Chapter Two Thousand Six Hundred Seven
31st January 1977
Ulm, Württemberg
Of all the things that could have happened, this was not what Kiki had expected. Having spent the prior days setting up an apartment in Ulm, she realized that it was her turn to be inconvenienced by her career. It was either finding an apartment in Ulm or else spending hours each day commuting. Bringing Lutz and Fianna with her was easy enough to do, he was a toddler. It was more complicated with Nina though. She was going to stay with Ben in Balderschwang until they came up with a permanent arrangement. The apartment itself was much larger than what Kiki had thought that she might need. The fact that she now had a much larger Staff to deal with was the reason for that. Kiki also had the displeasure of her brother making itself felt in ways which were impossible to ignore.
In the meantime, Kiki and Ben spent last weekend together alone in the apartment. As much as she loved her children, the last few days had been enjoyable. Now it was Monday, and she was faced with her first day as Chief Surgeon of the Ulm Military Hospital. Steffi Bader, who had been Kiki’s Personal Secretary for the last few years, had made sure that she had everything she needed this morning. So all Kiki needed to do was get dressed and say goodbye to Ben before he started the hour and half drive back to Balderschwang. She also needed to meet with her Staff before they would all set out for the hospital where she was to conduct an inspection tour, which would take most of the day because the place was huge. Seated at head of the table in the formal dining room which they were using as an impromptu conference room, Kiki was listening to her Aide, a Major, read the day’s itinerary aloud as she pinned the medals to the front of her tunic, having to angle and overlap to get them to fit. When she had been a little girl, she had marveled at the number of medals that Aunt Kat had worn in similar situations. Today, she had realized that she had likely caught up or even exceeded Kat. It was a sobering thought. Tomorrow, she could dispense with that and just wear what she normally did when working in the hospital, but it being the first day she wanted everyone who saw her to understand exactly who she was.
Looking across the table, Kiki saw that Feldwebel Haas was listening intently. His presence was Freddy’s way of letting her know his opinion of what had happened and how he had had bourn the brunt of Chancellor Kissinger’s anger over it. She was unsure what exactly to do with the Feldwebel now that he had been appointed to her Staff. His prior experience had been entirely in Infantry, so Haas might be a big help with patients in that he spoke their language. He probably could use some training in First Aid and simple medical procedures, regardless of his specialty those were valuable skills.
Montreal, Canada
The weather reports said that this was probably going to be the worst winter storm of the season. Classes had been canceled at the Universities for the next couple days, so Marie had insisted that they make the most of the unexpected time off. That came in the form of sitting in the parlor of the Blackwood house watching soap operas, drinking homemade mochas, and eating popcorn. Looking out the windows, Henriette saw the snow swirling and was happy she was someplace warm and safe.
Henriette had been angry with Marie and her father over how they had reacted to sudden reappearance of Jayden a couple days earlier by running him off. She could fight her own battles and she knew perfectly well what Jayden was. She had also come to the realization that Marie knew her father on level she did not.
Henriette had also never seen Marie that angry before.
Normally, Marie put some thought into what she said and how she said it. All of that had gone out the window and every word Marie had said had sounded ugly even if Henriette could understand very little of it. “What he did to you was wrong” Marie had finally said, and that was the end of it.
Today, Marie was sitting with Alice, who was more interested in playing with the popcorn rather than eating it, on her lap. The plot in the soap opera had taken an absurd turn and Marie was making fun of how they had an actor playing a “Count” from a fictional European Principality, but he sounded more like he was from Baltimore, when Margot walked in.
“I am not sure what sort of accent that is supposed to be” Marie said.
“Who cares about the accent?” Margot asked, “Not when it comes with the rest of him. There is a reason why Laurie just cannot resist his charms.”
“I’m surprised Oma” Marie replied with a smile.
“I’ve not missed an episode if I could help it since this show premiered” Margot said as they watched the male protagonist in a tense confrontation with the Count, who was clearly the villain. “That Bobby is handsome one, he even looks a bit like Malcolm did when he first got back from France.”
That clearly surprised Marie, who Henriette had heard describe Margot as a dried-up old prune on more than a few occasions.