I accepted their fervent thanks with a solemn inclination of the head and a few words murmured in the faint Germanic accent the baroness had made me practice. They pressed bouquets of roses upon me—heaps of blooms, all tied with Alpenwalder blue. The baroness fairly staggered under the weight as she tottered behind me. The proprietors presented the various singers and musicians and I felt my face would crack with the effort of smiling at them all.
At last, the presentation was finished and I moved to leave, Mademoiselle Fribourg doing her best to hold back tears of joy as Edouard Berton clasped her hand and the others crowded around, staring avidly at what must have been their closest sighting of royalty. It was astonishing to see the effect it had upon them. I was still myself, as much plain Veronica Speedwell as I had ever been, but since I had been presented to them as a princess, they believed it. The jewels and the gown and the fact that people called me “Highness” had somehow rendered me almost sacred, and there was a touch of worshipfulness I did not entirely like. Strip away the costly trappings and I was no more or less than any of them, I thought angrily. And yet they could not see past the dazzling display of wealth and power.
The atmosphere of the theatre suddenly seemed oppressive. So many pairs of staring eyes, gleaming in the darkened wings, so many hands reaching out to touch just a fingertip to the hem of my gown. I remembered then that it had once been the custom for the common people to be given the carpets walked upon by medieval royalty, how the cloth laid for a coronation had been cut to bits by the flashing knives of a joyous, terrifying mob. How quickly they might turn, I realized in horror. How suddenly the mood of a group of people might shift from adulation to anger. And what might they do if sufficiently provoked?
Something of what I felt must have shown on my face, for the baroness whispered urgently to the chancellor, and he stepped forward. “Her Serene Highness must take her leave of you now,” he pronounced in a tone that brooked no argument. I nodded to them all one last time and followed the chancellor gratefully as he forged a path for us through the opera house and out onto the pavement. The carriage was waiting, I saw with a sigh of relief. I suddenly could not bear the weight of it all a moment more. The jewels and corset and heavy gown conspired to make me feel like a draft horse, and I was exhausted from carting them about. I could scamper up and down hillsides from dawn ’til dusk in pursuit of my favorite butterflies, but the notion of keeping myself trussed up for another minute was utterly unthinkable.
The Alpenwalder entourage and I moved towards the carriage, the operagoers gathered on two sides and penned by the Metropolitan Police in an orderly fashion to shout and wave their good-byes. I raised my hand to acknowledge them, turning to look behind me, and just as I did so there was a pop, a flash of light, and a vibration that nearly knocked me off of my feet. The events of the next few moments were so swift, they seemed to happen simultaneously. There was a scream—I later learnt it was from the baroness—and a roar of outrage—this from Stoker. A scuffle ensued and I saw Stoker flying through the air and into the crowd in front of me and to the left. The captain rushed from my right side to hoist me into his arms. He did not bother to put me on my feet to enter the carriage but rather hurtled himself through the open door, still clutching me to his chest. We landed on the seat, my body crushed beneath him, knocking the wind from my lungs as he shouted for the driver to whip the horses.
Behind us came the chancellor and the baroness, thrown through the door of the carriage by Duke Maximilian, who was still standing with one foot on the steps when the driver sprang the horses and they leapt from the curb. The duke turned, extended a hand, and Stoker emerged from the crowd just in time to grasp it. The pair of them fell into the carriage at our feet and the door swung madly on its hinges as we raced through the streets. Sounds were oddly muffled, but I could make out screams as I struggled to push the captain off of me.
“What is happening?” I demanded. My voice sounded strange to my ears, distant and small.
The captain sat back and helped me up, settling me gently into my seat. It took some time for us to disentangle ourselves and take stock, but apart from a burnt patch on Stoker’s uniform and medals torn from the duke’s and the baroness’s badly dented tiara, we were fine if badly shaken.
“What happened?” I repeated.
Stoker’s expression was grim and I had to watch his mouth move to understand his words. “You have just survived your first bomb attack, Princess.”
CHAPTER
14
We traveled in stupefied silence—or at least I think it was silence. The bomb had set my ears to ringing, and I doubt I could have heard anything short of a foghorn. We were a dazed group, horror and disbelief mingling with a profound sense of relief that there had been no injuries to speak of, at least amongst our party. I thought of the crowds gathered on the pavement and wondered what had become of them.
When we arrived back at the hotel, the onlookers had mercifully dispersed. A bitterly cold wind had whipped off of the river, and tiny splinters of ice once more danced in the nimbus of the streetlamps.
I shivered and Maximilian wrapped his hand around my arm. “You must pretend to like the cold, Liebchen,” he told me. “Ice runs in our veins, you know.” I knew he was not speaking of only the weather. The fact that a bomb had been hurled mere inches from us had been upsetting, but the Alpenwalders were making every effort to behave normally. I suspected his little speech was as much for his own benefit as mine. His fingers trembled where they gripped my arm, and his expression was grim, but it seemed quite in keeping with his character to make a jest in order to lighten the mood.
We hurried into the hotel, the chancellor leading the way as the captain brought up the rear. Stoker had given his arm to the baroness, and she leant upon it with a grateful look. The suite seemed a haven when we at last reached its security and bolted the doors behind us. I thought of medieval criminals who hurled themselves into churches to claim sanctuary, secure that they were safe within those walls.
The chambermaid—not J. J., I noted with some relief—was just kindling a fire upon the hearth in the sitting room to augment the steam heat of the suite, and she scuttled out as we arrived, curtsying clumsily to each of us, even Stoker, as she hurried away. The captain locked the door and went to assure himself that the remaining rooms were secure as the rest of us collapsed into chairs near the fire. The baroness and I shared the sofa, sitting as comfortably as possible given the constraints of our corsets.
“Drinks,” the duke said succinctly. He did not ring for the maid to return but went himself to a cabinet in the corner and fetched a tray of glasses and a bottle with a label I did not recognize. The liquid inside was clear as ice and he poured a stiff measure for each of us.
“Drink it quickly,” he instructed me. “In one go.”
I tossed my head back and swallowed. It tasted of nothing, just a sensation of cold and then a ripe blooming heat took hold of my chest.