Tanglewood Grotto (The Bavarian Woods Book 2)

by Susan Finlay

  Ingrid said, “I saw Karl put the lock on the door. That was right before he saw us.”

  The officer who was standing over Karl’s body reached down and searched for the key. “I found it,” he said, holding up a key.

  Helmut, now standing nearby, walked over to Ingrid, then bent down and took hold of her tied hands, gingerly helping her to her feet.

  Once her feet were planted and she was stable, Helmut untied her hands. She wiped dirt from her face, realizing too late that she’d probably made it worse. Her hands were filthy and bloody.

  “Let us go to the root cellar,” the officer in charge said. “We will take Raimund into custody unless he tries to escape. If he runs, kill him,” he instructed the other two officers.

  Ryan walked over to Ingrid, draped his arm around one of her shoulders for support, with Helmut supporting her other side. Together they helped Ingrid walk. “Thank you, dears, for being here for me,” she said through tears. “I can’t believe any of this is happening.”

  “I’m really glad you are safe,” Ryan said. “I hope Dad and Tobias are safe, too. Let’s go get them.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY -TWO

  INGRID SMILED, SEEING Max, Ryan, Tobias, and Konrad greeted by all their friends back in Möbius. Everyone was gathered around them, hugging them, laughing, and listening to them tell what had happened, minus of course, the details about the time travel business. Those who knew about the time travel would be filled in later.

  It had taken the whole night to get through interviews with the Feldgendarms, get all the searchers back together, and let everyone know what had transpired. The Feldgendarms had given the okay for people to leave, pending recall, of course, as the case proceeded.

  On the way back, Helmut and his two children had lagged behind the others for a few moments, talking quietly. Ingrid, having noticed and being curious, slowed her pace to see what was going on. Helmut smiled and said they had talked and agreed. They wanted her to move in with them back in Dinkelsbühl. Ingrid’s eyes teared up and words caught in her throat. When she didn’t respond, Helmut started to apologize for their presumption, but Ingrid blurted out “Yes” and smiled through her tears. Ingrid felt she could not be happier.

  Shortly before arriving in Möbius, Sofie and Max had made a decision as well. They rode over to Helmut and his family, now including Ingrid, and invited them all to come live in their community. Helmut exchanged looks with his children, apparently seeking their input, but the excitement in their eyes already told the story. He looked to Ingrid, who shook her head in assent. They were moving to Möbius. Ingrid had clapped her hands together. As happy as she was to be invited into her son’s and grandchildren’s lives, it just got better. She couldn’t imagine a happier outcome.

  When the initial greetings from their return to Möbius died down, Sofie turned, wrapped an arm around Ingrid’s and Helmut’s shoulders, smiled, and asked, “Are you all ready to meet your new neighbors?” Up until now, they had stayed on the sidelines, watching and listening to the excited conversations between the residents of the small village. “We will need to start building your cabins tomorrow—unless you prefer to live in your little grotto,” she added, smiling at Ingrid.

  “Nein, a cabin will suit me fine,” Ingrid smiled, knowing when her leg was being pulled. “Hmm, on second thought, maybe a cabin added in front of the grotto would be nice. I could store foods in the back. It would be a good place for keeping things cool, wouldn’t it?”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Sofie said.

  “We will need a barn and I will build workshop, too,” Helmut said. “It will take some time to get my tools moved here.”

  “Your tools?” Sofie asked.

  “Ja. You will need lots of help building the stone house that has the time portal underneath. Mutter said that if the house does not get built, it could affect all of us. Mathias would never have time traveled—he would not have lived in the house and thus would not have known about the portal. None of us would have. You and Max would never have met, either. It is my duty, as well as yours and Max’s, to ensure the house is built.”

  Max joined them and Sofie translated what Helmut had said. Max beamed at him and said to Sofie, tell him, “I am thrilled to hear you say that, Helmut. In fact, you can be in charge of the construction if you want.”

  Helmut chuckled. “We can work as a team, how is that?”

  “Perfect,” Max said. Then he took a step back, his hands on his hips and a puzzled look on his face. “Wait, you understood what I said?”

