Paulus stopped and stared. No one would call the girl beautiful. But no one would call her ugly either. Mostly she was clearly Anna and that was comfortable.

"Anna?" Paulus answered. "I was just in Wolmirstedt looking for you. They said you'd gone to Magdeburg."

"How did you ever know to look here?"

"I didn't and I didn't think I'd ever find you. So I wasn't even looking. But since I was passing through town I thought I'd see how things were going in the shoe plants." He couldn't help doing a little bragging. "Having stockholders dropping in for a look around from time to time is supposed to be good for keeping the management on their toes."

"You're a stockholder?" Anna could see that the shop manager was starting to fidget on top of turning red in the face. "I've need to get back to work."

"No you don't." Paulus said. "You need to quit."

" Quit?I can't do that! I need this job!"

The plant manager spoke up, "Herr Meier, I would hate to see her quit. She is a good worker. She is on the list for trainees for the new press."

Paulus ignored the plant manager and said to Anna, "No you don't."

"Yes I do! How will I pay my room and board?"

"Anna, you're fourteen. You're too young to be working full-time in a shoe mill."

"Paulus, there are lots of people younger than me working here."

"Yes, but they're not wards of the Wolmirstedt Shoemaker's Guild."

"There isn't such a thing as a Wolmirstedt Shoemaker's Guild."

"Well, there was. It was your father and my father and your father was the guild master. So I guess my father is now. It really doesn't matter. When my father finds out you're working in a shoe mill, he'll put a stop to it. You can't work here if you're going to school in Grantville where my parents can keep an eye on you. So you can quit now and come to Grantville with me. Or you can wait and make my father come and get you. You don't want to make him do that! He won't ask you to quit. He'll tell you to. Then if you don't he'll have them fire you."

Several thoughts and emotions flashed through Anna's mind pretty much at the same time. First was the old dream. The Meier family would not be returning to Wolmirstedt; but, they would take her in and take her to Grantville. They would take care of her, even send her to school, and in due time, she would marry Paulus. This caused her to smile in relief. Secondly she did not want to make Herr Meier angry. This thought linked into the unhappy memories of her own father in a drunken rage as he was so often towards the end. This caused her to wince in remembered pain and grief. Then came the new dream, Adolf's dream. Now the dream would not happen. This thought brought sadness and with the sadness came guilt. For Adolf's dream to work, they needed the shop in Wolmirstedt plus what she could add to the family's savings. How could she turn her back on her new family? She now shared one of the big beds in the apartment with Adolf, his mother and his sister. It was cheaper than renting a cot. When the nightmares came, Adolf's mother would snuggle her and whisper comforting words and prayers in her ear.

When Anna's mind and face settled down what remained was resolve tinged with sadness. "Paulus, I can't. I'm going back home to Wolmirstedt just as soon as we save up enough money."

Shock fought with puzzlement for dominance in Paulus' mind. He'd never really considered the possibility that Anna would say anything but yes. "Anna, we need to talk about this.

"Herr Wiesel," Paulus asked the plant manager, "would you be kind enough to give her the rest of the day off?"

"Paulus, they'll dock me."

"I'd object if they didn't!" he said. "Don't worry, I'll cover it. Go get your coat and meet me in the office. We'll go to an early lunch."

"But, who will do her job?" The manager objected. "We're barely keeping up as it is. I'll end up sending some people home early when we run out of uppers and we'll miss our production goal for the day." He knew he had a winning argument because Paulus had been asking rather critically about missed production goals.

Anna turned back to cutting uppers with a vengeance and was steadfastly ignoring him.

Recognizing defeat Paulus said, "Anna, I'll be here at the end of the day."

Back in the office, Herr Wiesel asked, "If you don't mind my asking, what is your interest in our Anna?"

"I was her father's apprentice. I'm going to marry her."

"Oh? I thought she had an understanding with Adolf."

"What? Who?"

Now her reaction started to make since. The startlement transformed into anger. Anna had other plans. But, Anna is mine! How dare she?But the anger gave way to reason. Well? Why not? We never were formally betrothed. I wasn't there when she needed me.The reason which replaced the anger slid into acceptance. The acceptance became relief. I don't have to look after her. She is going to marry someone else.The relief became sadness. The death of a lifelong expectation was still a death and while it was not a devastating loss it still needed to be grieved. In his grief he thought of three girls in Grantville, each prettier than Anna, who had flirted or at least tried to flirt with him. Still, Anna was his. Am I just going to let this fellow Adolf steal her?

The manager answered Paulus' question, "Adolf Braun, he's one of our machine operators. He's been trying to raise a loan to buy a sewing machine to go into business. They won't sell him the sewing machines on installments because he isn't a master, so they don't consider him qualified. If he can manage to get a loan, the rent would be cheaper out of town. So he's been talking to Anna about her father's empty shop and his family has been saving their money."

"But, he can't compete with a mill." Paulus said.

"He doesn't want to. He wants to make a town shoe instead of a work boot. He wants to buy cut soles and whole hides and his other supplies from us and then he wants to sell his shoes out of our retail store here in town. You remember, we originally opened it to have someplace to sell the seconds we can't send to the army. We're selling out of seconds and we're getting a good rate for firsts going out the door too."

"Would the scheme work?"

"When we get the new press for uppers up and running, we're going to have to cut more soles than we can cut in a twelve-hour shift. So we're planning on opening up a partial night-shift just for running the sole press. If we do that, then we could run enough extra soles to let some go off site. The more soles we cut, the more scrap we can cut up into tiny little bits and from what we're getting for them we could quite possibly turn a small profit from cutting up whole hides. As for the rest of the supplies, the more we buy the better. Even after we charge him a handling fee, we can still sell to him at a better price than he can get anywhere else and it all helps our bottom line. But that would be a matter of policy and I'd have to kick it over to the board."

Paulus smiled. "I don't think it will be a problem as long as you're sure it will be profitable."

"If he pays cash for the supplies and we take his shoes on consignment I don't know why it wouldn't be."

"Well, my father is making a lady's high-heeled dress shoe that is selling well in a dress shop in Grantville. Do you think your retail store would be interested in taking some on consignment?" If they were and his father decided to do it, then, he would have to take on an apprentice or hire help. He might try insisting that Ebert do it and that could cause all kind of problems. Maybe he shouldn't even bring it up. It would mean more money but sometimes there are other things, like domestic tranquility, that need to be considered.