The Continuing Romance of the Princess Royal - a Blog Tour and Book Excerpt for "Under the Sword"

BOOK EXCERPT

The carriage drove on, almost silently, the padded wheels making soft noises in the grass and autumn leaves. There had not yet been any snow. Everything was black; every shining part of the harness was covered; the coachman was dressed in dull black. Four cloaked figures sat inside, a young woman dressed in deepest mourning, her face buried in her handkerchief, and, huddled next to her, were three little girls. A single small trunk sat behind them.

“Mama,” the eldest girl said, “Where are we going?”

“I do not know yet, Mariechen. We must arrive in Anhalt if we can, and I shall decide further then.”

“Is Charlotta in the trunk?” the youngest girl asked quietly, as if speaking to herself.

“What do you mean, Louischen, how would she be?”

“The little girl in the glass over my bed. I always kiss her goodnight. And I didn’t… before we left.” The little girl tried to control a sob.

“Oh,” the other girl groaned, rubbing her eyes. She had fallen asleep between the other two. “Mama, can we not stop? I think I’m going to be sick,” she murmured.

“No, Ebi, we must go on, as far as we can tonight. And I want you to be very careful when we do stop. Stay together, and don’t call each other by your names – but do not use your titles either. We must think of some other names to use. We don’t want anyone to recognize you.”

“But, we will go home, won’t we, Mama?” Louischen looked up at her, her big eyes filling with tears again. “Will we see Aunty Vicky and Uncle Fritz again before we go on? Why were they crying when they came here? Why were you crying, Mama?”

“Ach, meine lieblings, what can I tell them?” the woman sobbed to herself. She thought of the goodbye which had taken place a couple of hours before, when she had embraced her friends and cousins, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, for what might have been the last time. “Gott be with you, am wiedersehen, Marianne,” Fritz had said, with the kindly look he always had for her as he squeezed her hand, but there had been sorrow in his eyes at the same time. Vicky had thrown her arms around Marianne impulsively, and kissed the little girls goodbye, clinging particularly to Louischen.

Marianne looked down at her three daughters with a lump in her throat; three such small, pitifully helpless morsels of humanity. Ebi, thankfully, had not been sick. Marianne’s heart twisted at the sight of her sweet little face as her head leaned on her sister’s shoulder, her mouth dropping open as she drifted off again.

She sadly shook her head. No, she thought, you will never see Aunty Vicky and Uncle Fritz again. She covered her face with her hands. She could never bring her little girls back to Berlin as long as her husband and his father lived.