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Chapter Sixteen: Mountains and Ambitions
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Ghandara – Main Gathering Node
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1st October 1825
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- Sisters, we've certain decisions to make…
All sisters of the Central Circle had gathered and they all knew why the Pivot had summoned them.
Shadow didn't wait to be given the floor. Why should she have, she wasn't liked and that wouldn't disappear should she decide to become polite.
- We've already been way too visible these last years, we cannot go on parading before the world. Our old enemies haven't disappeared, you know! They will come back to rip our throat out as soon as they know where to strike.
- Indeed, said Light, Shadow, for once, is the voice of Wisdom. Whatever I think about our sisters who have embraced the novelties of the outside world, I don't believe that we, here, are ready to add another level of openness. Let those of us who have moved elsewhere make those decisions. They have the same potential then we have, their City State is easily found, and they benefit of the protection of those who rule outside of here. We, here in Ghandara, we do not appear on any map and only a few outsiders know of our existence. Covered by Mist and Mystery is how we are the safest. The sunlight is not, even if I regret it, the right place for us.
Pivot nodded and looked around her.
Fire made a sign and gained the floor.
- A lot has happened these last years and the world outside has changed. And those changes have been, for the most part, beneficial. For the world and, even if I'm not so sure about that part, for us.
- And why do you have doubts, asked Water?
- Because I think that we are no longer fit to reenter the real world. Sending into the world those of us who were young enough to envision a new life, was a good thing. Those youngsters who left wanted to live differently and the outside world has its appeal, we cannot deny it. They will, with luck, be able to adapt our teachings to their new environment and refurbish our old science into something that will bring those people a new way to look at the world. Perhaps even offer to the women outside a new path to their felicity.
Fire shook her head.
- But I like the way we live here, and I like even more that fact that the outside world, even if there have been some articles about us, mostly ignores us. I am very in favor of doing what's necessary to have the present situation last. Ghandara is my World and I think that we are better without strangers roaming our streets. Shambala has been created not only to give those more adventurous souls amongst us an outlet but also to protect what we have built here these last centuries by pointing at the copy while ignoring the original.
Quite a lot of the present colors nodded. Pivot, who was of the same opinion, let out a small sigh.
Ghandara was no longer a forlorn Kingdom lost in the mists of Time, but it still wasn't a place easy to find.
- Let's vote, Ladies. Who believes that the request that the British Envoy has presented us should be followed?
- Before we vote, intervened Spirit, I'd like to make a comment. Not that I am in favor of an opening of our borders but to remind you all that we should remember that the British ruling Family, thanks to d'Arcy's help has been at our side since we've been invaded by our more bellicose neighbors. We owe them and a flat refusal would, I'm quite sure, not be received with a happy smile. It would be smarter to signal our willingness to accept but under certain conditions.
- Conditions?
- We all agree that what we really want is that the present situation goes on, don't we?
All but Manna who had, from the beginning, showed a real willingness to open the City's doors and to push the inhabitants to go out and meddle with the world, nodded at Spirit's question.
- So what I propose is to ask their help to create, somewhere not too far away from here, an outlier that could be realistically taken for Gandhara while not being it.
Pivot, who wasn't an idiot, frowned at her sister.
- You are alluding to Shinangha, aren't you?
- Of course, I am. We've been forced to abandon Shinangha because of the Russian invasion two centuries ago, it is time that we reclaim it back.
- Shinangha has been exposed to the winds and the ice for two centuries now, it would be a nightmare to revive it.
- It would, should we use only magical means. But we have other means now and I'm quite sure that, if we ask our friends at the Company, they would be very willing to lend us a few of their new generators. As we've seen here these machines do not hinder the manna flow. And I have from a very good source that, when placed near a working node, said node is improved and its output goes up.
- Shinangha is in what is today Khazakstan… I doubt those Muslims will look at the revival of a Female-ruled Principality in their midst with anything but hostility.
- We should ask Elizabeth d'Arcy Khazegheld, wife of the leader of the Khazak, and active member of the Khazak Circle how she would envision the possibility to have, within her husband's realm, a magical abode…
- The magical abode thing is perhaps a little bit exaggerated, Spirit, said Pivot. It will take quite a long time to get the whole plateau back to what it had been a few centuries ago.
- With a couple of those generators placed at some perfectly chosen places, it could be an endeavor of only a few months.
Spirit looked at Fire.
- We would need your School's enthusiastic help, Fire. Getting rid of a few centuries of snow and ice won't be easy.
