The Viennese Waltz(76)
“And your point is . . . ?”
“My point is obvious. We’re a long way from seeing a huge displacement of farm labor. There’s enough of a free labor force for industrialization to get started here, but the big problem Austria faces is a lack of capital. The damn idiots—the brains of the nobility are still mired in the Middle Ages, most of them—still think in terms of licenses and monopolies instead of investment. There are some exceptions, my fiancé being one of them—Wallenstein’s another, up in Bohemia—but there aren’t enough yet.”
There was a knock on the door and Trudi went to answer it. It was Snooty from this afternoon. Stephen—something or other. Trudi didn’t think she had been told his last name. The majordomo, at least among the nontitled servants. Trudi stepped out and closed the door behind her. “Yes?”
“I need to speak with Sarah Wendell von Up-time.” Stephen was clearly not happy about his mission.
“In regard to?”
“There was an, ah . . . incident at table . . .”
“So I heard.”
“Prince Gundaker has decided that to maintain discipline among the house staff, the serving girl will be dismissed.” Stephen paused. “I am instructed to inform Lady Sarah of the dismissal and the reason for it.”
Trudi looked at Stephen. Then she turned and opened the door gesturing him inside. Trudi wasn’t sure what was going to happen but she had no doubt she was about to see fireworks.
As they came into the sitting room, Sarah was saying, “Barbaric customs. Maybe we should leave Ferdinand III and the whole bunch to stew in their own juices.”
Trudi wasn’t sure how much English Stephen had but he had apparently gotten at least some of it. She made a sweeping gesture and announced, “Here is Stephen, majordomo of Liechtenstein Palace, with a message for Sarah Wendell von Up-time.”
Silence. Every eye in the room was on the unfortunate Stephen. Stephen delivered his message.
“Was Prince Karl there when his uncle gave you your instructions?” Sarah asked, with a chill in her voice that suggested really bad things for the Ken Doll.
Trudi watched as Stephen swallowed. “Yes. It was he who insisted I inform you before dismissing Anna.”
“Smart boy,” Judy the Younger said.
Sarah looked at Judy with a question in her eyes.
“You were telling Karl all the way here that he wasn’t to run interference for you,” Judy reminded her sister. “Something about not wanting people to think that you couldn’t take care of yourself?”
Sarah nodded.
“So he made sure you would be informed before the servant . . .” Judy turned to Stephen. “Anna, was it?” When he nodded, she turned back to her sister. “. . . before Anna got her walking papers. And let you, well, us, deal with the matter as we see fit. He’s probably up there right now taking bets on how quickly you’re going to rip Gundaker’s guts out.”
Sarah had calmed down a little while Judy was talking. “Tempting as that thought is, it won’t help, ah, Anna. So how do we deal with this? Pack up our bags and move out?”
“Not at all.” Judy’s grin was very barracuda-ish. “I think it’s quite convenient. We were going to have to hire servants anyway. Prince Gundaker is graciously releasing one for us to hire. What is Anna paid?”
When Stephen told her, she shook her head. “That won’t do at all. Trudi, would you be a dear and go with Stephen here? And when he fires Anna, hire her. Pay her fifty percent more than she is getting now. It’s not like we’re short on Austro-Hungarian banknotes.” The girls had engaged in a bit of arbitrage before coming to Vienna, buying up Ferdinand’s silver certificates in Grantville where they were worth considerably less than they were in Vienna.
Trudi was stealing glances at Stephen while Judy was talking, wondering how he would respond. Apparently he was going to object. Which showed commendable loyalty to his boss, but perhaps not the greatest wisdom.
“With all due respect, ma’am,” he said to Judy the Younger, “I don’t think that’s what Prince Gundaker had in mind.”
Sarah jumped in. “I really don’t care what Gundaker had in mind,” she said coldly.
“On the other hand,” Millicent said, “we may want to move out to Race Track City just for the room.”
CHAPTER 20
A Report to the Emperor
June 1635
The Hofburg Palace, Vienna
“So, Leo, were the new arrivals as strange as expected?” Empress Mariana set the china creamer on the table and picked up her hot chocolate.
Leo buttered a roll as he considered his answer. “I only got a few minutes to talk to them before Gundaker hustled them off to the Liechtenstein townhouse.”