Je T'aime.

XXXVI. The Garden

The first days of April came with surprising warmth, the kind of warmth that made you crawl out of your winter cocoon and dig for your lighter petticoats. But Vienna pulled this trick every year. The warmth was not to last- another week, and winter would return with snapping cold.

It seemed as if the court had felt this new energy, too. Ever since my mother's assassination attempt, or "the incident" as everyone eerily called it, most of the court had kept themselves isolated from the world beyond the palace gates. But the warming sun must have awoken something in them.

Though the incident did leave a scar on me, rationally there was nothing left to fear. The assailant, a Croatian radical, was tortured for information before he was hanged, his body burned to ash and dumped in the Danube, never to be recovered. He was gone. But yet the fear still lingered. Isabella said that four years prior, her grandfather the King of France was stabbed by a crazed anti-monarchist, but luckily managed to live. I could feel that something wasn't right.

On a strangely warm day in early April, Marianna and I decided to take tea in the gardens. We stepped out of the palace, fresh air hitting our skin. It seemed as if the whole court had the same idea- the gardens were filled with courtiers out for strolls, taking tea, and playing in the lawn.

Marianna took a deep sigh. "This is nice," she said, gesturing out to the full and gleeful gardens before us. "Such a shame that it won't last."

"Every year this happens, and every year is the same," I shrugged, noting how freely my shoulders felt without a shawl wrapped around them.

"Oh, wonderful!" Marianna exclaimed, beckoning me to follow her. "There's Isabella and Eleanore!"

I glanced over to an open place on the lawn underneath a tree's reaching branches. Isabella and Eleanore were seated on a picnic blanket, tea and other pickings laid out around them. Isabella had an open book lying in her lap. As we approached, Isabella lifted her head from her read. "Ah, there you are!"

"Such a lovely day," Marianna said as she lowered to sit beside Eleanore. She winced with the turbulent movement, but continued anyways. "The weather will be good for my bones, I hope."

Isabella immediately reached for my sister. "We could get you a chair if-"

"No, no," insisted Marianna, waving away Isabella's concern. "It's fine."

I came and sat beside Isabella, adjusting my skirts. Isabella looked to me with a kind of knowing smile, like there was a sentence caught under her tongue. Then, shoving back whatever emotion was bubbling near the surface, she reached for a slice of bread.

"I think this is the finest day I've ever experienced in Austria," said Eleanore. With every syllable she spoke, her pearl-drop earrings moved with the motion of her head. "It'll take me quite some time to adjust to the climate here. Back in Spain, and even in Italy, we would have been on the beaches by this time of year."

Isabella rolled her eyes. "You liked to be out on the beach at this time of year. The water is always freezing until at least May."

"I've never been to the beach," I admitted as I poured myself a cup of tea.

Eleanore gasped. "Oh, how I pity you, querida. How could you never have-"

"Austria's a landlocked country, Eleanore," Isabella smiled warmly and placed her hand atop mine. "It'll just be another stop on our trip."

Eleanore raised a brow with curiosity. "Trip? What trip?"

"Well, one of these days," Isabella explained, "We're going to take a trip to visit my family at Versailles. But a stop at the coast won't be too out of the way."