The Countess gave a little shiver at the memory. “In retrospect it was an idiotic thing to do. Leopold walked into a trap. He, a follower of the teachings of Machiavelli, had not counted on factions within the court with their own political agendas. They wanted Ernst to succeed because he could be manipulated to their will, whereas Viktor was an unknown quantity. And there are those within Leopold’s own council who would not hear of a commoner—Viktor—succeeding to the Margravate, regardless of Ernst’s instability of mind.” She met Alec’s gaze. “We suspect that Leopold did not meet a natural end. That he was—that he was first poisoned and then, near the end,
smothered
.”
“Good Lord! Murdered?” When the Countess nodded Alec frowned. “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”
“Not many do. It would not serve our purpose to make that fact known. It would be seen as a lame attempt by Viktor to discredit Ernst. Ernst is Margrave for the present. To the conservative majority, to the clergy, and to the soldiers of his personal bodyguard, he is Margrave because his succession was ordained by God. Even when Viktor wins this war, which he will, if we want a continuing peace, he must still win over Ernst’s supporters. To do that, Ernst must fall on his own sword. That is where you are instrumental.”
“Me?” Alec was startled. “What can I possibly offer—”
“Why do you think Ernst has your friend locked up? Why does he demand you plead for his release in person?” She squeezed Alec’s forearm through the velvet sleeve of his frock coat and opened wide her eyes. “Because
she
wants to see you. He does what
she
wants. And
she
wants you; she has always wanted
you
. You are the only one who can separate Ernst from Joanna, who can lure her out of the shadows, and when you do… No one wants a Margrave who is insane, no matter how loyal they were in the past. General Müller believes this is our chance; so does my son.”
Alec was not only startled by this, he was incredulous. It made him sound harsh and disbelieving.
“They both know the truth about Joanna? You told them what I confided in you? And they
believe
you?
“Of course. If one can accept that Leopold’s children by his first wife have madness in their veins then it is not difficult to believe the rest, is it? And that is why we—the three of us—believe you will succeed, where others have failed, and died for their efforts. By our reckoning, just seeing you returned to her, for that is what she will think, will be enough for Joanna to throw caution to the four winds. The only man you need to convince is Captain Westover, captain of the Margrave’s personal bodyguard. He may already suspect, but like others before him, like General Müller, he may be unable to reconcile what he is witness to, and what his reason tells him cannot be the truth, though it is! Thus Joanna must manifest before Westover’s eyes.”
“I think I preferred the role of lusty pawn to sacrificial pawn!” Alec retorted, though he did not argue against the plan. After all, he had every intention of fronting up to the castle, and confronting Ernst, to have his friends released. If in the process, he managed to lure Joanna from her shadowy world, and expose Ernst for what he truly was, then he would oblige Viktor and his General. “But I will only do as you ask, if your son assures me my friends will be rescued and unharmed.”
The Countess kissed his cheek impulsively, overjoyed. “Thank you. I told Henrik you would not fail us. I do not blame him for his initial skepticism, but now that he has met you and spent time in your company he is willing to concede that I was right to put my trust in you all along.”
Alec knew to whom she was referring, but asked anyway, hoping she would confide in him about her marriage. “Henrik?”
“My husband. General Müller. He knows all about us. I thought it only fair to tell him.”
Alec’s brows contracted over his long nose. “Only fair? When did you tell him?”
The Countess shrugged and said matter-of-factly, “He has known about you since I first tumbled into bed with him five years ago. But we were only married two months ago.” She put a hand to her round belly. “I could not hide this baby for much longer, and so I had to dispense with the required period of mourning for Leopold.” She smiled up at Alec. “I am a reformed woman since meeting my stern Henrik. He warned me that he would not tolerate unfaithfulness, and if I dared look at another man he would put me over his knee and spank me! Imagine! Never mind what he would do to my lover. How could I not fall in love with such a man?” She moved closer, and pressed her open fan to Alec’s chest, confiding, “But of course I could not let him be complacent. So I promised to be good, except if you ever walked back into my life. Yes! I did. But I never dreamed in a hundred dreams you would return here. That wounded him a little—”
“
Wounded him
?” Alec huffed. “I am all sympathy for your General. That was most cruel of you, Helena. The wonder to me is, he did not put me up against a wall and have me shot the first time we met.”
