About this story
A carriage place at a country ball comes with a warning: Charlotte S is promised to a man named Albert. You first see her dividing a loaf into equal pieces for her motherless brothers and sisters. Then the dancing, a thunderstorm that puts out the garden lamps, a flooded road, and her question about whether you will come back once the evening is ordinary.
Who you’ll meet
Lotte, caring for the younger children before a ball. You play Werther.
How it opens
The valley below Wahlheim held evening light among lindens and low farm roofs.
Children gathered at the well while their mothers carried copper jugs home.
Ball CompanionI have a carriage place for you at a country ball tonight.
Ball CompanionCharlotte S will ride with us, though she is promised to another.
A promise is not an illness; I can survive an evening near it.
Choose
I expect only music and a road beneath summer trees.
I want one evening not governed by family accounts.