- Get me two or three boosted nodes and we will have an even better climate there than what we have here. And, if what I have read about Shinangha is true, the plateau is rather extended and was used to yield crops twice a year…
- We should perhaps begin to call it the Khazak Gandhara, said Spirit. We wouldn't want to let our tongue slip, now, would we?
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Hindi Kush, Winter Palace of the Kazakh Khan
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3rd October 1825
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- Are we sure about that?
Betty was clearly amazed at her husband's rather favorable reaction.
- Don't we have enough problems with the current Quran war being waged all over the continent? I'm not sure that getting your Subjects' attention pointing at a magical abode won't make things a lot worse.
Mazym couldn't help but laugh at his first wife's silly reaction.
- What Quran-war? There is no Quran-war in Khazakstan. Those people who died in what outsiders will call the riots didn't die over the new Quran or any other religious question. They died because some smartasses did, as usual, find it convenient to use the upheavals to settle old feuds and scores. I will have to deal with those fools and to avoid other, new feuds, I'll have to ask Fluffy to discreetly suck those idiots out of life…
Glad to be of service, chimed Fluffy in. Just show them to me…
Thanks…
- They will still all know what happened and why it had to happen, but they won't be able to officially point at me as the one having ordered their idiot offspring to be killed.
- But they still will know it's been you… Why not launch a vendetta then?
- Multiple reasons, answered MazymKhan. First, I'm the Boss and it is always unsafe to call out a feud against the Boss. Too many other Clans ready to ally with the Boss to deal out some vicious blows of their own. It's not fun to see your whole Clan be crushed by the Boss' army. Sometimes traditions must yield to the core necessity to see your blood survive. Kazakhs are hotblooded idiots, but most Clan Leaders have a good idea about the limits. And a feud against one's Boss is, most of the time, off limits but still frowned upon by the other Clans. So, by sending Fluffy I give them the best excuse, i.e. ignorance, not to retaliate.
Betty who quite liked her husband's crazy band of followers, couldn't help but shake her head.
- Isn't that hypocrisy?
- It's smart management, answered her husband. In these mountains everything is about saving face. The feuds needed to be dealt with and the religious riots came handy for a lot of people who had filibustered with their vengeance for too long.
He winked at his wife.
- You should look at the victims of the riots. You'll soon see that most of those who died were idiots who put their Clans to shame because of their foolishness or bad social habits. Them dying was often a great relief for their Clans. And those that have been sent to do the deeds are often their counterparts in the feuding Clan. Look at the whole thing as a cleansing operation…
- But as the Boss, you can't have them kill each other for foolish reasons…
- Exactly, I'm the Boss and I need to let it be known that under my rule such foolish behaviors won't be accepted. Without having Fluffy's useful skills I would have had to order them arrested and beheaded or, in one or two cases where the victims' bodies have been desecrated, publicly stoned. Which would have been a loss of face for the Clan of those I would have ordered arrested and executed. With Fluffy's intervention there will be no face loss. Just a great outraged outcry and some, necessary, threats blown in the wind against the ugly fiend who's done the deed.
Can I begin a feud of my own if they use to call me unrespectful names?
I'd prefer not… This whole circus is about maintaining the stupidity within clear limits. If you enter the game full speed, you'll erase my Empire in less than a year.
Well, I'll show leniency, then!
- You said First. Is there a second?
- Of course, there is, and the second reason is the Shamans' intervention.
- They will intervene?
- Indeed, they will, because, even if, I'm sure of it, there is a difference, they will have no problems to label Fluffy's actions as linked with angry Spirits who came on Earth to avenge the other Clan. And when Spirits have begun to intervene it is absolutely necessary to stop them fast. And only the Shamans know the methods to assuage the Spirits.
His smile became mischievous.
- They will take money from everybody, me included since they will know, like everybody else, that I'm at the origin of the process. They will organize a huge ceremony with lots of dancing and chanting and eating and public off-showing that will not only assuage the Spirits but please all those who have participated. It will be a huge circus and the perfect occasion for the Spirits to ask the feuding Clans to cease their stupid games. And, since, thanks to Fluffy, there won't be another identifiable culprit, the feuds will indeed stop there.
- Some feuds will, said Betty, who knew that her husband's Mountaineers were very fond of their traditions and feuds were especially important traditions, indeed.
