“Your Majesty, the procession of Her Majesty the Empress of Austria is said to have crossed the border.”
King Maximilian II of Bavaria asked absently, without taking his eyes off the documents.
“Again?”
“Yes.”
He had known it was about time for her to arrive.
Not only at Easter, but during Catholic observances, it was always like this.
“How many times has it been already? If she has become Empress of the Empire, she ought to settle down and stay put. My aunt must have no end of worries.”
He set down his pen and pressed his temples.
“As if the matter of Duchess Helene were not headache enough, now even the Empress of Austria is coming.”
A headache was already beginning to creep in.
“Joseph is far too soft. To be Emperor and yet unable to control even one wife.”
“What shall we do? Prime Minister Pfordten suggests an official welcoming ceremony…”
“Enough. This is hardly the first or second time, and she must have come to recuperate. Just tell her to stay quietly at Possenhofen and then leave.”
Max waved a hand.
“In any case, after resting a few days, once Joseph coaxes her, she’ll go back. There is no need to inform me.”
He turned his gaze back to the documents.
He had to finish the reply to Duchess Helene, refusing the marriage proposal from the House of Thurn und Taxis.
“How dare a family that once did nothing more than deliver the post covet royal blood? Not a chance.”
Since she often came down to her family home in Possenhofen under the excuse of recuperation whenever she quarreled with her husband or fought with her mother-in-law, he thought this, too, was merely another of her customary flights from home.
*
That was certainly how it should have been.
At the foot of the stairs of the Residenz Palace.
The guards stood in formation, and ladies-in-waiting in splendid attire such as one might see only in Vienna lined up in rows.
“Prime Minister. You did very well.”
He whispered in a voice barely audible to Ludwig von der Pfordten, the prime minister standing beside him.
If Pfordten had ignored his words and failed to prepare the protocol, it could have become a grave mistake.
‘I truly cannot read what my younger cousin is thinking…’
Maximilian sensed that something about the atmosphere had changed, but only when he saw Sisi getting out of the carriage with a sulky air did he finally feel relieved.
He descended the stairs to greet Sisi.
“Welcome to Bavaria, Your Majesty.”
Pretending to kiss the back of her gloved hand, he observed the utmost courtesy.
“Thank you for your hospitality.”
She wanted to proceed into the palace without delay, and Maximilian hurried to guide her inside.
In a reception room beyond the reach of people’s eyes, the two returned to the easy manner of family.
“By the way, I heard Sophie and Gisela came with you. Where are the children?”
“What would the children do here? Before I came, I left them with my parents.”
‘That would not have been Sisi’s choice…’
He looked at Countess Esterházy, who stood behind Sisi.
‘It must have been the Mistress of the Household’s decision.’
“Well done. You must be exhausted from the journey too, so have a cup of tea and then go rest.”
Max quietly hoped to send her back to Possenhofen.
“Mistress of the Household.”
At Sisi’s gesture, Esterházy, who had been standing behind her, courteously opened a document case and took out an envelope.
The Habsburg coat of arms, adorned in gold leaf.
And the red seal that only the Emperor could use.
“…Sisi.”
Sisi smiled and handed it to Maximilian II, whose composure had vanished.
“A personal letter from my husband.”
Maximilian clenched his fist.
It was undoubtedly about the marriage proposal with the House of Thurn und Taxis, which he had just been trying to refuse.
If the Emperor of the Empire recognized and guaranteed that family, on what grounds could Bavaria oppose it?
“Please convey to Duchess Helene my congratulations on her marriage.”
‘I thought my immature younger cousin had come to throw a tantrum.’
But the person sitting before him was the Empress of the Empire.
And one who had completed a very shrewd and political calculation.
“It is a personal letter from the Emperor. You ought to accept it.”
Maximilian let out a hollow laugh and placed the letter he had accepted onto the table.
The tomboyish little cousin of the past was nowhere to be found.
“I gave you a pretext, didn’t I? You needed the money of that postman family, but hesitated because of royal dignity.”
‘That cannot be.’
Maximilian had never once thought such a thing.
If it had been that way from the beginning, he would have acknowledged the morganatic marriage.
“Since the Emperor has guaranteed it, the dignity of the Bavarian royal family will not be diminished. Rather, you will become a magnanimous monarch who grants permission out of respect for the Emperor’s wishes.”
Maximilian was left speechless.
“Sisi, is this your handiwork?”
At Maximilian’s question, Sisi merely savored her tea.
“As expected, tea tastes better when drunk in one’s homeland.”
‘If I do not give permission, she means to stay here indefinitely.’
Maximilian raised both hands in surrender.
“I shall… tell Helene that I congratulate her. I will also send a letter to the Duke of Thurn und Taxis.”
