“Oh, no!” Judy complained theatrically “Vicky’s found another gun nut.” Everyone laughed, mostly at Judy’s tone.
“Connoisseur!” Vicky corrected. “A gun connoisseur.”
Judy put her face in her hands, histrionically, then laughed. “Fine, but go downriver a little way, so we can hear ourselves think while you assault innocent trees.”
Marton looked up. “You know that’s an excellent idea. Your Grace, may we borrow your boat for an hour or so?”
Leo was surprised at the request. Still, it was more than a year since Polyxena had been executed by Maximilian of Bavaria. He looked at the girl again, noting that she was the one on the twelve groschen note. She probably wasn’t after his money. And as for his title, he had effectively bought it. “Certainly, Count. Enjoy yourselves.”
As it happened, Rudolph and Millicent went with Marton and Vicky, so propriety was mostly observed.
They spent the afternoon nibbling and chatting. All the while, Leo watched Judy. She was amazingly graceful and the sun shone on her auburn hair. Her short sleeves showed her arms to advantage. She had a wide smile that no painting could capture. It lit her face and seemed most inviting. Leo was more and more anxious as the day wore on to accept that invitation.
His eyes were drawn to her when, three hours later, the boat got back, and they trooped aboard to head back to Race Track City. Leo’s eyes were captured by the motion of her bottom as she climbed the gangplank.
On reaching Race Track City, as the girls were disembarking, Leo grabbed Judy Wendell and pulled her in for a quick kiss, more in the way of a promise of things to come than any-
Suddenly he was bent over, with his gonads screaming at him, and from what seemed a very long way away, he heard Judy Wendell saying, “I am not one of those cases where it is better to ask forgiveness than permission. I do hope you will remember that in the future.” Then she turned and walked away. Down the gangplank, one of the guards made a move to stop her, but there was Vicky Emerson with her gun out, not pointed at anyone right now, but that could change in an instant, as she had demonstrated that afternoon. All this was no more than peripheral to Archduke Leo’s universe, which was still quite concentrated on the pain emanating from his groin.
Royal Steam Yacht, the Docks at Race Track City
The men-young and old-who had been on the cruise were all agog, Carla noted. The women, on the other hand, had immediately formed into an almost military solidarity. And Vicky wasn’t the only one holding a gun. Millicent Anne Barnes was too, and so were Hayley Fortney and Trudi. Gabrielle wasn’t showing one, but she had a hand in her purse and so did Susan Logsden. Not knowing what else to do, Carla put her hand in her purse. Not that there was a gun in there, but female solidarity was clearly the way to go here. She followed the rest as they walked down the gangplank and headed for Race Track City. Carla didn’t look back, as tempting as it was.
* * *
Marco Vianetti, who commanded the Archduke’s guard, almost ordered the young women arrested. He didn’t for several reasons. First, of course, was the fact that at least two of them were showing arms-and quite deadly arms at that. He wasn’t sure that an arrest attempt would be met with force, but it would be really easy for things to get out of hand if the young women were pushed. That kept him from acting for long enough for his brain to catch up. He knew that the young ladies were of such a status that arresting them would cause problems for the crown, even if no one ended up dead. They weren’t being any sort of threat to anyone. Not even the archduke anymore. All the damage there was already done. While he was thinking that through, the others reacted and he saw that, too.
* * *
Dr. Faust looked at the brother of the Austro-Hungarian emperor, who was bending over and holding his balls, and had a decision to make. This was his stop. He was the tutor to Hayley Fortney, and if he didn’t go ashore he would be arraying himself against her. On the other hand, it was quite likely that following the girls down the gangplank would be seen as aligning himself with them against the imperial household, and for a man in his position that could be horribly dangerous. All that ran through his mind in an instant and the decision was made before he even knew it. He was walking after the girls, not because they were his employers, but because they were right. Archduke or not, Leo bloody well should have asked.
He was pleased to see his friend Jack Pfeifer walking beside him.
He didn’t see Archduke Leo standing up, but the rest of the men in the party did.
* * *
Count Marton turned to Archduke Leo, bowed and shrugged, then turned and followed the girls off the boat. Amadeus, seeing his brother-in-law’s action, suddenly realized that if anyone tried to arrest these girls in a foreign land like Maximilian had arrested and executed Polyxena they would have to go through Marton to do it. He remembered Polyxena. Flighty and irritating as she could be, she was his sister and he wished someone had been there to stand by her. He followed his brother-in-law off the royal steamboat almost hoping someone would try something. He didn’t even notice Rudolph and Julian dithering.
Moses Abrabanel didn’t dither at all. He didn’t even bow to the duke. He simply left the boat. Had he done otherwise, he was convinced that his deceased wife would come back to haunt him.
* * *
Archduke Leo was embarrassed, in pain, and more than a little pissed off at the public humiliation more than the pain. He turned to the captain and said, “Let’s go.”
In moments the boat was steaming back for Vienna.
Docks at Race Track City
“Are you insane?” Hayley hissed at Judy. “That guy you just kneed in the nuts is two heartbeats from the Austro-Hungarian throne!”
“Calm down, Hayley,” Judy said. “I know what I’m doing.” Which was, in a way, perfectly true. The action hadn’t been planned, not at all, but Judy did have an instinct for social situations. And, after the fact, she was even pretty good at figuring out why she had done what she did. She hadn’t exactly figured it out yet, in this case, but she was sure she had a good reason. And suddenly she knew what that reason was. Her reaction wasn’t even mostly about Archduke Leo, who aside from the Cyrano de Bergerac nose and the pale blotchy skin, wasn’t even bad looking. Well, not that bad looking. But he had grabbed her without asking, in public, as though he had a right to. And her reaction was a precedent. A precedent that was going to affect all the Barbies. She had had to make it clear that no one had the right to mess with a Barbie unless she gave prior consent.
“It’s a status thing. We aren’t peasants.” Seeing the look on Hayley’s face, Judy quickly expanded on her first simplified thought. “I’m not endorsing the down-timer attitude toward peasants, Hayley. No more than I’d endorse a hurricane or an avalanche. But refusing to endorse something doesn’t make it cease to exist. The down-timer attitudes are there whether we endorse them or not, you know that. So like the hurricane or the avalanche, all we can really do is get out of their way.”
“What down-timer attitudes are those?” asked Marton von Debrecen, who apparently had good hearing.
Judy turned to him. “The whole notion of good blood and not good blood, the judgment by blood that is common in this century. We can’t make that belief go away because everyone we have met in this century has had it, at least to an extent. The reason that Archduke Leopold felt that he had the right to grab me was the belief that his blood and birth entitled him. But, he wouldn’t have tried it with another archduchess, because her blood and birth would have protected her. I can’t change that. All I can do is make it clear that he’s not entitled to me. He’s going to interpret that to mean that my blood protects me.” Judy shrugged. “There’s not much I can do about that. But Trudi’s a Barbie too, so she gets some of that protection. And Gretchen Richter, in her own way, is making it plain that her something-certainly not blood, but something-makes it unwise to start feeling entitled to her. It chips away a bit at the entitled notion. It will be a generation or more before it’s seriously diminished. In the meantime, I have to look out for myself and my friends. That means making sure that when someone draws a rank line, my friends and I are on the right side of it.”