The Tangled Web(128)

"They're set on marrying off Brahe's sister. I've been in their sights for weeks. The least you can do is vent some of the pressure, as the new club of 'steamheads' here in Mainz would say. You're going back to Fulda in two weeks. Before you leave, let me take you and your friends to see the new steam engine down by the docks." Ulfsparre slid between two substantial matrons and vanished into a gaggle of other young officers.

Eberhard sighed.

Anna Margareta Bielke tentatively floated some conversational gambits about the Lutheran view of matrimony as one of God's greatest gifts to mankind, far higher than the papist preference for celibacy.

Eberhard could hardly object. It was hard to contradict the Shorter Catechism.

She mentioned that the value of a good wife was above rubies.

Eberhard replied practically that given the current economic condition of the duchy, from which he was, in any case, exiled, rubies were pretty much out of the question, as were pearls, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds.

She gestured at one of the display paintings on the wall.

Eberhard agreed solemnly that the story of Tobias and Susanna, although contained in the Apocrypha, was one of the most touching Biblical narratives.

She spoke of this. She prodded with reference to that.

Eberhard parried.

There was one consolation. Since he came through the reception line, he had not seen Lady Kerstin. She had politely offered her hand. She had not glanced at him flirtatiously. Presumably, she had danced, but not with him. She had disappeared.

The evening seemed interminable.

Toward the end, however, he had the satisfaction of not taking off his hat to the archbishop of Mainz. And several people complimented him on his new suit. It was in the up-time style. The tailor in Fulda had done a splendid job of reproducing the one shown in a magazine photograph of a man named "Liberace."



"You could do worse than Lady Kerstin," Erik Stenbock said. "Mans could do worse. I could do a lot worse. She's not ugly; she's not stupid; she's not silly. Silly and stupid aren't the same thing. A girl—Lady Kerstin is a grown woman, really—can be stupid and sensible, or smart and silly. Plus, the Brahes haven't lost their estates. She'll come to her husband with a great honking big dowry."

"Think of it as a compliment," Ulfsparre said. "I heard that they're even thinking about Erik Haakansson Hand as a possibility. They're looking as high as a cousin of the king. His mother was illegitimate, of course, but the Vasa blood is there."

"You didn't seem very complimented yesterday evening," Eberhard said. "You were ducking out of sight as fast as you could scamper."

"I'm here. Hand is not in the Upper Palatinate any more, I don't think, but he's somewhere other than here."

Stenbock laughed. "From what I heard, he'll be somewhere other than Mainz until they either marry Lady Kerstin off or take her back to Sweden."

"You're not holding off because of your little CoC . . ." Ulfsparre stopped. Stenbock had kicked him under the table. ". . . girl from the Horn of Plenty, are you?" he finished. "Depending on Lady Kerstin's attitude—or how much attitude you're willing to put up with—you could keep die Donnerin on as your mistress. Or just drop her, if that's what is required for you to enter into a suitable marriage. She's young enough to find someone else, not to mention her . . ."

Stenbock kicked him under the table again.



"The gossip is all over the city," Justina said. "They say that Brahe's wife wants to make a marriage between Eberhard and her sister-in-law."

"Ach." Ursula Widder put her handkerchief to her eyes. "Our poor, sweet Tata. Abandoned by her lover."

"At least," Reichard said, "the CoC is well enough established in Mainz by now that it can survive without his patronage."



Eberhard tossed his clothes on the stool and threw himself into the bed as fast as he could. There weren't any fireplaces on the third floor of the Horn of Plenty. The little bedroom felt almost like home. It didn't feel like "home" like the ducal palaces in Stuttgart or Mömpelgard, but he hadn't seen those for years. It felt a lot more like home than his cabin at Barracktown bei Fulda did.

"I'm not going to do it."

Tata was already under the duvet. "I'm not so sure that 'just say no' is the best idea right now." She rolled over. "It's not that I want you to marry her, but honestly, Brahe's in a position either to press your cause with Gustavus Adolphus or to just leave you dangling the way you've been the last couple of years. If you were his brother-in-law, it seems to me, he'd be a lot more likely to act as your advocate."

"So my little CoC lady would like to see me reinstated? Re-duked, if you would? Not that I've ever formally renounced my title the way Friedrich has."