Gert grew up as a refugee.  Born to Fischler parents living in Sieger, 
they were forced to flee when the War of the Cross broke out.  Bad luck 
plagued her family as the place her father chose to move was Posen... and 
two years later, war broke out there, too.  When it wasn't war, it was 
something else.  Her father lost his job and they moved again.  Her 
mother's parents got sick and they had to move back to take care of them.  
Gert got sick and the physician prescribed a costal climate.  And always, 
war loomed from every side.

For two years, Gert was able to attend a boarding school at Helvetica, and 
found it to be an oasis of stability in her chaotic life.  The crusty old 
teachers had been there forever.  The ancient castle had old growth ivy 
covering the south trellis.  The woods behind the grounds became her 
refuge.  Gert found a quiet spot beside a stream and would lie there for 
hours, neglecting her schoolwork, but imagining that the stream had flowed 
past and the trees had grown there since the beginning of the world.

After two years, her parents couldn't afford to send her there any more, 
and her marks weren't good enough to qualify for a scholarship, so she 
left again, 'home' to a place she had never lived--her family had moved 
once again while she was in school.

Eight years and two more moves later, she was working as a groundskeeper 
at the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, where she had become friends 
with an old Vendel academician, Professor Arvid Kjellsen.  She admired his 
incredible wit and intelligence, and he admired her tenacity and strength.  
He even recruited her into the Invisible College, seeing in her the 
perfect front to act as a courier and 'letterbox guardian' for secret 
documents that had to be ferried somewhere or just kept safe for a while.  
When the fighting got close again, her father decided he had finally had 
enough of Eisen instability, and found a position as a seneschal for a 
high-ranking noble in Montaigne.  Gert was heartbroken to have to leave 
her new friend.  But he had a proposal for her.  "I'm moving myself to 
take a position at a place called Helvetica," he told her.  "Why not come 
with me?  The headmistress told me they're looking for a groundskeeper.  
And I've seen you with the horses--you could teach the girls to ride, if 
you put your mind to it."  A permanent position at the one place she had 
ever found stability?  How could she refuse?

The six of them--Gert, her parents, her two younger brothers, and 
Professor Kjellsen--travelled together as far as Helvetica, where she bid 
a tearful farewell to her family, promising to write regularly.

[Here we have a bit of background with Hans--maybe he knew her from one of 
the places she had lived?  At any rate, they fall in love, etc.]

Her parents couldn't be happier--their Gert, marrying a noble?  The 
letters between them flew thick and fast, until [four?] months ago, when 
her mother agreed to come out to Helvetica to help plan the wedding.  Then 
the revolution came.  Her father had chosen poorly yet again.

Gert hasn't heard anything from her family since the revolution began, but 
she knows two things--they knew when the wedding was scheduled, and if 
they're still alive, they'll be there for it.  So the only thing she has 
to do is make sure it's perfect for when they show up.


Gert's family:
Father:  Raimund
Mother:  Mila

Younger brother (14):  Georg
Younger brother (9):   Gustav


Some resources on 1700-ish Lutheran/German wedding traditions.  The first 
URL in particular has a bunch of good ideas (scroll down to 'weddings')

http://sfhs.eget.net/P_articles/Pelo57.html
http://www.arts.uci.edu/sscm/archives/2005NUAbst.html
http://www.plannersguide.com/museum_files/image003.jpg