Lovelier than Daylight by Rosslyn Elliott

Author:Rosslyn Elliott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2012-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

“Hoster Biergarten” read the arched sign over the pathway, painted in pretty calligraphy. On either side were flickering lamps, their flames still ghostly in the evening light.

“Oh,” Susanna said, looking at the address on the paper in her hand.

“Let’s go in.”

“I don’t think I can.” Susanna fought back revulsion. A Biergarten was a German version of a saloon, and she couldn’t patronize such a place.

“You can’t win your prize without entering the battle.” Her petite aunt sallied ahead, her light-blue gown trailing over the green lawn.

Susanna followed reluctantly. Inside the walled enclosure were trees and bushes, some of the bushes forming a hedge so tall it created a second wall inside the first. Which way should they turn. Along the hedge or around it into the center?

Her aunt continued straight in. On the other side of the green bushes, a large number of wooden picnic-style tables formed a perfectly ordered grid of rectangles. About ten of the tables were already taken by large families, grandmothers with grandchildren, husbands and wives holding babies, young women talking in girlish secrecy to one another. Lanterns on posts stood waiting to be lit all around the garden. Flowering plants bloomed at intervals, mostly roses in white, red, and pink, carefully tended and trimmed.

On a raised wooden platform at the other end of the space, beyond the tables, musicians were setting up next to lanterns and music stands. A cellist plucked his strings, a double bassist lifted his massive wooden instrument from the ground. Two violinists tuned up. They were all dressed in elegant light coats, as if to play for a ball. Susanna was glad, now, that she had worn a borrowed dress, nicer than her everyday yellow one.

“Mrs. Hanby. Miss Hanby.”

Mr. Giere walked up behind them, smiling in welcome, his usually disheveled hair combed perfectly into place. His eyes looked even brighter against the black of his coat and his white collar. “Thank you for coming.” He took her aunt’s hand and made a slight bow over it, then did the same for Susanna. “A pleasure.”

“We shall see about that,” she said.

He chuckled. “Yes, we shall. Mr. Hanby could not come?”

“He is speaking to the men at a town meeting this evening,” her aunt said, “but sends his regards.”

“What’s his subject?”

“He cautions them against rash and unchristian action against Corbin.” Her aunt said it with wifely pride, but a hint of anxiety lurked in her eyes.

“A good idea, don’t you think?” he asked.

“Unless he makes the aggressive ones so angry that he incites such action.” Aunt Ann sighed.

“But he’s a persuasive man,” Mr. Giere said. “I don’t think that likely.”

Her aunt assumed a discreet quiet, her lips sealed together. “Some of them are easily angered,” Susanna said. “We’ve had proof.”

“Susanna.” Her aunt crossed her arms over her bodice. “Let’s speak of more pleasant things.”

“I’m sorry to miss Mr. Hanby this evening.” He held out an arm to her aunt, who took it with grace, and then he offered the other to Susanna, who accepted with significantly less warmth.

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