“This was most instructive. I apologise for having inconvenienced you. Frau Benedikt, you said your name was?”
“Yes, Your Imperial Highness. If there is anything else I can do for you, you have but to say so.”
He crossed his arms and leaned against the ceramic oven. “Do I? There is, in fact, one thing you can do for me, if you are so kind.” He turned his brilliant, disarming smile on Frau Benedikt, leaving her a flustered bundle of blushes and stuttered words.
That was all Pippa could bear to see.
She slipped out of the room to avoid being detected by him, grabbed an apple and a piece of bread as shepassed by the kitchen and hurriedly ate it in the courtyard.
The maids and footmen filed out of the door, talking animatedly among each other, then falling silent when they saw her.
Pippa tried to ignore the strange glances and stares and continued eating her apple.
It had been a wise decision to leave early, she told herself, wiping her hands on her apron. For Klemens had nearly caught her.
Henni came running. “Pippa. Quick. You must see Frau Benedikt in the office.”
Pippa’s stomach turned. “Frau Benedikt? What about the Archduke?”
“He left. But Pippa…” She opened her mouth, then shook her head. “Best talk to Frau Benedikt. Quickly. She is waiting for you; do not tarry.”
Frau Benedikt had returned to her usual self, strict, cold and terrifying.
One could never have imagined that only an hour earlier she had nearly been reduced to tears.
“There is a change of working schedule for you,” she announced crisply as if the interlude had never happened.
Again? She had just been reassigned to theRedoutensaal.
“You are to work in Archduke Leopold’s rooms from now on. His old chambermaids have been dismissed, and you are to take their place.”
Pippa looked at her in horror. She pointed at herself. “Me?”
“You.” She frowned heavily at her.
Pippa shook her head so that her locks flew. “No. I can’t do it. Please. Let me work in the kitchens or in the ballrooms! I’ll even sweep the attic and the cellar for free. But not the Archduke’s rooms.”
“He specifically asked for you.”
Pippa sucked in a sharp breath.
Of course he did.
He was looking for her earlier, going through the books to find her, to pick out any information he could on her.
“You must wash up before you go. I give you leave to use the tin tub in the scullery. And this.” She walked over to a cupboard, took out something and held it out.
A piece of lavender soap.
Pippa stared at it.
“Take it. Wash yourself thoroughly and put on a clean set of clothes.” She pointed to the pile on the table. “Leave the old pile here.”
She couldn’t do it.
She couldn’t see him every day, pretending not to know him. Pretending she was someone else.
Not when all she wanted was to run to him.
