The English Bride by Joan Wolf

Author:Joan Wolf [Wolf, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ten Talents Press
Published: 2015-01-21T08:00:00+00:00

15

After his meeting with the Prince, Duke Anton returned to his palace in Julia in a very grim frame of mind. Waiting to speak to him were Count Georg Hindenberg and Marshal Jan Rupnik.

Both men stood when the duke walked in. When Anton did not immediately speak, Hindenberg demanded, "Well? Did you talk to him, Anton?"

"I talked to him." Anton came all the way into the library and poured himself a glass of brandy from a decanter set out upon a side table. "Christ, but he is a stubborn bastard! One could reason with my brother, but talking to Gus is like talking to a rock."

"He didn't listen to you?" Rupnik said.

Anton took a swallow of brandy and shook his head.

"He is a fool," Hindenberg said contemptuously. "This country suffered for ten years under a foreign occupation. What we need now is peace in order to rebuild our economy. We do not need another war."

Anton approached the other two, his glass in his hand. "Augustus informed me that he does not think Austria will dare to invade Jura."

Hindenberg got to his feet and began to pace up and down the polished library floor. "What does he know of the world? Nothing! He was seventeen when he went into the mountains, and he was there for ten years. Then, as soon as he emerged from his cave, he went to England and made this insane treaty that has so infuriated the emperor." He halted his pacing and turned to face the duke. "Such a man should not be on the throne of Jura."

Anton met and held his gaze. "Well, he is on the throne of Jura, and there isn't anything we can do about it." The duke finished the brandy in his glass. "All we can do is pray that he is right and that the emperor will not have the nerve to follow through with his threats."

A very grim Hindenberg and Rupnik left the duke's palace a few minutes later and walked halfway down the tree-lined street to the house belonging to Count Hindenberg, a substantial brick residence that had been built by the count's grandfather fifty years earlier. Directly across from it was a small jewel of a Baroque church.

The two men entered the house and went immediately to the count's study, a room that featured several fine paintings that the count had hidden successfully in a sub cellar before he left Jura a day ahead of the French army's arrival.

The chief minister and the Marshal of Jura sat down in a pair of heavy carved wooden chairs and regarded each other. Hindenberg's square powerful face looked ruthless. "We must get rid of him," he said, his words matching his look. "He is dangerous. He listens to all the wrong people."

Rupnik nodded. "He cannot be allowed to continue leading Jura along this treacherous path."

Hindenberg slammed his hand down upon the arm of his carved wooden chair. "It’s not as if we didn’t try to warn him. Anton brought him a direct proposal from the emperor, for God's sake.

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