My favorite shards

Rogue mercenaries 1632, the first novel in the 1632 series
Who rape and who plunder,
Mike Stearns and his men who
Plant them six feet under
A stern warning We don't know who these murdering raping bastards
are that we put here. Don't much care either. If there
are any more of you out there, be warned. This area is now under the protection of the UMWA. If you try to harm
or rob anybody we will kill you. There will be no further warning. We will not negotiate. We will not arrest you.
You will simply be dead.
We guarantee it.
Go ahead. Try us. of just
What such conduct brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Guardsmen deserting, Rebecca Abrabanel’s hired Landsknecht escort abandons her and her father the instant Tilly’s mercenaries are spotted: We’re not getting paid enough for this!
a father Balthazar Abrabanel — physician, philosopher, translator of Galen. is dying, Balthazar is in the grip of a heart attack even before the mercenaries appear.
Gentleman’s English, The tall, blue-eyed stranger at the carriage window has every mark of a Spanish hidalgo to Rebecca’s eyes — except that no hidalgo would ever speak English, “a tongue for pirates and traders.”
no Spaniard The stranger is Mike Stearns, not a hidalgo at all — blunt-nosed and plainly featured next to the raptor beauty of Sepharad’s legends — though Rebecca won’t fully register the mismatch until well after the shooting stops. replying,
No blood Stearns walks out alone to draw the mercenaries’ fire from the carriage, borrowing James Nichols’s pistol. When it’s over, only his sleeve is torn: No blood. No blood. on his sleeve,
the comfort Rebecca collapses into Mike’s arms afterward — a moment she will spend years turning over, and one she says never brought quite such a glow to her heart again. it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Young teenage girls Anna Braun, fleeing from mercenaries who raided her farm. who
Are fleeing in terror
A farmer George Blanton, a farmer living alone after his wife and son died who thinks her
A tourist, Blanton still thinks that he's in his own time and place; the girl hiding in his barn speaks German, so he assumes that a tour bus has had an accident. in error,
Macaroni and cheese is
The food that he brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Not why, At the Roths’ house, Mackay — Gustav’s own captain — can’t understand why the Americans rescued Balthazar and Rebecca and asked nothing in return: Why aren’t we rapists and thieves? Mike demands of him, almost a challenge. says Balthazar,
but simply testing,
whether one instant Balthazar answers for Mike, then turns the real question back on Mackay: Ask him, Mackay. Ask him again. But do not ask: why? Simply ask: did you even think twice? Or even once, for that matter?
of doubt was arresting,
There was no choosing, The answer is the point: Mike never hesitated at all.
and see what it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Balthazar's question At the Roths’ house: My daughter seems much taken by this Michael Stearns.
comes mild, and unhidden, Balthazar’s tone is friendly and mild — the words themselves, an open invitation.
Gentle from Judith,
but blunt and unbidden, Judith Roth, hesitant: He’s a fine young man. Morris Roth cuts her off: Bullshit… I’m not going to dance around about this.
Whatever his blood, Morris, apologizing for his language even as he presses on: Mike Stearns is the closest thing you’ll ever find in this world to a genuine goddamn prince, and that’s all there is to it.
a true prince Gentile or not. he brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Rogue mercenaries
Camp followers harry.
Some look to Gretchen Maria Margaretha "Gretchen" Richter, a camp follower in a Catholic military force of about 2,000 men, who has taken many fellow captives under her wing.
Who is rather scary.
She will protect
Those under her wings.
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

A bright teenage boy Jeff Higgins, a teenager from Grantville, West Virginia. Mike watches Jeff and his three best friends — Larry Wild, Jimmy Andersen, and Eddie Cantrell — and thinks: Ah, yes. D’Artagnan, and the Three Musketeers.
Told to stay out of trouble. Mike, to Jeff: If you can, warn off Hoffman’s men. But they probably won’t listen to you, and I don’t want you taking any chances. Don’t do anything else until the reinforcements arrive.
After one army was
Turned into rubble.
Aid Hoffman’s men have spotted the camp followers. Against his orders, Jeff gets off his bike and unslings his shotgun: Over my fucking dead body! to poor Gretchen
And her folks he brings.
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

