Puss tipped back his hat and searched for the source of the call. Seeing the company clerk, he did up his webbing and picked up his rifle before walking over to the mail cart.
There was the usual CARE package from his family, and a single letter. He accepted them and returned to his kit, where the vultures were already circling.
Puss attempted to ignore them. Instead of opening the CARE package, which was what Corporals Klein, Poppler, Cleesattel, and Behrns were interested in, he studied the letter. Normally the family included their letters in the packages, so who was writing to him? A quick glance on the back only added to his confusion. The return address was his parent's house in Grantville. Well, there was one sure way to learn who the letter was from. He used the blade of his clasp-knife to break the seal.
He didn't read far before he froze in abject terror. He blinked a few times before re-reading the first sentence.
"Something wrong, Sarge?" Michael asked.
Puss folded the letter so Thomas couldn't read it over his shoulder. "Sveta,"-it felt funny using Corporal Anderovna's nickname-"is pregnant."
"Oh, like, wow. How'd you manage that?" Lenhard asked.
There was a yip of pain from Lenhard as Michael clipped him across the ear. "The usual way, dummy."
"But he's not even betrothed to the girl," Lenhard said. "Are you?" he asked Puss.
"No." From the cultural awareness module of his military police training, Puss knew that a certain amount of latitude was permitted to betrothed couples. However, good girls did not let things go too far until they were betrothed.
He read the rest of the letter. Sveta certainly hadn't wasted any words. She'd said what she had to say, and then asked him what he intended doing. There was nothing about how worried she was about the situation, but she had to be. Babies were expensive, and a single mother had a lot of obstacles in their way. Well, he knew what he had to do, and he didn't need the fact that she had moved in with his parents to tell him what it was. "Looks like I better ask for leave so I can get home and marry Sveta as soon as possible."
"Don't like your chances," Hermann Behrns said. He glanced around. "Anybody here like the Sarge's chances?"
Three shaking heads told Puss that none of them liked his chances of getting leave. He folded the letter and tucked it away. If he couldn't go to her, maybe there was an alternative. "Then I better have a few words with the chaplain."
"He won't be able to get you leave, Sarge," Hermann called to Puss's back.
Grantville
Felix gave Sveta a sympathetic shake of the head as he laid the mail on the table in front of his wife.
Suzanne quickly sorted out the mail, sliding letters across the table to the down-time sisters who were more daughter substitutes than boarders, and her husband. There was nothing for Sveta.
She hadn't expected anything either. Who would write to her here? Certainly not John. Not yet, anyway. She knew from her job with the Joint Armed Services Press Division that it could take a week just for her letter to get to him.
"You're looking happy, Elisabeth," Frau-call me Sue-Trelli said to the eldest of the boarders.
Elisabeth Muller held up her letter. "My book has done better than expected, and Frau Frobel says they are planning a second printing."
Suzanne clapped her hands. "Congratulations." She hurried around the table to give Elisabeth a hug.
Sveta felt a stab of jealousy watching the easy affection between Frau Trelli and the older girl. She wished she could reach out to Frau Trelli like Elisabeth, but she felt too embarrassed, guilty, and a bit of a fraud. It wasn't as if she was in love with John. She was just pregnant with his child.
Then Suzanne opened the letter from John and read aloud what he had got up to since he last wrote.
Even Sveta managed to smile at some of the things he and his men got up to, although, if one was to believe John, it was mostly his men getting into trouble and him getting them out of it. The letter opened a window on the world of Sergeant John Trelli, soldier, and introduced her to someone completely different from the man she'd shepherded around war bond rallies.
****
Sveta received a reply to her letter three days later. She retired to her room where she cuddled the teddy-bear while she prepared herself for the recriminations she was sure were to be heaped upon her.
Tears began to trail down her cheeks as she read the letter. John was being so understanding. He was even willing to marry her, if that was what she wanted. After talking to Janie and Julia, she'd been almost hoping that he would insist on them marrying. At least that would indicate some interest in her as something other than his child's mother, but there was nothing to suggest that he might love, or even care for her. She buried her face in the worn fur of the teddy-bear and cried.
Eventually the tears stopped, and she was able to return to John's letter. There were promises of financial support, and that he wouldn't pressure her to make a decision. There was also a separate piece of paper a lot smaller than the main letter. Sveta cracked a smile after reading it. It certainly deserved it's "destroy after reading" heading. John's mother-and he freely admitted it-would surely be tempted to kill him if she ever saw what he'd written about her. She hid that page in her Bible and prepared to share the rest of John's letter with his parents.
"It's only what I expected of John," John's mother said as she passed the letter onto her husband.
John's father took the letter and read it. "I'm sure he does want to marry you, Sveta."
"It's good of you to say that, Herr Trelli. But we all know that the only reason we're talking about marriage is because I'm pregnant."
"We'd be happy for you to marry John even if you weren't pregnant," Suzanne said.
****
A week later a package in heavy bond paper was delivered to the Trelli residence. Sveta waited for Mama, as she now called John's mother, to open it, but instead she slid it across the table to her. She accepted the letter knife from Mama and broke open the heavy wax seal.
There was a covering letter from a lawyer in Leipzig, a copy of John's will, and two copies of a marriage contract. She passed them all over to John's father, whom she'd started calling Papa.
"John has made arrangements for the pair of you to marry by proxy," Felix said.
"Is that legal?" Suzanne asked.
John's father nodded. "According to John's lawyer, all we need is for Sveta to sign the contracts before witnesses, and exchange vows with John's stand-in."
Sveta bit her lip. "I will need my father's permission."
"Where does he live?" Felix asked.
"He lives in Savonia, near the fortress of Olavinlinna, in Finland."
"That doesn't exactly sound like we'd be able to send him a letter and get a reply in a few days time."
"No." Sveta knew exactly how long it could take to get news in and out of Savonia, except in winter, when the lakes and rivers froze, making travel so much easier. She'd made the trip herself on her way to Grantville. "At this time of year, it could take four weeks just to get to the fortress from Borga."
"And Borga is where?" Felix asked.
"It's a port on the Gulf of Finland, about thirty miles east of Helsinki, the modern capital of Finland." Before Papa could ask the usual question, Sveta continued. "Helsinki's a lot smaller than Borga. King Gustav I created the town nearly a hundred years ago in an attempt to challenge the Hanseatic city of Reval, and it hasn't done very well."
Suzanne ran a hand through her hair. "You could send him a letter, but, if it's going to take over three months to hear back . . ."
Sveta saw where Mama was looking. Her hands fell protectively over her belly. John's mother's meaning was obvious. She'd certainly be showing in three months time.
"Is your father likely to raise any objections to you marrying John?" Felix asked.