Neither of them said a word. Stubborn silence reigned.
They simply couldn’t find any common ground. Her father refused to even consider any of her ideas. But she trudged up the hill to the Heimer house every day anyway.
The way he sat there, sulking like an overgrown schoolboy! When he did that, he had the same stubborn lines around his mouth as her grandfather when he refused to eat what Eva tried to feed him. If she came out now with her idea about the colored marbles, he would undoubtedly say that wouldn’t work either.
Wanda stood up. “I’m going. I promised Richard I would say hello.”
Heimer looked down into his empty beer glass.
After she left, Wanda stuck her head back into the kitchen, just like Eva had done before. “Sometimes I think you only agreed to have me come up here because you know it annoys Eva.”
“You did what?” Richard put down the piece of glass he was working on and looked at Wanda in dismay.
“I suggested that he put a display case on the front of the house and have some of his pieces on show there. And a sign inviting people to come into the workshop to watch him work. Anybody who has never seen how glass is blown is bound to find it interesting. Something like that will bring the customers in, I’m sure of it. But he refuses to even consider the idea. ‘I’m not an animal in a zoo!’ was all he said. Shouted, even.” Wanda smoothed down the hair at the back of her head. Her hackles rose just at the memory!
Richard laughed. Then he beckoned her over. “Come here so I can kiss you!” he called out, still laughing.
“I’d like to know what you find so funny,” Wanda answered, staying where she was. Her glance fell on the frost flowers that covered the inside of the windowpanes. How could Richard work in this cold all day long? “The shops in town would be quite lost without showcases and window displays. There has to be something to tempt people inside!”
“Well yes, but not here in the village. Wanda—we’re at the back of beyond here! Don’t you know what the city folk used to call us? Hillbillies with bellows!”
Wanda blinked back tears. “Now you’re against me as well!”
Richard’s flame flickered and died. His stool scraped across the floorboards and he walked over to Wanda. He took her hands and kissed each palm.
Wanda felt a shiver run down her spine and went weak at the knees.
“Who’s going to come looking at shopwindows? You can count on two hands the number of visitors who find their way to Lauscha. We make a living from our contacts in the outside world.” There was a faint note of impatience in Richard’s voice.
“I know all that,” Wanda grumbled. She was stung by the thought that she had made herself sound ridiculous. “And contacts are exactly what my father doesn’t have. Not anymore. He’s had one lousy commission these last few weeks. Fifty bowls, with stem and foot—what riches! He’s stone broke and the workshop is finished, but do you think he understands that?”
She heaved a sigh.
“He’s so fatalistic! How can I persuade him that he has to make things happen himself? You can do anything you want in this world! Though first of course you have to know what it is that you want . . .” Her anger died down a bit and she turned thoughtful. “I feel like a fisherman casting my rod into a murky pond without really knowing what kind of catch I’m after. Whatever I suggest to my father—he’s against it. The whole thing’s turning into a staring match. At least that’s something we’re both good at!”
She broke off abruptly.
“Why did I ever open myself up to this?” she choked out finally, weeping. And why doesn’t Richard take me in his arms in that way he has and stroke me . . .
“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but somehow I thought that you would be a bit more . . . organized about the whole thing.” Richard looked at her with a faint gleam of amusement.
“I beg your pardon?” Wanda’s sobbing subsided and gave way to a surge of fierce anger. “What ever made you think that I have all the answers? You’re the one who got me into this fix in the first place!” Even though he had been so rude to her, she still desperately wanted to grab hold of him and kiss him, which only made her angrier.
He grinned. “What you said just now about being a fisherman wasn’t bad, but I see it slightly differently: you’re an American and you’ve been trained in business, so there’s no doubt you’ll be able to land a big fish. It’s just that maybe you’ve been using the wrong rod. Or been casting in the wrong place. But you can change all that.”