It was exhilarating.
Klemens slowed the pace of the horses to a canter, and another sled sped by them, with hollering and cheers.
“It isn’t a race,” Klemens muttered. “At least not for us.” He turned to her, slid his hand into her muff and pressed her hand. “They should pass and leave us alone. We’ll come in last, and that is fine.”
But Pippa was still processing his earlier words.The Grand Duchess is gone. The engagement dissolved.Klemens, who loved her, was here beside her. She lifted her face to him and saw his bright blue eyes glittering and his cheeks reddened from the biting cold. There was an air of joy about him she had not seen in a long time. “What you said just now. Is it true?”
“About the Grand Duchess? I was informed of it days ago. She eloped the day after Metternich announced our engagement.” He paused. “I did not understand it and was furious at the moment, but it was a strategic move on his part.”
“But…how?”
“She did not expect that announcement either,” he explained. “Metternich, of course, had known that shewas secretly engaged to someone else. In taking us by surprise through this announcement, he prompted her to action. But not even he imagined that she’d run away and actually marry the man so immediately afterwards.” Klemens shook his head.
“But why would Metternich do this?”
“Believe me, there is nothing the man does that does not serve him. He rid himself of the Russians, who had been hanging like a millstone around his neck. And he now has earned the eternal gratitude of an archduke.”
“But Klemens, no doubt the profound scandal has now been caused by the Grand Duchess, but how does this solve our problem?”
His eyes flashed. “I vow, Pippa, that before the end of the week we’ll be married.”
Pippa shook her head. “But—” She wanted to believe him desperately, but the laws and regulations, expectations and duty were not so easily overcome.
He cupped her head in his hands and lowered his mouth to hers.
A second sled that drove past them hooted.
“I am done with secrets, secrecy, keeping you a secret and, most importantly, my love for you hidden. I am not ashamed of it. I will no longer hide it.” He wrapped her up again in the mink blanket. “Let us go. They are waiting.”
He flicked the reins, and the horses surged forward, kicking up a spray of powdery snow that swirled about them like a white cloud.
Their sled pulled in last at Schönbrunn Palace.
Klemens lifted her out of the sled and refused torelinquish her hand even when the Tsar suddenly approached them. He looked at her curiously. “But how charming. So you are the mysterious lady who has captured our Archduke’s heart. Do you even know how many betting books you have filled? I myself could not resist and participated in a small wager.” When he smiled, two dimples appeared in his cheeks, which were round as a cherub’s.
Pippa was completely unprepared to encounter this onslaught of royalty, and dropped into an awkward curtsy. “Your Majesty.”
He was not at all who she expected. Charm oozed out of every pore, and when he talked to her, he made her feel as though there was no one else in the world. He flirted with her unashamedly, and she blushed despite recognising the technique for what it was: a cultivated skill, honed to perfection. So that was why he was so successful with women.
He took her hand and planted a kiss on it. “Charming. But I understand now why His Imperial Highness saw fit to hide you away all this time, lest you be spirited away by someone else.” He turned to Klemens, who frowned at him. “I must apologise for Irina. I shall also apologise to the Kaiser personally. A scandal like this is inexcusable. Though, to see this differently, maybe she has done you a favour, and it is for the best of everyone involved?”
Another wink, a smile, and he was gone.
“What an insufferable fellow,” Klemens muttered. “Come.”
He wanted to lead her up the main stairs to thepalace when Kovacz caught up with them. “Imperial Highness. You must make haste.” He was panting. “You have been summoned, and you as well, Fräulein Cranwell. To see the Emperor immediately.”
Pippa’s hand tightened involuntarily in Klemens’. This was it, then. When everything would be decided, when the Emperor would either bless their union or destroy them both. She straightened her spine.
Whatever came next, she would face it standing upright.
Chapter Thirty-Three
They were summonedto the Emperor’s study, which was a simple room, tapestried with sea green wallpaper and golden borders, and walnut cabinets lining the walls. A simple desk lined with green baize covered the top, on which were a pile of paper and an inkstand.
It could have been the working room of any other bureaucrat, functional, unadorned, and rather plain.
The emperor himself was standing behind it, frowning when they entered. He wore a dark blue coat, breeches and boots, a pair of golden spectacles that had slid down to the tip of his nose, and his white hair was carefully combed.
