Court Intrigue - Reprise
That's exactly why I love theater but hate coming to events like this.
Unlike the future, where they dim the lights when the show starts, they never fully extinguish the house lights here.
"Even the animals at the zoo must have it better than this."
She gazes not at the singer on stage, but only at me.
"It's what an empress must do, of course."
We conversed with our fans held delicately over our mouths.
"They could at least pretend to scan the crowd with opera glasses."
"They're far more curious whether the Habsburg empress is truly grieving than if the soprano on stage is dying."
"If they want to see me so badly, they should request an audience."
My every expression, every glance, even the angle of my fingers gripping the fan. They were desperate for salon gossip fodder.
"This is worth paying for. Maybe I should charge admission."
"Enough nonsense. Just lower your head a bit. If you're too stiff, you won't look sad enough."
To outsiders, we must have appeared like a loving mother- and daughter-in-law chatting amiably.
"Gisela is kind-hearted by nature and will follow Mother's wishes, but Sophie has a different temperament—it'll be difficult."
"You're the one who won't teach her French yourself, so I'm handling it personally."
Not even close to the truth.
"Language lessons are just an excuse. You want to erase my influence."
"Better French than the watered-down ideas you'd plant in their heads."
My mother-in-law despised the spread of liberal ideas to the children by modern standards—especially to the future emperor Rudolf or the eldest daughter Sophie.
"Sophie takes after me. If you suppress her, she'll rebound even harder. Do it your way, and you'll end up with a second Maximilian."
"Every word from you is like a dagger."
"Wonder who I take after for that."
I curved my eyes into a gentle smile. To onlookers, it would look like the daughter-in-law sweetly responding to her mother-in-law's praise.
"That's why Hungary still runs wild."
She poked right at my sore spot. This time, I had to force my own eye smile.
"Still, you did well."
"Pardon?"
What was this sudden shift?
"The ministers you've placed around Franz."
"Did well?"
"I don't like that they're not nobles, but Vienna's aristocrats are too trusting of Prussia anyway."
"It's not Prussia they trust—it's the banner of German glory they dangle."
"Exactly why they're fools."
An uncharacteristic curse slipped from my mother-in-law's lips. Vienna's conservatives were a disgrace, dancing to Bismarck's diplomatic tune.
"At least the merchants you brought in have no pedigree, but they won't let Austria crumble while protecting their own rice bowls."
"It's a time when ability matters more than lineage."
She clicked her tongue, reluctant to admit it, but didn't deny it.
"Remember this: If you unleash hunting dogs, you must know how to hold the leash. There's no guarantee they won't turn and bite you one day."
"In the East, they say you boil and eat the dog once the hunt is over."
"Tch. That's exactly what I hate about you. You sound just like those Enlightenment Voltaire-reading types."
"Voltaire?"
Why drag out some baguette Frenchman I've never even read?
"That sophist who claimed even lowly sorts could handle state affairs if capable. Like those who tried to dry up the nobility's seed with Eastern barbarism."
As the mournful melody swelled, we dabbed at imaginary tears.
"Don't overdo the tears. Smudged makeup is its own scandal."
"You should ease your furrowed brow, Mother. You look more like when we met in the stables than like you're grieving."
"It's stranger not to change expression at such a tragedy."
"Was it that heartbreaking to find me in the stables?"
"Of course. How tragic that the empress of the empire lives in such a place."
I'd only gone to watch instead of riding because I was pregnant… We traded barbs in voices just loud enough for each other to hear, all while maintaining perfectly mournful facades.
"Have you found a successor for Sophie?"
"…I'm thinking Königseck."
Not that she's part of the Archduchess Sophie's faction—
"That woman who won't listen?"
"…Isn't Königseck your person, Mother?"
"Ha, you don't even know how factions form."
Wasn't that why Königseck fell out of my favor—because she was Mother's person?
"After ousting Lamberg, she pretends not to know."
"Wasn't Lamberg my person, and Königseck yours?"
