Grantville Gazette-Volume XIV

by Eric Flint

  Andrew and Bill looked at each other. Andrew quickly shook his head at Bill, and Bill nodded back. They turned to Otto. "Aye, sir."

  Otto took a step back. "The CoC takes care of their own, gentlemen. There are more besides me who would make sure there would be no profit in it."

  Andrew and Bill nodded again. "Aye, sir."

  Otto motioned Jenny to move behind him. He smiled broadly at the two bricklayers, stepped back again, and sheathed his blade. "I invite you to stop by the CoC building. We are just off the Mile, up from St. Giles High Kirk. We can always use help, especially when the help is the size of you two. There is much you could do." His smile went wider, and he bowed slightly.

  As Jenny looked back over her shoulder, she saw the two men still standing in the alleyway. She waved at them, and after a moment's hesitation, they waved back. And smiled.

  * * *

  "Otto, ye haven't told me where we are goin?"

  "We are almost there, Jenny."

  "These new shoes hurt my feet. And I feel like some sort of a fancy bird in these clothes."

  "Almost there."

  "'Ave you ever tried walking in new shoes the first time? It's murder till they get broke in. There was a man I knew that all he did was walk around in rich people's new shoes so they would be broken in when they wore them for the first time. He was a cousin to the shoemaker over in Harper Lane. I used to think, 'that would be a life, why he's got it made, he does.' But hiking over the cobblestones and the shite in the street in new shoes is not the easiest job in the world."

  Otto smiled at her with that strange smile of his. He spoke quietly so nobody in the street could overhear him. "Jenny Geddes, you are the only woman I ever met who would complain about new clothes and shoes."

  She leaned toward him to whisper. "I ain't complaining about the clothes and the shoes. Not at all. I'm complaining about having to walk across the whole of Edinburgh city in new shoes. That's all."

  When he first gave the shoes and dress to her, she was confused by what she thought was a gift, and an expensive one at that. He explained to her that it was a disguise.

  She was still not sure what to make of this taciturn German. Jenny had spent most of her life being practical. Nothing more. Her mind put any other thoughts completely away. "One thing is for certain. Nobody will recognize me in this, even if I was behind me own cart in the market."

  "Aye, Jenny. You do clean up rather well."

  She laughed and turned to look at her daughters, who were following. They too, had been given "new" used clothes by Otto. Both girls were dressed in something nicer than they had ever hoped to wear in their lives. She looked at the happy expressions on their faces and felt guilty. Guilty that she could never have provided for them in this way. As a greengrocer and a widow, she lived precariously. It was not that much different an existence than most of the city, granted. But as a mother, she had always hoped for something better for her children.

  While they continued to walk, she went over the last few days in her mind. Chased by soldiers, finding Otto and the Committee of Correspondence, nearly being caught for the reward money, and the tedium of hiding in the house for several days. And now, here she was, dressed in finery as a disguise, hiking across town to places unknown. She shook her head. Strange times indeed. Her practical mind told her that she shouldn't get used to the finery, because that was going to change. She didn't know when or how. But she knew it was true. She sighed and trudged on.

  "Here we are."

  She looked up and felt her jaw drop in amazement. "Is this the house where we be going?"

  "Yes."

  "By the front door, not the back door?"

  "Yes."

  "Oy. You're sure?"

  He mounted the three steps to the heavy oaken front door and knocked. "Quite sure."

  There had been no change of neighborhood to get to where the rich people lived. Edinburgh was so crammed together that everyone lived on top of one another. The members of the privy council, judges, lawyers and clerks lived alongside tenements and the shops of candle makers and smiths. The door opened, revealing a large man dressed as a servant. Jenny knew just by looking at the fellow that this was not your typical servant. He looked like he should be on a battlefield, not an Edinburgh townhouse, and a new house at that.

  The large servant spoke. "Hello, Otto."

  "Thomas. Good to see you again. I believe we have an appointment with Robert and his visitors?"

  "Please come in; be seated in the library. I will let them know that you are here. Right this way." He led them down a hall and into a large room. There were more books there than Jenny had ever seen in her life. She was good with figures. She counted at a glance maybe twenty-five bound books, along with another dozen or so unbound ones. She turned to the children. "If either of you touch anything, I will swat your arses all the way back across town. Do ye hear me?"

  Elspeth looked as overwhelmed as Jenny felt. She nodded. "Yes, Mum." She nudged her sister who was looking at a cabinet of curiosities standing in the corner. The cabinet had one of the most interesting dolls they had ever seen, with silky blonde hair, and fancy clothes, and funny pointed shoes with a tall thin heel.

  "Don't touch a thing," Jenny reminded them. She turned to Otto. "Will you now tell me where we are? And how do you know these people?"

  "Jenny, you are impatient sometimes, do you know that?"

  "Aye, I can be. And you can be frustrating at times."

  "I know these people from Thüringia, in Germany. That's where I met them."

  "These don't look like the type of people that the Committees are interested in, Otto." She glanced over at the girls, who were staring into the cabinet. She reminded them in a stage whisper, "All the way across town, that's how far I will be tanning your little hides. No touching! Do ye hear me?"

