by Susan Finlay
“Yeah, I thought about that, too. Problem is, what if the killer turns out to be another family member?”
“It could be another guest from the gasthof—a stranger—or a highway bandit. Don’t you think that’s possible?”
“I wish I knew. What bothers me is that everyone here should be screaming for justice, wanting to find the killer. Birgitta was a member of this family. They should also want to clear Ryan and me. No one else has suggested it. No one. That tells me they either believe we’re guilty, or they know someone else in our little group is guilty.”
Sofie didn’t reply to that.
“Have you heard anything?” he asked. “What are they thinking?”
“No, I’ve heard nothing” she said. “That’s been bothering me, too. Perhaps no one wants to say what’s on their mind. They might be afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
MAX FELT JUBILANT as Sofie leaned over and kissed him again, making him almost forget about the question he’d just asked. Deciding it was probably best to let the question go for now, he asked about how they’d gotten Gerhard and the others to help them search for him and Ryan. Sofie filled him in, and they talked quietly for a while, then returned to the house, hand in hand, now anxious to get better acquainted with Monika and her family. Max noticed that Anneliese, Lotte, and Tobias were wearing different clothes. He asked Tobias about it.
“Monika said we smelled bad. She made us take a bath in the pond here on the farm,” he said, sounding thrilled as he said it. “She gave us clean clothes to wear after.”
“Oh yeah? That sounds pretty great to me. Guess I better talk to my mother.”
Half an hour later, after Monika provided clean clothes to Sofie, Ryan, Max, and Karl, they all took turns down at the pond. Max found out that Monika had made Gerhard erect a small fence and lean-to at the edge of the pond, with a bench to sit on while they changed clothes and behind which a modicum of privacy could be had. She told him Gerhard thought it silly at first, but acceded to her request and later acknowledged the wisdom of it when their kids had gotten older.
Later that afternoon, Max pulled Sofie aside and said, “I’ve got a surprise for you. We’re going on a picnic dinner.”
“Everyone?”
He laughed, and smiling said, “Nope. Just you and me. I’ve already made all the arrangements. Follow me, my dear.”
Just before they reached the designated spot, Max stopped suddenly. “Cover your eyes. No peeking.”
When Sofie covered her eyes with her right hand, Max took her left hand and led her down the path to his mother’s garden. It was the most enchanting place he’d seen in this century. Earlier, while Sofie was bathing, Max had asked his mother if he could take Sofie there.
Monika, delighted, said that it was not only all right, but she would pack them a picnic to take along. She’d looked at him conspiratorially, and he laughed. She knew what he was up to. Even when he was growing up, it was always hard for him to hide anything from her. His mother always seemed to know what he was up to. It was uncanny.
“Where are we going?” Sofie asked, with a giggle.
“You’ll see. No peeking. You’re going to love it.”
When they were standing at the entrance to the garden, partially hidden among an expansive copse of trees, Max said, “Okay, you can uncover your eyes now.”
He smiled as she opened her mouth in surprise.
“Oh, Max, this is beautiful. It’s the loveliest garden I think I’ve ever seen. Is it your mother’s?”
“Yep.” He dropped the basket on the ground, then wrapped his arms around Sofie, and kissed her.
When Max came up for breath, she said, “You really are full of surprises.”
He laughed. “Mom brought me here last night. We sat here on the bench and talked for hours. Before we left to go back to the house, she showed me the rest of her garden, and it is even more beautiful than this spot. Would you believe she created a small maze for her children? Reminds me of a storybook place.”
He stopped for a minute and took in a deep breath of the fragrant flowers.
“There’s also a grassy area, almost completely surrounded by tall flowers. Reminds me of a secluded island. It’s the perfect spot for a picnic.”
“It sounds wonderful.” Her cheeks were rosy and her eyes sparkled. Max thought she’d never looked prettier. Her hair was loose, draping over her shoulders and down her back in flowing waves and curls.
