“There!”
She changed course slightly. In a moment, Franz saw the slight figure of Mary Simpson appear out of the crowd as she won free of the crush around the princess.
“Mary!” Marla called out. The admiral’s wife looked around and headed their direction. Marla didn’t even give the older woman a chance to speak, blurting out, “The palace piano! We need to protect it.”
Mary said not a word, but turned and headed not for Rebecca Abrabanel, as Franz expected, but instead for the sergeant in charge of the Marine Guard. That worthy, already looking a bit nervous at the thought of the mass of people getting ready to invade his turf, bent down to listen to her.
Franz couldn’t hear what she said over the crowd noise, but from fingers pointing first at Marla and then at the palace, he got a pretty good idea of the conversation. The conclusion of the short conversation was the detaching of one of the guards into Mary’s charge. He followed her across to Marla as the sergeant turned his gaze back to the crowd.
“Private Brodie here will take you to the piano. You might open it up and start playing something. I suspect that Rebecca will appreciate that touch.”
Brodie them a nod, then turned and headed for the palace with his SRG carried across his body. Marla and Franz followed close behind, following the wagging shako as the crowd moved out of the private’s way.
Once inside, Marla pulled the cap from her head as they followed the private and shoved it and her gloves in her jacket pockets. Next came the scarf, unwound and stuffed into a sleeve of the jacket to keep it from wandering off. She handed the jacket to Franz as they walked through the double doors into the great room of the palace, and made a beeline to the piano, which was set to one side. While she was propping up the lid and opening the keyboard cover, Franz looked over to Private Brodie.
“Our thanks. My wife is protective of any piano, but that one is one of a kind. She’ll guard it like a mother sow with one piglet.”
“Well, if it is that important, maybe I should stand guard,” the private said with a wink.
Franz winked back. “Well, I am certain that the palace staff would appreciate the reinforcement over this rare and costly instrument.” He sobered. “Seriously, it does sound like a good idea.”
“Just you remember to say that to my sergeant if he comes looking for me in here where it’s warm,” Brodie said with another wink.
Franz laughed, just as Marla started playing “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”
* * *
Hans Metzger stalked through the streets of the poorest quarter of the old city. God Above, what was he going to do? If the Polizei were going to start coming after him, whether they thought he had a hand in the floaters’ deaths or not, Schardius was going to start getting nervous, and that meant his own days were possibly numbered. One on one, two on one, even three on one he wasn’t worried about dealing with any attackers, be they thugs or even true hard men. But he was under no illusions about Schardius hiring as many bodies as was needed to overwhelm him. Or even just give one of them a pistol and shoot him in the back some night.
But his greatest fear wasn’t for himself. He would take his own chances, and after surviving the sack he figured he was living on borrowed time anyway. But what would he do about Ursula? Ursula, and Simon now? How could he protect them?
Hans started across the east bridge between the Altstadt and the Neustadt. He stopped at the crest of it, and stared over the side at the water flowing from underneath it in the Big Ditch.
What was he going to do?
The water gave no answer.
Chapter 40
It was a long afternoon, and by the end of it Marla was ready for it to be over. She had played most everything she knew, from classical to pop to hymns. Fortunately their friends had started showing up one by one, and she was able to change off with Hermann and Thomas. She was back at the keyboard at the end of the party, however. Most everyone had left by the time she started the Beethoven. She’d almost begun playing it several times during the day, but had held back until now.
She laid her hands on the keys, and waited. For all that it was considered by some up-time authorities to be a lesser work because of its popularity, to Marla, Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Opus 27, No. 2—the Sonata quasi una fantasia, most commonly known as the “Moonlight” or “Mondschein Sonata”—was quintessential Beethoven. Even more than Chopin, it was the piece that had made her want to study piano at an early age. It was the first adult piece she played in its entirety in a recital. And it was the first piece she had brought back to her exacting standards after her…hiatus.