Free The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) by Christoph Fischer

explained whatever Wilma did not understand and had made complicated things sound easy. Greta had been her extended brain and in return, Wilma being the stronger one, had always taken on the more physical tasks and in fights with other girls, Wilma had always defended the two of them - even though she was younger. The two sisters were as close as twins. Wilma could never wait for the next Saturday to come so she and her father would go and see Greta and Karl on the farm. On some Saturdays the workshop was too busy for them to get away but just the possibility of a trip to the farm was exciting enough to keep Wilma full of energy and optimism. All this was gone from her life now and the days were grey and monotonous.
    Greta worked very hard on the farm despi te her pregnancy. Benedikt had taken on some immigrant workers for the harvest but he frequently kept firing them because he either did not trust them or thought they were not industrious enough. At peak times, everyone on the farm could feel the strain of how short staffed they were and consequently, depending on the weather conditions, how difficult it was to get things done. Some tasks could only be performed if there had been enough sunshine and then the entire workforce may have to hurry if rain was on its way.
    On one of those mad days when everyone was rushing to get the hay inside before an expected burst of rain, Greta lost her baby. It was Johanna's daughter Roswitha who detected blood running from Greta's legs and screamed; the pregnant woman had not even noticed herself that something was wrong. Concerned that he would lose all of the hay harvest, Benedikt made them finish the job before he put Greta and Roswitha on a cart and sent them off to the doctor. Everyone but him was upset about the incident and the atmosphere on the farm turned dark and depressive. Benedikt said coldly that these things happened and if the whole world stopped to grieve about a lost foetus then nothing would ever get done. Dying was just another thing in life. The baby would never have lived and to risk the harvest for that seemed a little extreme.
    No one dared to co ntradict him but even the normally harsh and cold hearted Johanna disagreed with him and his actions. She thought he had unnecessarily risked Greta’s life by delaying her trip to the doctor.
    Johanna used thi s unique opportunity to stop finally all family visits from the Weissensteiners. She took it upon herself to walk personally into town and meet with Jonah, explaining how Greta had recovered well and just needed complete and total rest right now; how she appreciated how desperately they would want to see their darling Greta but with one working pair of hands down, the farm was now simply not in any position to socialise or receive guests.  Besides, it already had been agreed that there should be as few visits to the farm as possible and the reasons for that should not be forgotten. Jonah knew better than to argue with the farmer's wife. For all his worries, he was sure that Greta was well looked after. Wilma offered to come and stay so she could look after her sister and help with the cooking, but Johanna said she would prefer to keep things as they were. The Weissensteiners surely must be very busy with their workshop too and needed her themselves.
    Following the miscarriage Greta fell into a deep depression. She was allowed to lie down and physically recover for a week, but lying in bed and having the whole day to think about the loss of her baby just made things worse. Johanna had ordered Roswitha to look after Karl and restricted the contact between the boy and his mother drastically. Roswitha was great with the child but was kept under close inspection by her mother. Greta missed her little boy and tried to persuade Johanna to let her play with him more, but Johanna insisted that the poor boy would only be traumatized if he could see his mother so upset. It was an obvious excuse to spend more time with the