He picked up the basket and took her hand again, leading her down a path of stepping stones set in amongst tall flowers.
When they reached a clearing, Sofie exclaimed, “Oh, my God! This is amazing.”
Max kneeled down onto the tall grass, set the basket down, and then sat down.
Sofie sat next to him and smiled at him.
He smiled back, and then looked over at the flowers. He picked a single red flower and stuck it in Sofie’s hair near her left ear. Then he picked several blades of grass and rubbed them between his fingers, gazing over the colorful nature all around them.
“Look at all the butterflies,” she said. “I’ve never seen so many in one garden.” She laughed. “And dragonflies, too. It’s incredible. These are some of the most beautiful ones I’ve ever seen.”
Max was suddenly caught up in her excitement as he, too, watched the exotic winged creatures dance to the music of Sofie’s laughter. “I hope you aren’t allergic to bee stings,” Max said, breaking the magical spell. “I don’t see any nearby, but the flowers do draw them. See, there are some over there.” He was pointing to the edge of the grassy area where the flowers began.
“If I am, I’m not aware of it. That does bring up some concerns, though, doesn’t it? We don’t have access to good medical care like we do in our own time.”
“Yeah, I’ve thought about that, too. We need to be careful. On a positive note, however, we’ve had immunizations against some of the deadly diseases from this era.”
She nodded. They sat for several minutes, soaking in the late afternoon sunshine and the peaceful setting, until Max cleared his throat, trying to summon the courage to speak. He’d rehearsed this in his head, but now that the moment was here the words were stuck in his throat.
Sofie turned her head, inquiringly.
Max cleared his throat again. “I know we haven’t known each other very long, and we don’t know everything about each other. For me, though, it feels as if I’ve always known you. I love you.” He paused a minute and coughed. “It doesn’t matter to me that we don’t know everything about each other. We can spend our lives getting to know those things.” He looked down a moment, struggling, then looked into her eyes again. “What I’m trying to say is, will you marry me?”
He waited for her reaction, hardly able to breathe, his heart pounding so loudly that it sounded, in his own ears, like waves crashing against a shore. Unable to contain himself, he blurted “At least this doesn’t come as a complete surprise, considering that Tobias brought it up yesterday.”
She smiled. “Yes, he was quite embarrassed and sorry about that.”
She was quiet for a several moments and Max was afraid his heart would stop. Finally, she whispered, “I love you, too. I told you that already.”
Max waited for her to continue, but her silence made him look down, bracing himself for disappointment. The silence seemed deafening. Should he back off or push ahead? After a few minutes, he looked up. “If you love me, too, then why not marry me?”
“It is just . . . well, if we go back home you will want to go back to your life in America. You have family there, and friends, and a home. Once you’re there, you may not want me anymore.”
“Is that what you really think?” He took her hand in one of his, and with his other hand, touched her cheek to get her to look at him. “I don’t care where we live, or in what century we live for that matter. I want to marry you and live with you no matter where we are.” He looked directly into her eyes
, hoping she would see how sincere he was. Then he added, “You know, there’s a good chance we won’t get back. Whether we do or don’t it won’t change the way I feel about you. I was drawn to you from the very beginning, even though I’d sworn off relationships.”
“But your children live in America, and you don’t speak German, at least not enough to live here.” She looked sad. Max squeezed her hand gently, trying to encourage her to continue. “It’s only logical that you’d want to go back,” she said. “In Germany you would have nothing but me and Tobias. That might not be enough.”
“You’re forgetting. If we stay here, I’ll have Gramps, Ryan, my mother, and another family. And I’ll have you know my German is improving every day. I’m not too old to learn. I’m sure that in no time I’ll be fluent. Look at how much Gramps’s English has improved in the short time we’ve been here. If we go back to our time, I’ll have my daughter and my sister and her family, too. They’d probably spend time with us in Germany, and we could visit them in the U.S. I’ll study my German and in no time I’ll be fluent enough to get a job as an architect in Germany. If not, we can move to America. You’ve lived there before.”
