably make one of Friedrick’s estates our main residence.” Anchen took a deep breath. “We would like you to become our chatelaine, and run our homes.”
They both stopped in middle of the hall.
“Please don’t be insulted.” Anchen rushed on. “It is an honorable position, even if it is not something a daughter of our father would normally consider. It wouldn’t be right for you to do so in a stranger’s household, but doing so to aid your sister in her new responsibilities is a different matter. Friedrich might be young, but he is the Count of Zweibrücken etc.”
“No, Anchen.” Eva slowly shook her head. “It’s very kind of you, and I thank both you and your Friedrich, but I want to spend my life doing research on natural science.”
“At Quedlinburg? The Abbess Dorothea wants you there, and our brother would probably dower you, but you didn’t seem in favor of the idea when Eleonore mentioned the possibility.”
“No. I want my own laboratory.”
“You’d need a wealthy patron for that. Like the alchemists. But they were old male scholars, not young girls. Who would offer to pay your bills?” Anchen sounded distressed, but at least she was listening and taking Eva seriously. “Especially since it would almost certainly make our entire family his enemies.”
“Or I need to come up with something that’ll earn me a lot of money, and preferably gain me a reputation as a very capable scientist in the American style as well.”
Anchen’s frown changed into a broad grin. “Absolutely wonderful, little sister. I totally approve. You figure out what it should be, and I’ll help you bring it about. We could probably enlist Litsa and Sister Maximiliane as well. Let us get the dresses out of the way, and go have tea at the House of Hesse. There’s a small gathering today, and they should both be there.”
Chapter 36
Cologne, Hatzfeldt House
February 12, 1635
“Lock up your daughters! The Saint and the Wolf hast come!”
At the laughing shout just when the carriage entered the courtyard, Charlotte looked questioning at Dame Anna on the seat beside her.
“Ah, that would be young Wilhelm of the Weisweiler Hatzfeldts. Please pardon his levity, my dear Charlotte. It is based on a very sincere affection for his older cousins, and there is no insult intended, just joy at seeing them again.”
“Certainly. Melchior has been telling me about the new set of family that I have acquired, and this must be the young son of Adolpha von Cortenbach. He is the one your uncle Georg has taken under his wings.” Charlotte gathered her lap-rug and prepared to leave the carriage.
“I assume the Saint mentioned must be your husband, dear Charlotte,” Madeleine’s voice from the far-away corner of the carriage held more than a lacing of acidity, “but I really don’t see why anyone should need to lock up their daughters on his behalf.”
“Ah, my dear Madeleine,” Dame Anna’s mild smile was in no way echoed in her suddenly sharp eyes, “I’m afraid there have been several instances, where Melchior’s very chastity has made him a challenge to women, who really should be old enough to know better.”
Charlotte hid a grin at the sudden red color in Madeleine’s cheeks. The older woman probably wouldn’t have gone as far as to actually seduce Melchior in Bonn, but there was no doubt that his failure to appreciate the charms of the temperamental beauty had made him an almost irresistible challenge.
But no harm had been done. Dame Anna and Frau Benedicte had neatly blocked Madeleine after that single scene on the evening of their arrival. Still, that scene had been embarrassing to everybody involved. Everybody, that is except for Wolf, who had apparently considered it the greatest joke he had ever heard, and been no help at all.
“Milady?” Charlotte looked at Allenberg holding out a hand to take the fur-lined rug. When it had first been suggested that Charlotte should employ her husband’s female quartermaster as a secretary, she had assumed that it was a joke, but she had decided to give the big woman a chance, and Allenberg—as everybody including Charlotte's husband called her—had proved extremely capable and with a surprisingly big store of knowledge about the most diverse subjects. Mostly concerning trade, but still quite impressive.
In the swirling snow of the courtyard of what must be the newly refurbished Hatzfeld House, Melchior was gently hugging a younger woman wrapped in a hooded blue cloak leaning on a cane, while Wolf was laughing and slapping an elderly man on the shoulder. The obvious source of the shout turned out to be a very young man, grinning broadly and almost dancing like an eager horse around Melchior and Wolf, and on the staircase a spindly looking man with narrow shoulders and a big smile stood with his arm around a decidedly overdressed young woman, whose ribbons were blowing around in the gathering wind. All around there also seemed to be an endless number of copper-curled children, cats and people dressed as servants, but—despite variations in build and coloration—the people of interest to Charlotte had a pronounced family likeness.
�
��The old man is Uncle George, the couple is Hermann and Trinket, and the woman in blue is Lucie.” Dame Anna's beautiful voice was pitched low enough to reach only Charlotte. "The children are the Peters, the illegitimate children of Lucie's late husband. Their status is about like that of fostered pages.”
“Thank you.” Charlotte kept her own voice low, and went to greet her husband's family with a smile.
* * *
“And then I told Father Johannes that I simply had to have my parlor done over in pale lilac silk instead of that common pink, but he said. . .”
“Trinket, my dear.” Dame Anna’s voice cut across Trinket’s chatter in a gentle rebuke. “This is a very pretty room, but both Lady Charlotte and I need to freshen up a little before sitting down to lunch, which I’m sure shortly will be ready to serve.”
“Oh! Yes. Yes, of cause. I’ll show you there.” The young girl’s fair skin blushed to a much deeper red than the walls of her—in Charlotte’s opinion—much too garish room.
“Yours is truly a beautiful room. Was the stained glass window with the white rose your own idea?” Charlotte linked her arm with Trinket’s and started walking along the corridor. The girl might be both silly and vain, but she was obviously trying to impress Charlotte, and there was no reason not to be kind to the silly chit.
“Yes. I’ve always loved the way the light from the windows in the cathedral made the floor and walls look like a garden of flowers even in winter. Father Johannes suggested a white rose, and made the drawing for the glass maker. I would have liked a pink rose and in one of the bigger windows, but Father Johannes pointed out that the smallest window was the one getting the most light, and that any other color than white would make it difficult to change the color scheme.” Trinket regained some of her liveliness, while talking about her pretties. “He had spent years in the American town called Grantville, and there seen a room supposedly looking like the bottom of the sea, and another with the ceiling like a sky with stars of small glowing glass bulbs. He also had some magazines called Simplicissimus with drawings of the rooms. They were very pretty. I did ask Archbishop Ferdinand . . .” Trinket stopped, and stood looking at the closed door. Charlotte threw a quick glance at Dame Anna, who shook her head at the silent question. No, Trinket didn’t know about Charlotte’s treatment in the hands of the Archbishop. Dame Anna reached out a hand to touch Trinket’s shoulder.
1635- the Wars for the Rhine (ARC) Page 24