Thursday, August 26, 1683
Katja
Vienna
When Katja arrived at the convent that morning, she was sure nothing could dampen her spirits. Yes, the Turks still surrounded the city, and yes, she would lose patients today, like she did every day, but tonight, she would marry Toby. They were about to become husband and wife, and that glorious, miraculous fact would be enough to chase away the fear and the gloom.
But when Sister Hedwig stood after tending a patient, took one step, and collapsed, it became harder to focus on the future.
Katja rushed to help the fallen nun. “Sister Hedwig?” Katja took her friend’s hand and felt her forehead with the other. The skin radiated heat. Sister Amalia helped Katja take Sister Hedwig to a recently vacated bed in a row of ill patients.
“How do you feel?” Katja asked when Sister Hedwig’s eyes blinked open and met her gaze.
Sister Hedwig was pale, and her breathing seemed labored. “I don’t think I’ll be able to attend your wedding tonight. You’ll have to accept my congratulations now.”
A lump formed in Katja’s throat. It wasn’t because Sister Hedwig wouldn’t be at the wedding—few people would. Her older brother and nephew would be gone too, and she’d known them far longer than she’d known the stern nun. What stirred her emotions was that Sister Hedwig had remembered. “What can I do to make you more comfortable?”
Katja spent more time with Sister Hedwig than she spent with the average patient, but there were so many more to help. Once the nun was settled, Katja moved on to the other patients, but a persistent ache in Katja’s head wouldn’t go away. Was she going to fall ill? More likely, she was simply feeling the effects of too little sleep. She’d been up late, trying to find a priest who would marry her and Toby with little notice, and up early, sending a messenger with letters for her brother and her groom, telling them when and where.
“Did I hear you’re getting married today?” one of the patients asked. The woman had been in the convent for a week and had recovered enough that Katja thought she would go home in another day.
“Yes, tonight.”
The woman smiled at her. “You’re braver than I am. To marry someone, then send him off to war every morning without knowing whether or not he’ll return.”
Katja took her time wringing out the rag. It would be awful in the morning to say goodbye to Toby and wonder if it would be for the last time. She would think about that later. “I must be brave because I am marrying the bravest of men.”
The woman patted her hand. “Whatever happens, I wish you happiness instead of pain.”
Getting married amid a siege was risking pain—a great deal of it—but it also promised joy. She clung to that, the possibility of happiness.
The boy she’d sent with letters for Toby and Xavier reported back to her before noon. “I found them both, fräulein.”
“Thank you.” Katja handed him a coin. Perhaps he would be the last to call her fräulein instead of frau.
The day flew by in a whirl of cleaning and comforting. She tried to work harder, knowing there were still just as many patients—even a few more than the day before—but now Sister Hedwig wasn’t able to help.
Frau Meyer touched her elbow as the sunlight faded from the windows. She and her family were among the thousands who had fled from the countryside into the city. “I came now so you can leave early and get ready.”
“But what of your children?” Frau Meyer still had several little ones. Normally, she worked while they slept.
“A neighbor is watching them for me. This is a special day. Go. Enjoy this bit of happiness, and don’t think too much of the convent until it’s time for you to come again in the morning.”
Guilt struck Katja as she stood to leave, even though Frau Meyer was covering for her. Frau Meyer might do the work Katja would have done, but who would fill in for Sister Hedwig? There was too much work to leave behind. What if a patient died because Katja wasn’t there to help?
Frau Meyer seemed to notice her hesitation. “There is so little of happiness now. Please, enjoy your wedding. Make one of our brave defenders the happiest man in Vienna, and let the rest of us take hope that the most beautiful things in life—things like love—can’t be stopped, not even by the Grand Vizier and his army.”
If getting married was an act of defiance against the besieging Turks rather than an act of selfishness that would take her away from her patients, she no longer felt guilty.
The sun had already hidden itself in the west, low enough that she couldn’t see it when surrounded by the buildings of Vienna. So many were damaged, but despite their wounds, most still stood tall, reaching into the sky in spite of the numerous cannonballs launched at them.
When she arrived home, there wasn’t as much time to prepare as she would have liked, but after she bathed, she put on a fresh chemise, and then Maria helped her dress in a court gown of blue and cream. It wasn’t her fanciest dress—that was in a trunk somewhere with Urszula—but it was the fanciest thing she’d worn since the Turks had arrived, and the smooth satin and the lace at the cuffs transformed her from hardworking nurse to hopeful bride. Maria fastened the lacings more tightly than normal—the scarcity of food and the long hours had changed Katja’s figure. She tucked the ends of her lacing strings into her neckline and blushed a little to think of who would be there when it was time to unlace them. Katja hadn’t slept with rollers in her hair since the beginning of the siege, but Maria braided her damp locks and used the braid as a crown. Then Katja fastened on her pearl earrings and the matching necklace—for the first time since the day the emperor had left the city.
Agnes looked up from the food she was preparing when Maria and Katja walked through the kitchen. It would be no wedding feast—fine food couldn’t be found in Vienna—but there would be soup and the best of the wine from the cellar. “You look beautiful, Katja.”
“Thank you, Agnes.”
Agnes examined her work. “You two run along. I don’t suppose the men will be there for some time yet, but the priest might need your help with the records. I’ll catch up when I’ve finished with this.”
Maria took Katja’s hand, and together, they walked to the church.