matter. And so that part of the story will wait for another time. You are tired. Rest now and we will talk more later.”
Several hours later, after a long hot bath in an ancient wooden tub, a convent novice showed Ella to a different cell and gave her a simple habit of crudely dyed linen and a pair of slippers. There was a missile and a single candle on the nightstand, a small window looking out over the garden below, and a thin wool rug on the slate floor.
The bed linen—a far cry from the three hundred thread count sheets she had at home—was clean, soft and comfortable. Seconds after her head hit the pillow that night and just before she fell asleep, it occurred to Ella that for the first time in a very long time, she felt content and safe.
The next day, Ella spent the first full day of her life in 1620 Heidelberg following Greta around the convent. She was reminded that this mysterious woman who had rescued her from the storm was the Mother Superior. It was not clear how that happened, since Greta readily admitted she had no formal religious training to be even a religious novice, let alone a nun, she still had not revealed to Ella and didn’t appear in any hurry to do so.
For great parts of that first day—despite much evidence to the contrary—and into the second, Ella didn’t completely believe that she was living in a different time. She found it difficult to grasp the possibility, much less the reality, of it all. But by the end of her second day of life in 1620, she would never again have the security of that doubt.
Chapter Seven
“You are English, yes?”
“American.”
“Ah, yes. The Allies.”
Ella and Greta were setting out dishes for a simple meal of soup and fresh bread in Greta’s private chamber. Ella was impressed with the fact that, here, everybody worked, even the Mother Superior, who seemed to work harder than everyone else. The other nuns moved silently about the small convent performing their chores of cleaning, scrubbing, cooking, and tending the little garden. Ella often saw their lips moving in silent prayer. She had made eye contact only once with a fourteen year old girl, who smiled shyly at Ella and then looked away.
“Mother Superior?” Ella said. “I understand that history stopped for you right after the war but I need you not to see me that way.”
“As the victor, you mean?”
“Yes, that’s right. Germany and America are friends now. Good friends.”
“I cannot believe that is possible.”
“Well, it’s true. Heck, we’re pals with Japan, too. I did part of my sophomore year at the University of Freiburg and half my friends have travelled the length and breadth of Germany.”
“There…there were no reprisals?”
“There was a trial…”
“The Nuremberg Trials. I know.”
“Then you know a lot of the head honcho SS guys were executed.”
“But Germany was not punished?”
“In a way they were, I guess, but not by us. My Dad used to say that history is its own punishment.”
The woman frowned at Ella as if unsatisfied with that answer.
“Well,” Ella said, seating herself at the rough wooden table in Greta’s room. “As part of the surrender agreement, the Allies forbade your country from having an army of any size. Which meant that during the next fifty years,” Ella continued, “without the expense of an army draining all their resources, Germany became an economic powerhouse. With the help of the Allies—Britain included—they rebuilt
Several hours later, after a long hot bath in an ancient wooden tub, a convent novice showed Ella to a different cell and gave her a simple habit of crudely dyed linen and a pair of slippers. There was a missile and a single candle on the nightstand, a small window looking out over the garden below, and a thin wool rug on the slate floor.
The bed linen—a far cry from the three hundred thread count sheets she had at home—was clean, soft and comfortable. Seconds after her head hit the pillow that night and just before she fell asleep, it occurred to Ella that for the first time in a very long time, she felt content and safe.
The next day, Ella spent the first full day of her life in 1620 Heidelberg following Greta around the convent. She was reminded that this mysterious woman who had rescued her from the storm was the Mother Superior. It was not clear how that happened, since Greta readily admitted she had no formal religious training to be even a religious novice, let alone a nun, she still had not revealed to Ella and didn’t appear in any hurry to do so.
For great parts of that first day—despite much evidence to the contrary—and into the second, Ella didn’t completely believe that she was living in a different time. She found it difficult to grasp the possibility, much less the reality, of it all. But by the end of her second day of life in 1620, she would never again have the security of that doubt.
Chapter Seven
“You are English, yes?”
“American.”
“Ah, yes. The Allies.”
Ella and Greta were setting out dishes for a simple meal of soup and fresh bread in Greta’s private chamber. Ella was impressed with the fact that, here, everybody worked, even the Mother Superior, who seemed to work harder than everyone else. The other nuns moved silently about the small convent performing their chores of cleaning, scrubbing, cooking, and tending the little garden. Ella often saw their lips moving in silent prayer. She had made eye contact only once with a fourteen year old girl, who smiled shyly at Ella and then looked away.
“Mother Superior?” Ella said. “I understand that history stopped for you right after the war but I need you not to see me that way.”
“As the victor, you mean?”
“Yes, that’s right. Germany and America are friends now. Good friends.”
“I cannot believe that is possible.”
“Well, it’s true. Heck, we’re pals with Japan, too. I did part of my sophomore year at the University of Freiburg and half my friends have travelled the length and breadth of Germany.”
“There…there were no reprisals?”
“There was a trial…”
“The Nuremberg Trials. I know.”
“Then you know a lot of the head honcho SS guys were executed.”
“But Germany was not punished?”
“In a way they were, I guess, but not by us. My Dad used to say that history is its own punishment.”
The woman frowned at Ella as if unsatisfied with that answer.
“Well,” Ella said, seating herself at the rough wooden table in Greta’s room. “As part of the surrender agreement, the Allies forbade your country from having an army of any size. Which meant that during the next fifty years,” Ella continued, “without the expense of an army draining all their resources, Germany became an economic powerhouse. With the help of the Allies—Britain included—they rebuilt
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