by Susan Finlay
“You stay with the others,” he said. “We are forming a search party to look for Max and Ryan.”
Sofie hesitated, licking her bottom lip as she considered her options. Of course she wanted to stay with Tobias, especially if Karl was right and Lotte was a murderer. Karl had told her she must not trust Lotte, but although she knew her great-aunt was sometimes deceitful and selfish, Sofie couldn’t imagine her killing anyone. Certainly, not Tobias. She’d been around him off and on since his birth. He would be safe with her. Sofie suddenly pictured Max and Ryan on the day when she’d nearly fallen off the ladder at her home, remembered their weary faces and smiles of gratitude when she’d offered to help, and felt a surge of emotions. How frightened they must be—lost and being hunted by the Feld gendarmes. When she’d first moved to the U.S. to attend graduate school, she hadn’t known her way around the big city. Somehow, she’d gotten off the subway at the wrong stop and found herself in the wrong place—on a street in a ghetto part of town. Three men had accosted her at knifepoint. If it hadn’t been for a stranger who happened onto the scene, and his help, she might have died.
Sofie shook her head. “I am going with the search party. Tell me what you need me to do.”
“Nein! Women have no place in a search party. You stay here.”
She bit her lip to keep from snapping at Karl. Although he might be right, she couldn’t accept the male chauvinistic attitude no matter what century she was in. She took a deep cleansing breath, calming herself, and then said, “I am going with you and that is final.”
“It is dangerous. You stay.”
She shook her head. “You have no idea how stubborn I can be.”
“Ja, Lotte told me about your stubbornness,” he snapped. “That is how you all ended up in this century. If you had listened to her and not gone with Max to the house, you would still be back in your time and Birgitta would be alive.”
Sofie’s mouth dropped open, but no words would come out. He blamed her for everything that had gone wrong. As much as she wanted to argue, if she had sent Max and his son on their way, they might have found the house on their own, and without Tobias running around and going through that door to the portal, it was conceivable none of them would have time traveled. Her shoulders slumped and she almost gave in, but if Karl’s accusation was true and everything was her fault, wasn’t that all the more reason to try to find Max and help him?
“I should have listened to Tante Lotte. It is too late for that now.” She stopped, her words choking in her throat and tears threatening to fall. Composing herself, she said, “I am sorry, Karl. I messed up everyone’s lives. But I am going to try to help Max, with or without you.”
Karl’s lips tightened, from anger or sadness she couldn’t tell, but then he nodded, turned around, and approached the man he’d spoken to earlier. After a brief conversation, the man glared at Sofie and walked away. Karl nodded to her.
For a while, the whole farm was a flurry of activity. After an hour or so, Karl approached Sofie and said, “Tobias and Lotte stays here. These men—Gerhard and his sons, Konrad and Henrik, and a family friend, Gunter—will come with us.”
“They look young,” Sofie said. “One of them looks only a few years older than Tobias.”
Karl frowned. “You know someone else ‘round here, do you? You have better plan?”
Sofie shook her head.
“Then we get horses ready and gather weapons. You talk to Tobias, ja?”
Sofie walked toward the whitewashed farmhouse, opened the front door, and peered inside. The teenage girl with ash-blonde hair looked up from her sewing. Sofie asked where she could find Tobias.
“He is in the kitchen,” she said.
Sofie found him and sat down on a bench next to Tobias and Lotte.
“Are we leaving now?” Tobias asked.
“Karl and I are going, along with some other men. I am sorry, Tobias, but you will have to stay here with Tante Lotte. We will be back soon, I promise.”
“No! I am going, too,” Tobias said. He stood up, his arms defiantly crossed. “You told Gramps back in Riesen that you did not want us to get separated.”
“You will be safe here. Tante Lotte, Anneliese, and Valkyrie need you. Besides, you certainly cannot take a cat on a horse. We will come back in a few days.”
Tobias thought about it and slowly unfolded his arms, bringing them down to his sides. “Mom, I am worried. What if you get lost, too, like Max and Ryan?”
