The Princess's Romance
Watering the seeds of the Russian Revolution mattered. Growing the colonies mattered. But more than anything else, what mattered most to Waldemar right now was making money.
He meant to start quietly unloading his French bank shares around the moment their prices hit their peak.
Once I've cleaned out the position and the stock crashes, I'll slam the short selling right down on top of it.
He felt a little sorry for the Frenchmen who had been so generous with their dividends all this time—but when profit was on the line, even parents didn't count.
And then there was the industry he coveted most of all: steel. I'd love to get my hands on the railroads too, if I could. But that will be hard. American railroads were the preserve of men who had reached the absolute summit of lawlessness even among the robber barons.
Waldemar gave John Connor his orders.
"You said you wished to acquire land in the state of Michigan, Your Highness?"
"Yes. Absolute secrecy this time. Spare no expense."
He had no desire to suffer interference from rivals again.
"I shall prepare with the utmost care."
John Connor guaranteed there would be no mishaps on this occasion.
The ground Waldemar had marked out was the Gogebic Range—the region that would become the beating heart of Michigan's iron and steel industry. Michigan also held the Marquette and Menominee ranges, of course, but those had already been under extraction or development for years; no amount of money would pry them loose easily.
Their owners were either steel companies themselves or mining men who made their living by leaning on steel companies.
Still, the undervalued mines—judged by present production—might be bought if I simply offer enough of a premium.
The thought of the money to be made put a spring in his step. Humming under his breath as he headed back toward the study, he came upon his sister Princess Victoria reading a letter with a distinctly flushed, excited look on her face.
Is she in love?
A sister's romance was private business, true enough—but once the word "princess" entered the equation, the matter changed. Her affections could become a variable that affected diplomacy itself. Waldemar quietly set the palace's eyes and ears to work. Before long a single story reached him.
The man exchanging letters with Victoria is Alexander I, the Prince of Bulgaria who visited Berlin not long ago?
He considered whether this romance could end well. Given that Bulgaria and Russia are on friendly terms, a marriage isn't out of the question. Bismarck himself, the helmsman of Germany, was pushing for reconciliation with Russia and had forged the League of the Three Emperors; at the state level there was little reason to obstruct the match.
Yet contradictions lay dormant between Russia and Germany, and further contradictions lay hidden between Bulgaria and Russia. Optimism was difficult. Just as in the original history, Bulgaria was never a country content to remain a Russian satellite.
The problem is that the moment Bulgaria shows ambition for real independence, the two of them will fall out. And once that happens, Germany—worried about its own relationship with Russia—will shy away from a royal marriage with Bulgaria. It's only a matter of time.
Whether the rupture came between Russia and Bulgaria or between Germany and Russia, the moment her romance became a negative factor for German diplomacy, a relationship with Alexander I would never be recognized. Still… I ought to look a little deeper, just in case.
Waldemar had been close to his sister since childhood and wanted her to have a happy life if at all possible. He turned to the court's best gossip source—Princess Sophie—to learn the precise state of Victoria's affections.
"Moretta, you mean?"
"Yes. Does Mother know Moretta's in love?"
"Of course she knows. She just seems to be letting it pass."
Waldemar almost asked why, then understood at once. The Crown Princess had not the slightest reason to refuse the match. For one thing, the man in question was the reigning head of a ruling house. For another, Prince Alexander was no upstart Bonaparte of no pedigree; he belonged to the perfectly respectable House of Battenberg, which counted in his favor.
Third, Alexander I was a noble of genuine charm and social grace. Waldemar himself, having met the prince at the Crown Prince's palace, had to admit the man's character was excellent.
"Does Moretta make it obvious that she likes Prince Alexander?"
"I don't know for sure, but I think so. I've seen her carefully choosing perfume to dab on her letters."
So she really does like him.
Waldemar decided to leave his sister's romance alone for the time being, until the situation changed. Brooding over the sudden problem of Victoria's love life, he was struck by a second realization: his other sisters would have to marry as well. The little princesses he still thought of as children would, in the end, become someone's wives. Has time already come this far?
