The Silver Dial, Volume 2 (of 3)

A novel written in the late 19th century. Set around the making of a great cathedral clock, it follows the mathematician Conrad Dasipodius, the gentle Sabina von Steinbach, the brilliant and volatile artist Radegund von Steinbach, and the vain Otto von Steinbach as pride, secrecy, and civic politics collide. The story turns on a concealed blindness, a lost letter, and the pressures of public fame, weaving romance and workshop intrigue into a historical drama. The opening of this volume centers on a single letter and its disastrous consequences. Radegund, handling a message from Sabina to Conrad, leaves it unsealed; Otto snoops, discovers the revelation that Conrad is blind, and engineers a public reading in the Horologe workshop, provoking Conrad’s stumble and head injury and forcing him to confess his blindness to his stunned team. Shaken, Conrad meets Sabina in the street and mistakes her shocked silence for rejection; he later seeks care from his friend Dr. Bruno Wolkenberg, who knows Sabina had privately confirmed the truth but believes she still loves Conrad—yet the letter goes missing, and suspicions deepen. Isaac Habrecht quells a near-riot among the apprentices after Otto tries to turn them against their master, while across the city gossip explodes and the Town Council convenes in indignation, leaving Conrad’s reputation and the great clock project under threat.