  Helmut laughed. “My English is not great—my teacher in school was impressed—but that was long time ago and I have forgotten much. I hope I will get better at it. This will be a good change for my family. Johanna and Peter are as excited as I am. Now they will get to know their grandmother and I will get reacquainted with my mother.” Turning to Sofie, he continued, “I must admit I am eager to work on your stone cottage, as well, Sofie.”

  Ingrid grinned so wide it made her face hurt. She’d figured Helmut would never want to be in her life again. She’d figured Sofie and her family would send her away again. But they had all forgiven her for her past mistakes.

  Sofie looked at Max, put her arm through his looped arm, and said, “Oh, you might be interested to know that Ingrid also speaks and understands English.”

  “What? She was faking the whole time we were traveling together?”

  Ingrid felt her face get hot and she gave a sheepish grin, hoping he would forgive here.

  Max laughed. “Well, I would complain, but it makes my life easier, so what the hell? Come here, Ingrid, and give me a hug.”

  Ingrid laughed, too, and did as Max asked.

  Sofie led the small group over to where Ryan and Lisa and all the others were waiting and introduced Helmut and Ingrid to everyone. When they came to Max’s ex-wife, Ingrid noticed the way Helmut and Jenny looked at each other. Jenny pushed strands of her blonde hair behind one ear and tilted her head, a playful smile on her face. Helmut’s dimple in his chin appeared and his eyes lit up. Uh huh, a match made at first sight. It made some sense. They both had twins around the same age—one boy and one girl—each and they were both single and about to be living in the same tiny village. What was that Erma had said? Oh ja. ‘How else would people meet their future wives and husbands than through friends and family?’

  Ja. Ingrid smiled to herself. This could work.

  After they’d all rested and filled their bellies with a robust dinner, Helmut, Ingrid, Max, Sofie, Jenny, and Tobias sat around a campfire and talked in English. Helmut’s English skills seemed to be improving quickly after listening to the others.

  They discussed Karl and how sad it was that he had fooled them all.

  Max said, “Do you think Karl’s death will create some sort of time paradox?”

  Sofie said, “I hope not. He was eighty years old and probably didn’t have many years left, anyway, whether he was in the past or in the future. I hope that means nothing will change in the timeline.”

  Bursting at the seams, Tobias said, “I’m angry that Gramps hit me over the head and took me away from my family. I’m angry that he stuck me in that stinky cellar without food or water or a bed.” Looking at Max, he continued. “But I’m sad that he’s dead. It’s my fault. If I hadn’t gone to Riesen to bug him about getting animals for us, he would still be alive.”

  “It’s not your fault, son.” Max reached over and squeezed Tobias’s hand. “Gramps was losing his mind. He would have kidnapped you, anyway. Or he might have done something else even worse. What’s important is that he can’t hurt any of us anymore. We’re all together now.”

  “He’s right, Tobias,” Jenny said. “And, not only did you not get Karl killed, but you saved Lisa’s life and my life.”

  “Huh? How did I do that?”

  “If you hadn’t disappeared, your father wouldn’t have gone searching for you. He wouldn’t have checked that cave where we were stuck and dying of thirst.
We were getting weak and we were terrified. No one would have found us, and we were too scared and too tired to find our way out. We would have died in there.”

  “Oh, wow, I didn’t think of that,” Tobias said, smiling. “I guess it was okay that I ran off to Riesen.”

  Max gave Tobias the evil eye, then reached over and ruffled Tobias’s hair. “I wouldn’t go quite that far. Don’t let it give you ideas, okay?”

  “Okay. I’ll stay close to home from now on. You know, I understand what it was like for you and Lisa. It was like that for me and Max—Dad, too, when we were in that cellar. If Tante Ingrid and Peter and Johanna hadn’t gone looking for us, Gramps would have killed me and Max.”

  Ingrid reached over and gave Tobias a big hug, whispering in his ear, “I am happy you are safe. I love you, dear Tobias.”

  “Me too,” he said.

  No one said anything for a while after that, seemingly thinking about their lives and recent events.