The dying Diego Diego The Spaniard is a greatly feared mercenary. He is badly wounded, but Gretchen is afraid that he might survive.
Who demanded water
Sweet gentle Gretchen
Says, “You are for slaughter” Diego has been eyeing Gretchen’s 14 year old sister Annalise; Gretchen has decided to kill him to protect Annalise from rape.
Much needed concealment Gretchen does not want to be seen killing Diego.
Jeff Higgins then brings. Jeff blocks the view of Gretchen and Diego from potential onlookers.
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Worried Gretchen Richter,
The burdens she carries,
And young Jeff Higgins,
The man whom she marries Jeff is worried that Gretchen will fall into prostitution in the belief that she has no other options. Concerned for her future he proposes marriage. When she begins to shake her head, he responds Yes, I do. Ja, ich muss.
Who for his proposal
A lexicon Jeff Higgins doesn’t know German, and Gretchen Richter knows little English, so he picks words out of a dictionary to propose. brings
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Melissa defending At that night’s emergency committee meeting, Jeff’s old teacher Melissa Mailey guesses his garbled news, asks when the wedding is, and cheers him on with imaginary pom-poms.
Jeff’s marital choices, Jeff answers each objection with a cheerful “So what?” Mike later calls him probably the smartest person in town at that moment.
Frank Jackson rebuking Frank Jackson silences the room and asks Quentin Underwood where he thinks Frank met his own wife, Diane, thirty years married; Mike stops him before he can say.
the negative voices, The councilmen object to the haste, Gretchen’s motives, an inevitable divorce, money and looks; Underwood is the crudest.
Rebecca explaining Mike asks Rebecca to explain. She tells the room they face a choice of two roads.
the path Jeff’s road leads to a country like the Sepharad her people once dreamed of, where the refugees become fellow citizens, neighbors and spouses; the other, to a land of hidalgos and inquisitors, with “pure-blood” Americans ruling German serfs. that it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Valkyrie? Mike Stearns calls Gretchen Richter a Valkyrie. Melissa Mailey calls a Valkyrie just a vulture. Never!
The slain have their choosers; Valkyries were called “choosers of the slain.”
Gretchen picks living Melissa, of Gretchen Richter: “That woman is a chooser of the living.”
From towel-clad bruisers. Captured mercenaries, deloused and wearing only towels, crowd around Gretchen, and she chooses which ones to recruit.
Jeff, Jeff Higgins, the Grantville teenager who saved Gretchen’s family from Hoffman’s men. too, a chooser Jeff resolves that he, too, will be a chooser of the living. who
Saves her with rings, Jeff marries Gretchen.
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Pressed into soldiering, Hans Richter, Gretchen’s younger brother, is forcibly conscripted into the mercenary Ludwig’s band after their family is destroyed and their printer father killed at Badenburg.
tormented, haunted, Hans survives by staying too drunk to take part in the worst of it.
Hired for a print shop, Rescued and nursed back to health after Grantville’s arrival, Hans is hired to help newspaper publisher Mr. Kindred rebuild a print shop the old way.
the trade Printing was Hans’s father’s trade, and the one thing Hans still has to call his own. that he wanted,
Pickups and papers,
the joy that it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Drove every pickup Hans falls instantly and permanently in love with the up-timers’ motor vehicles, and learns to drive nearly all of them.
as if in a panic, James Nichols privately has his doubts about “the young German’s recklessness” behind the wheel.
Fishtailed with joy Jesse Wood recalls that if Hans hadn’t been driving like a maniac to begin with, the pickup would never have fishtailed…
in a fashion quite manic, …“even if the kid had pulled out of it with style and verve.”
Trucks need repair Racing Mike Stearns home from the Alte Veste to Rebecca’s early delivery, Hans gets him back to Grantville “in record time”; the pickup needs “extensive body work” afterward. now,
the worry Hans and Mike were still late: the baby had already been born. it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Gretchen thinks Becky Rebecca “Becky” Abrabanel, daughter of the physician and philosopher Balthazar Abrabanel, betrothed to Mike Stearns.
looks terribly worried,
Annalise snaps back, Grantville’s first television broadcast since the Ring of Fire, September 10: Gretchen, watching with her new husband, Jeff; her brother, Hans; and the rest of the family, thinks Becky looks nervous on screen with Mike.
serenely unhurried, Gretchen’s sister Annalise: That’s nonsense. Becky is never nervous.
Cool as whatever
composure it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

