The two tall, slimline spires stood out prominently atop the church and towered over the buttresses, including flying buttresses and abutments. Many tourists mistook the Votive Church as Gothic, but the architecture was more modern by several centuries.
‘He also survived an unhappy marriage with a woman he idolized, from all accounts. I actually translated several of his later letters, you know.’
‘You’ve told me.’
‘I suppose I have. I did that while we were at school here in Vienna.’
Alice gazed wistfully at the statue. ‘You know the thing that I most remember about the emperor?’
‘What?’
‘That he forbade his son to marry the woman he loved and insisted on a marriage that the prince didn’t want.’
Lourds nodded. ‘Princess Stephanie of Belgium was the only royal of Roman Catholic faith who was considered the equal to Prince Rudolf in station. Who wasn’t related too closely by blood, I mean.’
‘They had to delay the marriage because she hadn’t even gone through puberty. How could that poor girl be expected to know whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life with?’ Wrapping her arms around herself, Alice shook her head. ‘When a person marries, Thomas, it should be for love. At least Prince Rudolf and his seventeen-year-old mistress had the fortitude to kill themselves before they were made to separate.’
Lourds nodded again. The Mayerling Incident, as it was referred to, was a sad thing. Thirty-year-old Prince Rudolf and his lover had been so smitten with each other that they hadn’t been able to separate. ‘Some historians think that it wasn’t a lovers’ suicide pact, you know.’
‘I know. They think it was an assassination because of Rudolf’s arguments with his father or because of his pro-Hungary stance.’ Alice looked up at Lourds. ‘I prefer to think of it as two lovers strong enough to chart their own course.’
Placing his hands on Alice’s shoulders, Lourds looked into her eyes. ‘Are you that unhappy?’
‘Terribly so, Thomas. You can’t even begin to imagine the misery I’ve been through.’ Sadness glinted in her sapphire blue eyes. ‘How else do you think I can betray my husband to an ex-lover? This wasn’t done frivolously. If Klaus finds out what I’m doing, I truly believe he will kill me. Then he will kill you.’
‘If you didn’t love him, why did you marry him?’ Lourds sat across the table from Alice at an open-air café the way they had when they’d attended the university.
Around them, the Ringstrasse moved slowly. Fewer people lived there these days, and Lourds missed the crowds.
‘I didn’t have a choice.’
‘Of course you had a choice.’
Alice took Lourds’s hands in hers and smiled at him. ‘Sweet Thomas, so immersed in the world of the past that you often don’t realize how the real one works. Austria isn’t the United States. People don’t have the same liberties here.’
‘Even so—’
She cut him off. ‘I was fortunate that my parents allowed me to finish my extended education before they insisted on marrying me off.’
‘Are they truly that backwards?’
‘You met them.’
‘Once.’ Lourds growled at the memory. Herr and Frau Reinstadler had made it immediately and abundantly clear that they didn’t care for their only daughter’s infatuation. The weekend they’d spent in the Reinstadler estate home, in separate bedrooms, had been decidedly uncomfortable.
Alice smiled at him. ‘And wasn’t that enough?’
‘It was.’ Lourds shook his head. ‘You could have left Vienna.’
‘And gone where?’
Lourds had no answer.
‘Before Klaus, before the arranged marriage, I’d been in love. When that ended, my confidence had been broken. In those days, the attentions of Klaus Von Volker had seemed a godsend. He wanted me in a way I thought I needed to be wanted.’
Lourds took off his hat and placed it on the table. ‘I’m sorry, Alice. I never intended to hurt you.’
‘I know. This isn’t about you, Thomas. If I’d allowed you to take me off with you, I’d have been just as unhappy.’
Lourds grimaced, the hurt from her comment evident on his face.
Alice laughed at him. ‘Don’t be so fragile. It doesn’t become you. I like remembering you as the aloof, self-centered young professor who once told me life was too big to live in one place.’
‘Did I ever say that?’
She placed a hand over her heart, almost cupping one delectable breast. ‘I swear. That was almost word-for-word.’
‘I was something of a bounder, wasn’t I?’
‘No. You were young.’ She studied him unashamedly. ‘In many ways, you still are, and — I think — always will be. You’ll always be the boy I fell in love with, always seeing the fascinating things and adventures in the world that no one else sees.’
‘Still. If I had known—’
‘You would have only made things worse for yourself and for me. I still cling to that memory of how we were. Some days that’s my only solace. I would not have it destroyed.’ Alice took a breath. ‘The fault was mine. I hadn’t planned for my own life. I had no place to go, Thomas. No money of my own to make a life anywhere. That was one of the keenest interests my parents had in arranging the marriage with Klaus. They hoped their fortunes would increase when they aligned with his.’
‘Did they?’
‘Of course not. Klaus is not a generous man. Not even with me. Though I do think he is more generous with the string of mistresses he’s kept over the years.’ She shrugged. ‘Still, my parents have some consolation. They get to claim kinship with one of the most powerful men in the Austrian People’s Party.’
‘The man foments anti-Semitic behavior and calls for Austrians and Germans alike to rise against Israel. He lobbies for Iran to become a nuclear power, which would endanger all of the Middle East, and the Western world if the Ayatollah could make that possible. Various news agencies have accused Von Volker of supplying munitions to the Ayatollah, and have all but proven it.’
‘I know. I live with the man. It’s all true. Including the arms trafficking.’ Alice pursed her lips in distaste. ‘My parents idolize him for his opinions. They believe, like a lot of other Austrians and Germans, that Klaus Von Volker is the man who will bring about a new glory for a resurrected German empire.’
Lourds shivered at the thought. He looked out at the Ringstrasse. ‘Austria has a long history of anti-Semitism.’
‘Yes, but we’re here to talk of the evils done by my husband.’
Lourds took her hand and kissed it. ‘True, but we’re not going to forget the evils he’s done to you as well. Maybe — together — we can find a way for him to get his comeuppance as well.’
‘There’s a rally tonight. Klaus is speaking. We should go.’
‘Why?’
‘Because Klaus expects me to put in an appearance before he speaks.’
‘I thought you said Lev’s things were at your house.’
‘The schloss, yes. But if I don’t show up at the rally, Klaus might become suspicious that I’m snooping into his private business.’
‘Perhaps I could go there myself.’
‘You’d never get through the security. You’ll need me.’
‘Won’t Klaus notice when you disappear from the rally?’
Alice shook her head. ‘No. Once he’s in front of his adoring audience, I cease to exist. He’ll be swept away into the arms of one of his mistresses at the after-rally party while I go home to be the dutiful wife. Only tonight, I don’t plan on being so dutiful.’
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