Then another of the young women called her away.
* * *
“So, what do you think?” asked Julian von Meklau, another young man of Amadeus’ set. They were both sons of the nobility and both their fathers were rich as well as titled.
“I think that we are in the presence of miracles,” Amadeus said.
“Oh, come now, Amadeus. I thought you had better sense. Pope Urban has not ruled on the cause of the Ring of Fire. I grant that his elevation of the up-time priest is suggestive, but I think that was a political move, and apparently one that backfired. At least if Cardinal Borja has his way. You think so, too.”
It was true and Amadeus knew it. But that was before he had met Hayley Fortney. He had seen her when he went out to the track to watch the emperor drive his 240Z, but she hadn’t seemed anyone, just a mechanic’s daughter, dressed like a mechanic. Now, though, he had met her, and talked with her, and seen that other up-timer take Lugocie down a peg. All of a sudden he was reevaluating his previous assumptions. Thinking anew about the Ring of Fire and the shining eyes of a lovely girl whose understanding of the eldritch complexity of engines was as easy and natural as a lark’s song. “I know I have. But I’m thinking again. Remember right after we heard about the Ring of Fire? Everyone said it was a lie. Especially Lugocie and the Spanish faction. Then, after it was confirmed, they were saying it was the work of the Devil? Then that it was some unknown natural event.”
“And that’s what it was,” Julian said. “Like a volcano, nothing more.” There was, Amadeus noted, suddenly a touch of stridency to Julian’s tone. “And that up-time girl was dressed like a slut. Her dress was shorter than a common strumpet would wear and her arms were completely bare. Besides, she was wearing it to an imperial ball . . .” Julian ran down. He was no great fan of the Spanish faction at court. In fact, he was a fan of King Fernando of the Low Countries. Normally he would have been more than happy to see Lugocie taken down, and wouldn’t be caught dead agreeing with him.
Amadeus grinned. “Oh come now, are we Puritan prudes, to be shocked at a bit of leg? Granted, the dress was a little risque, but you know as well as I do that Lugocie was only using that as an excuse. I think the juxtaposition of the unadorned black dress with the shortness of the skirt and the fact it had no sleeves probably emphasized the differences between it and what we’re used to.” Then he paused considering. “I’ll bet you a reichsthaler that she knew perfectly well how risque that dress would seem to us and wore it on purpose. Though I don’t think she was expecting Lugocie.”
“Why?”
“To make clear that they were not going to suit—No . . . not going to lessen themselves to fit our standards.”
“That’s pretty arrogant.”
“Maybe,” Amadeus conceded. “Yes, arrogant. Or at least confident. But then, so are you. So am I.”
“But surely they must realize the threat they represent,” Julian said. “Shoving it in our face that way . . . that’s crazy.”
“You know, I’m not sure they do realize.”
“Amadeus, don’t be daft, man.”
“No, really. Hayley may realize it, but the others . . . the girl in the black dress . . . her name’s Vicky Emerson, by the way. Hayley told me. From the rumors, things are very different in the USE. And they are up-timers. Maybe they don’t realize.”
Liechtenstein House, Vienna
“You know what she did last night?” Father Lamormaini said to Gundaker von Liechtenstein at lunch the day after the party. “She contradicted and publicly embarrassed a member of the Society of Jesus and a consecrated priest. ‘Women are not to speak in church, nor dispute with men over the word of God.’”
“I quite agree, Father, but there is little I can afford to do right now. Vicky Emerson, in her own person, is inconsequential and I would not care at all if she were to fall down a well. But she is a bridesmaid of my nephew’s intended, and Sarah Wendell—much as I would love to see her beaten like the peasant whore she is—is simply too valuable to my family for now.”
“How?” Lamormaini’s tone was both accusatory and confused.
“First, she will be acting as witness for the family in several of the cases brought against my family in regard to the whole Kipper and Wipper business. Something the up-timers call an expert witness. She is an acknowledged expert in matters of finance. Second, Moses Abrabanel has convinced the emperor that she can provide credibility to paper reichsthaler, which is a source of income that the empire needs desperately to counter the wealth of the USE, and Bohemia. She was involved in forming the Bohemian National Bank a few months back. So her expertise is internationally recognized.”