"There is one bit of good news. Land prices in and round the Ring of Fire have been going up drastically. The rents are set and we cannot raise them. But, if we can broker a deal where the villagers of Sundremda get the Lehen and buy the land from Marion County at the same time, the price will be higher. Owning the land with clear title would make it worth more."
His mother frowned. "Frau Newhouse has told me several times how much she and her husband would like to have clear title to the farm. From what I understand, the government of Marion County doesn't really know what to do with the land. It seems that the county cannot collect taxes on the property, because the county owns the property. It cannot tax itself; there would be no point."
"That makes sense," Eddie said. "They do things one way and we do them another. Trying to make the two ways fit together can't be an easy task."
"You go to Grantville and find out what Marion County would want for their title to the land. I will go see Frau Newhouse and see what the villagers would be willing to pay for clear title."
"Excuse me? You could perhaps direct me?" Deborah looked up to see an attractive young German man standing at her office door. Poor guy, he looked like he was completely lost.
"I'll be happy to, Herr . . . ?"
"Junker, but call me Eddie, please. Could you perhaps tell me who I would see about property? I have some questions, but so far, three people have sent me to four different places. I have been unable to get an answer."
"Well, ah, Eddie, I guess you've found the right person, at last. At least, I hope I'll be able to answer your question," Deborah answered. "I'm afraid that government agencies, even our government agencies, tend to make finding an answer harder than it has to be, unfortunately. What is your question?"
"Mein, ah, my father owns the Lehen, the rents for the village of Sundremda. It is possible that he may wish to sell this. But, with all the new laws, the new government, we are not sure how to go about this, anymore," Eddie answered. "Do you know anything about this?"
Deborah remembered the name Junker. This must be the son of the man who had funded Guffy Pomeroy. No wonder he wanted to sell something, from what she had heard Pomeroy had taken him to the cleaners. Poor man.
"You've definitely come to the right place, sir. Please sit down, and we'll discuss what to do. I can even tell you why there was so much confusion."
As Eddie Junker took a seat in front of the desk, Deborah began speaking, "You see, before the Ring of Fire there was Grantville. Grantville was a town inside Marion County. Marion County was inside the state of West Virginia and the state of West Virginia was inside the United States of America."
"Back uptime, we had a lot of governments, I'm afraid. We had the town government, the county government, the state government and then the United States government. When the Ring of Fire happened, the only government that came back was that of Grantville, the town."
"When we started rebuilding government functions, we started with the New United States. At the very beginning, the New United States and what was left of West Virginia and Marion County were all the same size. Now, though, the New U.S. has more states but West Virginia and Marion County are still the same territory. West Virginia and Marion County still exist legally but don't exactly have their own governments."
"So, for all practical purposes the state that includes the Ring of Fire area and now includes Sundremda and some other villages is the same territory as Marion County. That makes Marion County the owner of the property, because the folks in Sundremda asked to be annexed by Marion County."
The young man was clearly baffled by the explanation but trying gamely to follow along.
"Never mind, you've found the right office."
The knock on the front door made Mary Lee want to scream. For the first time in three weeks, she actually had her own house to herself. The quiet and privacy were so welcome that she very nearly didn't answer the door. When the knock came again, though, she got worried that there might be an emergency of some sort. It seemed that emergencies happened every time she had ten minutes of quiet.
Mary Lee pulled the door open with a certain amount of force, prepared to glare at the person who was invading her limited privacy. Her visitor's identity caused her to start in surprise.
"Frau Junker, oh . . . I'm afraid I wasn't expecting you."
Clara smiled politely, "I regret that I did not inform you, so that you might prepare, Frau Newhouse. Do you think that you and I might talk?"