"Lamberg might have needed power, but Belgard… Königseck, that wench teamed up with her husband and abandoned me at once."
"What do you mean?"
"She only fed me info through marriage because there was something to gain from the start. Nothing more."
"But you said Countess Lamberg was your person?"
"A noble who'd held the post longer than Esterházy. Tricking a young empress is child's play."
Now I see why Esterházy picked Königseck as her successor. She should've told me the intel had flipped! I'd been distrusting Königseck without knowing.
I'd thought Esterházy recommended her just to balance things out.
"Outrageous. A noble aiming for the top of the empress's head."
Mother-in-law's lips curved in satisfaction at my words.
"Lately, many noble young ladies are seeking matches."
Meaning etiquette training was over. Same as telling married court ladies their roles were done.
"They'll need bridal lessons, then."
Serving the empress was a family honor—and prime marriage market access, learning court protocol and mingling with high nobles.
Truth be told, the empress's household had run oddly until now. For the past decade, court ladies outnumbered honorary ones under the excuse of empress training.
"Wait a moment."
She might be scheming to plant eyes and ears in my household again. How could I trust that?
"Don't think nonsense. Do I not handle final approvals for the empress's household?"
Hm… fair point. I'd always done the final sign-offs.
"The ones I forced your pen into for the last ten years? You were just too lazy—or blind to people—to avoid being swayed by me."
No rebuttal possible. After I seized control of my chambers, I'd just rubber-stamped to avoid power struggles. Now it bit me back.
Clap clap clap—
"Intermission."
Now for the annoying salon time. My second reason for hating these events.
I enjoy watching plays alone… but society demands mingling, so I've cut back on theater time.
We rose and headed to the salon.
'How can my son be so opposite her?'
Sophie clicked her tongue, watching Sisi's retreating figure.
The son who burns the forest obsessing over trees, the niece who misses the traps at her feet fixating on the woods.
'… Isn't Königseck your person, Mother?'
That line had nearly made her drop her fan in shock.
Ten years. A whole decade of playing empress without knowing if the maids in her own bedroom were foe or ally.
Unable to distinguish her own people, yet she'd seized Esterházy, ousted Lamberg, and seduced the empire's marginalized ethnic groups.
'Mix them, and you'd get a great ruler. Separate, and one’s a stuffy wallflower, the other a wild colt.'
God had cruelly split the emperor's qualities precisely between them.
But they shared one trait: hating high society.
Sophie eyed Sisi, parked like a wallflower.
'Tch, hiding in the corner like that.'
An empress in the corner signaled passive waiting for approach. Vienna's nobles hated Sisi. That was a constant.
She couldn't look appealing to those whose interests she divided among Bohemia, Italy, and Hungary.
The sound of nobles gathering was always the same: low chuckles, overly deferential bows, and the inevitable line.
"Your Imperial Highness, might I have a moment?"
Sophie left her fan half-folded, unmoved. She didn't need to turn to know who it was. The voice's timbre, the trailing end, the smug belief they'd been summoned.
"What is it?"
A short, flat reply. Neither permission nor refusal.
The noble took it as assent.
"There are some concerns in Vienna about Her Majesty's recent moves."
Sophie clicked her tongue inwardly.
'Some? Since when have they ever grumbled quietly?'
"Concerns?"
"That Her Majesty is overly focused on the provinces. Italy, Bohemia, and now Hungary."
Feigned worry, but really the gripe of the share-less.
"Do you know it's for the empire when you say that?"
The noble paused, then bowed.
"Of course. But Vienna's mood is unsettled. We worry Her Majesty might invite needless misunderstandings."
Worry. A convenient word. Perfect wrapping for greed.
Sophie concluded: pointless noise, but worth hearing once.
"Vienna's clamor displeases me too."
The noble's face brightened slightly. Another judgment: the Archduchess would rein in the empress for them again.
"I'll withdraw now."
Sophie saw no need to correct the nobles' delusion that she prioritized them over the empress. To them, she was always for the empire.