“I cannot tell you in detail, but Marshal Radetzky said something in Milan.”
Joseph moved me to the side, then slowly climbed onto the bed.
He took off his slippers and lay down beside me.
“Sisi, do you remember the letters from last time?”
The letters from last time…
“You mean the letters to the empresses?”
“That’s right. Britain sent one, if only as a formality, but France ignored your letter.”
“Was it because of me?”
Was it because I had gone to Hungary, because Joseph had received bad information and hastily turned the army around, that Britain and France had become completely hostile?
Joseph told me, who was harboring such suspicions, that it was not.
“Count Grünne and Count Buol advised hostile neutrality toward Russia, and that contained Mother’s will. On the other hand, the military, including General Radetzky, judged it to be an opportunity to form a firm alliance with Russia.”
Then why did he change it?
“None of this is your responsibility, so do not worry.”
So it is my fault.
The fact that Joseph was going out of his way to bring it up meant that, in the end, I bore at least a little responsibility.
“You know I have fifteen days left, don’t you?”
This life would soon be over.
“I will be back soon.”
“All right.”
The emperor could not remain by my side forever.
“Please go and return safely.”
That day, Joseph left for Venice.
And time passed quickly, and the Wochenbett came to an end.
The day my forty days of confinement were lifted.
Esterházy brought a formal court dress.
It was not the invalid’s attire I had worn while eating only watery soup.
The maids tightened a corset around my body. My breath caught in my throat.
It felt as though I were putting on the empress’s armor again.
I walked out of the bedroom.
The corridor was oppressively vast.
The sunlight pouring in through the windows dazzled my eyes. It was the first sunlight I had seen in forty days.
“Your Majesty, you must walk slowly.”
Esterházy worried, but I did not stop.
This freedom, this air.
I had not missed it.
“Is this not a joyous day?”
Not at all…
If anything, I had preferred the time I spent locked away.
I wore only comfortable clothes, and no one spoke of headache-inducing politics.
The Hofburg court chapel.
Archduchess Sophie had arrived first and was waiting for me.
Her gaze swept over me from head to toe.
Eyes meticulously inspecting my attire and bearing.
“Empress.”
“Archduchess.”
I could feel the surrounding nobles watching us with anxious expressions.
“Congratulations on completing your Wochenbett without incident.”
“I spent it comfortably thanks to Your Highness’s warm consideration.”
We exchanged only formal words of congratulation and walked before the priest.
The priest began the blessing ceremony for the mother.
Gratitude for surviving the dangers of childbirth. And a rite to purify the impurity that remained in me as a woman who had given birth.
There was nothing much to the ceremony.
Prayers in Latin resounded, and the cardinal sprinkled holy water over my head.
“Cleanse our empress of every stain of sin…”
It is embarrassing, but I do not know Latin.
After the blessing, whose meaning I did not even know, ended, the cardinal declared,
“I proclaim that Her Majesty has now been purified under the grace of the Lord, and is once again able to carry out all public duties as a member of the holy Church and as the mother of the empire.”
It was over.
My steps as I left the chapel were somewhat heavy.
“Chief lady-in-waiting.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“The day is rather hot. Tell them to prepare sorbet in the reception room.”
There was nothing like a sweet dessert to lift one’s spirits.
“Minister of the Court.”
A voice that should not have been heard in my room rang out.
“Her Majesty the Empress has only just left childbed and is not yet fully recovered. If she asked for sorbet that might harm her august body, how could you fail to stop her and simply let it be?”
Sophie’s gaze turned toward me.
“Empress. The reason you rested comfortably for forty days was so that you could once again fulfill your duties as the mother of the empire. The first of those duties is to maintain a healthy body for the next heir. Just because the Wochenbett has ended does not mean postpartum care has ended as well.”
Archduchess Sophie’s gaze went back to Esterházy.
“Archduchess. I know my own body best. I have also received the court physician’s permission. Does Your Highness happen to possess greater medical knowledge than the court physician?”
Sophie acted as though she had not heard me and gave an order to Esterházy.
“Her Majesty’s judgment seems to have grown clouded, so you must correct it. Have the sorbet taken away at once. Instead, have warm chicken soup prepared again to restore her strength.”
“Chief lady-in-waiting. This is the Empress’s Palace.”
To think she would try to violate rules that had already been decided.
“Your Imperial Highness, this is indeed the Empress’s Palace, as Her Majesty said.”
Esterházy’s voice was as flat as ever, but the refusal contained within it was as hard as steel.
“Empress. What rude prank is this? It seems you have taught your chief lady-in-waiting to serve the wrong master.”
She skipped over me and gave Esterházy another order.
“Did you not hear me? Remove the sorbet at once—”
“Archduchess.”
I cut her off.
There was no longer anywhere to retreat, nor any reason to.
