“For how long?”
Hector and Achilles exchanged glances. “The longer, the better. Two years?” Achilles suggested.
“Out of the question.”
The boy scowled. “Fine. Two months?”
Julius shook his head. “You seem to forget that I am here in Vienna on a mission. There is a Congress where my presence is required. I can’t just disappear. I have duties to perform.”
Catherine pulled at her lower lip thoughtfully. His breath caught. She had a tendency to do that whenever she was thinking, back then, as she did now. “That is a valid point,” she said. “What time period do you suggest would be realistic? It would have to be long enough for us to get to know each other better, but also compatible with your schedule.”
“The official start of the Congress involving the full participation of all states has been postponed until November. It will be difficult enough for me to negotiate time away from these matters until then. However, that is the best I can do.”
“A month, then,” Theo said, rubbing his upper lip.
“Yes.”
“Mama? Is a month enough?”
Catherine nodded. “I suppose it will have to do.”
Everyone else agreed.
“Very well. The idea has merit, for as you rightly point out, we are, after all, strangers who have been thrown together by a most peculiar quirk of fate. Though I know Catherine, I am a stranger to you, and if this is the means by which you can get used to the idea that we are married, then I will agree to it.”
“And one more thing,” she said. “I must insist that you do not call me Catherine. The name is strange to me. My name is Helena. To my family and friends, Lena.”
Lena was a completely different person from Catherine. “Lena.” He tested the name on his lips. “Very well. However, I too have a caveat.”
“What would that be?”
“At the end of October, if there is no evidence to the contrary that you are not my wife and son, I will turn the tables on you, and you will come to live with me and take your role at my side. As my duchess.” He gave her a challenging look. “That includes all of you as well.” His gaze remained on Hector.
“Do you mean we all are to live with you in your palais?” Achilles’s eyes grew round like saucers. “As children of a duke?”
“Provided you—what is the word you used earlier? Ah, yes. Measure up, I believe it was.” He smiled coldly.
They wereto begin the experiment immediately.
“Where do we put him?” Theo inquired. “He can hardly sleep in the drawing room.”
“In Papa’s bedroom, of course,” Lena said.
“Never in Papa’s room!” Hector cried. “He can stay in Marie’s closet. Or sleep on the kitchen bench.”
“Hector!” Mona exclaimed. “Behave. If he is to take on the role of the father, then he naturally has to stay in Papa’s room.”
Hecki grumbled.
Papa’s room it was.
It was a small room filled with dark mahogany furniture and a small window covered with thick curtains. There was a narrow bed in it, a simple chest of drawers, awardrobe, and a chair. There was a shelf with books on it, but they were mainly medical texts.
This had been Simon Arenheim’s room, into whose shoes he was stepping. He must have been a man who lived a very simple kind of life. He’d been a surgeon, they said. Julius wondered what kind of man he’d been.
Just what kind of situation was he in now?
For an entire month, he would be without his valet, his butler, and his secretary.