How she looks naked Recruiting Jena’s male students to the newly-named Committees of Correspondence, Gretchen snorts: Stupid boys. They’ll think of nothing but what I look like naked.
is all they'll be thinking,
Bringing Jeff also, Gretchen: I will bring my husband with me… He’s an intellectual himself, which I most certainly am not. The students will understand him better.
their courage soon shrinking, Inga, of Jeff: They’ll be so scared of him, too.
Sweet, ruthless Gretchen, Privately pleased that Jeff will hear how frightening he seemed, Gretchen lets none of it show. Her eyes go cold and grim: Yes, they will. Sehr gut!
the fear In the same visit Gretchen decrees literacy lessons for the illiterate women of the household, and takes fifteen-year-old Gertrude back to Grantville to be schooled rather than sold. that it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Jungers approaches Max Jungers, warned off harassing another woman days earlier, makes himself a silent promise to settle the matter alone. He finds Gretchen on a Jena street, hand resting on his dirk.
with menace and dagger, Jungers swaggers toward Gretchen, grinning.
Gretchen stands still, A 9mm automatic sits in Gretchen’s shoulder holster, hidden by deliberately oversized garments.
quite unmoved Jungers never recognizes the pistol for what it is — not even when the first shot fires. by his swagger,
One shot, and garbage Mathilde, standing ten feet from Jungers’s body: Come. He was nothing but garbage… Just another street killing.
is all When Jeff returns from relieving Jena with the victorious American relief force, he doesn’t bother investigating his own wife’s kill. that it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Oh sweet young Julie Sims, Before the ambush relieving Jena, Mike warns Julie that this is not deer hunting: she will be killing men with faces she can see.
so caring and tender, Julie recalls crying over her first buck, which had never done her any harm; she and her spotter, Karen, agree that these men look more like wild dogs than deer.
if you’re in her crosshairs Julie’s rifle is a Remington Model 700, .308, fitted with an ART-2 scope — a gift from her father three years earlier. Karen spots for her through an M49 spotting scope, Frank Jackson’s own contribution to his niece’s biathlon ambitions.
your flesh she will render, Julie opens fire, dropping one mercenary after another; unlike the deer, the men get no tears.
no pity Julie, solemnly: the whole problem with allowing men into combat is that they are too emotional about it. for mercenaries
whatever it brings, When a shot goes wide, Julie’s Uncle Frank talks her through her buck fever, then scolds her language, and is mocked for it: Foul-mouth Frank himself? Ha!
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

The King mocks her crosshairs, At the Lech, Julie offers the near-sighted Gustav II Adolf a look through her rifle’s scope. Delighted, he studies Tilly’s position across the river, then hands it back: a splendid telescope, though he found that peculiar flaw a bit distracting.
a flaw Insulted, Julie demands to know what flaw. The king explains: those two black lines meeting in the center of the eyepiece. The flaw is her crosshairs. in her sight,
She proves it dead-on, Royal temper be damned, Julie growls her answer. “Nonsense! That’s five hundred yards!” The king orders Mackay to make good the boast; Mackay explains that it was Julie’s. Anders picks a target, and at her shot reports: “Dead on, Your Majesty.”
dropping men “Nonsense! Luck! Another!” Crack. “Another!” Crack. “Another!” Crack. The king falls silent for well over a minute, then smiles. left and right,
not an ounce of respect “Tell that fathead to pick his target,” Julie snarls; Mackay leaves “fathead” out of the translation.
for the crown, nor for kings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