She stroked his hair. “I will not. I will be with these local men. They know their way around the area. It is Max and Ryan I am worried about. They must be terrified.”
“What happened to them? How did they get lost? We were all supposed to stay together.”
“I will explain it all to you when I return. Be good and stay safe, all right? I do not know what I would do if anything bad happened to you.”
“I love you, Mutter.”
“I love you, too.” She kissed his forehead and ruffled his hair.
The oldest man, the one named Gerhard, came into the kitchen with the girl and asked her to gather food and drink for their trip.
A short time later, they went outside where the other men were already mounting their horses and preparing to leave. Sofie rushed over to the remaining horse and mounted it with an assist from Karl. Moments later the girl ran out of the house carrying flasks and drawstring cloth bags. She gave one bag and flask to each of the men and to Sofie. Then she smiled broadly, swung herself around, and ran back toward the house.
Tobias and the others stood together, outside on the porch, watching and waving as the group prepared to leave.
Sofie gave him a reassuring smile, the best she could muster under the circumstances, then shook the horse’s reins and prodded the horse forward.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
GOOD GOD!” MAX said as he ran his hand through his sooty, oily hair. “I’m really beginning to hate this place.” They’d galloped away from Altenmünster as soon as they realized their mistake and they hadn’t stopped riding until nightfall. The following day, after traveling on empty stomachs and still not speaking to each other, they’d come across another village. Unfortunately, they’d quickly discovered it was not Günzberg. Max had tried to talk to a few people to get directions, without any luck. His fledgling German was simply too limited.
Ryan, taking it upon himself to try, found a teenage girl and tried to talk to her. Max couldn’t hear them, but he’d watched them gesturing to each other. Ryan had returned to Max after a few minutes and said he thought they were getting closer, but gave no further explanation.
They’d ridden on, and spent the night in silence surrounded by brush and forest, finding nothing more than a few berries and apples to eat. Perhaps if Max had had a knife or sword, he could have tried to hunt for a rabbit. But it didn’t matter anyway, since he had no means to start a fire to cook anything.
The next morning, as they’d started riding again, Max had mustered his courage and decided to try talking to his son. He’d pulled up alongside him and began talking, but with a momentary sidewise glance Ryan had trotted away, leaving Max to his own thoughts. Max had told himself that Ryan was just being his usual stubborn-ass self and would talk eventually, when it suited him. Something else had bothered him, though. He’d realized that ever since they had come to Germany, the sense that the boy was secretive, if not downright dishonest, had nagged him subconsciously. He had just refused to acknowledge that impression.
They’d finally come to another town, and Max had felt a weight lift from his shoulders, until they discovered the town was also not Günzberg. From the little bit of conversation they’d gleaned from the locals, it sounded as if they would have to backtrack, probably a quarter of a day’s ride. If they were lucky, they might get there before dark.
They rested now in a field outside the small town of Senden. Max didn’t relish another several hours of riding in complete silence with an invisible wall between himself and his son. They
had enough stress without that. Besides, his back was killing him for some reason and he had a headache. He pulled his horse up beside Ryan’s again before they started riding back.
The boy gave him a sideways look and nodded—the first positive sign Max had seen from him since they’d left the gasthof. Encouraged, Max said, “I didn’t kill, Birgitta. She was a good person.” Ryan didn’t respond. “Do you know anything about her murder? Did anyone discuss it with you?”
Still nothing.
Max clenched his teeth, but decided that getting angry wouldn’t work with Ryan. Taking a different tact, he said, “I’ve been thinking about our conversation in the gasthof’s stable the other night.”
Ryan looked at him with his forehead creased and his young jaw set tight.
“You do know I was trying to protect you, don’t you?” Max asked.
Ryan sighed and shrugged.
“Come on, Ryan. I’m not your enemy.”
Silence.
“Oh for crying out loud. What did I ever do to you to make you hate me? Even your mother treats me better than you do, and she’s the one I divorced.”
“No, Dad. You divorced us all.”