- Those who had escalated into killing sprees will be stopped. The others, the minor ones, those which no Spirit worth his dime will even notice, will, of course, go on. How boring a world without feuds would be?
Betty sighed and nodded at the same time.
- So, you say that there are no religious riots…
- No, just a little healthy upheaval between the Muslim Communities. It happens at least once or twice a year. This year it is a little stronger since there are those additional tensions born out of the Quran revisions. But I'm quite sure that it won't degenerate any further…
And if it does, I'm still ready in the starting blocks.
Let's hope we can still avoid that…
- What about the Magical Abode? Would I be a Muslim I would be outraged…
- Not a Muslim coming out of these Mountains, dear. We are a very practical brood and I'm quite sure that once upon a time we became, nominally, Muslims just to get the Persians and their Ayatollahs out of our hair. So, we are Muslims but we still honor our Shamans, we make offers to the Spirits, and believe me, in these Mountains there are a lot of Spirits, and we worship the Sun without having the least scruple at all. So, since the Muslim part of my people is a very sedate one, we will enter the realm of millenary traditions…
Betty frowned at her husband.
- What do you mean with that?
- Those magical abodes are, traditionally, the places where the Spirits worship the elements. They belong to us and they have been snatched out of our grasp by evil forces who threw us out of them…
- Meaning the Witches?
- That is only one way to tell the story and it isn't the one we are going to select.
- What's the other one?
- Ones… There are at least seven I know of, but the one we will ask our propaganda specialists to back will be the one where Demons tried to take over and they were thrown out by the sacrifice of the Clans' smartest women who accepted, after the victory against the Demons, to stay to guard the abode.
- There is really such a story?
- Not quite in those terms but my specialists are sure that we will be able to twist the tale to put the Witches in a better light. We will, of course, need lengthy measures to push that story and mute the others. But I'm quite sure that we will be able to convince the Shamans that having, again, access to the magical abode where the Spirits reigns, is a great victory.
- I suppose that it will cost you dearly?
- Not as much as it would have hadn't this whole thing been launched because of your Aunt Mary's request. Since, through her, and France and Great Britain are interested, I'm quite sure that I will be able to get them to finance the whole thing.
Once more Betty's frown was back.
- That looks like blackmail…
- Not at all, it looks like having the rich finance the poor! As it should always be in a family.
- We are not poor…
- They are richer…
- It gives the whole thing a petty and hazy outlook.
- We need every franc we can spare, love. We've got a huge territory with a very small, and sometimes restive, population and very few mineral resources. Having a magical abode will be a real booster for the Khazak tourist industry.
- Why did Aunt Mary ask about it?
- She wants to create a College for the Magic and the Supernatural and wanted the Gandharan Witches to host it. But they are reluctant to let strangers invade them, so they have proposed to revive their second settlement which happens to be within the Realm we are ruling. They will send the necessary teachers, but the main bulk of the population will be people coming from our valleys.
- Won't that create tensions?
- We will essentially send women. The Witches will send a little group to select the women that will be invited. Most men won't be interested in going up there since it will be very unfriendly and force those present to work in what looks like awful conditions. I will take the Clan Leaders with an Airship up there to show them the place. They will see a beautiful plateau covered with ice and snow I will sell them as the perfect honey pot to mug stupid westerners.
- Is that really an image you want to show to the world?
- To the world we will show a Mountain Realm were magic will be perfectly imitated thanks to the last western technologies. As I see it there will be a part of the plateau that will be façade and a tourist attraction. But there will also be a College where gifted women from all over the world will have the chance to learn the basics. But nobody within the Council of Clans will ever learn about what's behind the curtain.
- They are not idiots, they will see that it is not all an illusion.
- If they ever went back up there, they would indeed. But I'm quite sure that they won't go back when it is in shape. Why would they? It's a tourist trap and they are the smart crooks behind the scenes.
He snickered.
- I don't intend to be very honest with them, you know. I won't lie to them, but I will never admit that it is a real magical abode we are about to build. I will just explain to them that, with the Westerners' technology, we will be able to build a false magical realm where said westerners will come to spend their money in exchange of the whole range of Mountain experiences and, for the most foolishly gullible women of them, lessons in Magic. And since on top of the plateau it will be the fabled magical Gandharan abode, to make the illusion even more credible, it can only be inhabited by women. As I know my dear Clan leaders, they won't have the least scruple to select women to go up there to work for them.
