BooksBarbecue
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

Spatz glanced back at the ballroom, at Franz, then at Elisabeth, a small line appearing between her now-serious brows. “So … does he?”

“Does he what, baby sister?”

“Does he satiate your soul?”

Elisabeth’s mind cast back to that day just a few months ago. She’d told her sister that she wanted a man who would satiate her soul. She’d dropped through a window and ridden away from a man who would not and could never. How her life had changed since then.

The answer was so easy, even if the road there had been hard.

“Yes.” Elisabeth widened her eyes. “Yes, he really does.”

Spatz giggled, threw herself into Elisabeth’s arms in a hug.

Elisabeth pulled her sister close and kissed the top of her head, pressing her face to it. “I hope you find that someday too. A person who satiates your soul. Remember that—you never have to settle.”

It was hope, and it was blessing, Elisabeth pressing her own joy into her sister’s tiny frame, kissing it into the top of her head. Joy that was hard-won—and would keep being hard-won, she knew. Elisabeth still might not know which rules to break and which to bend to, or which new challenges the court would throw at her.

But she did know that whatever challenges came, they were worth it. Entirely, wholeheartedly, absolutely worth it.

For Franz. For herself. For Habsburg.

For love.

And for every soul that that inspired.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

LET’S START WITH VERONICA PARK—MY AGENT, A BONA FIDE badass, and an author herself. You believed in my work before anyone in the industry and fought tooth and nail to get me here. There’s no one I’d rather have on my side. Thank you.

To my editor, Caolinn Douglas: from the very first call, I knew you’d be a pleasure to work with. Thanks for your insightful guidance, superspeed turnarounds, and reliable kindness throughout the whole process (especially when I was tagging you with line edit questions every day).

To my writing community—cheerleaders, joke makers, friends. This book was a closely kept secret, but I appreciated every encouragement, word count celebration, and wildly incorrect guess about what I was working on (Sami, I am sorry to disappoint your dreams about the Roosevelts). Thank you especially to Chandra Fisher (sex scene whisperer), Scream Town (keepers of screams), A. Z. Louise (keeper of word counts), David De la Rosa (keeper of my sanity), Lani Frank (my cubicle mate halfway around the world and my gut check on all things grammar), Sarah Rana, Daniela Petrova, Elizabeth Brookbank, Zoe Wallbrook, Jessica Lewis, A. Y. Chao, Gladys Qin, Emily Varga, Sami Ellis, Amanda “Sexy Stuff” Helander, Kate Dylan, Angel Di Zhang, Vaishnavi Patel, Natasha Hanova, and the entirety of the No Drama Zone.