They never got to the apartment. Adolf was waiting for them in the street outside the restaurant. Despite his mother's wishes, he'd followed them there and waited for them through the meal.

"Anna, is everything alright?" Adolf demanded as soon as he saw her.

Paulus read the hostility and worry written plainly on the man's face. But mostly he took note of the club the man had managed to come up with somewhere along the way. It was in the fellow's hand, hanging against his leg, half-concealed.

"Adolf, this is Paulus. I told you he used to be my father's apprentice and he owns part of the mill. He's going to help us get set-up in business."

"Why?" Adolf barked belligerently, locking eyes with Paulus.

"Because Anna is an old friend. Because my father feels our family has an obligation toward her and I agree." He didn't say, Because it is the first step in a plan to get Anna away from you.

"Paulus can get us the sewing machines," Anna said.

"You can?" a conflicted Adolf replied.

"Yes," Paulus said, "but understand. We're not talking about a loan. We're going to want fifty-one percent of the business. You will run it, we'll help with set up and marketing. You can pay yourself, your sister and Anna the same wages you're making now but we're going to take half the profits."

"Is that fair?" Anna asked.

"I think it is." Paulus nodded. "You're living on wages now, aren't you? This way, you get your living and a nice incentive program, half of the profits. If you don't make it work you can come to Grantville and he can go back to the mill and we can sell the machines."

A surprised Adolf spoke up, "Half of a business is better than none, Anna. At the rate we're going it could take us years to save up the money. If your friend will help us get the loan then I guess we will do it on his terms."

"Adolf? What's that?" she meant the club. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Nothing! Not anymore. But with his telling you that you had to quit and if you didn't he'd get you fired, well, I wanted to talk some sense into him and I thought I might need it to help get him to see things our way."

The next day Paulus returned to the office of the shoe mill. "Herr Wiesel? You said you would loan Adolf Braun the money if you had it. Will you stand by that?"

"What do you mean?"

"If you can get the money, will you loan it to him?"

"Where would I get that kind of money?

"Borrow it and lend it to him at a higher rate of interest, or buy a percentage of the business. If you're sure he can make it work it should be safe enough."

"Who would loan me that kind of money?"

"I think it could be arranged."

Back in Grantville, Paulus and Peter had a chat with the other two partners at lunch time at the high school.

"Look," Paulus said. "Yes, it's too far away for us to keep an eye on it. And I still agree that normally we shouldn't invest more than five percent in anything we can't keep an eye on. But, this is different and it's got a better than average business plan. Yes, we're buying a twenty-six percent share instead of the usual twenty percent share or fifty-one percent share, and we're making a loan to the shop manager in Magdeburg so he can buy a twenty-five percent share, but he's putting his money where his mouth is and is willing to sign for an unsecured loan. Which, really, it isn't. With his job, he's good for it if the business fails. The main expense will be the sewing machines and they're durable goods with a good resale value. The mill is getting new machines and the shop is buying used ones. So the risk isn't that high and it's spread three ways."

"So this is just business?" Ebert asked, "Nothing personal?"

"We do owe her something, Ebert. At least, Papa thinks we do. This way she's not just a dead expense to our family."

"And that's all?" Ebert asked.

"What else would it be?" Paulus asked.

Ebert smirked.

"Shut up, Ebert," Paulus responded.

"Sounds good to me." Peter said.

Ludwig nodded. "It's not that much money and it's not that big of a gamble and Paulus really wants it, so I figure if we go along with it he owes us one, especially if it goes bust."

At this last thought Paulus' countenance darkened.

"It's settled," Peter said. "Let's go get the ball rolling."

"I didn't say I agreed," Paulus said.

"Well?" Peter asked.

"Are you sure this is just business?" Ebert asked his brother.

Paulus just glared at him.

"Actually, it is a good business plan," Ebert said. "I can see us doing a lot of these partnerships between the mill and struggling shops. I've only got one thing to say."

"What?" Ludwig asked.

Ebert got a shit-eating grin on his face and in a singsong voice associated with a grade school playground he said, "Paulus has a girlfriend. Paulus has a girlfr-"

"Shut up Ebert!" a flushing Paulus demanded rather more adamantly than usual.

That night over dinner, Paulus' father asked, "Where's Anna? Did you leave her in Wolmirstedt?"

"No. She wasn't there. But she found me in Magdeburg. She is working in one of the shoe factories."

"And you left her there?"

"I offered to bring her to Grantville but she'd rather go home. She's found a journeyman who thinks he can make the shop in Wolmirstedt work if he can get a couple of sewing machines. The plant manager thought he could too."

"And you think he can get someone to give a loan to a journeyman?"

Paulus, not wanting to admit that he and his partners had the money to make it happen, lied by telling a half-truth. "The plant manager is going to arrange things. They will get the machines and their supplies through the mill and sell their finished product in the mill's outlet store."

Herr Meier wanted to know, "Is she going to marry this journeyman?"

"Maybe, in time. She's still too young to get married. But, he's taking his mother and his sister to Wolmirstedt with him to help make the shop work, so it's all right. And I promised that if they sent Anna to enroll in the accounting program at the high school here in Grantville next fall so she can learn how to run the business, we'd look after her and find her a part-time job and a place to stay she could afford."

"Yeah, right," Ebert said. "She's coming to Grantville to learn to run the business."

Paulus blushed a very deep red and pushed an elbow, rather harder than usual, into his brother's ribs.

"Ouch! Hey, that hurt," Ebert objected.

"Shut up, Ebert!"

Sunday, March 2, 1636

Boom! Crack! Crack!

Dina Frost froze where she was. It wasn't the deer hunting season, so nobody should be shooting in this area-that meant the shooters were probably poachers. Maybe that was what the policemen from the cruiser she and her companion had walked past earlier were looking for. She and Bruno didn't have much to fear from poachers, other than maybe being mistaken for deer. That was one of the reasons both she and Bruno were wearing high-visibility jackets.

"Two guns," Bruno said.