  "Yes, Mum." The girls tore their eyes off the strange doll, and put their hands in front of them.

  "That's more like it."

  The door opened and in walked a short man with red hair and whiskers. He was smiling through curiously good teeth. Otto recognized him instantly. "Alex! Good to see you. You are looking well."

  The two men embraced briefly, and Alex turned his attention to Jenny. "So this is the famous Jenny Geddes, eh?"

  Jenny could feel herself blushing. "Umm. Aye, sir, I am Jenny Geddes. I don't know about the famous part. Sir."

  The man in front of her got a twinkle in his eye, and she found him instantly likeable. "Ah, but I do. Please sit down."

  Otto spoke first. "How is the 'baroness,' Alex?" They laughed together. Jenny felt bewildered by the reference.

  "Aye, she is fine. She is putting the baby down to nap, and will be here shortly."

  Jenny leaned forward to catch Otto's eye. She raised her eyebrows, and said "A baroness?" very quietly, almost mouthing the words.

  Otto smiled at her, and back at Alex. "Suppose you tell Jenny here how your wife was elevated to the Swedish nobility."

  "Well, it's a long story, but basically it was due to her valor in combat." Alex smiled. Jenny decided it was an honest smile. She believed he was telling her the truth. She just didn't believe what she was hearing. The surprise must have shown on her face.

  "Jenny," Otto said, "you really need to close your mouth. You look like a codfish."

  She snapped her mouth shut. And immediately opened it again. "Oy! In b-battle?"

  "Aye. My wife, Julie. But she didn't do nearly what you did, all on one Sunday morning."

  Jenny got a little defensive. "I am at the kirk every Sunday morning. I get there early and save a place for the Dunnes, usually right in the front. I save them spots, and then I sit down on me stool, and listen to the preacher. So there's nothing I could have done in a battle or anything else on a Sunday morning. And when did I do this thing? Is that why the soldiers are after me? I swear, it never happened, whatever it was. You got the wrong woman."

  Otto said, "It is not what you did, but what you will do. Or a
t least would have done." He looked at Alex. "Our language needs a new tense for this. A 'future that may not happen' tense. It's not past tense, it's not future tense, so perhaps we should call it 'maybe' tense. It would make this so much easier."

  Jenny cut him off. "I have no idea what you are talking about. Otto, if this is some kind of joke, then I—"

  "Wait a moment, Jenny." Otto paused. "I brought you here because you are so practical, and so hard-headed, there was no way you would believe me if I just told you. So I have to show you."

  "Show me what?" This had been a difficult week for Jenny, and she decided she was no longer in mood for games.

  Otto looked her in the eyes. "The future that might have happened, but didn't."

  "Aye. And I'm the bloody queen of England." She crossed her arms and sat back in the chair, quite unladylike.

  Alex jumped in. "What he's telling you is true, Jenny. I have never known Otto to speak aught but the truth. You can depend on that with your life." Jenny thought she saw a look pass between the men, as if recalling a specific incident.

  She sighed, exasperated. "All right, what was it I was supposed to have done but didn't and still may or may not do?"

  From behind her, a youthful female voice with a very strange accent answered. "You started the English Civil War. It eventually led to the beheading of King Charles."

  Jenny found herself standing and looking at the woman who had answered the question. She was dressed in a most outlandish fashion, with a pullover shirt with writing on the front, which Jenny couldn't read, but it was very colorful. It was also stained with what looked like baby spittle. For an instant she thought she was meeting the wet nurse. But this girl was far too small of build for that. Slim in an athletic sort of way, like a circus performer she remembered from her childhood. Her pants, too, were outlandish. For one thing, they were pants, for heaven's sake. Women did not wear pants. Especially pants that showed her female figure to an advantage. Snug, like Jenny had never seen.

  But it was the girl's eyes that Jenny noticed. The face was young, a little tired. Pretty in a girlish sort of way. Nice teeth. But the eyes, they were so . . . she grasped for the right word . . . wise? Experienced? They weren't old eyes, but Jenny felt that they had seen far too much in her short life, and she instantly felt her heart go out to the girl.

  "Oy. King Charles' head! I did that?"

  Alex rose from his chair and went to the girl. His kiss made the cloud go from her eyes, and only the girl was visible again. Jenny marveled while Alex made the introductions.

  "Jenny Geddes, may I present to you Mrs. Julie MacKay, Baroness of Sweden, formerly of Grantville, West Virginia, in America, and the absolute best shot in the entire world, without compare. Julie, this is Jenny Geddes. Jenny, Julie—Julie, Jenny."

  The two women stared at each other for an awkward moment, then smiled. Julie's eyes landed on Jenny's daughters, and she smiled again. "Who are these fine young ladies?"

  "The older one is Elspeth, and the little one is Dolina."

  "What pretty names."

  "Elspeth was my mother, and my husband was Donald, so we named the little one Dolina after him."

  Dolina spoke up. "Is that your doll in the cabinet?"

