Grantville Gazette Volume 47 by Eric Flint

Author:Eric Flint [Unknown]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: 1632, Inc.
Published: 2013-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

June, 1635

"I'm being transferred," David said, trying manfully to hide his smile. "I'm to be on General Stearns' staff in the Third Division."

Darlene was having no difficulty suppressing a smile. She doubted if she could call one up if her life depended on it. And the fact that she was eight months pregnant, looked like a whale, and was sure that Johan would follow the little creep into the regular army didn't help. But she didn't say anything. Now was not the time.

****

"You're not going," Darlene said. "I'm about to have a baby and I need you here."

Johan looked at his beautiful, much younger, wife and was very tempted to stay right here. No one could make him go. Young Master David wouldn't even ask him to go. But "on the general's staff" wasn't all that safe a place to be in the seventeenth century and Johan knew that perfectly well, having grown up and lived his life in a world where generals and their staffs led cavalry charges. He remembered the day he had arrived and the discussion that he and the then fourteen-year-old David Bartley had had. Up-timers were good people, but they needed taking care of and Darlene would be right here in Grantville with the best doctors and support in the world. David, on the other hand, would be out on what Frank Jackson called "the sharp end." Johan had to go, much as he didn't want to. For Darlene's sake, Johan had to. But how could explain it to her . . .

"In all the time I served in the armies that fought across Europe from the time I was fifteen, I never fought for a cause. I fought for the money. It was just a job. David is going to fight for the USE. And even if we end up fighting Poland after we take out Saxony, the USE is still something worth fighting for. And the sort of serfdom they have in Poland is something worth fighting against."

"You're going because the so-called emperor is pissed off at his brother-in-law. That's all this is about. Gustav doesn't have as much territory as he wants. He never will have as much as he wants. What's next? Russia?"

"No. I'm going because the USE is involved. And for that matter, the emperor has every right to be more than annoyed with his brother-in-law and with John George of Saxony. I haven't studied as much of your up-timer history as young Master David has, but the JROTC course spent quite a bit of time on your American Civil War. When the southern states seceded, what would have happened to America if the north had let them go? That has been a major topic of discussion since Saxony and Brandenburg effectively seceded from the USE."

"I heard something about that argument," Darlene conceded. "But I don't remember them coming to any conclusion."

"That's because getting a couple of Civil War buffs to agree on what color uniforms were worn by the blue and the gray is the next best thing to impossible.

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