Max could hardly believe what he was hearing. “You think I left all of you? I’ve tried to stay in your lives. I’ve done—”
“You dumped us. You cheated on Mom and you went off to be with your girlfriend. Then, you dumped her, too, and now you’re taking up with Sofie.”
“Whoa, sport. You’ve got it all wrong. I didn’t cheat on your mother. I’ve barely dated since the divorce, and I most certainly didn’t date or cheat on your mother while I was married. Why do you think that I did? Is that what your mother said?”
Ryan didn’t answer.
Max studied his son for a moment, thinking about how to approach him, and then said “To be honest, Ryan, I don’t know what happened to your mother and me. I don’t know why the marriage fell apart. I figured I wasn’t a good enough husband, or that I’d become unlovable.” Max wasn’t about to tell him that Jenny was the one who had cheated. The kids loved their mother, and he didn’t want to taint their image of her, no matter what.
“Yeah, well, you never came to our school activities, ballgames, or our birthday parties. You were always too busy with your job and your own life that didn’t really include us.”
Max felt the words sting his face, a sting as hard as any slap, because the accusation was mostly true. He’d spent all his time trying to get ahead in his career, and he’d even failed at that. His boss had laid him off and hired someone younger and fresher. Perhaps if he’d kept up with current trends in architecture and had sought additional education, he might have kept his job, but he had thought he knew it all. No sense crying over old job decisions now. But Max did love his children and that aspect of his past had come back and was now actively haunting him.
“I haven’t been the best father—or son, for that matter. I know that and regret my failings. I didn’t even go to Germany when my mother and grandfather disappeared. I wish I could get a do-over, but I can’t. I hate to admit this, but until recently, I didn’t realize how many of my choices and decisions I’ve come to regret. But my mistakes don’t mean I don’t care.”
“You sure don’t show it. And you’re right about not being a good father.”
Max sat silently. When he finally could trust himself to speak, he said, “I’m sorry, son. I had hoped that bringing you on this trip with me might help our relationship. I guess I’m failing at that, too.”
They rode side by side in silence for what seemed an eternity, then finally Ryan said, “Why didn’t you go to Germany when they disappeared?”
Max didn’t answer right away. It was such a long time ago that he barely remembered why. He closed his eyes a moment. He had been in college at the time—busy with classes, finals, and with Jenny. He was getting ready to propose to her and then she’d told him she was pregnant. “I guess I was too busy with my own stuff. You’re right. I’ve always put myself ahead of family. It’s not only you, Lisa, and your mother. I’m a miserable failure at relationships. Hell, at everything.”
Ryan stopped his horse suddenly. Max slowed down and turned around, then trotted back to where his son was waiting. “At least you came here to look for them now. Of course you only started looking now because you think they can help you figure out how to get you back to the twenty-first century. It’s always about you, isn’t it?”
Max opened his mouth to speak, but Ryan took off, kicking up a cloud of dust. Finally, Max caught up to Ryan but only because his son stopped a moment to let his horse drink from a stream.
After Max let his own mount get a drink as well, they began riding once again through a meadow on the opposite side. They continued to avoid taking roads, making travel more difficult and making their finding towns exponentially harder. But if Karl was right, the Feld gendarmes and/or search parties would still be looking for them. It also didn’t help that Max could barely tolerate the smell of horse and cow manure spattered along the roads, mixed with smells of sweaty people and tang of their cargo, which apparently included fish, live chickens and pigs, and tar, among other things.
Here in the meadow, the air was at least fresh, and the scents pleasant. The mix of tall blowing grasses, dandelions and assorted wildflowers seemed more like perfume to Max’s nose. Riding through the willowy blades of grass, he breathed in deeply, absorbing the pleasant scents while ignoring the smell of their own horses wafting into the mix.