A glare Julie glares at Gustav “with grotesque disregard for all proper etiquette in the presence of royalty” over his teasing about her marksmanship. for her King,
then a grin, Gustav has Mackay explain that one cannot challenge a ruling monarch, and that as the challenged party he would choose sabers. Julie’s ill humor evaporates, and the two of them exchange grins. unrehearsed,
Prickly no longer,
her anger dispersed,
He sees chipmunk and bear, Watching, Gustav’s bodyguard Anders thinks of “a chipmunk and a bear beaming in mutual approval,” the first time the simile is used of Julie and Gustav.
the friendship When Julie offers to take out the skirmishers shooting his engineers at the river, Gustav admits his royal dignity is insulted, but not half as much as seeing his engineers struck down: “If you would, Miss Sims. I would be much obliged.” it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Drunkenly challenges Jealous after Mackay drops a charging boar with a shotgun, impressing Julie, her former boyfriend Chip challenges him at the Thuringen Gardens after too much beer.
Mackay to battle, Chip punches Mackay first, without ever asking his choice of weapons.
Chases Outraged by the sucker punch, Mackay draws his saber and politely chases Chip through the packed tavern, asking onlookers to step aside as he goes. him through the crowd,
pool tables rattle, An off-duty deputy, deep in his cups, rules the duel legal and orders Chip be given a saber too — though he has no idea how to use one.
Steel meets a pool cue, Cornered among the pool tables, Chip swings a cue at Mackay; it is “transformed into toothpicks in a matter of seconds.”
and loudly Mackay, ever the gentleman, then offers to switch to pistols at Chip’s choice of range. Dan Frost finally halts the duel as illegal; Mike Stearns bans dueling outright, anywhere in American territory. it rings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

A proud Swedish monarch Gustav II Adolf, King of Sweden. His scouts spot a large cavalry column heading through the Thuringenwald, and he works out before anyone at Grantville that it is a raid meant to destroy the town.
who travels in disguise, Outnumbered five to one, Gustav pursues anyway, under the field alias “Captain Gars” (Gustavus Adolphus Rex Sueciae).
kind Finnish healers Bitter irony: Finnish cavalry were known for brutality and terror; mercy and prisoners of war were not concepts they dealt in.
come along as his guys,
a grim quietus The Finnish cavalry rout the surviving Croat raiders once they reach the school, ending the attack for good. to Croats,
that gladly he brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Croatian marauders
who are quite unruly,
doughty defenders ask, Defending the school, James Nichols thrusts one of its only two rifles, a .30-06 semiautomatic, at Julie Sims.
“Can you shoot this, Julie: Is that a joke? I can shoot anything! Mid-battle she throws his question back at him in a mocking singsong, and James, an ex-Marine, offers to reload for her instead. Julie,”
Great Gustavus Adolphus, The Finnish cavalry that break the siege of Grantville High School are led by “Captain Gars”: Gustavus Adolphus, riding incognito.
the aid that he brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

To the Croats a demon, A few of the Croats come to believe that the death raining on them is a demon’s work.
a monster “A monster taking the form of a girl. A pretty one, too, to make the horror worse.” in disguise,
The angel of death The novel’s refrain for Julie’s rifle fire during the siege: “The angel of death reaped and reaped.” reaping,
a scythe in her eyes —
Those staring “Those Croats who were foolish enough to spend time studying the window usually died within seconds.” at the window,
their own death it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Like a chipmunk Once the siege is broken, Julie throws herself on the wounded “Captain Gars,” “much like a chipmunk might embrace a bear,” the second time the simile is used of them. who fiercely
embraces a bear,
Julie hugs the King tightly,
angrily aware Julie knows exactly who “Captain Gars” is.
of the risk Julie objects loudly and at length to Gustav’s reckless folly in exposing himself to danger. to himself
that his own boldness brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Paladin wings, Hans, now a trained pilot, gets his wings. Jesse will later call him the only paladin he ever met; Sharon claims the word for him too.
and a kiss, Hans is formally betrothed to Sharon Nichols, a legally binding German custom, and moves in with her that same night; pinning on his wings, she is already fighting tears. and some crying,
Flights with her angel, Sharon often flies with Hans as his observer. Waking from near-fatal wounds, he once mistook her for “an angel of death” who turned out to be “an angel of life” instead.
no more to be flying,
Widowed unwed,
and the sorrow it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Germs never pause James Nichols explodes at Quentin Underwood over “Dutch disease” and a supposed “United States immune system”: The bacteria and viruses which carry epidemics don’t give a flying fuck about your precious borders and your fine political distinctions.
to consider your nation, James: Do you think a germ stops when it gets to your nose and says: ‘Oh, no! Mustn’t infect this man. He’s a fine and respectable Murikun’… I’ll just have to find me a scruffy no-good Dutchman or Kraut or Frog or Dago’?
Twenty-five million, The Black Death started in China, killing an estimated twenty-five million there before reaching Europe through India and the Middle East.
a Black Death Killing another twenty-five million, a third of the continent, within two years of reaching Paris. migration,
No passport checked, James: The bacterium’s invisible to the human eye… Ain’t no border guard checking papers gonna spot it.
and no mercy James’s real point: the only lasting protection is spreading sanitary and medical knowledge across all of Europe, not hoarding a limited stock of antibiotics. it brings,
These are a few of
My deadliest things.

