The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) by Christoph Fischer Page A

comfort each other, like he would have done with his late Barbara. Maybe that was the price Greta had to pay for having a serious thinker as a husband prone to melancholy and depression?
    Jonah would do anything in his power to bring her back to full blossom. When she was not reading , he made her sit down by his side in the workshop and they would sing a mixture of their favourite folk songs from the shtetl, cheerful tunes and some gruesome ballads as well.
    Greta soon started to help with the big wall carpet for the Countess, feeling too restless to watch everyone else working hard without putting her hands to work as well. Additionally, every so often, Jonah would take his sad daughter to one side, hug her and assure her that all would turn out just fine. “Und es ward alles alles gut!” he would quote in German which was from the end of one of her favourite Eichendorff novels. 
    Had it not been for missing her little Karl , Greta could have stayed with her father for much longer. After three years with the Winkelmeiers she had forgotten how close a family could be. It was a real treat and did wonders for her but in the end the thought of her little one becoming alienated from his mother was too much of a burden. Johanna had asked her to stay away until she was feeling better and could give her son her full and cheerful attention. Greta thought she was ready for that now and one evening simply showed up at the bookshop with her suitcase so that she could walk home with her husband. However, when she got to the bookshop Wilhelm was not to be found.
    “Excuse me, ” she said, addressing the grey haired man who appeared to be in the shop all by himself. “I am looking for my husband Wilhelm Winkelmeier. Could you please tell me where I could find him?”
    “Oh you are Wilhelm's wife? How very nice to meet you. My name is Andrej, I am new here. So sorry to hear about what happened but God works in mysterious ways, you know. We just need to believe in Him and trust his gracious will.”
    Greta really wanted to spit in his face f or springing his religion on her but somehow managed to control her anger.
    “Thank you very much, Andrej, for your kindness,” she replied. “Wilhelm has never told me about you. How long have you been working here?”
    “About two months. Tuesday and Thursday evenings only when they leave me all alone here when they go to their meetings,” he said.
    Greta felt utterly stupid and humiliated by the fact that all this time Wilhelm was attending some clandestine meetings and she had no idea about it, let alone what kind of meetings they were. She had already embarrassed herself by not knowing about them in front of this new co-worker of her husband, it was too much to admit to her ignorance about the meetings as well, so she decided to pretend she did know.
    “Oh yes, of course. How silly of me. The meetings. Could you tell me where the meeting is today, so I can surprise my husband and join him on his way home?” she asked.
    “Of course . It is right next to the offices of the Grenzbote by the main station, the meeting hall of the German Sudeten Party,” answered Andrej shyly. “I can take you if you don’t know the way but I don't think you can go in there tonight, it is a members only meeting. The guards can tell your husband that you are waiting.”
    “Thank you so much, Andrej. I know where it is. I’m sorry to have troubled you.”
    “Any time Frau Winkelmeier. We rarely get to see such beautiful women in the shop.”
    I nstead of waiting outside the party headquarters alone at night, Greta decided to go back to her father. How could Wilhelm never have told her about his membership at the German Sudeten Party? He had never taken any particular political views; he was too busy reading books. Admittedly he had always been interested in philosophy and finding the right way to live but why would he not have told her that he was turning this into an active political role? He had