Working as Stearns’ Secretary of State, however, had disabused him of whatever notions he’d had then. He’d found that the USE’s prime minister was as shrewd as any political leader in Europe, shrewder than most-and probably more far-thinking than any other. He had no intention of telling anyone-certainly not his own family-but he’d already decided that when the time came to vote for a new prime minister, he’d quietly vote for Stearns rather than Wilhelm Wettin. He disapproved of some of the up-timer’s policies and had doubts about many others, but of one issue he was now certain-the position of the USE in its dealings with other powers was safer in Stearns’ hands than it would be in any other’s.
“Smaller all the time,” he said. “There are three critical factors, and they all work in the direction of peace-even, I think, toward a final settlement.”
“And they are. .?”
“First, the threat from the Ottomans. Which seems to be growing again. Second, the advice he’s getting from Janos Drugeth.”
“Which we know about because. .”
Hermann grinned. “Drugeth keeps warning him, but the new emperor still has the habit of speaking in front of servants. Some of whom-two, I believe, although Fernando is evasive on the subject-are on our payroll.”
Stearns chuckled humorlessly. “It’d probably be better to say, on anybody’s payroll. But those two factors have been there for some time. What’s the third one?”
“This one is new. It seems-I say this partly from the reports Francisco Nasi gets from Vienna, but also from word that comes to me through my own contacts-”
That meant other noblemen to whom Hermann was related in some way. Which, given the realities of aristocratic intermarriage, included a good chunk of Europe’s entire upper crust. Mike Stearns had realized long since that European noblemen were every bit as sloppy about blabbing stuff to each other as they were about blabbing it in front of menials.
“-that the influence of the up-timers who moved-and are moving-to Vienna is growing faster than I’d ever have expected. I’m not sure why, but the fact of it seems certain.”
He had a bemused, almost mystified expression on his face. Mike managed not to laugh, or even smile.
CHAPTER 16
March, April and May 1635
The Hofburg Palace, Vienna, Austria
Emperor Ferdinand III wasn’t thrilled with the letter from Wallenstein. He looked at the two Liechtenstein brothers sitting across the table in the private audience room, and gestured with the letter from Karl Eusebius. “What is your nephew up to, gentlemen?”
“Walking the tightrope?” Maximillian von Liechtenstein said. “When we set up the family charter, it gave Karl and his heirs much of the control over the family estates. Karl Eusebius is trying to follow enough of the rules to keep that agreement from ending up in the courts while at the same time protecting the family’s assets. Just in case.”
“We can, Your Majesty, convince Karl Eusebius to provide more funds. I’m sure of that,” Gundaker said. “But that sort of thing is best done face-to-face.”
Moses Abrabanel snorted. “The princes Liechtenstein are well known for their wealth. However, I doubt that every groschen of it is enough to handle the problems we have today.”
Ferdinand III said, “Every little bit helps, Moses.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. But to solve the problem, we have to start creating money.”
The uproar this caused filled the private audience room, but Moses overrode the noise. “I am less concerned with getting Prince Karl here than I am with getting Sarah Wendell to Vienna. Up-timers still have great cachet, after all. And Sarah is an acknowledged expert in the field of economics. She does work for the USE Federal Reserve Bank and her father is their Secretary of the Treasury.”
“You’re saying that if we got her to endorse it, we could print more money without a larger silver reserve?”
“Yes, I think so.”
Ferdinand III looked at the advisers, Moses Abrabanel, Gundaker and Maximillian von Liechtenstein, and Reichsgraf Maximillian von Trautmannsdorf. “So you all think I should accept Prince Karl’s credentials as ambassador from Bohemia?”
The men around the table nodded.
Higgins Hotel, Grantville
“Maid of honor,” Judy the Younger squealed. “Me? I thought sure you’d ask someone else.”
“You’re my only sister,” Sarah pointed out, trying to sound regretful. “Now, if I’d had another sister. .”
Judy tossed a pillow at her. “You know you love me.” She hesitated a moment. “What about your other bridesmaids?”
“I really don’t know,” Sarah admitted. “Who’s going to be able to travel all the way to Vienna? Most people I know are up to their eyeballs in work.”
“What about us?” Judy stopped a moment. “The Barbies, I mean. We’d love an excuse to travel, you know.”
“Eek!”
“Oh, don’t be pretending to scream,” Judy said. “You know we can be. . well, act. . really presentable when we want to.”
“Yeah, maybe. It’s getting you guys to want to that’s the problem.”
“Seriously, Sarah. I’d really like something for us to do that’s out of Grantville. Vicky took Bill’s death really hard. And if we don’t get Susan away from the old. . cats. . in Grantville, she’s going to explode. Even with all the uproar after Mayor Dreeson was killed, those old bats keep after her about her mom.”
Sarah fully understood that, considering Velma Hardesty’s reputation as a man-eating slut. “Actually,” Sarah said, “having Susan in Vienna might be a very good idea.”
“Take one, take us all.” Judy laughed, but there was a catch in her voice. Even Judy was shaken by the deaths of Mayor Dreeson and Bill Magen and she knew that.
“Hush. I said that because I know that Karl’s family is going to be looking for money. Susan is the best of your crew when it comes to holding on to money.”
“I think she’s got the first dollar she ever made,” Judy said. “She’s afraid to let go of any of it. Well, except for what she invests. She doesn’t think that’s spending it.”
“And she’s right. But Karl’s family isn’t looking to invest it. They’re looking to loan it to the emperor.”
Liechtenstein House, outside the Ring of Fire
“So how are we going to get there?” Susan Logsden asked. “I have no desire to repeat Hayley’s trip to the frontier in a covered wagon.”
“Vienna is hardly the frontier, Susan,” Karl complained.
“You’re right. It’s past the frontier, well into Injun country,” Vicky said harshly. “But my point is, I have no desire at all to spend weeks in a covered wagon, squatting in a field to do my business. I am a child of civilization.”
“Well, you can stay home if you want,” Sarah said repressively.
“Nope. Got a letter from Hayley. She needs us, so we’re going, even if we leave the Ken Doll here in Grantville.”
“Not a chance,” Sarah said.
“I’ll arrange transport,” Karl said.
“How?” Sarah asked.
“I have no idea, but I’ll think of something.”
* * *
It took Karl two days to think of that something, and the expense of several radio calls back and forth to the Netherlands. But he got the loan of one of the Jupiters from Fernando, King in the Low Countries. Happily, the royal Netherlands airline had two Jupiters currently in service so they could spare one for a week or so. King Fernando might not have agreed on his own. He tended to hoard his beloved new aircraft the way dragons of legend hoarded gold. But Karl suspected he’d come under considerable pressure from his wife. Part of the arrangement was that Karl would bring letters to deliver to her family from Queen Maria Anna.