Deadly Peril (37 page)

“I am no traitor, Lord Halsey,” Müller replied just as calmly, sopping up gravy with a hunk of bread in much the same manner as Alec had done. He ate it before speaking. “I am a loyal officer of the Midanichian army who served his sovereign Margrave Leopold during the Seven Years’ War, and with distinction. I am still loyal to my sovereign and to my country. It’s just that I do not recognize his eldest son as fit to rule.”

“Not fit to rule? But surely you do not deny Prince Ernst proved himself in battle to be a great soldier?”

“That I do not, but great soldiers do not necessarily make good and just rulers in peace time, as I am sure you are aware. As a loyal soldier, my words are treasonous, but as my actions have gone far beyond words, it hardly matters what I say now. All I care about is the future of my country, and that it be ruled by a just and sane man.”

Alec set down his soup spoon and let the hovering soldier take his empty bowl away and replace it with a clean plate and cutlery. Covered dishes of eel and herring, and one of carrots and potatoes, were put in the center of the table, and serving spoons set beside them. The diners were to help themselves. Alec waited for General Müller to finish his stew. When the soldier looked up, he held his gaze and said quietly,

“You do not believe Prince Ernst to be just or sane…?”

Müller did not hesitate in his reply.

“I do not, Lord Halsey. My tongue is free to finally speak my thoughts, here, at Aurich, surrounded by my fellow soldiers of the rebel army. You were at one time intimately acquainted with the Prince and his family. You were ennobled by the Margrave Leopold. The intaglio ring you wear is testament to that. But you are intelligent and astute and have lived outside Midanich for a decade. Would you have returned here of your own free will with Prince Ernst as Margrave? I think not. You are here only because you were forced to it, in a bid to rescue your English friends.”

Alec was surprised. “You have known about my mission all along, or is it something you have only recently learned?”

“The British Consul made me aware of your reasons for returning to Midanich; Luytens was never to be trusted.”

“My government and I have been aware of Luytens’ long history of sitting on the wall until one side or the other proved more to his advantage.” Alec frowned on a sudden thought. “You used the past tense when mentioning the British Consul. Is there something else I should know about him, other than his lack of principles?”

“He and his brother-in-law have been dealt with accordingly,” Müller stated bluntly. “That is all I will say for now. As for your friends imprisoned in the Castle, whether they are still alive is a moot point,” he added, almost apologetically. “Nevertheless, you are determined to go to them. I admire such determination, though I think your venture doomed from the outset precisely because the Prince is mentally unbalanced. By returning to this country you are either exceedingly brave or touched with madness yourself. Which would explain a great deal to me. But… I believe the former. And thus I salute your courage, even if I believe your quest, as I said, is doomed.”

“We shall have to agree to disagree, because I believe—I
must
believe—I will be able to free my friends. They are locked up for no other reason than their association with me. If you would indulge me: How did you reach the conclusion the Prince Ernst is of unsound mind? When I was last in this country he was capable of hiding his mental difficulties from the majority of his courtiers, with the help of his inner circle, and his father in particular.

General Müller elaborated.

“I was, for a time, part of that inner circle, serving as his aide-de-camp on a number of campaigns. Call it gut instinct. But there were times when I felt as if I were serving two completely different men, such was the volatility of his mind. This became more apparent at Castle Herzfeld in the months before Margrave Leopold’s death. The Prince withdrew into himself, and stayed in his apartments. More and more he came under the influence of his sister, until it was obvious to those closest to him that his decisions were being made by her. He does not want to be ruled by her, but he is too weak to go against her wishes. Even the Margrave Leopold, in his final weeks, was too feeble in mind and body to resist her demands.”

“And yet knowing his eldest son was not of sound mind, he still made Ernst his successor. There was a time, when I was at court, when it was hoped Leopold would overlook Ernst in favor of his son by the Countess Rosine.”

General Müller was genuinely surprised. “Ernst is the son of a Bavarian Princess. Prince Viktor’s mother, the Countess Rosine, is a commoner, and as such, any children of the marriage were excluded from the succession. Midanich is not the only Germanic state that enforces such medieval inheritance laws on its rulers.”

