That sounded good to Sveta. Achat sounded a lot friendlier than a talk. She helped Frau Trelli load a tray with a teapot, some cups, saucers and spoons, and the plate of dry crackers, and then followed her into the living room.
Somewhere near Zwenkau
Puss snuggled inside his sleeping bag, inside his bivy-bag, under the star filled sky. Beside him, Corporal Michael Cleesattel was snoring quietly under a couple of military issue blankets.
Puss was having trouble getting to sleep. Everybody believed there was going to be a great battle tomorrow, and you could write a book about all the battles he'd managed to miss for one reason or another.
He hadn't graduated until 1632, so he missed everything before that. When he tried to enlist to fight he'd been given some rubbish about the needs of the service, and sent to train as a military policeman. Okay, so at nearly six foot, he was significantly taller than most down-timers, and he had earned a junior black belt from the martial arts school in Fairmont where Sensei Karickhoff-the then head instructor of the army's unarmed combat school-had taught, and he could ride a horse, and he was a pretty good shot with a hand gun and rifle, but they weren't good reasons for assigning him to the military police.
To make matters worse, he'd graduated from training and immediately been posted to Erfurt, just in time to miss the Croat raid on Grantville. All around him people were getting combat experience and being promoted because of it. Heck, he'd even managed to miss the big battle at Ahrensbok because he'd been posted to the backwater that was the Wietze oil facility, and then he'd been away escorting an oil shipment to Magdeburg when the French raided the place.
With his luck, he was likely to miss tomorrow's battle as well, although he didn't know how Murphy was going to arrange that, not with them being so close to the front line.
Grantville
Sveta snuggled under the covers of her bed in the woman's quarters and let her hands drift down to her belly. Was it really possible that a new life was growing there? That she was really pregnant? If she was, there would finally be someone of her own to love and be loved by. She'd never again be alone and unloved.
The crack of dawn the next day, somewhere near Zwenkau
Puss walked out of the briefing tent ready to swear and curse. He held on to his disappointment until he joined his patrol. "We're assigned to road watch around the field hospital."
Corporal Lenhard Poppler looked westward, towards the area where the field hospital was still being set up. "That's what, two miles behind the lines."
"About that," Puss confirmed.
"Great move, Sarge. How'd you manage to score us that assignment?"
"Just lucky, I guess."
"I like your luck, Sarge," Michael said. "Long may it last."
With the rest of his patrol nodding their heads in agreement, Puss choose not to voice his opinion of his luck. Murphy had struck again.
Grantville
Sveta was dragged out of a deep sleep by someone knocking on her door. It was way too early to be her wake up call. Then she realized it wasn't the manager's voice asking if she was awake, it was John's mother. "Coming," she called as she slid out of bed and grabbed a bathrobe. She was still fumbling with the waist tie when she opened the door.
"Oh, good, you're awake," Suzanne said as she pushed past Sveta into her room.
Suzanne's husband leaned against the door frame and smiled sympathetically at Sveta.
"You can't stay here," Suzanne announced. "Felix, why are you standing at the door? Put the cases on the bed."
"Suzanne's decided that you should move into John's old room," he explained to a confused Sveta.
Suzanne looked around Sveta's room before turning to her husband. "If you'll wait outside, I'll pack Sveta's things while she dresses."
The door closed behind Felix and before she knew it, Frau Trelli had splashed some water into the washing bowl and was pushing Sveta towards it.
"Now you just follow your usual routine, and we'll have everything packed in no time."
"But you don't want me to move into John's old room," Sveta protested.
Suzanne rested her hands on her hips. "You really think I'd make the effort to drag Felix here at this hour of the morning if I didn't want you to live with us?"
Herr Trelli had seemed very relaxed about being dragged about at this time of the morning. From her limited knowledge of family life, the mothers of illegitimate progeny of the household's male members weren't exactly welcome in the family home. Frau Trelli however, took her silence as agreement.
"Right, so what's your problem?"
Sveta tried to blink away the tears that were starting to form in her eyes. "John and I aren't together."
"You're having John's baby. You can't get any more together than that." Suzanne reached out and dragged Sveta into an embrace. "There, there, it's not so bad. John'll do the right thing by you."
The "right thing" was marriage. Sveta knew that. But she didn't want to marry a man she didn't love. She wanted to marry Jabe. But that wasn't going to happen. She wanted to try and explain how she felt, but Frau Trelli's kind eyes stopped her.
Suzanne pulled Sveta close, and she buried her face in Suzanne's shoulder. A hand held the back of her head while another gently patted her gently on the back. "Come on, we have to finish your packing before Felix gets tired of waiting, and you still need to get dressed."
Later that day, somewhere near Zwenkau
Puss took off his wide-brimmed hat and wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve before replacing it. Then he took off his dark glasses and admired the dust that had collected on them since he last cleaned them. He'd long since stopped cursing his luck, and moved on to thanking whatever entity was responsible for keeping him away from the battlefield. The sight of wagon after wagon of wounded men rumbling past had cured him of ever wanting to be caught up in a battle.
A medevac wagon was approaching from the hospital. Puss put his glasses back on and stepped out onto the road to stop the traffic so it could join the flow of vehicles heading for the front. As it rumbled away, Corporal Thomas Klein handed him a mug.
"Fresh brew, Sarge, you drink that while I take a turn."
Puss was happy to step off the road and savor his mug of coffee without too much dust getting mixed with it. His eyes followed the long column of vehicles threading into the distance. It was a pity he wasn't an artist, because that long column of vehicles approaching the field hospital under a red sky would make a brilliant memorial to the battle.
Grantville
Sveta sat cross-legged on the bed in the bedroom of her child's father, hugging the large, well-loved teddy bear that had been sitting on the bed. Frau Trelli had taken her to see Dr. Shipley for a pregnancy test. The test would take a few days to give a result, but the doctor had indicated that everything pointed to her being pregnant, and that, if Sveta was sure about the date of conception, could expect to deliver in March of next year.
She snorted. As if she was going to forget the day the man she loved married another. Still, she had a letter she had to write. She slid off the bed and carried the teddy bear to the desk where John must have sat to do his homework in times past. Together they wrote a letter to John.
A few days later, outside Leipzig
Puss was lying comfortably on the ground, his back supported by his saddle, and the brim of his hat pulled over his eyes. His personal kit was laid out beside him, ready to be loaded at a moment's notice onto Thunder, who was lazily picking at the pile of hay cut from one of the trampled fields.
"Mail for Behrns, Cleesattel, Klein, and Trelli."