  Julie crouched to her level. "It used to be. But we gave it to Alex's father, Robert, as a present."

  "Can I play with it?"

  "I don't see why not. That's what it's for." With that, Julie opened the cabinet and gave the girls the doll. At first they were tentative, and then began to examine it closely. They really fixated on the strange shoes Jenny noticed, as she wiggled her sore feet.

  Julie leaned over to Jenny conspiratorially. "That ought to keep them occupied for a while." She paused while she looked at the girls. "You have lovely children, Jenny."

  "I suppose. They are a bit of all right. Strong and sturdy, they will make fine wives someday. They are old enough to do their chores, and they do them well. Elspeth is learning some letters from the Dunnes; they have a fine house up the way from us and our cottage." Jenny paused while she thought of her cottage. "I don't suppose we will ever be able to go back there again."

  Julie looked sympathetically into Jenny's eyes, then took her hand and set her down on the couch. "Jenny, I'm from the future, from the town of Grantville. Do you believe me?"

  Jenny leaned back and looked at the girl again. There was just something so different about her. Jenny couldn't quite place it. A radiance, health, something subtle that she could not put a name to. She thought about what they could possibly gain by lying to her, with some elaborate ruse. But she was just Jenny Geddes, greengrocer. And they had protected her from the king's men.

  She decided. "Aye. I do believe you. Not sure why. But I do."

  Julie smiled warmly. "Have you heard of Grantville, and the Ring of Fire?"

  "Aye, the preacher was talking to it the other day. I figure the church don't know what to do about it, but they say it is real enough. That's all I know. Is that where you got that funny accent?"

  "Doesn't sound funny to me, Jenny." Julie smiled, and both women laughed nervously. "Would you like to know how you did all of this? What you did?"

  Otto leaned forward. "Girls, we are going to visit with Robert for a few minutes." Jenny gave him a "please don't leave me" look. He just smiled that odd smile of his, and patted her hand. "You're in good hands, Jenny. I'll be back in a moment. Julie will explain it all."

  When the men filed out of the room, Jenny turned to Julie. "How in the world does someone like me manage to bring down that bloody papist, Charles?"

  "Do you have a stool that you sit on in church?"

  "Aye."

  "Well, to start the war off, you threw the stool at a bishop. He was starting to read from a new liturgy that was put in place by Archbishop Laud. You are reported to have said something about 'preaching papist something or other to your lugs.'"

  "Me?"

  "And after that, the whole place went up for grabs, and a riot started. Then the riots spread, and the whole thing went on from there. This is supposed to happen about three years from now."

  "Me?"

  "It's what that history remembered you for."

  "That history?"

  "Well, Jenny, I say that history because it is the history I knew, in my world."

  "I caused the whole thing to start? Me. Jenny Geddes, the widowed green grocer."

  Julie just nodded. "It is a little hard to believe." She sighed and sat back on the couch. "Sometimes I don't think it's real myself. Before the Ring of Fire, I was a high school senior, head cheerleader, looking forward to graduation, college. And today, I'm in the seventeenth century, married to a fine man, with a new baby. That man's father, Robert, whose house this is, has a broken back, and he is dying. In my world, there was so much we could do to make him well—be able to live a full life. And we are trying to do so much . . ."

  Jenny took Julie's hand, and gave it a squeeze. That odd look had come back into Julie's eyes, the one she saw a flash of when she first came into the room. Jenny tried to imagine what this girl must have gone through. She just squeezed a little harder.

  They stayed like that for a moment, and Jenny began to think, trying to assimilate all that she had learned in the past few minutes. She knew it her gut it was true, and she knew that Otto was right. Without meeting Julie, she never would have believed it. A thought came to her. "Now I understand why the king's men were after me. They wanted to kill me so that I wouldn't throw my stool, and then there would be no war. That is it, isn't it?"

  Julie pulled her hand back and brushed a bit of hair out of her face. "Well, no. At least we don't think so. Laud and Stafford have agreed to leave Scotland alone, so Charles can deal with all the people who overthrew him, or at least might have. But that history is not going to happen. It's impossible. So what's the point of coming after you? It makes no sense. They have agreed to leave the Scots alone. There are any number of stupid shit royals up here who helped Charles to the bloc
k, why pick on you?"

  Jenny shrugged. "Heaven knows, I have no idea . . ." She paused for a moment. "Baroness?"

  "Please. Call me Julie"

  "Aye. Julie it shall be."

  * * *

  Otto half-staggered and was half-carried out of the pub by three soldiers. One was a sergeant, and the other two were regulars. He had gone to the bar with the goal of trying to find out who was behind the attempt to capture Jenny Geddes. He was leaving in a state of semi-consciousness.

  Sergeant Thatcher had overheard the conversation, and could tell his men were being pumped for information by the German fellow, under cover of old warrior's tales. The German talked a big game, fighting with Tilly on the continent, Magdeburg, White Mountain. Trading stories. Garrison life must be dull, what do you men do to stay sharp? Chase greengrocer women? Who paid you to do that? How much does that sort of a job go for here? Can I buy you another beer?