[hook]

Avenging his friends At the Battle of Wismar Bay, Hans watches two friends, Eddie and Larry, die when their speedboat is destroyed.
with a fury Hans presses a furious solo rocket attack on the Danish ship responsible. undying,
Turned to the warship, Hit and bleeding out, one rocket jammed, Hans waves off Jesse Wood’s signal to return and land, and turns back out to sea.
no longer for flying, Hans rams the Danish warship Lossen, his last thoughts on Gretchen (“she had been his steel angel; now he would be hers”) and on Sharon.
A field Within weeks, two airfields carry his name: Richter Field at Wismar, and Hans Richter Field near Grantville itself. bears his name now,
the legend it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Square for his statue, At a mass rally in Magdeburg, Mike Stearns commissions a monument on the spot: “can’t have a Hans Richter Square without a Hans Richter monument.”
a name for a nation, Mike openly uses Hans’s memory to push the Confederated Principalities of Europe toward real, unified government.
Vengeance to triumph, The crowd’s rage at the princes dissolves into “triumph in full flood”…
in waves of elation, …when the Belle II passes over the square in mid-afternoon, the sound that announces victory.
Mike's private tears, Even as he stage-manages the day, Mike stops to weep, if only briefly, for “young men he had once known and would always treasure.”
though a triumph it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Mike tames the fury, On the palace steps in Magdeburg, an arm round Spartacus and round Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar, Mike Stearns turns a crowd furious at Germany’s princes into a rally.
A crowd turned to cheering,
Sharon, their Fürstin, The crowd hails Sharon Nichols as Die Fürstin, the princess: who else would be a fit bride for Germany’s new folk hero?
In mourning appearing, Sharon Nichols, in mourning for Hans, neither smiles nor waves; walking to the steps with Jesse Wood, she nods to the crowd like a queen.
Summoned, the princess, Mike points at the ground by his feet, and Princess Kristina, the seven-year-old daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, who has watched all day from a palace window, comes running past her bodyguards.
With the hug Kristina hugs Sharon on the steps, and the crowd goes wild. Mary Simpson says she would swear Mike staged it; Jesse says he did. that she brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Becky's own word In the verse, Becky’s word for Hans is hidalgo; in the book she had reached for that word earlier, for Mike, when he walked out alone to draw the mercenaries’ fire. for him:
highest of praises, Despite the savagery of the Inquisition and the expulsion by Spain’s actual hidalgos, Sepharad’s exiled Jews still called it “the highest praise, amongst them, to call a man hidalgo.”
Sharon's own word Jesse Wood will later call Hans “the only paladin he ever met” — a rescued, forcibly-conscripted refugee turned mechanic, about as far from storybook chivalry as a man can be. for him:
one of the phrases, Sharon claims the word for Hans too the night she pins his pilot’s wings on, already fighting tears.
Different words, One drawn from Sepharad’s Hebrew and Spanish literary tradition, the other from American chivalric romance — two women, two unrelated vocabularies.
and the same praise Both reaching, independently, for a word that means the same thing: the finest kind of man, regardless of how ordinary he looks. it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Seven years old, Deep in the siege of Amsterdam, the CoC disbands the old city council and militia officer corps, replacing both with its own members — while carefully electing the prince of Orange’s actual seven-year-old son as the city’s official military commander.
just a puppet commander, “No one except possibly the boy himself was fooled by the formality; certainly not Fredrik Hendrik.” It lets the prince of Orange keep up the necessary public image.
While Gretchen's own power Not even the prince of Orange still pretends otherwise: Amsterdam is, by now, unambiguously a CoC stronghold.
grows ever grander, Eight of the new council’s ten seats, and nine of the militia’s ten officers, went to CoC members.
Once just a captive, Gretchen was a camp-follower held captive in Ludwig’s mercenary band when this song first met her.
a legend Gretchen’s footprints, the narration adds, “would stamp Amsterdam for at least two generations, and probably forever.” it brings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Brillo Flo Richards’s ram, “a brillo pad with legs.” the woolly
Who breaks down the fences, Deposed by a Merino upstart, Brillo batters the fence until it gives and gets into the breeding flock.
Bowing to no ram In the fables, the Merino ram stands for the rulers.
Of noble pretenses, A properly edifying Brillo would defer “to the gentleram.”
Farmers’ own figurehead Brillo stands for the sturdy German farmer. “Brillo is their figurehead.”
Butting Ram’s-head banners lead the Ram Rebellion in Franconia. at kings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Eddie, one-footed, Eddie Cantrell, an American naval lieutenant who lost a foot at Wismar, now a prisoner of King Christian IV of Denmark.
