"Hmmm. well. " The magistrate looked over the pile of evidence that had accumulated on the table. "I need time to review all this evidence in detail. Yes. Great detail. And consult a few people. Master Gench deserves time to review the evidence himself, and perhaps see counsel. Yes, yes. Time. One month."

Lukas smirked at Margarethe, assessing her as Emma Wolfe guided her out of the room. So she'd thought to win easily had she? Well, well. A stalemate is better than a failure, at least for me.He'd been right that this hearing wouldn't take long.

****

"Monstrous! Simply monstrous! That man ought to be ashamed of himself!"

"He smells profit, Agathe, profit he and his family can collect without effort on their part. Those pandoreshave made us a modest profit and we've started getting orders from the catalogs we sold with them. The little ones Emma calls 'farthing' dolls are beginning to pick up too. And once the farmers start producing a wood Barbie replica, we stand to make a fortune if all goes well. And let's not forget Calvin's house and equipment. She may not be a catch for a noble family, but for us she's quite an heiress."

"Then why have you prevented Christoph from making an offer? I told you when Master Gench started this whole thing what we should have done. If Bert and Emma hadn't moved in with her, those Genchs would have swallowed the poor girl and her fortune up by now."

"And I told you, Agathe, I want to be sure this doll-making venture didn't ruin us. It still could. And then what would we do with an extra mouth to feed?"

Agathe put her hands on her hips, anger making her face red. "We would have a hard-working daughter-in-law with enough skills to help keep us afloat. I want you to announce that you have taken care of the matter by arranging her marriage to Christoph. And if you don't, Julius Wolf, I swear I will!"

Margarethe was crying as Christoph led her into the workroom. Silently, he sat beside her and offered his handkerchief, which she took with a sniff.

"They haven't made a judgment yet, and even if they rule for Master Gench, Papa and Master Brumme can appeal to the duke."

Margarethe mopped her eyes and shook her head. "The duke will never listen. I suppose I could sign everything over to your papa and run away, but Master Gench would find me and force me to marry his son."

Christoph reached out and brushed a strand of hair away from her face. "Margarethe, I have a present for you."

"Oh? For me?"

"Two presents actually, one from Papa and the other from me."

Gently, he opened a cloth bag and pulled out a large hank of angora wool, dyed a soft blonde. "I know you ordered this from the crayon profits, but Mama told Papa she'd never forgive him if he charged. well. family. The salesman called the color 'Kristina Blond' so he was sure it was the right color."

Margarethe stroked the soft wool in amazement, her tears slowing. "Ohhh! Christoph! It's perfect! Softer than I could ever imagine! But you said youhad a present for me?"

Smiling he handed her a box. Opening it, Margarethe stared. Laying in the box were two wooden dolls, one boy and one girl.

"I. I made them special. With the knob joints in the arms and legs like Emma's. I painted them too. I know the hair is only paint. "

"Oh. Christoph! They're exquisite! I don't know what to say!"

"Say you'll marry me, and not just to avoid Rolf Gench. Though it would be a massive blow to me if you preferred him. I want a room full of dolls and little girls of our very own to play with them."

Margarethe smiled. "And what if we have boys?"

"We could always expand the business into toy soldiers. But first we have to do a little promotion."

Magdeburg Palace security, plagued by crack-pot religious fanatics, spies, and an ever widening circle of foreign and native enemies, were pleasantly surprised to find that the package contained not a bomb, but a eighteen-inch doll of Princess Kristina holding a miniature Brillo doll and a note:

TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS

FROM M. KLEIN amp; COMPANY, FASHION DOLLS

Epilogue

"Hurry up! Get that wagon loaded and going!"

"Lukas, calm down!" Hilda Gench placed her arm on her husband's, trying to calm him, but he shook it off.

"Hilda, be silent and get that useless son of yours out here! We need to get out of town as soon as possible!"

"But there's no reason. "

"Of course there's reason, fool woman! Were you deaf when you heard the pastor read the banns for the Wolf boy and the Klein girl? Well, if you did, then you also remember the loans I took to try and get that girl for our boy! Money to bribe the other guild masters, money for the magistrate, not to mention our other debts! If we don't get out of town right now, we're done for!"

Hilda whimpered as Lukas raised a meaty hand toward her. "But Lukas. "

"Go!"

"Men coming," Rolf called from where he slouched in the doorway.

Toward the end of the street, Lukas saw men dressed in the uniforms of the town guard riding toward the house. Ignoring his wife and son, he clambered onto the wagon and grabbed the reins. "I'll write from Prague!"

The Midnight Garden

Salim let the door to Baram Khan’s sickroom close before addressing the man who walked out. “Any change?”

The physician started, wheeled to face him. “I didn’t see you there.”

Salim stepped into the light of the candle the man held, and quirked an eyebrow.

The local man shook his head. “No, no change. I must be going. A-another patient, you understand.”

Salim did not blame him for being frightened. Knowing the fate of physicians who failed to save the lives of powerful men in his own nation, Salim could forgive the man thinking Salim might attack him.

Waving him away, Salim turned to look at the door. Beyond it, surrounded by a very few of his remaining loyal servants, the emperor’s envoy was dying a slow, painful death. A week, perhaps a bit longer, and the man would breathe his last and go to his final reward, whatever it might be.

Taking his prayer beads in hand, Salim said a prayer in the darkness to speed Baram Khan’s passage to Paradise. Just because one thought little of another man’s deeds did not make them less likely to attain Paradise. It only showed the unworthy state of one’s own soul.

Hearing a horse in the courtyard below, he stepped to the window at the end of the hall in time to see the physician ride out of the torch-lit courtyard. Good riddance. The man had proved almost worthless, failing, even, to see what was plain to Salim and anyone else with experience of court life: Baram Khan had been poisoned.

It wasn’t even entirely the pompous courtier’s fault he was dying. Baram Khan’s tasters had all died in various mishaps before the envoy even entered the Germanies. Then, understandably angry at being robbed by Grantville’s mercenaries-which the Mughal noble could only see as confirmation of the histories Salim was translating for him-Baram Khan departed the wonders of Grantville before new tasters could be found.

No one knew who had killed Baram Khan but, like everyone else in the man’s entourage, Salim had an idea who it might be.

Salim shook his head. Regardless of the who and the how of the current situation, decisions had to be made.