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“We don’t have to murder them for being gossips,” Marta said with a laugh. “This is what they do with their time. They spend the day speaking about one another’s business. Including ours.”
“If I wasn’t pregnant, I would go over there and…”
“Laura, you’re a high-society lady, now,” Marta teased. “No more scrappy fighting.”
“Ugh. How dreadful,” Laura responded in English.
“Your accent is even quite stellar, now,” Marta returned. “You sound almost posh.”
“I’ve been practicing,” Laura said with a wide grin. “Ewan says it makes me sound even more important.”
Marta grinned. “You must tell me how that all happened. How you fell in love. How…”
“How? He’s impossible not to love!” Laura said. “I was all heartache and no pleasure for a good few days after my dear vegetable-man abandoned me. But I realised he was never right for me, anyway. It reminded me so of when you were heartbroken about the man we left back in Austria.”
“And now, I can hardly remember his name,” Marta said.
The women laughed as they looked at wedding dresses throughout the rest of the afternoon. Marta noted that Laura continually placed her hand across her still-flat stomach, as though she wanted to check in with the baby, remind the baby that she remained there, that she was always willing to listen, to be present.
“Did you imagine yourself having an English baby?” Marta asked, as Laura lifted a light yellow gown to her frame and tipped her hips this way, then that, analysing herself in the crooked mirror.
“I never imagined any of it,” Laura returned. “When you asked me to come to England with you, I assumed we’d be back in Austria by now. But goodness, you couldn’t pay me to be back there. Having that strange affair with one of the stable hands. Constantly wearing my hair in those awful braids! I had a headache nearly every day of my life. Now I drink tea in the afternoon like a lady. My time is my own.” She flashed her eyes playfully towards Marta and added, “We should really find you another lady-in-waiting, shouldn’t we?”
Marta laughed. “I think I’ll be all right on my own for a while.”
“Suit yourself,” Laura returned. “I imagine when Ewan and I move into our own estate, I’ll want a whole staff to myself. Perhaps I’ll even hire a few straight from Austria… I want our house to flourish with both German and English languages, perhaps a few others thrown in for good measure. I want it to be bright and vibrant and alive. I want my child to open his lips and be able to speak to anyone across the world.”
As they returned to the carriage, Marta spotted Penelope Sussel. Her eyes brightened as she scurried towards them, her arms extended.
“I’ve just heard the news!” she cried. “All my genuine congratulations.”
Laura and Marta thanked her.
“I suppose it wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for you,” Laura affirmed.
“Ewan is a good man. A great man. I’m simply too flighty, I suppose,” Penelope said. She sounded vaguely regretful. “However, I’ve just heard something rather strange about your not-so-dear friend, Lord Remington.”
Marta arched her brow. “What is it?”
“It seems that he grew so drunk last night that he insulted the Regent!” Penelope said. “There were a few onlookers. The Regent threatened him—said not to come any closer. And then, bang! Lord Remington punched the Regent in the nose!”
Marta’s eyes bugged out. “What on earth! You cannot be serious.”
“A friend said he heard the Regent declare that their friendship was over,” Penelope continued. “At that point, of course, Lord Remington cursed your very existence. He pins it all on you. Unfair, of course, but quite funny. It’s a powerful woman indeed who brings down a man like that.”
Laura and Marta sat in the carriage and exchanged glances, both in complete shock. As the carriage wheels gained speed beneath them, Marta dropped her head back and whispered, “Lost the favour of the Regent. I cannot believe it.”
“He was so volatile,” Laura affirmed. “He was always on the brink of digging himself a hole he couldn’t get out of.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Marta whispered. “One never considers the change one has on society at large. But we tore into England, didn’t we?”
“And we did whatever we pleased,” Laura said.
“I’m grateful for it.”
“Perhaps England will end all ties with Austria now. It’s clear we’re a more powerful breed,” Laura said with a laugh.
“And yet, we love them,” Marta said.
“Dearly,” Laura agreed.
“Cripplingly,” Marta ended.