“That is because he is like you. He has scruples and morals, and will not act without good reason to do so. You have nothing to worry about. He tells me he likes you.”
“I’m glad to hear it. I like him, too, despite not being enamored of how he dispenses justice, even if there is a war on.”
“He is a soldier. He does what has to be done. He is also fiercely loyal to my son, and believes he is the future for our country. Which makes me love him all the more. Ah! And here they are now!” she announced with a smile, turning as the double doors opened and the usher stepped forth to announce His Highness the Prince Viktor, and the most noble General Baron Müller. “Come!” the Countess commanded of Alec, putting her arm through his. “Let me introduce you to the other wonderful men in my life.”
T
HE
P
RINCE
was a tall, lean young man with sandy-red shoulder-length hair and a matching mustache. He had bright blue eyes, and his mother’s fine cheekbones. But in every other respect he was the image of what Alec supposed his father Leopold must have looked like when a handsome young man of two-and-twenty. The resemblance was marked enough for Alec to show surprise, and the Countess Rosine to press his arm in acknowledgment.
Dressed in a military uniform of blue and gold, with orders pinned to his left breast and a sash of crimson across his right shoulder, from which dangled a military cross at his hip, the Prince strode into the assembly chamber and immediately searched out his mother. With his chin up, and a gloved hand on the ornate hilt of his sword, there was an aura of command about him, of knowing his place at the apex of his society and everyone else knowing it too. He expected absolute loyalty and received it. And yet, there was an easy-going energy about his person, and such a passion for life, that everyone who came within his orbit was infected with the same enthusiasm. And this was why the men and women in the room surged forward and surrounded their chosen ruler, with applause and smiles.
Alec had last seen Prince Viktor when he was a thin-shouldered boy of eleven. He remembered their last day together vividly, because they had been sailing the boy’s model ship in one of the many ornamental lakes in the gardens at Friedeburg palace. Stripped to their shirt sleeves, they had removed their shoes and stockings, rolled their silk breeches up over their knees, and were wading in water that lapped at the boy’s hips. The Countess had been most annoyed and sat with her ladies-in-waiting around her on the grassy bank, pouting and telling Alec he and her son would surely suffer a misadventure, at the very least contract a fever from such foolishness. Alec and the young prince had ignored her. It was a hot sunny day, and Alec knew by the boy’s grin he was happy and grateful for any excuse to be out of his restrictive court frock coat. Alec was unsure how it started, but soon he and Viktor were splashing each other, ignoring the Countess as she stamped her foot at their tomfoolery, until they were soaked through to the skin, the model sailing ship forgotten.
And now here was the boy grown into a tall young man who had started a civil war and who would, everything going according to plan, and with God’s blessing, soon be the ruler of his country. He was now tall enough to look Alec in the eye, and did so when Alec straightened from a formal bow. What he did next surprised Alec into speechlessness, the first time in a very long while he was lost for words. But it sent the courtiers, who now formed a ring around Prince Victor, General Müller, the Countess, and Alec, into a frenzy of applause.
Prince Viktor stepped forward and embraced Alec as one does a long-lost favored uncle, then held his hand in a firm clasp, eyes wet and bright.
“It is very good to see you again, Herr Baron. I wish it were in better circumstances, but perhaps if my country were at peace, I would not have had this opportunity at all to thank you—”
“Your-Your Highness, I-I need no—”
“Please. Allow me to thank you. You did my mother and me a great service all those years ago.” Viktor smiled at the Countess. “I had the most wonderful childhood growing up here, and she tells me that was in no small part due to your sacrifices on our behalf. So, please, you will accept with good grace my thanks, and allow me to formally endorse the honor that was bestowed upon you by my father. General Müller has told me what you did for our citizens in Emden, and for that alone I would again make you Baron Aurich.” He looked at Alec’s hand and frowned. “But you do not wear the ring? You still have it I trust?”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Alec replied and dug deep in a frock coat pocket and handed the Prince the little velvet box. “Ready to return to its rightful owner.”
