Read Online The Second Empress by Michelle Moran - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Michelle Moran
Ads: Link
ministers .
Adieu, my love. I am as sad as the weather is gloomy. I have need to know that you are tranquil, and to learn that you have regained your self-control. May you have peaceful sleep .
Napoleon
To the empress at Malmaison .
Thursday, at noon, December 1809 .
I have wished to go to see you today, my love, but I am very much occupied and a little unwell. Nevertheless, I am going to the cabinet council. I beg you to inform me how you are. The weather is very damp and not at all healthy .
Napoleon
C HAPTER 7
MARIE-LOUISE, EMPRESS OF FRANCE
March 11, 1810
I HAVE A NEW NAME . F ROM NOW UNTIL THE END OF MY days, I am to be the Empress Marie-Louise. I say it a few times in front of the mirror, trying to match this new title to the same plain face that has always stared back at me. But each time I say it, the reality seems further and further away. In a few minutes, my father will send a courtier to fetch me from my rooms, and my family will ride to Hofburg Palace, where I’ll be married by proxy to the Emperor Napoleon. I want to reconcile myself to this—to be impressed with my new fortune and rank—but I am sick with dread.
I try not to meet Maria’s eyes in the mirror. She has been sitting on my bed since dawn, cradling Sigi. She has not stopped crying since she arrived. Tomorrow morning, when I set out for Compiègne, I suspect the scene will be the same. It will take all my reserve not to become hysterical when I leave. This palace, these rooms, these people with their familiar hatreds and desires, have all been mine since birth. And now, when my brother Ferdinand is made emperor of Austria, I will not be his regent. Someone else will have to guide his hand, and who knows if they’re prepared for his outbursts and seizures. At least Maria-Carolina will have it easier. She will be kept from the public eye and quietly married. I look up at the family portraits on my wall. Ferdinand, Maria-Carolina, Maria, my father …
In twenty-four hours, I will never see any of them again.
There is a knock at my door, and Sigi whines. Maria rushes from the bed and wraps her arms around my shoulders. “Change your mind,” she says. “You don’t have to go.”
For the first time, my resolve begins to crumble. “And lose my father his crown? What would happen to Austria? What would happen to you?”
“I don’t know.” Maria weeps.
I bite my lower lip. I will not cry. There is nothing anyone can do, and I will not destroy my father by letting him see me in such misery. None of us wanted this marriage, but Napoleon has made his choice, and only an act of God will see it undone.
There is a second knock, and this time I answer. A man in my father’s red and gold livery makes a deep bow. “Your Majesty,” he addresses Maria. “Your Highness.” He looks sadly at me. Even the pages are loath to see this happen. “The carriages are ready,” he says quietly.
“I would like to see my brother first.”
“He is waiting in the courtyard—”
“Please bring him here. I would like to see him before I leave. In private.”
The page bows at the waist and is gone.
“He won’t know what to do without you,” Maria worries. “How will they control him?”
I don’t know. I sit on the bed and take Maria’s hand. “Be patient with him,” I beg her. “Don’t let him have his own way. He can’t eat sweets for breakfast and then again for dinner.”
“Your father and I will both see to that.”
The door opens slowly and I rise from the bed. “Ferdinand.”
His eyes are red. He’s clearly been told that I’ll be going away and not returning. It breaks my heart to see him weep. He takes my hands in his. “I don’t understand. I—I don’t understand.”
“I’m getting married, Ferdinand. My husband is the emperor of France. Do you know what that means?”
“That you want to love him and not me.”
I inhale deeply. I will not cry. But Maria stifles a sob, and now it’s impossible not to weep.
Adieu, my love. I am as sad as the weather is gloomy. I have need to know that you are tranquil, and to learn that you have regained your self-control. May you have peaceful sleep .
Napoleon
To the empress at Malmaison .
Thursday, at noon, December 1809 .
I have wished to go to see you today, my love, but I am very much occupied and a little unwell. Nevertheless, I am going to the cabinet council. I beg you to inform me how you are. The weather is very damp and not at all healthy .
Napoleon
C HAPTER 7
MARIE-LOUISE, EMPRESS OF FRANCE
March 11, 1810
I HAVE A NEW NAME . F ROM NOW UNTIL THE END OF MY days, I am to be the Empress Marie-Louise. I say it a few times in front of the mirror, trying to match this new title to the same plain face that has always stared back at me. But each time I say it, the reality seems further and further away. In a few minutes, my father will send a courtier to fetch me from my rooms, and my family will ride to Hofburg Palace, where I’ll be married by proxy to the Emperor Napoleon. I want to reconcile myself to this—to be impressed with my new fortune and rank—but I am sick with dread.
I try not to meet Maria’s eyes in the mirror. She has been sitting on my bed since dawn, cradling Sigi. She has not stopped crying since she arrived. Tomorrow morning, when I set out for Compiègne, I suspect the scene will be the same. It will take all my reserve not to become hysterical when I leave. This palace, these rooms, these people with their familiar hatreds and desires, have all been mine since birth. And now, when my brother Ferdinand is made emperor of Austria, I will not be his regent. Someone else will have to guide his hand, and who knows if they’re prepared for his outbursts and seizures. At least Maria-Carolina will have it easier. She will be kept from the public eye and quietly married. I look up at the family portraits on my wall. Ferdinand, Maria-Carolina, Maria, my father …
In twenty-four hours, I will never see any of them again.
There is a knock at my door, and Sigi whines. Maria rushes from the bed and wraps her arms around my shoulders. “Change your mind,” she says. “You don’t have to go.”
For the first time, my resolve begins to crumble. “And lose my father his crown? What would happen to Austria? What would happen to you?”
“I don’t know.” Maria weeps.
I bite my lower lip. I will not cry. There is nothing anyone can do, and I will not destroy my father by letting him see me in such misery. None of us wanted this marriage, but Napoleon has made his choice, and only an act of God will see it undone.
There is a second knock, and this time I answer. A man in my father’s red and gold livery makes a deep bow. “Your Majesty,” he addresses Maria. “Your Highness.” He looks sadly at me. Even the pages are loath to see this happen. “The carriages are ready,” he says quietly.
“I would like to see my brother first.”
“He is waiting in the courtyard—”
“Please bring him here. I would like to see him before I leave. In private.”
The page bows at the waist and is gone.
“He won’t know what to do without you,” Maria worries. “How will they control him?”
I don’t know. I sit on the bed and take Maria’s hand. “Be patient with him,” I beg her. “Don’t let him have his own way. He can’t eat sweets for breakfast and then again for dinner.”
“Your father and I will both see to that.”
The door opens slowly and I rise from the bed. “Ferdinand.”
His eyes are red. He’s clearly been told that I’ll be going away and not returning. It breaks my heart to see him weep. He takes my hands in his. “I don’t understand. I—I don’t understand.”
“I’m getting married, Ferdinand. My husband is the emperor of France. Do you know what that means?”
“That you want to love him and not me.”
I inhale deeply. I will not cry. But Maria stifles a sob, and now it’s impossible not to weep.
Similar Books
![Use Me [Dungeon Masters 5] (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting)](https://fs.dianahicksbooks.online/614545/thumbs/152x264/use-me-dungeon-masters-5-siren-publishing-menage-everlasting.jpg)