Spins yarns Eddie tells King Christian tall tales about Grantville’s speedboats and engines. for her father: King Christian IV, father of Anne Cathrine.
Elvis Asked for Grantville’s best gunsmith, Eddie names Elvis Presley. the gunsmith,
And Marilyn? Mike Stearns plays along, writing that Eddie’s fiancée, Marilyn Monroe, is in good health. Rather
Kennedy’s Eddie explains that Marilyn loves John Kennedy, so the engagement is off. sweetheart now;
King’s daughter Anne Cathrine, King Christian’s daughter by a morganatic marriage: “king’s daughter,” she insists, not princess. clings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Wed an old goat? Anne Cathrine is promised to Dinesen, a rich shipbuilder; Eddie Cantrell calls him an old goat. No!
So gossip Eddie and Anne Cathrine gossip wherever servants can hear. is planted:
Vibeke’s chambers! The rumor: Dinesen has been with Vibeke Kruse, the king’s mistress.
The king, disenchanted, The rumor proves false, but King Christian learns that Dinesen is building galleons for Gustavus Adolphus.
Dousing the traitor King Christian: “You put money before loyalty to your monarch.” with
Wine King Christian throws the rest of his wine in Dinesen’s face and has him taken away. that he flings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Ulrik, suspicious, Prince Ulrik, King Christian’s youngest son.
Looks Elvis up: Ulrik checks Eddie Cantrell’s names against the king’s Britannica, and the lies come out. busted!
Plotting Ulrik and his half-sister Anne Cathrine lay their plans all winter. with sister,
Papà half-entrusted; Sometimes with King Christian’s knowledge, sometimes behind his back.
Matters of state Ulrik’s motive is reasons of state. Anne Cathrine’s, she says, no longer is. for him;
Two days Anne Cathrine makes Ulrik promise two full days before he tells King Christian where she and Eddie are. He gives her a pouch for the last-minute bribes. she wrings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Simpson, sarcastic, Admiral John Simpson, Eddie Cantrell’s commanding officer.
Says two cells Eddie’s two brain cells, Simpson says, have finally rubbed together. connected;
Eddie proposes, Eddie asks King Christian for Anne Cathrine’s hand.
As she had projected; Anne Cathrine: “I told you, Papà!” She is fifteen and five-sixths.
Rise, Count of Wismar, Gustavus Adolphus dubs Eddie Imperial Count of Wismar.
Then banquet King Christian: that calls for a drink, now that Eddie is part of the family. with kings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Will meets his mother Home for two days, Gretchen Richter sees her son Will, now four.
Polite Will shakes Gretchen’s hand: “I am very pleased to meet you.” as a stranger;
Home late Gretchen had decided not to come home right after the election. for Henry, Henry Dreeson, mayor of Grantville and Gretchen’s grandmother’s husband, is murdered.
She rides back in anger, On the train, Gretchen is in “full avenging fury mode.” Evoking Antony: “With Ate by his side come hot from hell” (Ate, goddess of ruin).
Calming For once Gretchen is the mollifying voice. Evoking the iconic “O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, / That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!” at Krystalnacht, Operation Krystalnacht, the Committees of Correspondence’s answer to the Dreeson murder, aimed at known anti-Semites and witch-hunters.
Hiding her stings, Gretchen, to Francisco Nasi: “Do not presume to think how bloody I might like to be.” Evoking the iconic “Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war.”
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Buster Buster Beasley, Denise Beasley’s father. the biker
Rides in with a wheelie; Buster rides his Harley into the riot at the synagogue, scattering the rioters.
Seven shots, Each of the seven shots from Buster’s .45 takes a man down. seven
His knife Then Buster fights on with the pistol butt and his buck knife, until an ax brings him down. Roland at Roncesvalles could not have done better. working freely;
Daughter gets even Denise remembers Buster’s advice: “Don’t get mad; get even.” when
Bryant’s gun sings, Bryant Holloway, a wife-beater, ambushes Denise and her friend Minnie Hugelmair, and Denise empties her carbine into him.
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Locked in a pantry Wes Jenkins, the SoTF administrator in Fulda, and Clara Bachmeierin, his liaison to the abbot, are kidnapped by Karl von Schlitz’s men and locked in a pantry.
With torture All the way there, their captor describes what he will do to them if they don’t answer: the first stage of judicial torture, Clara says. tomorrow,
Clara takes Wesley Clara: “The name is Clara. And you are Wesley.” She sets out the vows herself, left hand in left, right in right, in the present tense.
For joy, Married, Clara says, “to the entire satisfaction of ninety-five percent of the population of Europe”; the other five percent are “Lawyers and bureaucrats!” not for sorrow;
Two links of watch chain For a token to divide and share, Wes offers two links from his watch chain. for
Wedding-day Wes still wants a church wedding later, with a Grantville license and Reverend Mary Ellen Jones saying the words. rings,
These are a few of
My favorite things.