“I left because it wasn’t a good place for me.”
Her expression was full of sorrow, and Max realized that she was trying to tell him she didn’t want to move. She wanted to remain in Germany.
“Then we’ll stay in Germany. My kids are grown. They’ll be going off on their own, anyway.” Sofie seemed to relax a little. “Now, will you pleeeease marry me?”
She laughed. “Okay, okay, I give up. You make it hard to say no. I feel bad, though, that I would be making you move away from your home.”
“No way. Hey, if we stay in Germany, we can live in that house I inherited. Your great-aunt can live in your house—or we can do it the other way around if you want. It’s your choice. Hell, she can live with us, if you want,” he said, immediately thinking that was a terrible idea, but he shook it off. “I think that if we get back, modern-day Germany will seem like heaven. I wouldn’t mind it one bit, I can assure you. I just hope that if we get stuck here, you won’t hate me.”
“No, I won’t hate you. In fact, I’m getting used to this place. Living here wouldn’t be easy, but in some ways it’s nice getting back to simplicity.”
Max squeezed her hand gently. “I know what you mean. There are dangers here, sure, but there were dangers in our time, too. And, hey, we do have something in our favor if we stay.”
“What’s that?”
“We know at least some of what’s ahead, historically I mean. Maybe we could invent something. How about the light bulb? Don’t you think that sounds like a good idea?”
Sofie laughed, shaking her head.
Max shook his head too, grinning, and said, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, I mean, I had every intention of going back as soon as possible but, well, I guess there really is a lot for us here, too: family . . . lots of family, and that’s only talking about mine. Your grandfather could be here, too.”
Sofie said, “I still can’t believe that he might be alive. We really need to talk with your mother and grandfather. And definitely with Tante Lotte. I don’t understand why she never told me—if it’s true.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. Regardless,” he said, returning the subject to the two of them, “I think we were destined to find each other.” Wincing immediately at his awful cliché, he admitted, “I guess that sounds awfully corny, huh?”
Sofie laughed, “No, it actually sounds sweet.” She reached over and gave him a smooch on the cheek.
Max laughed, too. “I’m glad we at least don’t have the dinosaur age in common, though. I don’t think I’d want to live in the Jurassic period. I think the late-fifteenth or sixteenth century is about as far back as I would want to go. At least those eras I could probably handle.”
They both laughed and Max gave her a silly smile and rolled his eyes. Then, rubbing his scratchy chin, he said, “Still, I do miss shaving, and hot showers, and air conditioning, and television. I guess there are pros and cons to every time and place.”
Sofie laughed again.
“Well?” Max asked. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes, I will marry you, but we’ll talk more, later, about when and where to live. Tobias and I have moved before, and maybe it’s time we gave it another chance.” She smiled and her cheeks glowed. “He and I both speak English, and perhaps I should be more adventurous and less fearful. I have been too afraid to live and to take chances, until this accidental ‘adventure’.”
Max squeezed her hand again, and Sofie turned and hugged him.
“I guess I needed to be prodded a bit, pushed into action. But, if I can survive this,” she said with a giggle, “moving back to America should be easy.”
“Well, I guess we will keep our options open,” Max said, “assuming we have any. Don’t rule out Germany in the twenty-first century too fast. But if we live in the house I inherited, we’ll certainly need to seal off that door to the time portal, unless some of the family here think they might someday visit us.”
He chuckled, then pulled Sofie close again. He kissed her, then pulled back and said, “Damn, I don’t have a ring to give you. Under normal circumstances I would have bought you a diamond ring. Well, except for the fact that I lost my job several months ago. After that, I lost my house in California to a mudslide and had to pay for hotel rooms while I waited for the insurance money which, by the way, still hasn’t come through and I guess, thinking about it, never will if we remain here. Maybe I should have told you all of this before you agreed to marry me. You can change your mind. I wouldn’t blame you.”