“And yet you and others have turned traitor and fight to put the son of a commoner in his brother’s place?”

“Yes. It is the only sane option left to us if we wish to take our nation out of the Middle Ages and see it survive into the next century. With Ernst on the throne, we are likely to be invaded time and again by Holland or Prussia. And there is every possibility we could be subsumed into your king’s Hanoverian electorate. That cannot be allowed to happen. But it will if Ernst remains Margrave.”

Alec sipped wine from his goblet and returned the conversation to the occupants of Herzfeld Castle, asking as casually as he was able, though he was certain he knew the answer, “While aide-de-camp, did you ever meet the Princess Joanna?”

Müller shook his head.

“You were not curious?” asked Alec.

“Curious, yes. But not enough to attempt to get past her minders. I am not telling you anything you do not know when I say she has been under constant guard since her teens. And as her servants live in fear of having their tongues cut out if they dare mention her name, least of all speak about her to others, very little has ever been reported about her. It is a long-held belief, whispered in court circles, she became weak-brained after a bout of measles. I for one do not believe it—”

“You do not? Why?”

“Measles had nothing to do it. She was born mad.” General Müller stared unblinkingly over the rim of his goblet. “Like her mother before her. Though that cannot be confirmed because she died in childbed after the birth of her twins. But you would know better than anyone, save her father and her brother, what the Princess Joanna is truly like. You married her. Unless that marriage document you showed me, along with your ennoblement, are forgeries? I think not.”

“They are not forgeries. And as we are all for plain speaking, and my association with that family can no longer influence the outcome of events here in Aurich, I can tell you that the union was forced upon me—”

General Müller gave a shout of laughter so loud one of his subordinates standing to attention by the door took two paces forward, thinking his commander had perhaps been attacked with the cutlery, or at the very least been insulted by his dinner guest and had wine splashed in his face. But when he saw the General was genuinely amused, he quickly stepped back, red-faced and not an eye on his fellows who were all smirking under their breath at his impetuosity.

“My dear Lord Halsey!” the General gasped, napkin dabbing at a watery eye. “If I thought anything else, I’d have had no hesitation in putting you up against a wall and shot a long time ago! But please, go on,” he continued, wiping the smile from his face and becoming serious. “I will not interrupt again. I can see that recalling such an episode still affects you, and I apologize for my levity. But how you came to be married to such a creature intrigues me.”

Alec nodded, cleared his throat and continued.

“While I was locked up in Herzfeld’s dungeons, Leopold gave me one of two choices, and as I wished to live, marrying the Princess was the only option. Of course, the union is not legal, regardless of my
coerced
participation in the ceremony. As an Englishman and a Protestant I cannot be married in the Catholic Church. But all Leopold cared about was that the Princess believed I was bound to her forever. I think he held out hope that marriage to me would somehow temper her troubled mind, and allow her to find some peace.

“As for my ennoblement…that is legal. Conferred upon me by the Margrave before the ceremony. Again, it was not something I wanted, but Leopold would not marry his daughter to a commoner.” It was Alec’s turn to smile and shake his head. “He was quite the old autocrat. He knew very well his child was not of sound mind, but that did not stop him making certain the groom was worthy of his offspring. And yet his second wife was a commoner—”

“The Countess Rosine is a commoner, yes, but she is not in the common way. Is she, Lord Halsey?”

Alec held his gaze, hiding his surprise at the edge to the soldier’s voice—as if Müller would be personally affronted if Alec disagreed with him. And if he agreed, surely that would give him away as knowing the Countess better than he ought? He soon realized the remark was rhetorical when the soldier replenished their goblets and the General went back to eating what he had spooned onto his plate.

“You say it only remained for the Princess to believe that her marriage to you was a legal union,” the General said after a few minutes of silence between them. “But what of the Prince? Did he also believe it?”

Alec rested his fork on the edge of the plate and met the soldier’s gaze openly.

