Sweeter Than Wine Read Online Free PDF Page A

deprived of his expected patrimony. But Oma Tati's words, tearless and harsh after the reading of Opa Roye's will, came back to him. He doesn't deserve Montclair. He doesn't have a
heart. He can't have ours.
    "So, if you and Alice could come to an...arrangement, it would benefit
everyone."
    Siegfried had heard of such marriages for the sake of property in Europe, but
that sort of union was generally confined to the nobility.
    But hadn't Frau Schliessig, who owned the dairy in Rodern, married her head
milker after her husband died? And if Alice was as determined as Tati to keep
Montclair out of Hugh's hands, then she might be willing to marry a man she had
never met, for the good of the estate. Siegfried wondered if he would have been
willing to do the same for Rodernwiller.
    Of course, if I could have saved Father from... But he wasn't going to
think about that.
    Tati's voice broke into his thoughts. "It would be so wonderful to see a Roye at
Montclair again. It was your grandfather's pride and joy, after all, and he would
have wanted you to have it now."
    Siegfried recognized that his grandmother would not relent in her efforts until
he had thrown her some sort of a sop. "I will consider your idea," he said, carefully.
"But I think it will be best if I work as her vintner first, to see if we suit."
    Tati made an annoyed sound, not quite a snort. "Really, Siegfried! Your
grandfather would roll over in his grave if he knew that you were working as a
hired hand at Montclair!"
    Stung by his grandmother's scorn, Siegfried remembered his father's final
message: Without my vineyard...my life is no longer worth anything . Tati
was right. If Alice were willing to marry him, he would be a fool to turn down this
opportunity for a new start.
    But something in him rebelled at being pushed. He dug in his heels. "Of course
Montclair should remain in our family," he said, keeping his tone deferential toward
his aged grandmother. "But a marriage--that is not a matter for hasty decision. At
least let me meet her first!" He glanced out towards Treasure Island and saw a
wide-bowed ship approaching. "The ferry is coming."
    People began to stream around them, filing toward the Ferry Building hall.
Siegfried would have joined the crowd but Tati narrowed her eyes and stood with
her chin raised, clearly unwilling to move until she had secured his concession. He
glared back, letting her know that he could be just as stubborn as she. They had
played this game more than once during his boyhood summers in California.
    Siegfried sensed a reprieve when the corner of Tati's mouth began to twitch
with an incipient smile, but his grandmother was not yet ready to concede defeat.
She straightened her coat, slipped her arm through his, and flowed with the others,
saying conversationally, "I hope that you can come to an agreement with Alice, but
if not, dear, of course you're welcome to stay with me as long as you like.
However," she sighed deeply as they emerged onto the broad space before the
dock, "you know my resources aren't what they used to be..." Seemingly intent on
watching the men wheel the gangplank up to the edge of the now-docked ferry,
she did not meet Siegfried's eyes. "Oh, look, there she is!"
    Siegfried's pride chafed at the implication that he was a burden on his
grandmother's charity as she began waving her handkerchief. It was an unfair
accusation. He had planned to earn his future meals fairly with hard work. Tati
might be piqued that she could not have her way, but he had spent four years
taking orders from officers who remained warm and dry while he slogged through
the mud and snow, and he was sick of making sacrifices for someone else's
good.
    He would not let his grandmother bully him.
    * * *
    The ferry bumped into the pier and tied up. Alice cautiously tapped down the
gangplank in her high louis-heeled shoes. She spotted Tati, waving.
    Bill's grandmother was stylish as ever in a three-quarter length black ponyskin
coat with a large