- You really don't like them…
- Quite the contrary, love. I love foolish males who think with their gonads and who are, deep down, caravan robbers! It's so much easier to know what those people want than the smart calculating managers of the sort your brother has aplenty around him. It's so much easier to rule while having only basic ruffians around you. They only see the world in shades of grey. For them there are the wolves and the sheep. And if you can convince them that they are the wolves, they are more than happy! Some day in the future I don't doubt that the smart manager types will be around me too, but for the time being, they are still a very distant future fantasy.
He walked to her and embraced her fiercely.
- Our son will have a lot harder than I. He will have to be a true efficient manager. I just need to play with my muscles and they all scatter like the mice they are.
- He will be as strong and tall as you…
- Won't help him at all since he will be a civilized ruler. Not the sort to bash two foolish Clan Leaders' heads together to easily remind them who's the Boss. He'll have the next generation of Kazakhs helping him. They won't be so easy to sway than their fathers and grandfathers.
- But Kazakhstan will be a lot richer, then…
- I really hope so, love. Airships and gyrocopter are already transforming our country like nothing had done ever before. And we are building roads and bridges and tunnels by the hundred miles. But it is a lot more expensive to build them here than in a British flood valley.
- We have the sturdiest people and the most fabulous landscapes. The rich British and French Aristocrats will come and spend enough money to kick-start our economy, you'll see.
- I hope so but I'm not in a hurry. First, we need to teach our youngsters the reality of an open and welcoming new world. Without their brains and enthusiasm, we won't take off for a very long time.
- I you are in no hurry it's good. We've got time and we've got means. No need to take shortcuts. We will never be one of the dominating powers of the world, that's for sure, but we won't be anyone's lackey, not as long as we rule together.
He smiled in her hair and embraced her fiercely.
- I don't deserve you…
- I agree but the nights you bestow me are worth the boring days I must spend in one of the world's most forlorn place.
- You know that you'll have to pay for those unkind words?
- What, by God, has been unkind in my words? I did compliment you for your sexual prowess! Should I stop doing that?
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Hindi Kush, Winter Palace of the Kazakh Khan
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4rd October 1825
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- Why are you really here, Jannie?
Jane Darcy let go her binoculars and looked up from the wondrous landscape she had been looking at for the last minutes.
- I'm hiding, sighed she. I'm hiding from protocol who's coming up with a new fiancé for me in an excruciatingly short day-cycle.
- It's every day, now?
- If you look at it in average, it is even probably more. There are days when we have four different young, or not so young, men calling at our London Town House. And whatever excuse they hide behind, I know that they are there to evaluate the goods.
- That's not a very charitable way to express it and you forget that they are also there to give you the opportunity to evaluate them.
- Why can't they not accept that I'm not ready?
- Because, said Mazymkhan from the door, a real man will always believe that you are waiting for him! You don't know him yet, so, it is normal that you are still free…
Janet smiled at her brother-in-law who was, and she had had way too many men in her vicinity these last months not to be sure, the tallest and brawniest man she had, until now, met…
- Those are the worst, Mazz. They look at the world -and me- as if they would be exceptional! And, believe me, they are not! I know richer people, I know smarter people, I know more titled people, I know…
And here she bowed in his direction…
- …More impressive and handsome people, and still they believe themselves so much more attractive.
- There's always a place at my side, said Mazz. Ask your cousin, I'm a marvel in bed and the only man alive she can't easily beat the crap out off…
He frowned at his wife.
- That last sentence felt wrong… Was it?
- Grammatically and factually, it was right, but it really gives a bad image of me. Should anyone hear you, they would believe that I hit you…
- Well, it is the truth, you still happen to beat the crap out of me…
- Only when you enter one of your stupid, 'she's a feeble woman I can't risk hurting her' phases. The rest of the time you are dealing with me as I want you to.
She shook her head and became as serious as was possible.
- This world will never forgive us for what we are, love, we need to be ready for when some idiots will, again, decide that we need to be punished.
- I've known you sunnier, Betty. What happened?
- It's the time of the year, cousin dear. With the waning light my mood becomes less sunny. Luckily yesterday and the day before I was with Mazz on Tupai. God bless the Spirits and their Leyporters. Without those breaks on that Island I would become crazy.
- And I do like the thing with the board, said Mazz… It's not as much fun as the skiing thing but it is something I like to do. And Betty likes it there. Sun, sea and the best sex available on the whole planet…
He winked at Janet.
- My offer stands, cousin.