“Prince Ernst championed the union, but it was only the Princess Joanna, her father, myself, and Leopold’s chaplain who attended the ceremony. Does that answer your question?”

The soldier did not break eye contact, as if he was weighing up Alec’s words. Finally he blinked and nodded and went back to eating. When his plate was clean, he said,

“Thank you for your honestly, Lord Halsey. Would you now do me the courtesy of telling me how you managed to escape—”

“The marriage? The castle? Or both?”

Müller was again amused. “Both. But I am sure you have realized before now that what I am most interested in is how you escaped the castle. But by all means, while we finish our dinner, entertain me with an account of your escape from the clutches of your mad bride!”

“If you will first do me the courtesy of explaining how you think I’ve been useful to you and Prince Viktor in my capacity as the Herr Baron.”

“Very well. In return you will reveal to me how you managed to break out of an impenetrable castle, a feat attempted many times in its history, but never successfully—until you. Your escape is so miraculous that it has entered the folklore of our country; the soldiers stationed at the castle have many times tried to replicate your daring flight, but to no avail.” Müller held out his goblet to Alec. “It is agreed?”

Alec touched his goblet to Müller’s and both drank up. “Agreed.”

General Müller pushed his plate aside and settled back against the bench’s backboard, fingers lightly about the stem of his goblet.

“I will tell you, Lord Halsey of England, Baron Aurich of Midanich,” he began. “I was never more glad than the day you arrived at Emden’s port. I knew you were on your way. One of the fishing fleet came early with the news
The Caroline
had been captured, so we were waiting for you. With your arrival came hope and a plan. Without you, I would not now be sitting here enjoying this meal, and the rebel force that holds Aurich would only have had a week’s worth of food to sustain them through the winter. Most of the barrels of gunpowder were filled with maize and other foodstuffs. The muskets will arm the farmers further afield who are vulnerable to attack from Ernst’s soldiers. And without their messenger pigeons, Emden is effectively cut off from all communications with Castle Herzfeld, the Margrave’s military headquarters, and their roost. It is now only a matter of when, not how, we shall take Emden, the jewel in the west of Midanich’s crown. With the fall of Emden, comes the fall of Ernst’s tenure as Margrave. And we have you to thank.”

“Me?” Alec was doubtful. “You give the Herr Baron too much credit. All I did was disembark and show the Herzfeld intaglio; that was an act of self preservation, and protecting my fellow passengers, nothing more.”

“I will not allow you to be so self-effacing!” the General said, slapping his palm on the table to underscore his point. “By showing yourself in that manner, you had no way of knowing how you would be received. Emden could have been controlled by rebel forces, and you taken into custody, locked up as a prize to be ransomed for concessions from the Margrave, should the war not go the rebels’ way. Yet you bravely strutted yourself as the Herr Baron, and as luck would have it the town was controlled by the Margrave’s troops, and citizens loyal to the House of Herzfeld.”

“Such as yourself?”

“Yes, such as myself, until such time as I could act in the interests of Prince Viktor,” Müller explained. “Which is why I was only too willing to fall in with your plans. My display of fealty before the troops and Emden’s Customs officials was just that, and helped dispel any rumor I might be a rebel spy.”

“Which you were.”

Müller nodded and drank up, sticking out his goblet to have it refilled by an attendant soldier who stood close by. He waved for the attendant to refill Alec’s goblet, too, but when this was declined he said with a shrug,

“Moderation in most things, eh, Lord Halsey?! I approve, and I approve of you.” The General sat forward, goblet nestled in the crook of his crossed arms. “Through force of personality you brought order to a town on the brink of rebellion. Do you realize that? Had you not arrived when you did, then set in place what you did, blood would have flowed in the canals, make no mistake!”

Alec was skeptical. “You think so?”

“I not only think it, I know it! For I was the one about to give the order to the rebels within the town to take up arms. And then you appeared and gave us our miracle. Your second in fact.”

Alec pulled a face and laughed off his embarrassment at such effusive praise. “Are you sure you should be drinking, General? I think the wine has befuddled your thoughts.”