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It had happened so quickly. He had stood up to bring the sail in when the mast had swung round and knocked him into the river. For a moment he had been disorientated, lost in the water, and then he remembered desperately trying to get to the surface, but he had run out of breath before he had made it. Somehow, he had woken up on the bank further up the river with Gaspard frantically calling for him. He still didn’t know how he got there. The current should have taken him downstream to his death. It was a mystery he had been unable to solve. 
    “I think mother is planning something for my birthday next month.” He had seen her gathering the staff earlier in the day. They had been closeted away in the kitchen for hours. “Has she said anything to you?”
    “You will have to speak to her yourself,” Gaspard said.
    “So long as it’s not a ball.” Gaspard winced and Christian sighed. “That’s it, isn’t it? She’s going to throw me a ball. She knows how much I hate them.”
    “It’ s not the ball you should be worried about, my friend.”
    Dread filled him. “She wants to find me a wife.”
    As the second son, he hadn’t been betrothed when he was younger, and after his brother had died in a riding accident, his brother’s intended had asked to be released from the betrothal contract.
    “It was going to happen eventually,” Gaspard said. “You must know that. Come inside when you’re ready.” He left Christian to his thoughts. 
    The girl he had been watching disappeared out of sight. He stared down at the town instead. He could see the townspeople far below, like ants scurrying about. He envied them their freedom. He looked longingly at the river. It was the one place he could be free. The one place he could go where he pleased.
    General Ducasse had spoken with him before he left. He had offered to use his influence to secure Christian a place in the French army. For a moment Christian had considered it, but it would mean going against his mother’s wishes and he couldn’t do that to her. Perhaps he should marry; if he did marry his mother might start thinking of him as a man, instead of a boy. He would be able to decide his own future. He’d always known he would have to marry eventually. It was his duty to ensure there was an heir to carry on the family line. He supposed he should be grateful that his mother hadn’t already decided on who he would marry as she decided every other aspect of his life. At least he would get a choice. It might be a limited choice, but it was a choice.
    With a last wistful look at the river, he tore himself away and went to find Gaspard.
     
     

 
     
    Chapter Five
     
    Adrianna could hear the song all the time now. It filled her head so that she could think of nothing else. In her dreams she knew the words, but when she woke she had always forgotten them. She became quiet and withdrawn. Frau Duerr commented on it, as she commented on everything. Adrianna only half heard her telling her mother; she was too busy listening for the song. Herr Fleischer’s shirts were now several sizes too small after she let the water boil over. She could hear the song so clearly, everything else sounded muted and far away. One morning she found herself by the river with no memory of how she got there. Perhaps she was going mad like Frau Brauer’s mother, who wandered off and could not remember who she was. 
    “I’m worried about you, Adrianna,” her mother said as they folded the washing one morning. “ Are you still upset about Jutta?”
    “ No,” Adrianna said. She wasn’t listening to her; she was trying to listen for the song. She couldn’t hear it clearly in the town. It was muffled by the noise of the people.
    “Is there a boy?”
    Adrianna looked up. “What?”
    “I remember when your father first started courting me. I could think of nothing else but him. I singed my mother’s best dress because I was so distracted.”
    “There’s no boy.”
    “There is