Evie jumped to her feet again and walked to the tall windows, pushing aside the curtains and looking down at the bustling street as if she hadn’t done so at least a hundred times the past half hour. “I’ll have to distract myself with something else, then,” she said more to herself than him. “There is much to see in Vienna. It issuch a charming place. But going shopping with Lady Castlereagh is such a bore. She drags me into every shop, inconveniences the shopkeepers by making them show her every item they have and then leaves without buying anything. I take pity on them, usually, so I inevitably end up buying something I don’t need.” She grimaced.
“Hm. It seems you need a female companion of your own age to distract you. I shall look into the matter. A pity that Hartenberg is not in town, otherwise it would have been his duty to escort you about town. You are to marry him, after all.”
“I doubt we’ll ever see that day.” She dropped the curtain. “You know I don’t even know what he looks like? What if he is hideously ugly and old?”
“Hmm?” Aldingbourne had immersed himself in his documents again.
Evie sighed. “Never mind.”
There was silence again in the drawing room.
“I think I’ll go out and buy a new bonnet,” she announced, even though she’d just returned from a long shopping trip and had just bought three bonnets that she didn’t need.
“Yes, yes, do that. Also, we are to have supper at the British Embassy tonight. Be back in time. Tomorrow, there is a gala dinner at Hofburg Palace with the emperors. In two days’ time there is a soiree hosted by Metternich. Prepare yourself accordingly.”
“Very well, Julius.”
“Another thing, before I forget.” He looked up, frowning. “While you are in Vienna, don’t talk to any strangers and make sure you burn any kind of correspondence,as I am about to do now. Watch me.” He walked to the fireplace, tore up the dispatch he’d just read, and threw the pieces into the fire. “Make sure it burns properly to ashes. Conduct yourself with the utmost discretion. Do you understand? Trust no one, not even our own servants.”
“Why?”
“The city is crawling with Metternich’s spies. I caught a maid going through the wastepaper bins, trying to piece together one of the letters you’d thrown in there. I had to dismiss her, of course, but it is more than likely that the new maid who’s taken her place will do the same. They’re all in the employ of the Austrian secret police.”
Evie stared at him with round eyes. “But why? I thought the Austrians were our allies. Why would they be spying on us?”
Aldingbourne shrugged. “There has never been a Congress like this before in history. Much is at stake. Even though we are actively working for peace, there is a certain amount of suspicion towards the others. We also have our own agents collecting intelligence for us, so it goes both ways.”
Evie knit her brows together. “How hypocritical. Here you have a Congress for peace, and each party distrusts each other enough to send out spies long before the Congress has even begun. Not that there was anything remotely interesting in the scribbles I produced. It was a letter to Mirabel, in which I was detailing my shopping trip with Lady Castlereagh, describing the bonnets I bought, and the scent of the famous Cologne water, which is said to cure migraines, which Irecommended to her. She has been complaining of migraines, for she feels out of sorts and very uncomfortable in her confinement. I doubt there’s any political relevance to this tidbit, is there?”
The ghost of a smile played across his lips. “To Metternich, everything is relevant. Be on guard, is all I’m saying. Now go and buy yourself those gloves or shoes or whatever it is you wanted to buy.”
“A bonnet,” Evie muttered as she turned to go.
But of course,that was just an excuse. She had another reason for leaving Julius. The truth was, she intended to find that woman again, the one who had looked so deceptively like Catherine. She would search the streets of Vienna for her. What had her name been?
Helena Arenheim.
She whispered the name aloud, which seemed strange and foreign on her lips.
She was as certain as the stars fixed in the sky that this woman was her brother’s wife, Catherine, the Duchess of Aldingbourne.
Chapter Three
“Mama,Theo almost burned the house down today!”
“Mama, why is there horse manure on my violin case?”
“Mama, can we please go to the parade of emperors tomorrow, pleeeeease?”
“Mama, you won’t believe what Hecki did today.”
“Mama, Hecki smeared jam into my ear while I napped.”
“I did not! It was Les. He was conducting an experiment!”
And then, all of them together: “I’m sooo hungry!”
“Goodness gracious!” Lena cupped her hands over her ears and laughed. “Let’s see.” She pointed to the tallest and oldest, a lanky twenty-one-year-old with dishevelled red hair. “Theo. Where is Marie?”
