Marta's Legacy Collection by Francine Rivers Read Free Book Online

tower, waiting for the show when the hour struck. By the end of two months, Marta knew every cobblestone street and fountain in the old city.
    Mama and Elise sent a letter once a week. Nothing changed. Mama was making another dress for Frau Keller. Elise stitched the hem. Papa worked hard in the shop. Everyone was well.
    We miss you, Marta, and we count the days until you come home. . . .
    Every Sunday, before going back up the hill to the school, Marta sat near the fountain depicting Samson breaking the jaws of a lion and wrote to Mama and Elise. She told them what she was learning about housekeeping, leaving out her suspicions of the so-called count and countess. She described the city.
    I love Bern. Standing in the Marktgasse is like being inside one of Frau Fuchs’s hives. . . .
    Rosie suggested she stay.
    Have you thought about living in Bern? Think of living in Zurich! Wherever you go, you must write and tell me everything!
    Near the end of her six-month course, Papa wrote.
    I expect you to return home as soon as you receive your certificate. Ask the count and countess for a recommendation.
    He enclosed enough francs to buy a one-way ticket to Steffisburg and a notice. Schloss Thun had an opening for a maid.

4
    On graduation day from the Haushaltungsschule Bern , Marta received a fancy diploma, a letter of recommendation signed by Count and Countess Saintonge, and a uniform with HB embroidered in black silk on the pocket of the white apron. She also had the francs she had earned tucked into the purse Mama had given her. She boarded the early train home. When she arrived in Thun, she went straight to the castle and asked to speak to the mistress of housekeeping.
    When Frau Schmidt came into the office, Marta took an immediate, instinctive dislike to the woman as she looked down at Marta with disdain. “You asked to see me, Fräulein?”
    Marta handed over her documents. The woman put on wire spectacles to read them. “You will have to do.” She handed the documents back to Marta. “You can start right away.”
    “What pay do you offer?”
    Frau Schmidt looked affronted. She took off her spectacles and tucked them into a small case on a chain around her neck. “Twenty francs.”
    “A week?”
    “A month.”
    Marta forgot all the lessons Frau Yoder had taught on diplomacy. “An untrained dishwasher is paid more than twenty francs a month!”
    Frau Schmidt harrumphed. “Everyone understands what a great honor it is to work in Schloss Thun , Fräulein!”
    “As great an honor as working at the Haushaltungsschule Bern , I imagine.” She tucked her documents back into her knapsack. “No wonder the position is still open. Who but a fool would take it!”
    When Marta arrived home, before Mama could reach her, Elise let out a cry of pleasure and flew into her arms. As Marta held Elise, she saw the changes that had occurred in Mama during the six months she had been in Bern. Dismayed, she set Elise aside. Mama patted her cheek rather than embrace Marta, who took her hand and kissed it.
    Papa barely raised his head from the garment he fed through his sewing machine. “When do you plan to apply for that job at the castle? You should go now or it’ll be gone.”
    Marta looked over her shoulder. “You could welcome me home, Papa.”
    He raised his head and gave her a cold glare.
    “I went to the castle before coming here. I turned down their offer.”
    His face reddened. “You did what?”
    “I assume you sent me to school so that I would earn more than twenty francs a month, Papa.”
    “Twenty francs!” He looked taken aback. “That’s all the castle pays?”
    “Frau Schmidt looked like Frau Keller’s twin sister. She seemed to think the great honor of working there is worth the lesser pay.”
    Papa shook his head and pumped the sewing machine pedals. “The sooner you find work, the sooner you can repay the money you owe me.”
    She’d hoped he might congratulate her on her graduation, that he