Grantville Gazette, Volume 40 (12 page)

Friday, August 1, Stephanie and Tilda carried boxes and boxes of skorts into the Higgins Hotel meeting room, as carpenters made temporary dressing rooms.

Early Saturday, the meeting room opened its doors, and instantly filled with women and girls. Even tall Frida Löfström came. Frida was promptly led to a blue-gingham skort that, she soon told the room, fit her perfectly.

Keeping the customers cheerful all day Saturday were two temporary assistants, Maria and Martina, who took each customer's measurements and explained to her about the sizing charts. Tilda had been obliged Friday night to teach Martina and Maria the tricks of working a tape measure—neither girl knew much about dressmaking or tailoring—but on Saturday, the two down-timer high school girls were stylish and outgoing. Each girl had rare beauty, so she looked great in her skort. Stephanie had hired well.

By afternoon on Saturday, Tilda noticed, women were shopping in packs. Some of those afternoon customers were morning customers who had left and then had returned with girlfriends.

Whenever Tilda glanced over at Delia Higgins, she was beaming like a proud grandmother.

Late on Saturday, when finally Hotel Security moved the last shopper out of the meeting room, only three skorts remained unsold, and those were in oddball sizes.

That's when Tilda Gundlach quit worrying about making payments on her Higgins.

****

A Cold Day in Grantville

Written by Bjorn Hasseler

Tuesday, November 14, 1634

"Kat, remember that the
Bibelgesellschaft
meeting after school needs to end on time," Georg Meisner reminded his sister after they got off the bus at Calvert High. It was mostly students who called Calvert Calvert. Most people called it Grantville High, as it was the only high school in Germany.

"That wasn't entirely my fault," Katharina protested. She shivered as a particularly strong gust of wind hit.

Georg grinned. "Not entirely, no. But I'm sure it was amusing to confound the rest of the Bible society with Joe Jenkins' distinction between determinism and predestination."

Katharina grinned in return. "Very, as a matter of fact. But I'll try to stay on topic today."

As they funneled toward the front doors of the school, the student ahead of them slapped one of the pillars holding up the weather awning. Georg smacked the pillar as he passed by. Katharina heard the impact as the student behind them hit it, too. Those were the pillars Hans Richter had taken out with a school bus during the Croat Raid. Once they had been replaced, a tradition had developed that any passing student should hit them. Pacifists, including Anabaptists like Georg and Katharina, were generally held to be exempt. But Georg had been hitting the pillar for a while now.

"Mother would have a fit," she pointed out.

"Don't tell her."

"I don't plan to."

"Just remember that I've got forensics training at the police station instead of keeping an eye on the clock for you. If you miss the late bus, it'll be a long walk home. And it's going to be a cold night."

Katharina figured that if the Bible society meeting really did run over again, Dr. Green would almost certainly give everyone a ride home. But Georg had a point—they really ought to end on time, if for no other reason than that Dr Green didn't get enough time with his family as it was. Driving everyone home would just cut into it further.

"It's already a cold day. Should I also not tell Mother exactly what you'll be doing at the police station?" she asked.

"Fingerprints."

"Oh, good. She likes that better than blood spatter. Even though you did use blood spatter to show that nobody really died in that alley in Erfurt last summer."

Georg shrugged. "I have to learn everything if I'm going to be of any use to the police. They can't afford to hire a specialist in every area. That means blood spatter, fingerprints, chemical analysis, and even ballistics."

"She's definitely not going to want you firing a gun."

"I'm not entirely comfortable with it myself."

****

Katharina had made sure to schedule gym for last period again this year. Going back to class after being run ragged in the middle of the day held absolutely no appeal. Plus last-period gym meant last-period science lab or study hall on the non-gym days—which was clearly the most useful time slot for a study hall. Finally, as her brother had pointed out, it was getting cold. Last-period gym meant a couple more minutes of hot shower before catching the bus home. There was hot water at home, of course, but in the Anabaptist settlement up in the hills it was limited in both temperature and quantity.

"Kat, you're going to be late," Marta Engelsberg called from the locker room.

"I'll be there," Katharina shouted back from the shower.

"She's just trying to avoid sitting in the middle of the Kat Meisner Admiration Society," Alicia Rice stated.

"I heard that!"

"The what?" Marta asked.

"Come on, Marta, don't tell me you haven't noticed that Horst Felke and Johannes Musaeus both have a crush on Kat. Your brother, too, but he's a lot more couth about it."

"Alicia!"

"Well, it's true. Do you really think it's an accident that they get there first but never seem to find seats until you walk in? Then they just happen to land on either side of you?"

Katharina sniffed as she dressed. "Horst is Catholic. Johannes is Lutheran."

"Jeans?" Alicia asked.

Katharina had donned jeans instead of her usual skirt. She looked up from fastening dark cuffs over the sleeves of her blouse. "As Georg was reminding me this morning, it's going to be a cold ride home."

Alicia smirked. "If you're cold, you could try sitting closer to one of them."

Katharina glared at her. "It'll be a really cold day before that happens."

Alicia laughed. "Kat, the expression is 'it'll be a cold day in hell.'"

"Yes, well, um . . ." Kat left off and concentrated on rolling her hair into a bun.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kat. You really
don't
like it, do you?" Alicia sighed. "Pants, cuffs, hair bun, and those glasses—if you're going for the new-time librarian look, you're got it down. But Kat, it's not going to work. Just as soon as you start talking about manuscripts and variants, well, your fellow nerds will get all excited. C'mon, we'll sit next to you."