To think that as soon as Joseph left, she would try to seize the authority of the Empress’s Palace again.
“The chief lady-in-waiting is merely fulfilling her role. The master she serves is the Empress of Austria, is it not? Namely, me.”
“You are doing this over a mere dessert? With a body that still reeks of milk?”
“This is not about some mere dessert, but about the will of me, the empress, to taste it.”
I recalled the purification ceremony that had just ended.
“The priest has washed away all my sins and declared that I have been reborn as a new being.”
Archduchess Sophie said nothing more. The jailers of the prison the archduchess had built had now been replaced by my people.
She looked from one to another, then bit her lip and turned away.
“When His Majesty the Emperor returns, I will certainly hold you accountable for this insolence.”
“Gladly.”
I watched her back as she left.
If Joseph had appointed her to the regency council, she should have been satisfied with that.
In any case, even if he had passed over the experienced and capable Archduchess Sophie, he would not have entrusted the regency council to me while ignoring other politicians, including Count Buol.
“Reader lady-in-waiting. I wish to hear today’s news.”
I ate to my heart’s content the foods I had not been able to eat for some time, while listening to news of the world through the Wiener Zeitung.
“The first item of news. A report of victory has arrived from the Balkan front.”
I listened with the spoon in my mouth.
“It is news that the Imperial First Army, led by Prince Windisch-Grätz, carried out a joint operation with the Southern Army of the Russian Empire and finally succeeded in crossing the Danube. It is said that the Ottoman Turks suffered enormous losses around Belgrade and are retreating south.”
A report of victory.
My hand, which had been scooping up sorbet, paused for a moment.
Ida Ferenczy’s voice grew quieter for a moment, then she immediately conveyed the next piece of news to me.
“The second item of news. His Majesty the Emperor arrived safely in Venice yesterday afternoon.”
Was this an extension of the Crimean War story?
“His Majesty immediately presided over a military conference with Marshal Radetzky, the governor-general of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia. The newspaper reported that this was to raise the morale of the imperial army in the face of the cowardly provocations of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. Meanwhile, there are rumors that France is preparing to dispatch a fleet from the port of Toulon.”
So this was why Joseph had gone to Venice.
As soon as Austria joined hands with Russia, Sardinia, now our enemy, was preparing to attack Italy with French support.
“His Majesty will be safe, won’t he?”
“Marshal Radetzky may be advanced in years, but he is a man who has devoted his entire life to the empire.”
Esterházy tried to reassure me.
That was not what I had meant to ask.
Since he was the emperor, even if he were captured, he would return without anything happening to him. The problem was that Sophie’s political faction might now grow stronger again.
Because mistakes made by Joseph and me meant Sophie’s power would increase.
“Yes, if it is Marshal Radetzky, I suppose we have no choice but to trust him.”
What could I do for the emperor?
“Your Majesty, what would you think of holding a salon?”
A salon?
I had held a tea party, but before I could even adjust to life in the palace, a problem that was not quite a problem had arisen.
“Would I simply exchange greetings, as I did at the last tea party?”
“No.”
Esterházy spoke in a voice like she was whispering a secret strategy.
“If a tea party was like an obligation through which Your Majesty confirmed rank, a salon is a place of power where you gain people.”
A place of power.
What I had wanted was freedom, not power.
But if Sophie continued invading my freedom with her own power like this, I too had no choice but to expand my power.
“Your Majesty has just heard through the newspaper of Prince Windisch-Grätz’s great victory, but how much truth do you think is truly contained in it?”
I set down my spoon and thought.
Come to think of it, news of war was always dressed up only in good stories.
“You mean the regency council censors all newspapers through official channels.”
“That is correct. Newspapers are only the truth Her Imperial Highness the Archduchess wishes to show the imperial subjects.”
Esterházy took the newspaper from Ida Ferenczy and unfolded it before me.
“But a salon is different. That place is no different from an unofficial court. Nobles who oppose Archduchess Sophie will be waiting to be invited to Your Majesty’s salon.”
She was telling me to create a shadow cabinet.
“Through information, Your Majesty will be able to judge the situation and prepare one step ahead of Her Imperial Highness Archduchess Sophie. Also, the very act of being invited to Your Majesty’s salon will become a form of power. Artists and thinkers who receive Your Majesty’s patronage will spread Your Majesty’s reputation throughout the empire.”
“What are the rules regarding a salon?”
“The first, and most important, rule. In a salon, politics must never be discussed directly.”
So she meant I had to speak in tiresome circles.
“If a diplomat discusses the tragic ending of an opera, it will mean the bleak situation at the front. If a banker asks whether it would be wise to invest in a certain painting, he is asking about the likelihood of war bonds succeeding. What matters is that you grasp who is speaking, and on what subject.”
Wow—just hearing it already makes me tired.