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Back The Empress Save as PDF
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. 1853
  4. PART I
  5. ONE
  6. TWO
  7. THREE
  8. FOUR
  9. FIVE
  10. SIX
  11. SEVEN
  12. EIGHT
  13. NINE
  14. TEN
  15. ELEVEN
  16. TWELVE
  17. THIRTEEN
  18. FOURTEEN
  19. FIFTEEN
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN
  22. EIGHTEEN
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. TWENTY-NINE
  34. THIRTY
  35. THIRTY-ONE
  36. THIRTY-TWO
  37. THIRTY-THREE
  38. THIRTY-FOUR
  39. THIRTY-FIVE
  40. THIRTY-SIX
  41. 1854
  42. PART II
  43. THIRTY-SEVEN
  44. THIRTY-EIGHT
  45. THIRTY-NINE
  46. FORTY
  47. FORTY-ONE
  48. FORTY-TWO
  49. FORTY-THREE
  50. FORTY-FOUR
  51. FORTY-FIVE
  52. FORTY-SIX
  53. FORTY-SEVEN
  54. FORTY-EIGHT
  55. FORTY-NINE
  56. FIFTY
  57. FIFTY-ONE
  58. FIFTY-TWO
  59. FIFTY-THREE
  60. FIFTY-FOUR
  61. FIFTY-FIVE
  62. FIFTY-SIX
  63. FIFTY-SEVEN
  64. FIFTY-EIGHT
  65. FIFTY-NINE
  66. SIXTY
  67. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  68. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“You have to stop this. You undermine us all, undermine everything we’ve built, with your reckless behavior. What if he hadn’t been willing to take the title, the money? What if he kept spreading his story around court? How are you supposed to be my representative on diplomatic missions, in war councils, if this is how you are known?” Franz appealed to his brother’s love for Habsburg. God knew his love for Franz wouldn’t stop him. And his conscience certainly wasn’t doing the trick.

Maxi’s eyes sparked with anger. “So you threw me to the wolves, exposed me instead of talking to me?”

Franz’s frustration was a steaming kettle. He had tried talking to Maxi; it never worked. The situation was impossible: keep Maxi in court and be seen as complicit in his scandals or send him away where he was sure to do more of the same, only with no one to pay off the next grieving father with titles and pensions. Franz didn’t know which was worse.

Maxi slipped his indifference back on like a familiar suit. He gave no indication of whether he planned to change. He simply bowed. “Brother.”

Franz motioned toward the door, and Maxi disappeared through it.

FORTY-SEVEN

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ELISABETH HAD NEVER MINDED BEING NAKED, BUT SHE’D also never had so many people in the room watching. Her ladies-in-waiting hadn’t shuffled out during bath time, but rather positioned themselves around the room. Some stood. Some sat. One leaned suggestively in front of a mirror and admired her own dress. The maids removed Elisabeth’s clothes, and she wrapped her arms around herself, over her breasts, as everyone looked on as if she were an animal in the circus. A bird in a cage. A thing trapped.

One of the girls helped her into the large copper tub, and Elisabeth sank gratefully into the hot water, the edges of her hair floating around her like seaweed. Esterházy instructed her not to wash herself, so she leaned back and let the ladies do it. They reached in with sponges, brushes, brass carafes of warm water. It was strange and uncomfortable, and Elisabeth tried to pretend she was back home instead, Helene the one helping to wash her hair. That image hurt in a different way, longing for a sister who’d rather tear out her hair than wash it. A frown tugged at Elisabeth’s mouth. How long would her sister be so close and yet so unreachable?

“She has such beautiful skin—like moonlight!” one of the ladies cooed.

“I bet the emperor fell in love with her eyes first.”

“No, it must’ve been her lips!”