HnH 2: Part VI: Chapter 1 - Berlin Trends
Nov. 17th, 2009 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caithion(Something I managed to leave out of an earlier chapter, and now I can't remember exactly when it happened (sometime around Franz's first offer to run away to Tuscany, I think), is that Eduard had a kind of epiphany. He owes everything to Franz Stefan, and his affection for the man is unlimited. He doesn't really love Therese anymore, but he's going to stay the course because he is determined to see Franz made emperor. ... How I managed to forget to include that I really have no idea. Sorry!)
Habsburg no Houken, Book 2
Part VI - Dark Night on the Rhine
Chapter 1 - Berlin Trends
May 12, 1743, Prague. Therese is crowned queen of Bohemia.
During the ceremony she catches Eduard's eyes in the back of the cathedral and he gives this cold smile and turns his back on her and slips out.
Well, Therese is pretty upset and worried, wondering what the cold smile means, and the dead look in his eyes and turning his back on her. So she makes up a pretense to see him again, to see if she was imagining things. She knows he's likely in the canteen with the other soldiers (read: officers?), and her brother-in-law Karl is leaving the next morning with his troops, so she tells her lady-in-waiting that she's going to bid Karl farewell. Therese is seven months pregnant, and the worried lady-in-waiting urges Therese to simply send for Karl, but she laughs the suggestion off and goes anyway. She's never been to the hall before, and the smoke and noise knock her back for a moment, but she soon sees Eduard's tall form, and then her husband with him.
She goes to them, and Franz Stefan asks Eduard to find Karl. He comes back with the young lord and Marie Anna in tow (the two are engaged and plan to be married in January). All through the small talk she's stealing glances at Eduard and the look in his eye startles her. She hasn't been imaging things. She feels suddenly that she's losing him.
Just then Andrássy arrives to tell Eduard that someone has arrived to see him at his home. Therese is startled by Andrássy, who is clearly not from Bohemia, and by the realization that Eduard brought the woman with him. She decides that this is why she is loosing Eduard, to a new love.
Eduard turns to leave to meet the people waiting for him, but a panicked Therese calls out, reminding him that he promised to see her empress. He won't abandon the promise, will he?
Eduard turns back, assures her he won't, and then departs.
A messenger is waiting for him from Georg Kuyt. Eduard is startled and perturbed. His plans for the future are built on the assumption that the peace with Prussia will hold, but clearly Friedrich is moving again. First he has to pay the man the requisite fee, and after ten years of paying Kuyt, his pockets are pretty thin. All he gets is a small retainer from Franz, since Therese refuses to entitle him, and even the palace he got from Eugene is gone now, given to Belle-Isle. Only a few pieces of gold are left after he pays the messenger.
The news is multiple:
1) He is making feelers of renewing the military alliance with France.
2) He has also sent to Pfalz, Hessen, and Bayern in search of an offensive and defensive alliance.
3) There has been talk of the marriage of his younger sister to the crown prince of Sweden.
4) There is a rumor that he intends to arrange the marriage of Sophia Augusta Frederica, daughter of one of the family's in Friedrich's service, to Crown Prince Pyotr of Russia.
Eduard reasons that not all of these rumors can be true, but one at least must be. He senses another great war brewing, but he is determined to see Franz Stefan as emperor of Austria.
(Yay! We've switched from historical drama back to purple prose! Oh snapz, Therese found out about Andrássy. Yeah, that's right, you can only kick a man so many times before you lose him, Your Highness. I sense the relationships going sour in all kinds of awful ways.)
Habsburg no Houken, Book 2
Part VI - Dark Night on the Rhine
Chapter 1 - Berlin Trends
May 12, 1743, Prague. Therese is crowned queen of Bohemia.
During the ceremony she catches Eduard's eyes in the back of the cathedral and he gives this cold smile and turns his back on her and slips out.
Well, Therese is pretty upset and worried, wondering what the cold smile means, and the dead look in his eyes and turning his back on her. So she makes up a pretense to see him again, to see if she was imagining things. She knows he's likely in the canteen with the other soldiers (read: officers?), and her brother-in-law Karl is leaving the next morning with his troops, so she tells her lady-in-waiting that she's going to bid Karl farewell. Therese is seven months pregnant, and the worried lady-in-waiting urges Therese to simply send for Karl, but she laughs the suggestion off and goes anyway. She's never been to the hall before, and the smoke and noise knock her back for a moment, but she soon sees Eduard's tall form, and then her husband with him.
She goes to them, and Franz Stefan asks Eduard to find Karl. He comes back with the young lord and Marie Anna in tow (the two are engaged and plan to be married in January). All through the small talk she's stealing glances at Eduard and the look in his eye startles her. She hasn't been imaging things. She feels suddenly that she's losing him.
Just then Andrássy arrives to tell Eduard that someone has arrived to see him at his home. Therese is startled by Andrássy, who is clearly not from Bohemia, and by the realization that Eduard brought the woman with him. She decides that this is why she is loosing Eduard, to a new love.
Eduard turns to leave to meet the people waiting for him, but a panicked Therese calls out, reminding him that he promised to see her empress. He won't abandon the promise, will he?
Eduard turns back, assures her he won't, and then departs.
A messenger is waiting for him from Georg Kuyt. Eduard is startled and perturbed. His plans for the future are built on the assumption that the peace with Prussia will hold, but clearly Friedrich is moving again. First he has to pay the man the requisite fee, and after ten years of paying Kuyt, his pockets are pretty thin. All he gets is a small retainer from Franz, since Therese refuses to entitle him, and even the palace he got from Eugene is gone now, given to Belle-Isle. Only a few pieces of gold are left after he pays the messenger.
The news is multiple:
1) He is making feelers of renewing the military alliance with France.
2) He has also sent to Pfalz, Hessen, and Bayern in search of an offensive and defensive alliance.
3) There has been talk of the marriage of his younger sister to the crown prince of Sweden.
4) There is a rumor that he intends to arrange the marriage of Sophia Augusta Frederica, daughter of one of the family's in Friedrich's service, to Crown Prince Pyotr of Russia.
Eduard reasons that not all of these rumors can be true, but one at least must be. He senses another great war brewing, but he is determined to see Franz Stefan as emperor of Austria.
(Yay! We've switched from historical drama back to purple prose! Oh snapz, Therese found out about Andrássy. Yeah, that's right, you can only kick a man so many times before you lose him, Your Highness. I sense the relationships going sour in all kinds of awful ways.)