“Quiet, silly. That doesn’t matter.”
“I still would buy you a ring in a flash if I could, but right now, here in this century, I can’t even afford to buy a meal.” He chuckled. “But at least Mom took pity on us and packed food.”
Sofie grinned. “Of course I don’t mind marrying a man of no means.” She poked him mischievously. Growing a bit more serious, she said, “Even if we had money here, though, we’d have far more important things to do with it than buy jewelry.”
“That’s true. If we do have to stay, I don’t know how I’ll make a living here. I don’t think there’s much call for an architect.”
“We’ll figure it out, you never know” she said, squeezing his hand.
He smiled and began unpacking their basket, feeling happier than he had in years. Only his fear of how they would live in this century tugged at the corners of his brain.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
MONIKA OBSERVED SOFIE and Max enter the farm house after their picnic. When Max glanced at his mother, smiling, she knew things had gone well. She smiled back, relieved, thinking she would have to talk to Max later to get details. She had been worried about Max and Sofie, their relationship seeming so tenuous, with so much baggage, but apparently the picnic had gone well. She decided that this was a good day. Maybe everything would work out right after all. Her children were all coming to terms with the situation.
Sofie smiled, too, and then Tobias rushed over to her and hugged her.
“The men are building a new wagon to replace the one that was stolen. They let me help them.”
“Wonderful!” Sofie said. “I’m glad you’re doing something useful.” She ruffled his hair and he smiled exuberantly.
“Where did you and Max go? Sigrid said you were away on important business or something.”
Sofie chuckled. “Yes, very important business. We had a delicious picnic in the most beautiful garden,” Sofie said. “I wish you could have seen it.”
Tobias scrunched his face. “Why didn’t you invite me?”
Max wrapped his arms around Sofie’s waist from behind. “Because I had something important to ask your mother.”
Tobias’s face lit up. “Really? What did she say?”
“Yes!” Max said.
Tobias laughed, jumped up and down, and th
en hugged both of them. “We’re going to be a family.” He pulled back and looked up at them. “That means Ryan will be my step-brother, doesn’t it?”
“Sure does,” Max said.
Monika, watching them approvingly, smiled and wiped her hands on her apron. She walked over to Gerhard who was sitting near the fireplace. When she bent over and whispered the news to Gerhard, he grinned broadly, got up and strode over to Max, slapped him on the shoulder, and then embraced him, causing Max to nearly topple over in surprise.
Sofie, Monika, Gerhard and Tobias laughed heartily. Tobias said, “I’m going to go and tell the others. Ryan will be happy, I hope.”
A few minutes later, Ryan rushed into the room, smiling. “Is it true, Dad?”
Max nodded, but Monika thought behind his smile, she noted a hint of worry as well.
Ryan hugged him. “I’m happy for you—for both of you.”
“Thanks, Son. That means the world to me.”
Ryan turned to leave, then stopped and turned back around. “I’ve been talking to Anneliese, too.” He smiled sheepishly. “I’ve picked up some German and she’s picked up some English from Tobias. Anyway, we’re taking things slower now. You know what I’m talking about, right?”
Max nodded.
“I want to court her. I think that’s the right word here. If all goes well, then maybe we’ll get engaged. We’ll wait and see.”
Max glanced at the others, then hugged Ryan. “I will back your decision, Son. You’ve grown up a lot since we arrived in this century. I’m proud of you.”
Looking relieved, Ryan replied “Thanks, Dad.”
IN THE MORNING Monika awoke feeling refreshed and happy, relieved that one of her biggest secrets was finally out in the open. After she and the other women finished clearing the breakfast table, Monika turned to Sofie and asked, “We’re going to have another group meeting in a while. Would you care to go for a walk with me before the meeting?”
Sofie smiled and nodded.