“A wise decision, Your Majesty.”
Sisi rose from her seat. Having achieved her purpose, there was no longer any reason to linger.
“Then I shall be going to Possenhofen now. My parents and sisters will be waiting.”
“Wait, you’re leaving right away? You could stay a night at the palace.”
“I sent the children ahead first. If their mother is late, the children will fuss.”
Sisi gave an elegant bow of her head.
“Thank you for omitting the official welcoming ceremony. Such occasions are an ordeal for me.”
She left the reception room together with Esterházy.
“That aspect of Her Majesty has not changed.”
Watching Sisi’s receding back, Maximilian agreed.
“She is the very image of my uncle.”
***
Family really is nice.
Even without explaining everything one by one, they simply let it pass, saying, “That’s just how she is.”
If this had been another country, I would have had to stay the night in order to observe protocol properly.
But since I was still within Bavaria anyway, perhaps it did not matter much.
“Sisi!”
Father welcomed me the moment I arrived.
“Was that stiff fellow Maximilian doing well?”
“He is living in a manner befitting his age.”
Though he was twenty-six years older than me.
“By the way, when did you return? Until I set out, I heard you had gone to Egypt.”
“My granddaughters have come. What could be more important than that?”
Saying so, Father put Sophie on his shoulders and laughed heartily.
That had always been the most important thing to you, hadn’t it?
I swallowed the words just before becoming an unfilial daughter.
Had my mother-in-law seen this, she would likely have fainted.
“Papa, doesn’t your back hurt?”
“My back? This is a back that even crawled up a pyramid!”
I shook my head and went inside.
Mother was standing in the drawing room, and beside her was…
“Nene!”
My older sister, Helene, was there.
“Do you not see your mother? You sent only a messenger saying you would suddenly come down, and then you yourself were nowhere to be seen, only the grandchildren arrived separately. Did you stop by Munich? Did you meet His Majesty the King?”
Mother’s rapid-fire questions nearly made my head spin.
“A messenger will arrive from Munich soon.”
I said this while glancing briefly at Nene.
It was not the resentful gaze I had seen during my first pregnancy, but that did not mean she looked at ease, either.
“I greet Your Majesty the Empress.”
My sister tried to bend her knees in courtesy.
“What need is there between family?”
“There are many eyes watching. The ladies-in-waiting you brought with you are here too.”
Nene spoke with feigned stiffness, but she did not particularly refuse, either.
“So did you come to recuperate? Nothing happened with His Majesty the Emperor?”
“It would be hard to say nothing happened.”
“Did you quarrel with Sophie again?”
At Mother’s worried voice, I received the same kind of document from Esterházy.
A personal letter identical to the one I had shown the King of Bavaria earlier.
“His Majesty the Emperor asked me to deliver this.”
I placed the envelope in Nene’s hand.
“Along with his congratulations on your marriage.”
Nene’s eyes widened.
My sister opened the envelope with trembling hands, checked its contents, and her eyes reddened.
“Sisi…”
Just as the mood was ripening with my sister embracing me,
“Nene, even you…”
Mother sank down onto the sofa with a thud and pressed a hand to her forehead.
“One of you marries His Majesty the Emperor only to fight with the elders of the household, and another insists on marrying a postman and even drags His Majesty into it…”
At Mother’s sigh, heavy with lamentation, we looked at each other and burst into small laughter.
“Still, everything worked out, didn’t it?”
“Yes… I suppose that is how I should think of it.”
“Mother! Father and my brother are fighting!”
What is this now?
The one who came running in breathlessly was my younger brother, Carl Theodor.
“Fighting? Max and Ludwig?”
Mother sprang up, her face pale.
“My brother says he is going to get married…”
At the word marriage, my head tilted slightly.
“If he is getting married, why is he fighting with Father?”
“They say he has already had a daughter…”
He had not even married yet, but the child was already born?
“Shouldn’t they have married him off sooner, then?”
As I still failed to grasp the situation, Nene whispered in my ear.
“He fell in love with Henriette Mendel.”
“Who is that?”
“An actress.”
An actress?
Since no noblewoman would become an actress…
“At least you were still a noblewoman, Sister…”
It was not as though we were the Principality of Monaco, which was not even treated as Standesherren.
Shouting could be heard from outside.
“Give me love, or give me death! Father, you said you understood!”
“I do understand, but your mother will kill me, you fool!”
Father and my older brother were fighting each other, and Mother had even fainted at the news just now.
“Mama…”
Before I knew it, Sophie had come over and was clutching the hem of my dress.
“Sophie, even to you, this looks strange, doesn’t it?”
Sophie glanced around and carefully nodded.
What a truly peaceful household.