- I know, but I will, as those numerous other times, decline. I won't be a third wife…
- You are too competitive, cousin, insisted Mazz. Better the third wife of the world's best lover than the first wife of a perfect titled nonentity.
She looked at Betty who, as usual, mocked her.
- You can't be a first wife with Mazz, but marrying him would put you out of protocol's clutches. And if I can trust what Mamma has to say about relations between sister-wives, there is a huge possible graduation.
Janet shot her best, that's enough frown. If she could, more or less, speak about multiple wives marriage arrangements, she wouldn't speak about what could happen between members of the same sex behind closed doors.
Betty acknowledged with a nod and signaled to her husband that it was time for him to deal with the Empire's business.
He made no fuss, kissed his wife on the lips and winked a last time at Janet and was soon out of Betty's private office.
- Sorry about that, said Betty. He's a little too direct sometimes. But don't doubt a second that he is serious. If…
- I quite like him but not enough to risk mamma and pappa's wrath. You were always the wild indomitable one, they have been, finally, able to accept your choice…
- I could have been an only wife and you know it. He would have even renounced to his concubines, but it would have shown that I'm insecure and it would have sent a false message to his people. They like it that I accepted and entered their culture without trying to force him into my mold.
- And you like your sister wife…
- I do more than like her, Jannie. We don't have the passionate relationship Mamma and Maureen are sharing but she's more of a sister than my real sisters who are way too young will ever be. It's with her that I speak about the problems I currently have. And she has offered me the keys to our people's hearts. That's a gift I will never forget.
She winked at her cousin and friend.
- A multiple wives marriage has its ups when you are the one at the helm and if it is you who choses your sisters.
Her smile disappeared.
- If it's not the case, it's a bloody mess you don't live through without getting your fingers burnt. Not an experience I'd advice to somebody I love. Much better to get yourself a fine kind man and to learn him how to behave.
- That's not how it is usually done…
- Outside of our family, there are perhaps a few old-fashioned marital behaviors that survive, but with the Bennet women? That's exactly how it must be done, and, in the end, you'll be a very happy wife whose husband will never regret having accepted to become a Bennet Consort.
- Thank God you don't say those things when in Pemberley.
- I'm not a fool, cousin, but it stays the truth. Our mothers have shown the right path and all the Aunts have followed. Even Georgiana has fathomed that little life saving rule.
- And which rule would that be?
- They can think what they want, but in the end it's your decision, not theirs…
- Doesn't seem very kind for a rule that points at living happily together.
- It is the kindest of all, cousin. I don't try to convince you that men -or boys- in that matter cannot make smart decisions, I just say that it is a lot easier for them to make those smart decisions if said decision have already, discreetly, of course, been made. And if there is only one decision the woman of the couple has to make than it is to do -or not do- what's necessary to get two people together.
- Your father, if the stories are right, was very straightforward when it came to woe Aunt Jane.
- He wooed her, and it is right he did it in a very direct manner, but in the end, it was her who decided if his wooing would succeed. Till the end Uncle Charles had his chances. He could, had he found the courage to fight Papa, have been the winner of Mamma's heart.
- And England would be in a mess…
- Probably, and we should all thank God to have smothered Uncle Charles' courage in this matter. He still got the best woman for him and everybody else came out of that little crucible a lot better than could have happened. But still, it was Mamma's decision and Uncle Charles didn't join her. Once he was out of the game, Mamma didn't waste any time to convey her next decision. She felt that being with Papa would be the best for them…
- But still she chose Charles…
Betty couldn't help but sigh.
- From time to time even a smart and decided woman needs a quiet and safe path to wander on. Charles was that for her and I'm quite sure that she would have liked a quiet and serene life with a loving tame husband and half a dozen children.
- At least she has the right number of children…
- And she has the right type of husband at her side. Jane Bingley would have been a happy nonentity. Jane d'Arcy is a world power in her own right. And, which is another plus, she's even happier than she would have been with Uncle Charles.
She looked at her cousin and there was fire in her eyes.
- Mamma has shown us the right route. We can play in the same league. But we need to make the right decisions. Will we live a happy quiet and serene life or a strong and lively one? I chose the strong and lively and happiness has, for me too, been added to the wedding trousseau.
She closed the distance between them and embraced her cousin.
- Stop letting Protocol reign over your life. Go to Aunt Lydia and ask her to help you find the right guy.
- Aunt Lydia?
