Royal Steam Yacht, the Docks at Race Track City
The men—young and old—who had been on the cruise were all agog, Carla noted. The women, on the other hand, had immediately formed into an almost military solidarity. And Vicky wasn’t the only one holding a gun. Millicent Anne Barnes was too, and so were Hayley Fortney and Trudi. Gabrielle wasn’t showing one, but she had a hand in her purse and so did Susan Logsden. Not knowing what else to do, Carla put her hand in her purse. Not that there was a gun in there, but female solidarity was clearly the way to go here. She followed the rest as they walked down the gangplank and headed for Race Track City. Carla didn’t look back, as tempting as it was.
* * *
Marco Vianetti, who commanded the Archduke’s guard, almost ordered the young women arrested. He didn’t for several reasons. First, of course, was the fact that at least two of them were showing arms—and quite deadly arms at that. He wasn’t sure that an arrest attempt would be met with force, but it would be really easy for things to get out of hand if the young women were pushed. That kept him from acting for long enough for his brain to catch up. He knew that the young ladies were of such a status that arresting them would cause problems for the crown, even if no one ended up dead. They weren’t being any sort of threat to anyone. Not even the archduke anymore. All the damage there was already done. While he was thinking that through, the others reacted and he saw that, too.
* * *
Dr. Faust looked at the brother of the Austro-Hungarian emperor, who was bending over and holding his balls, and had a decision to make. This was his stop. He was the tutor to Hayley Fortney, and if he didn’t go ashore he would be arraying himself against her. On the other hand, it was quite likely that following the girls down the gangplank would be seen as aligning himself with them against the imperial household, and for a man in his position that could be horribly dangerous. All that ran through his mind in an instant and the decision was made before he even knew it. He was walking after the girls, not because they were his employers, but because they were right. Archduke or not, Leo bloody well should have asked.
He was pleased to see his friend Jack Pfeifer walking beside him.
He didn’t see Archduke Leo standing up, but the rest of the men in the party did.
* * *
Count Márton turned to Archduke Leo, bowed and shrugged, then turned and followed the girls off the boat. Amadeus, seeing his brother-in-law’s action, suddenly realized that if anyone tried to arrest these girls in a foreign land like Maximilian had arrested and executed Polyxena they would have to go through Márton to do it. He remembered Polyxena. Flighty and irritating as she could be, she was his sister and he wished someone had been there to stand by her. He followed his brother-in-law off the royal steamboat almost hoping someone would try something. He didn’t even notice Rudolph and Julian dithering.
Moses Abrabanel didn’t dither at all. He didn’t even bow to the duke. He simply left the boat. Had he done otherwise, he was convinced that his deceased wife would come back to haunt him.
* * *
Archduke Leo was embarrassed, in pain, and more than a little pissed off at the public humiliation more than the pain. He turned to the captain and said, “Let’s go.”
In moments the boat was steaming back for Vienna.
Docks at Race Track City
“Are you insane?” Hayley hissed at Judy. “That guy you just kneed in the nuts is two heartbeats from the Austro-Hungarian throne!”
“Calm down, Hayley,” Judy said. “I know what I’m doing.” Which was, in a way, perfectly true. The action hadn’t been planned, not at all, but Judy did have an instinct for social situations. And, after the fact, she was even pretty good at figuring out why she had done what she did. She hadn’t exactly figured it out yet, in this case, but she was sure she had a good reason. And suddenly she knew what that reason was. Her reaction wasn’t even mostly about Archduke Leo, who aside from the Cyrano de Bergerac nose and the pale blotchy skin, wasn’t even bad looking. Well, not that bad looking. But he had grabbed her without asking, in public, as though he had a right to. And her reaction was a precedent. A precedent that was going to affect all the Barbies. She had had to make it clear that no one had the right to mess with a Barbie unless she gave prior consent.
“It’s a status thing. We aren’t peasants.” Seeing the look on Hayley’s face, Judy quickly expanded on her first simplified thought. “I’m not endorsing the down-timer attitude toward peasants, Hayley. No more than I’d endorse a hurricane or an avalanche. But refusing to endorse something doesn’t make it cease to exist. The down-timer attitudes are there whether we endorse them or not, you know that. So like the hurricane or the avalanche, all we can really do is get out of their way.”