"Alicia, you and Nona are in the
Bibelgesellschaft
too," Katharina reminded her. Then she realized that Nona hadn't said anything at all. That wasn't like her.

"We're wannabe missionaries," Alicia pointed out. "It's a completely different subset from you manuscript geeks."

"Ri-i-ght."

****

The girls arrived in the Greek classroom to find the guys already in mid-discussion.

"So even you Catholics don't object to translating Luke 2:14 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will' and you don't object to it referring to the elect? Even though Erasmus advocated the freedom of the will?" Markus Fratscher asked. The Flacian Lutheran's tone conveyed careful inquiry, not criticism.

"Yes, the reading
eudokias
'of good will' is better supported," Horst Felke responded. "Manuscripts
Aleph
, A, B, D, W. . . . So it's the Alexandrian and Western text types against the

Byzantine."

"Well, that's not quite the whole story, is it?" Joseph Engelsberg looked up from his Greek New Testament. "The nominative
eudokia
,
Wohlgefallen
, 'peace, good will to men', is supported by the Byzantine texts and manuscripts F and G from the Western, and the Caesarean—if you believe that's a separate text type."

"So you're going with Luther's reading even though you're an Anabaptist?"

"Cheap shot, Horst. I'm not picking a text type because of my theology. As Brother Green keeps saying, no doctrine rests solely on a variant reading."

"Maybe not. But you have to admit that the oldest and best manuscripts . . ."

Katharina slid into an empty chair. Nona and Alicia took the seats on either side of her. All heads turned toward them.

"Peace on earth?" Katharina inquired sweetly.

"Yeah. We're all agreed on that part," Joseph confirmed. "We're just working on the good will."

Katharina stifled a smile. Joseph had a dry sense of humor, but you had to be paying attention.

Dr. Green spoke up for the first time. "Would you all take a couple minutes to pray and then we'll get started?"

A couple minutes later, Green looked up and announced, "We've received another letter from Patrick Young." He opened a folder and removed a letter with official-looking seals on it. "It's in Latin, of course." He passed it to Father Athanasius Kircher.

Kircher began reading, translating into Amideutsch as he went.

To the several members of the Bibelgesellschaft,

I beg leave to inform you that upon the order of His Majesty Charles, by the Grace of God, King of England, France, Ireland, King of Scots, Defender of the Faith, etc., one William Laud has been attainted for treason. His goods and properties have been seized and escheated to the crown.

Accordingly, I have examined the library lately belonging to the traitor Laud and have discovered a manuscript of the Holy Scriptures. It contains the Acts of the Apostles in a diglot, with the Latin upon the left-hand side and the Greek upon the right. It is in the uncial style, with each line containing but one to three words. It has come to his Majesty's attention that the manuscript was becoming identified with the traitor. Therefore, it is henceforth to be known as Codex Carolianus. It is requested that this designation be entered upon your catalog of the manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures.

I am your humble servant,

Patrick Young

Royal Librarian

Al Green surveyed the room with a grin as everyone burst out talking at once. Several rifled through reprinted Nestle-Aland Greek New Testaments, seeking the list of manuscripts in appendix I. Katharina didn't. She reached for one of their few copies of
The Text of the New Testament
by Metzger, one of the editors of the Nestle-Aland. She disagreed with almost all of Metzger's conclusions but his descriptions included the manuscript names and not just their Gregory numbers.

"That dolt Charles wants to rename this codex after himself?"

"It'll be a cold day in . . ."

"Ahem!" Dr. Green interrupted.

"E!" Katharina exclaimed. "Codex Laudianus is manuscript E!"

"Is that Gregory number 07 or 08?"

Horst located it in the Greek New Testament's appendix. "08. It's Acts 1:1 through 26:28. Sixth century. In the up-time it ended up in the Bodleian Library."

Father Athanasius Kircher spoke up. "England is doing well for itself. Alexandrinus, Bezae, and now Laudianus or Carolianus. At least there's no British Museum to get its hands on Sinaiticus yet."

"We ought to do keep it that way," Horst muttered.

"What's notable about E?" Johannes Musaeus asked.

"It's the oldest manuscript with Acts 8:37 in it," Katharina answered after another quick look at Metzger's book.

Five minutes later, Magister Kircher curtailed the discussion of the significance of that. He had spent the time reading the discussion of Codex Laudianus in Metzger's book. "Between this manuscript having been in Laud's possession and having Latin and Greek on opposite pages in such short lines, identification is almost certain. However, as scholars we ought to confirm it. We should send Master Young a list of distinctive readings."

"Absolutely," Dr Green agreed. "Second-year Greek class, you can assume upcoming homework will be to choose a series of verses whose readings when taken together will be unique to Laudianus."

Horst glanced over at Katharina. "Let's see who can demonstrate positive identification with the fewest verses," he suggested.

"You're on," Musaeus agreed, also with a glance in Katharina's direction. "Uh, Dr Green, I assume you'll want those of us not in second-year Greek to do the same."

Green nodded. It probably made it easier to keep a straight face, Katharina thought sourly. She did not want to get involved in a competition—especially since it was the guys' way of flirting. Then she remembered something her brother had said.