  “Changing subjects,” Sofie said, “what I still don’t understand is why Werner and Gretchen were going to raise me and why Vikktor stole me away from them and took me to the future.”

  Ingrid said, “Ja. Vikktor told me once that he took you away from an evil man. Werner has his faults, but I wouldn’t say he’s evil.”

  Helmut said, “Werner said a woman brought the baby to them and did not tell them much, only that the parents were dead. Said that she knew Werner and Gretchen . . . from church and she felt she could trust them to care for the baby.”

  “Yes, I remember him saying that,” Sofie said. “But Vikktor’s wife, Helga, said something strange when I met her at their cottage last night. I’d forgotten about it until now and didn’t get to ask Vikktor to explain.”

  “What did she say?” Helmut asked.

  “She rushed over and hugged me and said, ‘You are exactly as he described. He is so proud of his great-niece.’ Why would he tell her I’m his great-niece?”

  Helmut stood up and ran his hand through his hair. His eyes had a faraway look in them. He paced for a minute, then, glancing at Lotte and then at Sofie, he said, “It has bothered me. I have been living with a secret these past thirty years. When I heard about you, Sofie, and about the kidnapping, it got me to think about my secret. I do not know how to say this.” He paused, his face growing red.

  “You can tell us,” Sofie prompted.

  Helmut nodded and after a moment, seeming to draw up his courage, told his story. “I had a girlfriend, Else, long before I met my wife. Else was the daughter of a baron. We were in love, but her parents would not allow us to marry. I was beneath her in status. Her father and I, we talk and he tell me I must go away. But I could not.” He paced across the ground near the fire pit. “She got pregnant with my baby and hid her pregnancy from everyone except myself and her maidservant. Not long before the baby was due, Else took her maidservant and went to her family’s hunting lodge in the Schwabien Forest. The maidservant helped her deliver the baby, a girl. We had agreed already to go away as soon as she and the baby could travel. When the baby came, Else gave a note to her maidservant who gave it to a messenger to deliver to me. That is how I knew it was time to meet her and take her and the baby away.”

  Sofie put her hand over her mouth.

  Ingrid’s heart raced. If Helmut was saying what she thought he was saying, then it meant Sofie was—

  “When I arrived at the hunting lodge, Else and her servant were dead. Someone had stabbed them. The baby was gone. I searched everywhere, but never found our daughter.”

  Ingrid said, “You think Sofie is your daughter?”

  “It is possible, is it not?” Helmut said.

  “How did Werner get her?”

  “I have been thinking about that. I saw Vikktor riding in the Schwabien Forest nearby. That is why I thought he was involved. I chased after him and confronted him. He denied any knowledge of Else or the baby and he did not have the baby with him. Maybe he was telling the truth, and I just could not believe it.” He stopped talking for a moment and bent his head. “I wanted to blame someone, I guess. But it has always bothered me that her father never pressed for a murder investigation. Would he not want justice for his daughter’s murder? Now that I have talked with Vikktor again, I have new theory. What if her father found out about the baby and got into an argument with her? He might have killed her to avoid a scandal.”

  “And then took the baby somewhere to be raised, with no one the wiser,” Ingrid said. That made sense. When Vikktor found out that Werner had betrayed his own country, he’d considered him an evil man. He took the baby from Werner, not knowing that Helmut was the child’s father.

  “If I’m your daughter, that would make me Vikktor’s great-niece, which is what he told his wife,” Sofie said. She scrunched her eyes. “But how did he figure out that you were my father?”

  “I do not know. He might have eventually put it together. As I said, I had questioned him back then about Else’s murder and about our missing baby daughter. Then he finds Werner raising a baby girl. My suspicion, now, is that Else’s father might have gone to Werner directly and asked him to send you to the future. Else’s father had been close to getting caught in a scandal earlier that year, soon after Else and I started seeing each other. He was able to dodge that scandal and avoided losing his wife and her money, by paying Werner to send his mistress to the future to shut her up.”

  “Wait, you’re saying Else and her father knew about the portals and that you were from the future?” Ingrid asked.