It now seemed ages since he’d arrived in Riesen of the twenty-first century, almost like another lifetime. He struggled to recall its scents as he’d walked through the cobbled streets in that early morning. The bakeries had taunted him with exquisite smells of cinnamon and sugar, fresh-baked bread, and pastries. He’d resisted the lure then, taking it for granted. He would give anything now to bite into one of those fresh-baked goodies. He sighed, his stomach aching more than ever. How he longed for good food, almost any food from his time. A grilled steak with baked potato was at the top of his list, followed by a big fat double cheeseburger with fries, cholesterol be dammed. I don’t know how many more berries, bread, and apples I can stand.
Realizing this line of thinking only heightened his hunger, Max tried to re-focus on the scenery, hoping they might spot some castle or nobleman’s estate to alleviate some of his growing boredom, mixed with his growing anxiety that they were hopelessly lost. Were they anywhere near Neuschwanstein, Bavarian King Ludwig’s world-famous fairy-tale castle that Max had been determined to visit before returning home? Hell, I probably won’t ever return home. And if I’m stuck in the eighteenth century for the rest of my life, with traveling being slow and tedious, I likely won’t ever get to the see the castle, either. Of course, he thought brightly, if he somehow managed to evade capture, spending the rest of his days wandering alone through fields and forests, with my backwards luck, perhaps I’ll stumble onto the damned castle.
He remembered looking up the castle in a tour book once and then on a map of Germany while he was on the airplane coming here. He knew it was near the town of Schwangau, but darned if he could remember where that was located. Lotta good it would do if he remembered, anyway. He couldn’t even find the town of Günzberg, which he knew had to be around here somewhere. Seemed all he did was ride in circles.
Max sighed, as memories of his earlier travels with Sofie, Tobias, Karl, Anneliese, Birgitta, and Lotte descended upon him. He still couldn’t believe Birgitta was gone! Although he and Birgitta hadn’t spoken the same language, he thought they’d actually gotten along really well together. He hadn’t realized how the death of someone he barely knew could affect him so deeply until now. And if it affected him this much, how devastated Gramps must be—he’d only recently learned that his first wife had died, and now his second wife was murdered, all within what? —a few weeks maybe. Max didn’t actually know how long they’d been in this time. He’d lost count of the days, one day melting into the next on th
e road.
He tried to escape from his depression by focusing on the beauty of the countryside, the majestic tall pines, the quivering maple leaves, the gentle swaying of grasses, the soft breeze and the glimmering leaves of the silver birch trees. The bluebonnets momentarily captured his attention, dancing tall and proud among the foot-tall grasses.
He was interrupted by Ryan’s horse halting, snorting and stamping excitedly. Max’s horse suddenly reared up and threatened to throw Max off. But luckily he was able to remain in the saddle. When he got the horse under temporary control, he looked around to find what had frightened the horses, expecting perhaps bandits or highwaymen. Several nights ago, Sofie had heard that a family was attacked on the road by bandits. The person telling the story said they’d robbed them and then snatched the mother and rode away, with her flailing and screaming.
Instead, to Max’s relief and delight, he caught a glimpse of a red fox running away in the tall grass. Ryan, sitting in his saddle a few feet away, burst into laughter. Max wasn’t sure whether Ryan was likewise relieved at identifying the source of the distress or was having a laugh at his father’s expense. Either way, it was good to hear his son’s lighthearted laughter. Once his mount had settled sufficiently, they rode on.
A couple of hours later, Ryan, now in the lead, turned his head to look back at Max and yelled out, “I see a town up ahead.”
Max smiled cautiously, trying not to get his hopes up for what would probably be yet another bust. Seeing Ryan turn back around and gallop off, Max coaxed his horse to follow. He caught up with Ryan, and they both stopped at the edge of town, where they watched and waited for a time for any signs of their friends. Finally, Ryan said, “I’ll go into town and find out if it’s Günzberg, what do you think?”
“Yeah, okay, I’ll wait here. Maybe you can ask around and see if anyone has seen Karl or Sofie.”
About half an hour later, as the sun was setting, Ryan returned, excited. “It’s Günzberg, all right. Someone told me a man named Karl was here a couple of days ago, looking for someone. The guy thought Karl said he would come back.”