Page 259 of The Ladies Least Likely
Franz’s mouth sagged open.“Was ist das?”
The other gentlemen watched in amusement and surprise. Franz’s second looked to be someone he had recruited from the tavern, a workman in a fustian coat who yawned and scratched his belly.
Ren’s second was an extremely elegant man, as well-dressed as Ren, his face and form made of clean, graceful lines that on another day would have made her reach for her crayon. But he wasn’t nearly as handsome as Ren, who stared down at her wearing an inscrutable look. Normally she could read his every thought in his eyes, but he watched her soberly, gravely, giving nothing away.
Harriette faced her cousin. “I dishonor my mother to do this. I break the promise my grandfather made to yours. I am sorryfor that.” She lifted her chin. “But I cannot chain us to a life of misery, Franz. Not for them, and not for Löwenburg. There is no earthly reason we need to keep their contract. We can find another way to reconcile our family.”
“Not another way for me to become aduke!” Franz Karl shrieked. He turned on his man. “Dietz! How could you bring her here? After all we planned—after everything—” He dissolved into a fury of swift scolding that made Dietz’s shoulders sag.
“What are you saying, Harriette?” Ren asked gravely. “I don’t know any German beyondGuten Tag.”
“I won’t marry him,” Harriette said shortly.
Ren’s fingers closed around the hand she held to his chest. “What?”
“I know you need to marry someone else. I shall have to figure out what to do with Löwenburg. But I cannot—nay, Iwillnot—marry my cousin, and that is that.”
She faced the quarreling Prussians. “I am the Duchess of Löwenburg,” Harriette said clearly, and in English. She knew her cousin understood her for his head whipped around, his face set in a scowl.
“I claim that title and all the lands, titles, and duties appertaining. And,” she went on steadily, as her cousin began to sputter again, “I intend to appoint Franz Karl as my steward over the duchy of Löwenburg. He will live in the castle—with Dietz—and have a home there all his life. I will insist that he govern well and wisely, according to the policies I put in place.”
She glared at the astonished Franz. “I shall visit often, and if I do not find things to my liking,youwill not like it. But if you will consent, I shall grant you full authority to act in my name and in my stead.”
Franz opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked over at his body servant. Dietz looked back and forth between the two ofthem as if he didn’t understand what she was saying. Harriette repeated herself in German. “You understand me,ja?”
Wonder warred with suspicion on her cousin’s face. “Why should I accept being your steward when I can have full authority as your husband?”
Harriette walked to where Abassi stood over the case of dueling pistols, which he and Ren’s second, the draper, stood admiring. She picked up one of the pistols, a beautiful piece of work, inlaid with silver. For a moment she hefted it, admiring its weight and balance. Then she marched to her cousin and handed him the pistol, butt first.
“If you wish to be Duke of Löwenburg, you will have to kill me.” Her voice carried in the clear, damp morning air. “For I will not marry you, Franz, and I will not relinquish my claim. That title is the one thing my mother gave me, that she gave up her entire life so I would have it. I intend to do right by her people—your people—as much as I can. But I will not sacrifice my happiness, nor yours.”
She stood before him, waiting for his decision. Franz looked at the pistol.
“If you raise that pistol, I will kill you before it fires,” Ren said, his voice quiet and ominous.
“Will the seconds have to fight, then?” the draper drawled.
“And then Dietz will kill you, and then himself, and the field will look like the end ofHamlet,” Harriette said impatiently. “Decide, Franz. A life as a ducal steward in Löwenburg, with Dietz? Or a ducal life of living hell with me, for if you force me to wed you and do not kill me after, I will make your life a torment. I will send Dietz away, and I will tell everyone that—” She stepped close and whispered in his ear.
Franz recoiled, his whole body taking the blow. “You would notdare.”
“I would. And you know what the law says. ‘Tis is a capital crime here, and I suspect in Prussia as well,” she rapped out.
His eyes went to Dietz and for a moment she saw the soft part of her cousin’s heart, beneath the sneering arrogance and the long-held resentment. He wavered, but with his beloved watching him with a burning face, he did not waver long.
“Very well,Mäuschen,” he said, looking Harriette in the eye. “I accept your terms.If—” he held up a hand “—you are right that I might live in the palace and govern Löwenburg, and Dietz stays with me, and you will protect us from all accusations.”
“I will, if you govern Löwenburg exactly as I instruct,” she answered. “I will not have it be a backwater of peasants who are taken advantage of by others. I want my people—ourpeople—to have every opportunity.”
Franz handed her the pistol. She returned it to Abassi, who wiped off the fingerprints with a cloth and closed the case with a snap.
“I say, that seems a right way to settle the business,” the draper said cheerfully. “Well done, old man, you’ve escaped with your skin!” He clapped Ren on the back. Ren staggered and leaned on his cane. “What’s usually done after these things, then? I confess this is my first affair of honor.”
Harriette’s whole body went limp with relief. Ren’s arms closed about her, and she leaned against him gratefully.
“De Countess of Calenberg invites everyone back to Charles Street for breakfast,” Abassi announced. He pointed at Franz’s second. “Except you. You go home.”
The man shrugged and ambled off. The others fell to making plans for transportation. Harriette turned and looked into Ren’s glowing blue eyes.
