Grantville Gazette, Volume 40 (15 page)

Monks, chanting—that probably narrowed it down to Catholic. Alicia couldn't quite see Wiley allowing Catholic services in the Presbyterian church, either. Besides that, why would they want to? They already had St. Mary's and a chapel at the refugee center.

After a little while the service concluded. People gathered up their coats and greeted each other. Some of them filed out. A couple stood around talking to one of the monks. Alicia recognized one of the Riddles. Martin, she thought. That was a bit of a relief. She didn't know them other than to say hi, but the Riddles were good people. Whoever these monks were, they were probably on the level.

Nona hadn't gotten up yet. One of the monks went over, and they started talking. It looked like the conversation might go on a while. Alicia shifted back and forth.

"'Scuse me, lass."

Alicia jumped about a foot. The Scotsman who had come in late was standing right there at her elbow.

"Oh! Um, hi."

"Ur ye waitin' fur yer friend thaur?"

"Yes."

"Ur ye wonderin' whit she's gotten herself intae?"

"Well, yes."

"Lassie, welcome tae th' selic kirk."

"The what?"

The Scotsman started explaining.

"Wait, wait," Alicia interrupted. "I think I've heard some of this. St. Patrick, Iona."

The Scotsman beamed.

Before their conversation could go any further, someone pushed against the door Alicia was holding. She swung it open.

"Alicia!" Nona exclaimed.

"Nona Dobbs, what are you doing here?" Alicia blurted. She flushed. "I just sounded like both our mothers, didn't I?"

"Yes, you do. Please, please, don't tell anybody," Nona begged.

Alicia eyed the Scotsman suspiciously. "We need to get home before we're both in trouble."

"Aye, an' Ah hae a commander fa thinks much th' sam way. Guid forenicht." He tugged on his cap, nodded briskly, and went on his way.

"Let's go," Nona urged.

Alicia didn't argue; they could talk on the way. Halfway down the block, Alicia demanded, "Okay, out with it. Why are you secretly going to church there?"

Nona sighed. She took a few more steps before speaking. "It's peaceful," she said finally.

"First Baptist isn't peaceful?" Alicia asked.

"Is the Methodist church?" Nona retorted.

Alicia snorted. "No. It's not like it's violent or anything. It's just loud."

Nona actually laughed. "And you've just got Reverend Simon and Reverend Mary Ellen.'

"That's nothing," she told Alicia. "We've got Brother Green and Brother Underwood who doesn't like him and we've still got about two-thirds of the Anabaptists."

"I can see how that would be loud. But is that a good reason for leaving? I got the short version from that Scots soldier. Your Celtics sound like they're pretty close to Catholic, really."

"I was talking to Brother Aidan about that," Nona said. "Which is why you can't tell
anyone
. My parents, Aunt Carole, Brother Green, and Brother Underwood would all lose it completely. Not to mention all the old ladies. It'd be a cold day in hell before they let me go to the Celtic Church."

Alicia coughed. "So anyway, it's peaceful. The Celtic church, I mean."

"And I like the music," Nona added.

"It was kinda nice," Alicia agreed.

"We're not allowed to sing anything modern at First Baptist," Nona continued. "It's all stuff from the 1800s. Played slowly."

"Whose idea is that?"

"Brother Underwood and the old ladies, of course. Well, Brother Green might actually agree with them on this."

Alicia shuddered, and not just because of the cold. "No modern music. Just stuff from two centuries from now. Someone should tell Brother Underwood that to a down-timer that's not really very different than playing Christian rock."

Nona giggled. "Feel free to go tell him. Just let me know first, so I can be over in the next
landkreis
."

A couple minutes later, she said, "I got through my first two doctrine questions. That's what I was talking to Brother Aidan about."

"And?" Alicia prompted.

"They believe in Jesus," Nona said deadpan.

Alicia smacked her. "Okay, you got me."

"Here's my street. We can talk about this tomorrow."

"Later, Nona."

"Later. And, Alicia . . . thanks."

Alicia smiled and hurried home.

****

The next morning, Georg walked past the breakfast table and stuck his head out the door.

"I think it's warming up," he said. "It doesn't feel as cold as yesterday."

"Oh, good," Katharina said, coming downstairs. "We won't freeze on our way to NESS. Or do you think Neustatter will come to school?"

"I think Neustatter and either Hjalmar or Astrid will show up at school," Georg said.

Katharina smiled. "You hope so, anyway."

****

Once at school, Katharina headed for the language wing with Barbara and Marta in tow.

"Why are we getting dirty looks from that group over there?" Barbara asked quietly.

"They're all Flacians," Marta whispered. "Word must have gotten around."

"Interesting," Katharina murmured.

"I think the word you want is 'threatening,'" Barbara corrected.

"No, it's interesting," Katharina insisted as they kept walking. "They've obviously been told what's going on but Holz didn't have a meeting of the whole church last night."

They found the BGS's Lutherans in one of the language classrooms. Johannes Musaeus had stayed overnight in Grantville, Katharina noted with annoyance.

"
Guten Morgen
, Katharina. Barbara. Marta."

"
Guten Morgen
."

"We've got the translation," Guenther Kempf said. The Philippist sounded weary and grim. "Here's a copy."

Katharina held the translation with Barbara and Marta reading over either shoulder.

"We're pretty sure this isn't really a ban on doing business with non-Lutherans," Johannes Musaeus added. "It's a series of theses. We think it's probably the positions Tilesius intends to take in the next Lutheran colloquy." He sighed. "Yes, we're going to have to have another one that includes Saxony. After the war everyone expects next year."

"Gary Lambert and Jonas Muselius are still going to hit the roof," Guenther said. "Prohibiting church members from doing business with people from outside the congregation is completely out of line, and it could backfire on the Flacians."

