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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

That version of Helene was here now. She’d said it was her idea to bring Elisabeth to Bad Ischl. It made Elisabeth want to cry. But what if Helene really couldn’t stand the emperor? Néné deserved more than a joking response to her question. Elisabeth reached a hand out and held her sister’s, answering earnestly this time. “I’m sure he’s a good man.”

“But what if he doesn’t like me? What if he thinks I’m boring?”

Now that—that was impossible. Of course he would love her. She was Helene. And no matter how much her sister had changed these past months, Elisabeth could see no other option but for anyone who met her to love Helene instantly and fully.

Elisabeth answered without hesitation. “You will be a wonderful empress. You’re always elegant without having to fake it. You always know what is right and what is wrong. What should be said and what should not.”

Helene smiled. “Unlike you.”

Yes, unlike her. And if Elisabeth were softer around the edges, able to keep her thoughts to herself and her feet planted on the ground, she knew her life might have been easier for it.

“Come here.” Helene turned to face her and pulled her in, leaning their foreheads together, a movement Elisabeth would find forever comforting. However on edge she felt about everything—Mother’s threat of the asylum, Helene leaving her forever—Helene was still the person she loved most in the world.

“I’m going to miss you,” she whispered.

But she knew that wasn’t quite right. Elisabeth already did miss Helene, and she wasn’t even gone.

TEN

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OH, THE SCANDAL THEY’D BE AT THE EMPEROR’S birthday! Elisabeth held back a laugh.

It was early the next morning, and her mother was sifting frantically through their trunks. Undergarments accounted for. Sleepwear, check. Black mourning dresses? Here and perfectly presentable. But their other things, the beautiful dresses her mother had painstakingly chosen for her daughters’ first meeting with the emperor: nowhere to be found.

“It can’t be!” Mother shrieked at an impressive decibel. “It simply isn’t possible!”

Helene looked ill, watching Mother dig through the trunk as if her best gown might suddenly appear. She twisted the ends of her hair, her brows pulled silently, distressingly together.

Elisabeth sat on her bed, the swirls of its embroidered white lace cover pressing into her bare legs. She leaned over the footboard and listened to her mother’s panic spiral.

“There was another trunk.” Mother paused her frantic search to address the maid, now frightened and cowering in the corner of the room.

“Your Highness, these were the only trunks on the carriage.” The maid’s voice was hesitant. “Perhaps the others will arrive later.”

“This can’t be happening,” Helene interjected, her own voice laced with disbelief.

Mother dropped heavily into a chair at the foot of Helene’s bed.