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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

I want you. That’s what he’d said the night before. And somehow Elisabeth’s leaving hadn’t ruined it, hadn’t stopped him. It was a promise, unbreakable. He was the person she’d met in the quiet moments, her vulnerable moments, also unbreakable.

She’d thought this would be the end. But this was no ending.

This was a beginning.

They locked eyes, and she pictured what this would mean. Them together—him pressing his lips to the tender skin behind her ear, her kissing that jawline—lying side by side, fully exposed. Knowing each other in every way that word could mean.

Beside her, she heard the hitch in her sister’s breath, the coming storm of tears.

Elisabeth stood frozen in the truth of it. The beauty and the disaster.

THIRTY-FOUR

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FUTURE EMPRESS? ELISABETH? HELENE’S BODY CONTRACTED with the horror of it. She’d been planting seeds and struggling through walks and finding her way back to anticipation and contentment. She’d been fighting so hard for this, working so tirelessly. And all the while her sister had been stealing her future.

The cruelty of it was breathtaking. She hadn’t known Sisi was capable of it.

And now she—Helene—was standing in the most glorious room, everything dazzling with six-tier cakes and handmade sugar flowers, lights like fireflies dappling in from the sunshine through gauzy curtains. And she had thought she was the most beautiful thing in that room: all draped pink silk and dangling pearl earrings and hope. Hope. She’d fought so hard for it. Fought for it and still lost it in one fell swoop.

The room swam in her vision, and she knew she couldn’t stay. She couldn’t bear the shame, standing there in elegant silks, rejected. Her legs moved before her mind even knew she was leaving. She rushed past Franz without looking at him.

In the hall, she choked on her tears and started to run up the stairs.

“Helene, wait!” It was Sisi. Sister. Betrayer. Wielder of the knife that was sticking out of Helene’s back.

“Please, Helene! I didn’t know he was going to do that!”

Sisi’s hand caught Helene’s elbow, and Helene whirled, shame transforming into anger in the space of a single breath. “Don’t touch me!”

Helene shook her head, took her sister in. For once, Sisi’s hair was in place, her clothes unwrinkled. Her feet, in shoes, black with little heels. Helene could see them peeking out of the drapes of the deep-blue skirt. So simple. So much less beautiful than Helene’s. How had this happened?

“You have to say no,” Helene demanded.

Sisi only stared at her, her expression hurt. As if she should be the one hurt.

“Please,” Helene whispered, though in her mind it was a scream. “Please.”

Her anger melted into despair.

Sisi’s face trembled, tears building in her eyes to match Helene’s own.