- Indeed, Aunt Lydia. Before she jumped into her revolting rebel fucking the whole world disguise she was very decided to get the very best husband in the world. Not the best suited, but just the best in what, at the time, she thought important. Go to her, expose her your problems and ask her to help you. You'll soon discover that Lydia Darnet is a very shrewd woman whose experience and specialized knowledge will come very handy in your current situation.
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Madrid, Royal Palace
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4rd October 1825
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- Why would she agree?
Manuel de Godoy looked up from his papers and shot a disappointed if scalding glance at his secretary for Aristocratic affairs, Roberto Mureno y Diaz Solumbra. A man of huge social skills but still too narrow-minded for his boss' likings.
- Because she is smart and because she's gone the whole way to rebellion and back. She knows what you win and what you lose when you make bad social decisions.
- She's not socially shunned…
- Because nobody will ever risk irking one of the powerful males of her family. There's a lot of firepower behind that family. And huge economic strength. Nobody will ever again point at her scandalous past, but they will never forget it either. And she knows it as clearly as I do.
- And why would she be the key to our problem?
- Because she's the one who's exploded the doors and fought to get away from the weight of the famous names which were about to smother her. What will lead the Ton to frown at her, will push the young women of the family to admire her. And if my reports are reliable, Lady Jane Darcy is, as we speak, a very frustrated and every so often unhappy young woman who should, one day or the other, remember or be reminded that there is, within her own family a woman who has found it in her to throw away her social duties to live a life of freedom and adventure.
- Said life of freedom and adventure didn't end as well as she thought…
- And that's exactly the point, Roberto, that's exactly the point. Mrs. Lydia Gordon is incredibly happy with her present life, but she knows how unhappy she has been during her not so successful little stunts. She will, if we are able to convince her, be our best ally.
- How will we do that?
- How will you do that, you mean?
- I suppose that since you insist, I'll have to do it myself. How does your grace see my intervention?
- You have the list I asked you to compile?
- I do and I was as thorough as you asked.
- Which is an incredibly good thing, Roberto, how many did you find and what is your opinion about them?
- I did only find fourteen and not the score you wanted. But even fourteen was a real challenge. The last I choose was only chosen because the number thirteen wouldn't have been acceptable at all.
Manuel made great efforts not to snicker.
His real number had been a lot lower than the score he had asked Roberto to find.
Fourteen was a great number even if one of them was there because his man was as superstitious as everybody else in Spain.
- And they are all between the desired range?
- From twenty-five to thirty-two, your Grace. None of them has any physical defects and none of them is a known womanizer. They are, for the most of them a lot smarter than the average Spanish aristocrat while having all a real experience in managing an Estate.
He took a long breath.
- Most of them are very low Nobility but you said…
- Indeed, I said that titles weren't important but a title was still a necessity. How many Knights?
- Six, your Grace. The rest is medium to high Aristocracy.
- High?
- A Count, your Grace, the C…
- I don't want and don't need to know, Roberto. I don't want to have a say in what is about to happen to one of these men.
He stopped and shot an impervious glance to his follower.
- Roberto, you are about to bring that list to Mrs. Gordon and you will use your huge diplomatic skill to convince her that should she convince her niece to choose one of the men on that list, I will do everything that is my power, to get said man to become the Heir of the Spanish Throne.
For the first time since he had been chosen to compile the list of names Roberto did understand what was at stake. He knew, like everybody else in Spain that the King was a very feeble and gullible man who had been for years Napoleon's puppet.
Only de Godoy's permanent pesky insistence had been able to hold the Empire together. And they all knew that the very day the King died, Napoleon's attention would be immediately back on Spain. Even the fact that the King could adopt an Heir to be his successor hadn't been enough to calm down most of the Spaniards' fears.
There were, within the numerous Treaties signed by Spain with France, at least a dozen articles Napoleon could use to force another Heir on Spain. But if the chosen Heir was married to a Darcy, things would be a lot more difficult for the pesky French Dictator to get one of his brothers on the Spanish Throne. Napoleon wouldn't like it and was sure to retaliate but if the future Queen of Spain was a Darcy, everything was becoming, indeed, a lot more manageable…
De Godoy let out a long breath.
- It is not sure to be the solution, but it is the only ace we have in our sleeves. And you are the one who will be at the center of the survival of Spain's Independence. The Corsican Ogre won't be able to gobble us, for that it is too late. But he still could transform us into France's puppet. Go find the woman who will be able to save our beloved Motherland.
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Soon to come… A Chapter about Lydia Darnet's Matchmaker skills
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