The Accidental Marriage Read Online Free

for more than a few days, though, we hope to move into a larger apartment.’
    ‘I would be delighted. Enjoy the rest of your walk, ladies. Goodbye, Alice and Paula, I hope to see you again soon.’
    He raised his hat and walked away.
    Julia looked after him. ‘What do you hazard he’ll forget all about us?’ she asked. ‘He didn’t say Frederick was his friend. Has Frederick ever mentioned him?’
    ‘No, but he doesn’t tell me about his London cronies. Wasn’t he handsome? I wonder whether he is married?’
    Julia laughed. ‘Fanny, I beg you, don’t start matchmaking here. I’m your children’s governess, remember!’
    ‘Stuff and nonsense. You’re my sister. I hope he does call.’
    * * * *
    To Fanny’s delight Frau Schwartz, Frau Gunter’s friend, agreed to let them rent her apartment, which was in the next building, as well as her cook and housemaid to look after them.
    ‘It has six whole rooms!’ she told Julia. ‘There are two salons, connected by double doors, so we can entertain properly.’
    Julia thought of Greystones, the rambling, many-roomed Jacobean manor house that was Fanny’s home, and the London house they rented when they spent the Season there. Two salons seemed quite inadequate, unless they were spacious. She suspected they would not, in the end, do a great deal of entertaining. From rumours they had heard the official receptions, balls, military reviews, shooting and hunting parties, together with the theatrical performances, concerts and ballets, would fully occupy the time. She could not imagine when the Ministers would find time for negotiations, unless they did it over the card and supper tables.
    By the following day they were installed, and when Sir Carey called two days afterwards, having been given their new direction by Frau Gunter, Fanny was able to welcome him in a large, ornately furnished drawing room.
    ‘We hear the Ministers are already talking,’ Fanny said. ‘Are they not waiting for the other delegations to arrive?’
    ‘They are discussing how to go about it, which we hope will save time once the Congress opens officially. Have you received invitations to the Reception at the Hofburg, on the thirtieth?’
    ‘Frederick hasn’t said.’
    ‘There is also a masked ball two days later, after the regimental parade. Everyone will be going to that. Even a palace as huge as the Hofburg will be crowded. It’s a vast place, like a city. It’s been added to over the centuries as the Hapsburgs gained more power. The oldest part is thirteenth century, but for the rest, all sorts of styles, rather like my own home but on a far grander scale. I will hope to see you there, but in such a crush who knows whether we’ll meet?’
    ‘Oh, we didn’t bring dominoes and masks,’ Fanny said.
    ‘Then we had better go shopping tomorrow,’ Julia said briskly. ‘What other entertainments are planned, Sir Carey? Surely they won’t all be huge affairs?’
    He grinned, and she felt a slight fluttering sensation in the region of her heart. He really was enormously attractive.
    ‘All the Ministers will be entertaining. I hear Metternich has something very grand arranged.’
    ‘We heard that the Princess Bagration is giving a ball the day after the reception, but Frederick said that is a small affair. We saw her yesterday, out driving in the Prater. She is amazingly pretty. She’s Russian, is she not?’
    ‘She’s related to the Tsar. Tell me, were you in London during the celebrations in the summer when he visited? I saw Sir Frederick there once or twice, but we did not meet, Lady Cunningham.’
    As Fanny began to describe what she had seen, and deplore the massive crowds that had been everywhere, hoping for glimpses of the Tsar and the other important visitors, Julia frowned slightly. Why had he changed the subject so abruptly?
    ‘What’s the matter with Princess Bagration?’ she demanded after he had left.
    Fanny shook her head. ‘I haven’t a notion. But he did not want