I was able to get an old netbook up and running. Even if editing is a chore if I do not have a full keyboard, I will post when I can. As for data recovery, solid-state drives have their advantages. They tend not to be the point of failure and they are fairly easy to get data from. In the case of my laptop the electrical system is the point of failure, the board around the recharge port is toast. I need a new computer anyway, but the new paycheck I get that doesn't need to go to pay bills will not be until sometime next month. Oh well.
Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Forty-Seven
13th October 1957
Berlin
“It is about time” Kat had said about this wedding when she learned that Stefan, her younger brother and Nizhoni had finally set a date according to her husband Douglas. The dithering that the two of them had engaged in had been noticed and not just by Kat. There were many who thought that Walter von Horst had been too indulgent with his daughter, knowing that Stefan and Nizhoni had basically been engaged since Stefan had returned from Mexico. The truth was that Nizzi was just as stubborn as her father and pressuring her into a time-table not of her choosing would have caused her to dig in her heels and tell everyone where they could stick the idea of marriage.
The wedding itself was seen as more of the continuing of the intermingling of families that was an ongoing process. Another generation or two and there would probably no distinction between the Old Junkers and the New Junkers. It wasn’t the first time this had happened, nor was it expected to be the last. One only had to look at the old practice of slapping something additional in front of someone’s title to see evidence of that. Considering that these days titles tended to be awarded on the basis of merit and the changes in the laws in recent decades as opposed to what had been dubbed “The lucky sperm club” and it was likely that the old jokes about the family trees not having forks would probably be a thing of the past.
Personally, Jack found the notion of a nation still having Kings and Queens to be quaint, especially in a place like Germany which still had a patchwork of Principalities, Kingdoms and a zoo of various levels of nobility. The image he had was of a Knight holding a plot of land about the size of a football pitch that his family had lived on for the previous thousand or so years. It might be mostly swamp but it had always been theirs and it always would be.
Katherine had arranged for Jack to be invited through his connection with Hans and Walter von Horst. He had become the official representative of Reisimint Ilchríochach at this event. With the movie about the Irish Regiment that had fought in the Soviet War about to come out, it was felt that it would be good for an Officer of the Regiment to be seen at this event and it had not been at all what Jack had been expecting when he had heard that the daughter of Generaloberst von Horst was getting married.
For starters, all of the most prominent members of the EAAA were present. That included Horst’s wife Nina and his Brother-in-Law Piers Sjostedt. It had been a bit of a surprise to learn that there were a handful of Red Indians, or American Aboriginals as they preferred to call themselves, scattered around Europe and they were mostly in communication with each other. Apparently, Nizhoni von Horst was something of a poster girl for the Association, her mixed background. Navajo, Dane and Franco-German certainly had come together in a way that made her an extraordinarily beautiful woman. It was said that she had gotten involved with Stefan Mischner-Gerstle because he had found the courage to talk to her, even knowing who her father was. Jack supposed that there was a lesson in that.
The wedding itself and the reception that followed were certainly interesting. The odd mash-up of cultures and religions that had happened. Germany, the Navajo Nation and the Heer all got a say in how things had been conducted. The result was one that people would talk about for a very long time. The Bride’s Uncle was a Lutheran Bishop as well as a prominent member of the EAAA, Jack remembered that he had also done Katherine’s wedding a decade earlier. There was also a bevy of women who had come from Arizona as part of the wedding party and they were part of the whole odd mashup. Jack had watched as they had spoken with Katherine earlier that day before the wedding ceremony and while they had greeted her warmly, they had said something that had left Katherine perturbed and she had made a point of avoiding them after that. Jack hadn’t been able to overhear what had been said and he had to wonder what it might have been. It took a lot to tweak the Tigress’ nose these days.
There was also the spectacle of the Kaiser being present and that was reflected in this event being a preview of the upcoming social season. The daughters of every substantial family who just happened to have people in Germany who could contrive an excuse to be here had done so. Jack’s law firm had made sure that he knew that his reputation as a womanizer preceded. He was at this event representing not just Ireland and Reisimint Ilchríochach, but the firm as well, so he was to be on his best behavior at pain of death because the managing partner had told him all about the bloody death he would face if he failed to keep it in his pants. That didn’t mean that Jack lacked for dance partners at the reception. He was currently dividing his time between a socialite from Long Island and a Bavarian Princess. Enjoyable company, even if Jack knew that he would be sleeping alone tonight.
