"We might even make it before the first snowfall," was Heinrich's sardonic contribution, such as it was.
USE army camp, outside Ingolstadt.
"It's an outrage!" complained Eric Krenz. "Just when that fat swine Baner agreed to let us at least take liberty in the town."
Hands on hips, he glared around at the tent camp that had been set up by the artillery regiment. "And now! Pack all this up and march to Magdeburg."
"Give it a rest," said Thorsten Engler. "It's the army, Eric. What do you expect?"
Give it a rest and Eric Krenz, of course, never fit well in the same sentence, if Krenz had a grievance.
"Exactly my point!" he insisted. Piously: "In military terms, we should stay right here. In case the war with Bavaria flares up again."
Thorsten would normally have satisfied himself with a simple, sarcastic retort, but he actually found himself interested in the military equation. Willy-nilly, whether he'd ever intended it or not, having been promoted to officer rank had caused a subtle change in his attitudes. He couldn't help it. Thorsten was a natural foreman, and although he had no craving for a position of authority, once he found one given to him, he simply had to take it seriously.
"Well…" The lieutenant scratched his chin. "At a guess, I'd say the emperor has decided that Maximilian poses no threat for at least a year. Not with his court in disarray, large parts of his army vanished-and certainly not if the rumors we've heard about the farmers' revolt are even half-true."
"So?" demanded Krenz. "Now's the time to jump on the bastard, then."
Engler shook his head. "You're not thinking clearly, Eric. Even if we succeeded in taking Bavaria, then what? We'd have a farmers' rebellion on our hands-and probably a rebellion in most of the towns, too. We'd have to keep an army there for years, before everything settled down."
"Quarters in Munich," said Krenz. "Years of that don't sound too bad."
Thorsten couldn't help but smile. "Sergeant Krenz, you are to far-sighted vision what a hog is to scenery, when there's a full trough in front of him. 'Oblivious,' is the most polite term I can think of. For the next year, at least, the emperor is far more concerned with Saxony and Brandenburg-and who knows how far east?-than he is with Bavaria."
He waved a hand at the camp. "So let's start packing everything up. Concentrate on the task of getting ourselves back to Magdeburg before the first snowfall, shall we? Instead of pining pointlessly about whatever comforts-or lack thereof-we might find in Munich."
Krenz still had his hands on his hips. He leaned forward slightly and gave Thorsten an accusing glare. A sneer came with it, too.
"You don't fool me, with your new-found-ha! you, a farm boy!-military sagacity. You just like the idea of Magdeburg because Caroline's in Magdeburg."
Engler saw no reason to dignify that charge with a direct reply. Especially since there was some truth to it.
Quite a bit, in fact. His fiancee was in Magdeburg, after all. And while Caroline Platzer was an enthusiastic supporter of the German custom of fenstering, she was still an up-timer in most regards. So she saw no reason to require her betrothed to climb through a window just to get into her bed. She'd have the door open for him, instead, with herself smiling in the doorway.
"Get a move on, sergeant!" he commanded brusquely.
Chapter 71
Cor Ad Cor Locquitur
Amsterdam
"Overall," Rebecca said, "I am rather proud of our handiwork. They make a handsome couple."
"They are leaving tomorrow?" Fredrik Hendrik asked.
"Yes," Rebecca said. "They want the wedding to take place as soon as possible, naturally. Don Fernando wants very much to be married at the Cathedral in Brussels. I think that he wants, even more, to present Maria Anna to the Infanta, to Isabella Clara Eugenia, since everyone thinks that the time remaining to her is very short. Indeed, many people are astonished that she has lived this long. Since it is a hundred and twenty-five miles, even though they will be traveling with minimal pomp and almost no luggage, just the necessary staff personnel and a really big security detail, it will take several days for them to make the trip. That allows time for the great nobles of the southern Netherlands to get to Brussels, though scarcely time for any of them to get new clothes."
"The death of Ferdinand II, of course, provides Fernando and Maria Anna with every excuse for marrying quietly, since the bride will be in official mourning. The extensive formal processions and such can come later," Fredrik Hendrik said.
"True," Rebecca replied. "And Gretchen gave them advice on how to get married in a hurry."
The stadtholder raised his eyebrows.
Rebecca winked. "Borrow the dress."
Mike laughed raucously.
"That is exactly what Maria Anna plans to do. Gretchen and Jeff gave her a wedding present, too. I didn't expect Gretchen to do that, given her grumbling against nobility in general and Habsburgs in particular."
"Dare I ask?"
"Jeff went shopping and bought an Indian sari in the oriental imports section of the Amsterdam marketplace. It is red chiffon sprinkled with gilt stars and a fancy gilt border. Practically transparent. The color should look great on Maria Anna, she's so brunette. That would have been okay by itself, but Gretchen did some minimal stitching and turned it into a sort of regency-style nightgown. Gathers over the bosom and floating panels. No seams down the sides below the high waistline. It's really, ah, very…" Rebecca paused.
"Victoria's Secret?" Mike completed her sentence.
Rebecca looked blank.
"The kind of thing to inspire a husband to go shopping in the oriental bazaar."
"Precisely." She looked down at her swollen belly. "After the baby is born, of course. Which Anne Jefferson tells me should be almost any day now."
Mike looked slightly relieved at the reminder that his wife would be giving birth with an up-time nurse present. There was no way, of course-not at this late stage in the pregnancy-that they could fly to Grantville. The baby would have to be born right here in Amsterdam. For the same reason, they wouldn't be able to attend the upcoming wedding in Brussels of Don Fernando and Maria Anna.
Rebecca was sorry for that, since she would have enjoyed being there for the occasion. But she was also privately amused by Mike's attitude. Anne Jefferson herself thought that the down-time and very experienced Dutch midwife would handle the matter just fine. Probably better than she could, in fact.
"I might," he said, "just do that. Now that you have brought the matter up."
Brussels
There had been several busy, but comparatively quiet days. Contrary to protocol, Fernando and Maria Anna had ridden side by side during the trip to Brussels. He had justified this by saying that he did not really have enough guards along to provide two separate details. Dona Mencia had contributed a request that her brother be allowed to share the carriage, which gave Maria Anna an opportunity to volunteer to ride-and Don Fernando the chance to give her a really gorgeous horse as a first wedding present.
"Given that you are coming to me without a sixty-eight clause treaty protecting your interests, dower, and everything else," he said frankly, "I might as well start making it very clear to your brother that you will receive from me, voluntarily, every perquisite that normally it would have taken our diplomats months to negotiate."
"I doubt that it's been the first thing on his mind lately," Maria Anna said. "But, of course, it will be one more item that he doesn't have to worry about, so he will be properly grateful."
Without pomp was a relative concept, of course. They had created time for two noon meals with local nobility, regional officials, and municipal officers, one at Utrecht in the new kingdom's northern provinces, the second at Antwerp in the old southern provinces, so neither could claim to have been disadvantaged. There had been a third formal meal today, after their arrival at Brussels. Don Fernando had reserved the afternoon for catching up on paperwork; the evening, he had kept free for an unofficial dinner with the members of his privy council. Maria Anna had spent the afternoon being fitted for a trousseau. That left the twilight.