He searched his memories. Let's see—Sophie was supposed to become Queen of Greece, wasn't she? The idea of mischievous, adventure-loving Sophie as a queen felt a little strange, but that was what the future held.
He considered Greece. At least its circumstances were better than Bulgaria's. Greece was not a country subordinated to Russian influence the way Bulgaria was.
It suffers chronic deficits and currency instability from territorial expansion, but it isn't in the desperate straits of actual bankruptcy, either.
Greece had already gone bankrupt twice, in 1826 and 1843. And Constantine I—Sophie's husband-to-be in the original history—had studied in Germany and thereafter shown a firmly pro-German outlook, which counted as a mark in his favor.
An independent reigning monarch who is also friendly to Germany… as a marriage partner for Sophie, he isn't bad at all.
The problem, as always, lay on the public side. Ever since independence, Greece had stood in permanent hostility to the Ottomans—and that Turkish state happened to be of enormous importance both to Germany and, more particularly, to Waldemar's own interests.
Germany essentially regarded the Ottoman Empire as its private "British India," and Waldemar himself saw it as the core of the oil empire he meant to build.
Economically, strategically, and politically, Germany simply could not abandon the Ottomans. Viewed through the lens of German interests, any warm relationship between Greece and Germany would be hard to achieve. Hard? It might even turn into open enmity. Germany was a country prepared to take the Ottoman side.
In that light, if Princess Sophie forced through a marriage to Greece, she was unlikely to meet as gentle an ending as Victoria might. Compared with that, Margarete is the easy one.
The youngest, Princess Margarete, was destined for Prince Friedrich Karl of Hesse. The Grand Ducal House of Hesse was connected by blood to countless royal families; in rank the match was perfectly respectable. Domestically, as a German noble house, it raised no diplomatic worries at all. The only mild regret was that he was not the head of a reigning house.
At present Friedrich Karl was merely a fourth son, third in the line of succession. Waldemar did not regard such a small defect as important. Not every princess can marry a king or a crown prince. What mattered was whether she could build a stable and happy married life. On that score, Margarete's future seemed nothing to fret over.
First things first—change Sophie's path.
Waldemar called to Sophie, who was squatting beside him, plucking flower petals.
"Sophie."
"Hmm?"
"Do you have someone you like, the way Moretta does?"
"Someone I like, like Moretta?"
Sophie put on a serious face that did not suit her at all. After a long moment of thought she returned with her usual adorable expression.
"Waldy!"
"Family doesn't count."
When Waldemar added the condition, Sophie hesitated, then produced a single name.
"Then… Emily."
"Girls don't count either."
"Oh."
Sophie's lower lip thrust out in a pout.
"That's too hard."
"Then at least tell me roughly what sort of person you like."
"Mm… first of all, he has to listen to me properly."
That much could be solved by anyone with good social grace and genuine warmth.
"And?"
"He has to be handsome."
Royals were not people who married without looking at faces. Princesses raised on fairy tales inside a hothouse held especially strong fantasies about princes on white horses.
"Anything else?"
"I don't want someone our family looks down on."
Sophie could not quite articulate it, but this was a question of rank. In short, a morganatic match was unacceptable. The conditions are a little particular. Still, he could not claim her standards were unrealistically high. Constantine I, her original-history husband, satisfied every one of them.
Is there anyone suitable? Waldemar decided to search inside Germany first. If I truly can't find anyone at home, I'll comb through the Habsburg and Bourbon lines. Drag a fine-meshed net through the entire upper class and somewhere, he believed, there had to be at least one matching half.
Ah—and I also have to stop Constantine I from ever falling for Sophie. No matter how perfect a plan he devised, the moment Sophie developed romantic feelings for the Greek crown prince, every countermeasure would become worthless. I'll have to find her a sweetheart before she ever meets the Greek heir.
"Big brother. What are you thinking so hard about?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all. Shall we go have lunch?"
"Okay."
Waldemar took the hand of the girl who still looked free of every care in the world.