  “I told Else. I wanted us to be completely truthful to each other. Her father overheard us and demanded to know more.”

  Sofie nodded, apparently contemplating all that Helmut had revealed. “You really think I am your daughter?”

  “Ja. I cannot imagine it otherwise,” he said. “You even look a bit like Else.”

  Sofie smiled. “What was my name?”

  “Katje.”

  Sofie smiled. “That’s beautiful.” She looked at Helmut and then at Ingrid. “Wait, if Helmut is my father that means Ingrid is my grandmother.”

  Ingrid nodded, tears filling her eyes.

  Sofie got up and rushed to Ingrid, hugging her tightly. “I’m so sorry that I pushed you away. You’ve always had my best interest at heart.

  Helmut got up, too, and hugged them both.

  AS THE EVENING wore on, discussions about their adventure (though there being disagreement on the use of that term) and Sofie’s lineage continued well after sunset, sitting around a roaring fire. The village had declared it high time for a celebration and the mood was festive. The village was together again, all were in good health, and life was good. What better excuse for a party. Ingrid and her family sat together, except for the teenagers who were sitting with the younger crowd, engaged in their own conversations.

  Poking an ember randomly with a stick, Sofie said, “Helmut said that Else’s maidservant helped deliver me.” Helmut nodded. “I am expecting a baby and have been worried about the pregnancy and delivery. If there are complications, even something like the baby being breach, which is fairly common, I think, then the baby or I could be in real trouble.”

  Max said, “We can look for an experienced midwife who knows how to handle complicated deliveries. We’ll figure it out. Try not to worry so much.”

  “We don’t have any money to pay her. I was thinking of asking Vikktor to send me back through the portal when it gets close to the delivery date.”

  “What! No way. Don’t you remember how the vortex spun us around and tossed us out onto the ground? You or the baby could get hurt or killed. I remember you told me your first two deliveries were normal, uncomplicated procedures. I see no reason to anticipate anything different this time. You’re young and healthy.”

  “But we don’t have ultrasound equipment and other modern medical devices and facilities. Remember, I studied history. I know that many women and babies didn’t survive.”

  Jenny coughed loudly, drawing lo
oks from everyone, and then she smiled and said, “Sofie, I’m a registered nurse. I worked in many different departments at two major California hospitals over the last twenty years. I’ve worked in the emergency rooms, assisted with surgeries, helped delivery of babies, and cared for newborn babies. I think I can help with your pregnancy and any complications that may arise, and I can deliver the baby. I know things are kind of awkward between us right now, but I’m sure we can become friends, if you’ll give me a chance.” She ended her speech with a quick, sideways glance at Helmut, who was seated next to her. He smiled and she smiled back.

  Sofie said, “I appreciate your offer, but we can’t pay you. We’re struggling as it is.”

  “What’s to pay? It’s the least I can do. You are all taking Lisa and me into your circle and giving us a home. That’s all the payment I need. And I have to admit it will be good to put some of my skills to use and keep them active in case I ever do go back to the future.”

  Sofie nodded, looking more relaxed.

  “Hey, and if we need any medications,” Jenny added, “We can ask Vikktor to get some for us on one of his trips to the future, right?”

  Sofie laughed. “That’s a possibility I hadn’t thought of.” She glanced over at Max, apparently seeking his opinion, and he nodded. Then, turning back to Jenny, she asked, “You’re sure wouldn’t mind delivering our baby?”

  “Of course not. We are all in this together—living here in the past and making a new life. I guess, in a way, we are all family here.”

  Ingrid was sitting close enough to Max, that she didn’t miss it when he squeezed Sofie’s hand.

  “Oh, I almost forgot something,” Jenny said. “Lisa took lots of photos of the house while we were exploring it. If her phone battery is still working, you can look at her photos. They might help.”

  Then Max said, “Thank you, Jenny. Photos will be a tremendous help. I wish we could print them out, but even though we can’t, they should help. I can’t believe how much all of our lives have changed in such a short time. What a relief today has been. I think now, maybe, I’ll finally be able to get some sleep.”