Chapters (68)
- Cover
- Dedication
- 1853
- PART I
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- 1854
- PART II
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“But you—you wanted everything and yet nothing. I can’t explain it. You wanted me, yes, but just as myself. Not as a tool for power or war or peace.” He laughed, then, softly. “You wanted me a tailor, a lover.”
She pulled back from his chest, looked in his eyes, closed her own when he swept gentle thumbs across her cheeks, wiping away the tears.
“I’m sorry I let you down today. You saved me. You were the one person I could tell about the nightmares, the one person who understood me without asking me to change. I want to be that for you too. The person you can come to. I’ll do better.”
Elisabeth’s restless heart settled, stretched out toward him, this man who saw her, knew her, trusted her. He’d saved her too, just as she’d started to believe that her great love might not be in the cards.
He kissed her on the forehead, painfully tender. “There’s a reason you made me brave. You were worth it, are worth it. And I don’t care how much we have to fight this court for our happiness. I won’t give up on it. Ever. Here, look—”
He stood, pulled her gently to the window, unlatched it, and gestured over the grounds, the buildings, to Vienna, sprawling under a midnight sky. It was a symphony of lights, thousands and thousands of candles and lamps—blue, white, red—flickering at the sky.
She stared, entranced.
He lifted her hand and kissed it. “They’re for us—the lights. Austrian colors and Bavarian ones.”
She laughed in surprise, delight.
“We’re not the only ones who are happy. Don’t lose sight of that. Vienna itself is welcoming you.”
Helene’s words returned to her then: You’ll be a great empress. And Elisabeth’s heart expanded across the darkness over Vienna, to every candle and lantern flickering its hope into the sky. They’d given her a gift by believing in her. And she was going to fight this court as much as she had to for them—and for Franz. For love. For the line she’d drawn in the sand so long ago.
She’d have great love or no man at all. Now she understood what that promise to herself had truly meant. She’d thought her promise was love over duty. But now she knew that her great love would come with duty, come with a fight. But she wasn’t fighting alone. Not any longer. Franz was there. And so were a thousand tiny lights flickering to welcome her home.