[hook]

Martin Martin Wackernagel, a private courier on the Imperial Road between Frankfurt and Erfurt. the rider,
A wife at three stations, Maria in Bindersleben near Erfurt, Rufina in Vacha, Edeltraud at the Blue Goose in Steinau; none of them knows about the others.
Orphan Martin tells each pastor that he is an orphan from Breslau; his mother and sister live in Frankfurt. from Breslau
For three congregations; Maria is Lutheran, Rufina Catholic, and Edeltraud Calvinist.
Darling girls, Martin’s refrain for each of his wives: “a darling girl.” every one;
Fourth one After Maria dies, Martin marries Helena Hamm, niece of Clara Bachmeierin. with strings, Helena’s ironclad prenuptial contract, and her warning: no more darling girls.
These are a few of
My favorite things.

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Württemberg’s brothers, The three young dukes of Württemberg, Eberhard, Friedrich and Ulrich, serving on General Nils Brahe’s staff in Mainz.
First one, Ulrich, the youngest, dies after an ambush at Weselberg in the Palatinate. then another; Friedrich, who had renounced his title to marry Margarethe Pistor, dies after a skirmish at Waiblingen.
Burning in Schorndorf, Schorndorf burns while the Irish dragoons hold it; they won’t open the gates until the townsmen blow one open.
The eldest, Eberhard throws the town’s Dekan down the church steps as the roof falls, and a beam crushes his legs. last brother,
Wills Eberhard’s will leaves the duchy to its people, now its citizens rather than its subjects. to his people their
Rule, not the kings’, Not to be “disposed of, willy-nilly, by emperors or prime ministers or diplomatic congresses.”
These are a few of
My favorite things.

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