Pippa’s gaze flew to the figure pacing in front of a sled. It stole her breath, seeing him so unexpectedly. He looked taller somehow, in the coat that billowed behind him, a mink hat on top of his hair, thinner, paler, restless. Kovacz stepped up to him with some news, and he looked displeased. He looked up, and their eyes met.
Pippa’s heart jumped, then raced. She turned away, but too late. He was bearing down on them already with grim determination.
Pippa looked around frantically, ready to flee. But Mimi kept a firm grip on her arm.
Too late.
“Mimi.” He nodded curtly at his sister. Then he turned to Pippa. “Come with me.” He extended his hand towards her.
Her breath sucked in sharply. “B-But Your Imperial Highness...” Her gaze went around.
Everyone was there.
All the monarchs.
Every movement Klemens made here was under the observation of the entire court, and would be noted andgossiped about. And now he was extending a hand to his sister’s companion.
She looked at his outstretched hand, then at the assembled monarchs, then back at him. The calculation was simple: accept his hand and face ruin together, or refuse and lose him forever.
And then her mind seemed to have shut down altogether as she placed her trembling hand in his.
He closed his around hers firmly.
“Where to?” Pippa stuttered.
“We are going on a sleigh ride to Schönbrunn.”
Mimi laughed. “Fantastic idea, brother dear.” She clapped her hands. “That is exactly what you should do.”
Klemens led her to the sled. “Get inside.”
Pippa hesitated. “You are courting disaster.”
“Nonsense.” There was a wild light in his eyes as he whirled around.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Your Excellencies, Majesties, Highnesses, your attention, please.” His voice boomed loudly over the courtyard. “It is a beautiful day today, and we are about to go on a beautiful outing. It will no doubt be the highlight of this season. Before we do so, let me address the newest rumour that has come to your ears. I have just been informed that my erstwhile betrothed, the Grand Duchess, has absconded and secretly married her lover in Baden bei Wien. Since the Grand Duchess has not made it a secret that she would rather be married to another, why should I keep a secret that is no secret either?”
“You are absolutely raging mad,” Pippa gasped, winding her hand in his, trying to pull him back from theprecipice of certain disaster and ruin, but his grip tightened.
“For I am not ashamed of my love,” he continued relentlessly. “I want the entire world to know that I am going on an outing with the woman I love.” The tone of his voice increased in volume, so that it rang loud and clear through the courtyard.
“For it is her and her alone I shall love and cherish for life.” It was a vow, like one made in church, in front of a priest. “Until death do us part.”
Pippa went pale, then red. Heat flushed through her, and he did not wait but grabbed her by the waist and, in one fell swoop, lifted her into the sled, looking up at her.
He laughed.
Suddenly, her heart lifted, and the fear that had shackled her fell off. All she felt was that this was right, oh so right, and that she loved him, and only him. And that it did not matter what they said, if they only had each other.
“Hear, hear,” cried one voice and “hip hip hooray,” shouted another voice. It may have been that of Kovacz.
Mimi laughed and clapped. “Ach, what a pity Papa missed out on this.”
Klemens made a show of tucking her in, wrapping her in fur blankets, placing heated bricks under her feet, and pulling mittens and muffs over her hands, fussing over her as no one ever had. She was so well wrapped up that only her eyes emerged from the pile of wool and mink. “This will be the ride of our lives,” he promised her.
Then the ride began.
Klemens sat next to her with the reins in his hands, with red cheeks and sparkling eyes. “Hü!” and their sled set in motion, through the palace gate, as he deftly guided the horses through the narrow streets, where the people stood by the side, cheering. Through the Kärntnertor they went, over the bridge and through the suburbs, where the houses thinned out and the landscape opened into a magnificent winter scene spread out before them.