"We telegraphed a summary to Dr. Gerhard," Johannes told them. He was about to say more, but first bell interrupted him.

"Regroup at lunch," Katharina directed.

****

Johannes caught up to Katharina as she was on her way from German to biology.

"Katharina!"

"What is it, Johannes?"

"We've been checking with Flacian Lutheran students. Holz and the leaders of the congregation came to their houses last night. I haven't been able to find Markus Fratscher yet."

"This isn't good," Katharina said. "But I've got to get to class."

****

Mrs. Bellamy had given the geometry class a few minutes at the end of the period to start their homework. Katharina was working on proofs of various angles when Mrs. Lynch's voice came over the intercom. Most of the announcements were routine. A number of the usual suspects were summoned to Vice Principal Kolb's office. Chess club was canceled this afternoon.
Die Bibelgesellschaft
, please report to the conference room. Katharina gathered up her books and left.

Herr Principal Saluzzo was waiting in the conference room with Edgar Neustatter and Astrid Schaubin. He waited until most of the students in the BGS had filed in.

"I've approved this meeting under the guidelines for students with a job," the principal said, "since I understand Herr Neustatter has hired you. Don't abuse the privilege and please get back to your classes as soon as reasonably possible."

"Thank you, Herr Principal," Horst said for all of them.

"Here's the translation." Johannes handed it across the table to Neustatter before Saluzzo was out of the room.

"
Danke
," Neustatter said. He started reading.

"Herr Neustatter," Markus Fratscher said, "Pankratz Holz and the leaders of his congregation were going from house to house last night, telling Flacians not to do business with heretics. Or with you. They told me to quit the
Bibelgesellschaft
."

Katharina gasped.

"Not to worry," Markus said. "Pastor Holz overplayed his hand. If he had said that I had to quit the
Bibelgesellschaft
and left it at that, I think Father would have made me quit. But he ordered Father to drop some of his business contracts. Father said that when it became known that Cardinal Richelieu had been sending money to the Captain-General, the Flacians hadn't raised a fuss about it. Pastor Holz got really mad, and I think you'll probably be seeing us at St. Martin's on Sunday."

Neustatter looked up from the translation. "Good work," he told them. "That's exactly what they were doing. They came to our houses to tell us to stop doing business with you. That's what Schlinck's mercenaries were for—Holz had no intention of confronting us by himself.

"They went to Kirchenbauers and Kuntzes first," Neustatter growled. "Instead of coming to see me. Kirchenbauer and Kuntz are both married. Stefan has three children. Wolfram has one. Their families share one of the new houses east of the high school."

"It's just like yours, Georg and Katharina," Astrid put in. "New construction. Two families to a house."

Katharina nodded. That was fairly common in West Virginia County.

"They panicked Ursula and Anna. Kirchenbauer is on assignment. Wolfram was on duty at Leahy Medical Center. Then they came over to the apartments where the rest of us live. They went to Schaubs first. No one was home—Ditmar is on assignment, and Hjalmar and Astrid were with you. They found a copy of the proclamation on their door when they got home last night. Then Holz came next door to where Recker, Brenner, Heidenfelder, and I live."

Katharina worked through those names. Karl Recker was the big one who'd gone to both Jena and Erfurt with the BGS. Otto Brenner was the plain one who could blend into crowds. Lukas Heidenfelder was the one who'd caused trouble in Erfurt. The three of them and Neustatter . . .

"The four of us had Holz, Schlinck, and his goon outnumbered. Krause, Bruenner, and Ziegler aren't really men for a confrontation. I had to explain to Holz that as I'd already excommunicated him, he was wasting everyone's time trying to tell us what to do," Neustatter rumbled. "He seemed to think otherwise."

Neustatter leaned forward. "Look, our village militia got added to Mansfeld's army just before the battle at Dachau Bridge. Several men from the village were killed. The rest of us got absorbed into Tilly's army. We didn't really have any choice in the matter. We got shuffled around a lot and ended up in Wallenstein's army at Alte Veste. We were captured again and got to come to Grantville. We're all Lutherans but we've had quite a bit of practice pretending to be Catholic. I got really tired of people telling me what to do and what to think. Our pastor back in the village—the one who was there went we went off with Mansfeld—he'd tell us what we were supposed to do, too, but he'd try to explain why it was important."

"Then you should leave that church," Nona Dobbs blurted out. Everyone looked at her. "Well, you should. You've already excommunicated your pastor. What are the chances that you're going to be able to kiss and make up?"

Neustatter barked a laugh at the English expression.

"Nona is a Baptist," Guenther said carefully. "Dr. Green has told us that up-time, particularly in Baptist and independent churches, people would sometimes stop going to one church and start going to another, particularly if there had been a major disagreement within the church. There are some, ah, weaknesses to this arrangement, of course."

Neustatter looked interested. "If they had a falling out with the pastor, they would just go to a different church?" he asked.

"Yes, apparently so."

The security consultant considered that. "So Holz does have a point about anarchy and chaos."

"He does," Markus agreed. "But here is one of the central points. Holz has fallen into the same trap himself."

"What do you mean?"

"There is a Lutheran consistory in each territory. Some tend to have Philippist pastors. Some tend to have Flacian pastors. But it's all one Lutheran church. I know Herr Lambert suggested to the Flacians that we withdraw from the state church—which is now a not-a-state church—but so far, we haven't. All duly constituted Lutheran churches belong to one of the consistories. But Holz's isn't duly constituted. He's acting as if the Ring of Fire falls under one of the consistories in Saxony. It doesn't. It's just an unorganized area right in the middle of the Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt consistory."