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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

She meant a new chapter with Helene. But Franz knew she wasn’t only talking about marriage and heirs. She was also reminding him to think about the bigger picture, the next chapter of Habsburg. Sophie thought he should choose a side in the conflict between Russia and France; she didn’t like that he’d pushed back against war altogether. She’d told him that the advisors thought him weak, wavering. But he believed his advisors treated war too casually.

Was it weak to understand how serious war was? They didn’t know what it was like to feel the knife slice through your neck, to say goodbye to your life, sure that it was over. The Russians may be ready to lose thousands of soldiers like that; Franz was not.

He recalled one of his favorite Longfellow verses:

The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden flight,

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night.

He’d approach such a weighty decision slowly. No sudden alliances, no thoughtless attacks, no snap decisions. Franz wanted Habsburg to reach its greatest heights. An expanded road system, perhaps. Railways. An end to the unrest that had tried to kill him. War wouldn’t accomplish any of that.

His mother’s voice brought him back to the moment. “And to you, dear Helene … How lovely of you to have come. I hope that we will be able to make a big announcement soon.”

A bird twittered in the tree above him, another answering it, the sounds friendly, relaxed. Franz’s eyes caught Elisabeth’s across the terrace. He wondered if he would ever be alone with her again. Wondered if he might get one more moment, one more laugh, with her before that door locked forever.

NINETEEN

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ELISABETH WAS SO TIRED OF THE BIRD. WELL, NOT THE bird itself. But the questions the poor little creature had unwittingly forced into her life.

They were in a corridor painted coral pink with golden leaves arching toward the ceiling. Mother walked on the left side, Helene on the right, Elisabeth a half step behind. Both glanced over their shoulders at her as they moved toward their rooms, questions in their eyes.

“I promise, it was nothing. I was in the garden this morning … and he saw me.”

“You spoke?” Helene’s voice pitched upward in alarm.

“No.”

“This is your last warning, Sisi,” Mother said, less panic and more bite as she pointed her little black fan at Elisabeth’s chest.

They both turned away from her and picked up speed, and Elisabeth fell another half step back. She felt bad about lying to them, of course, but the truth would only invite more scrutiny. They’d already tainted her memory of the morning with a hard knot of guilt; she didn’t want them to destroy it entirely, turn it into another reason Helene’s future was going to be ruined.