Judy giggled. “Sarah hates it when we call Karl that.”
“Which is why we do it,” Vicky said. “Sarah needs to lighten up.”
“Not as much as she hates the whole ‘von Up-time’ thing,” Millicent added. “And Mike Stearns hates it even worse.”
“Well, you can’t drop it,” Trudi said. “Von Liechtenstein, remember? Von Habsburg.” They had been all through this and it wasn’t the up-timers who had started it anyway. It was down-timers, specifically the Daily News and it was on a par with the “Prince of Germany” title that Germany had given Mike Stearns, whether he wanted it or not. Some of the up-timers got all offended by it and others reveled in it, but for the girls of the Barbie Consortium it was a convenience that let von-conscious down-timers deal with them without feeling like they were being forced to demean themselves.
“At least von Up-time is accurate, which is more than most of the vons running around have going for them. You are from the future.”
They all hushed at the knock on the door and kept quiet while Trudi directed the townhouse servants in laying their private dinner. There was some surprise when Trudi had them set it up as a buffet and informed them that she would handle the service alone.
* * *
The girls were in a suite of four rooms, none very large, in one wing of the von Liechtenstein townhouse. Judy wondered just who had been bumped out of the rooms to give them this much space. As it was, the six of them, including Sarah, shared three bedrooms, and this salon would be used for any meals they took away from the family and as an office.
“You know,” Susan said, after she’d filled her own plate and sat down, “I don’t know how anybody stands never having any privacy. From what we’ve learned over the last few years, I don’t know why everyone isn’t stark raving mad from being surrounded all the time. And Vienna is more crowded than anyplace I’ve ever seen.”
“You don’t miss what you’ve never had,” Trudi pointed out. “Even during the worst years, I always had a maid in my room at night.”
“You lived alone after your grandfather died for too long, Susan,” Judy said. In truth, Judy worried about Susan quite a bit. Her experiences in Grantville, due to the gossip about her tramp of a mother, had soured Susan on a lot of things. Men, for instance. While Susan was perfectly happy to deal with anyone in a business sense, she kept any male at arm’s length in a personal sense. Everything Susan did was directed at business and making more and more money.
It ticked Vicky off for anyone to worry about her but that didn’t stop Judy. Vicky was a steam roller. All push and no finesse. She was a gun-toting steam roller these days, too, as well as being in mourning for Bill Magen. “Yea, though I walk through the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, ’cause I’m the meanest bitch in the valley” used to be Vicky’s motto. After Bill’s death during the Dreeson assassination, Vicky hadn’t said it as much. But that worried Judy even more. And now, with the Catholic church seeming to disintegrate before their eyes in the last few weeks, Judy was really worried about how Vicky was going to handle it.
And Gabrielle was here, planning to attend a down-time medical university. Which Judy thought wasn’t going to be a lot of fun.
“When will all our stuff get here, again?” Judy asked. “Is it next week, or the week after?”
“Two weeks from tomorrow,” Millicent said. “If they don’t have too much trouble on the road or with the barges. Though I have no idea where we’re going to put it all.”
“You can put a bunch of it out by the race track,” Hayley offered. “We’ve got more space out there and it’s turning into a decent little town on its own. And we’ve got houses built out there, too.”
“So what’s the situation, Hayley?” Susan asked. “I’ve been reading your reports, and it looks like you’re spending more than you’re making.”
“If you don’t count the IOUs,” Hayley said. “We’ve got a whole bunch of them.”
“Are they any good?” Susan asked. “A pile of IOUs means nothing if they don’t get paid off.”
“I really don’t know what’s wrong,” Hayley admitted. “We make good products, we’re selling them at a fair price, but if we weren’t giving credit we’d be out of business.”
“I may know what’s going on,” Judy said. “Sarah’s been talking about it. Austria-Hungary is broke. Not just the emperor. The whole frigging country.”