“You, Herr Baron, are its rightful owner,” Viktor stated, and removed the intaglio from its box and slipped it back on the ring finger of Alec’s right hand. “Here is where it belongs, for your lifetime.” He pressed Alec’s hand before letting it go and stepping back with a small bow and a smile. He then turned and surveyed the circle of courtiers and announced Alec’s title, the expectation in his tone and look that they make their bow and curtsey to the Baron Aurich, which they duly did. Satisfied, he then made an announcement to the assembled company which not only drew another round of applause but was punctuated with gasps of excitement mixed with trepidation, “The day after tomorrow I ride with General Müller, Baron Aurich, and our troops for Herzfeld. We will take the castle and end this war so that our people can finally live in peace. No more will we bow down to tyrants and foreign powers. Midanich will reclaim its rightful place within the Holy Roman Empire.”
He put up a hand, in acknowledgment of the applause, and to have the courtiers be quiet and listen. And when he had their full attention he motioned for Alec to step forward, then spoke over a shoulder to General Müller, who replied at the Prince’s ear, gaze directed at Selina who was in the circle beside the Court Chamberlain. The Prince immediately stepped over to Selina and with a bow offered her his crooked arm. He then brought her to stand beside Alec, the couple exchanging the merest of glances, both self-conscious to be the center of such attention.
“Today we will not think of the war! Today is for celebration,” the Prince continued. “Today my good friend the Baron Aurich is to be married, and we shall have a feast and dance and make merry into the night!”
When the courtiers erupted into loud applause, Selina looked at Alec enquiringly, for she had not understood a word. The Prince had spoken in German.
Alec leaned in to speak to her, to be heard over the din
“This is to be the last day for the rest of our lives you will ever be addressed as Mrs. Jamison-Lewis.”
Selina blinked up at Alec’s grinning countenance, unsure of his meaning, so he told her, and she gasped, and smiled, and said with a note of wonder,
“We are to be married—
here
?”
He nodded and put out his hand to her. She took it, tears glistening on her lashes.
“My only regret,” he continued, kissing her hand, which elicited more applause, “is that our family—my uncle, your aunt, Cosmo, and Emily—are not here to share the day with us.”
Selina nodded her agreement just as the Prince turned away from his mother and General Müller, to address her and Alec in French.
“General Müller informs me you have brought me a gift from your King George of England. With your permission I will unveil it at your wedding breakfast, for I am told it will provide entertainment for the entire court. I, too, have a gift for you both. But this gift cannot wait until your wedding.” He smiled and lifted his brows with a conspiratorial twinkle. “I am certain you, in particular, Madame Jamison-Lewis, will appreciate its comfort and support before and during the ceremony. And my mother says it is most cruel of me to deny you both. And so let us not wait a moment longer!”
He made a gesture to his Court Chamberlain who in turn made motions to two liveried footmen, who stepped up to the ring of courtiers and broke the line, ushering ladies and gentlemen left and right, to make way for the Court Chamberlain who came into the center of the ring to make an announcement. Selina and Alec looked at one another and then with expectation as the double doors to the audience chamber were thrown open. Given no indication of what their wedding gift might be, they were open to all sorts of possibilities, except one.
The gift was not an object or an animal, but a person. It was Emily.
She had never looked lovelier or happier and was smiling from ear to ear. After a curtsey to the room, and then to Prince Viktor and the Countess Rosine, she swept up to Selina and Alec in a froth of printed cotton and quilted petticoats and threw her arms around Selina.
“Oh! I’m so happy you’ve finally come!” she announced, a look over at Alec, who was staring at her as if she were an apparition. “I’ve missed you both dreadfully. Isn’t this the most magical place?”
Such was Selina’s shock her knees buckled, she slid out of Emily’s embrace, and crumpled to the floor in a dead faint.
T
WO
HOURS
HAD
PASSED
since Selina’s embarrassing faint before the entire rebel court at the shock of seeing Emily. Alec had caught her before she hit the parquetry, and she had woken in his arms, assuring him she was well, but wondering if Emily was a specter. And there was her fair-haired cousin, down beside her on the floor and holding her hand. So many questions rushed up into her throat, and she saw that Alec was just as shocked and confused, and brim full of questions. But they were surrounded by courtiers, and she was not permitted to move until the court physician gave her permission to do so.