There was silence for a bit and they could hear the people out on the street. It was a busy street.
Then Ron Sanderlin asked, “Isn’t Race Track City a little small to be a principality?”
“Yes. According to Amadeus’s dad, it’s going to be the smallest principality in Austria-Hungary.”
Suddenly Gayleen Sanderlin was laughing. Everyone looked at her and she said “Downtown Dallas,” then went back to laughing.
Hayley was totally confused. She knew that Dallas was a city back up-time. She was even pretty sure it was in Texas and she knew it had had a really good football team, but that was about it.
“Gayleen,” Ron Sanderlin said, “if you don’t tell us what’s so funny. .” Mr. Sanderlin stuttered to a stop, apparently unable to come up with an adequate threat.
“It’s an old joke,” Gayleen said. “It seems that these three Texas ranchers were taking a jet back to Texas from somewhere. Well, being Texans, they were bragging about their spreads. ‘I own the Circle W, fifteen thousand acres up near Brownsville.’
“‘That’s a right spread,’ says the second rancher. ‘Myself, I own the Bar X, thirty thousand acres up in the Panhandle.’” Hayley was surprised at how well Gayleen Sanderlin was doing the accents, but she was pretty much totally lost. Gayleen continued.
“‘That’s a fine spread, pardner. Fine indeed.’ Then he turned to the third man and asked, ‘What about you, pardner? How big is your spread?’
“‘It’s only a touch over ten acres,’ the third Texan said.
“The other two began to wonder if the fellow had snuck into first class, but they were friendly and didn’t want the man to feel bad, so the first rancher said, ‘Well, a small place can be right nice. What do you call your spread?’ The third rancher smiled a slow Texas smile and said, ‘Downtown Dallas.’”
All the adults cracked up but Hayley looked at Brandon who shrugged his incomprehension.
As the adults settled down, Gayleen continued. “I sometimes think in strange ways, so I always wondered how the richest rancher on the plane had ended up owning downtown Dallas. I guess now we know.” She looked over at Hayley, and seeing the confusion said, “You need to have a talk with Herr Doctor Faust about what he’s teaching your kids, Dana. Hayley, Dallas was the biggest city in Texas. . at least, I think it was. In any case, downtown Dallas was probably the most expensive real estate in Texas. Race Track City is actually bigger than Vienna, and we’re building it using up-time tech from the outset. Most of the buildings don’t have electricity, but all the ones that have been built since we got here are electric ready, plumbing ready, and natural gas ready. And even the ones that were already here, like our house and your place, have been retrofitted to handle them once we get them. So it’s a safe bet that this place is going to be really valuable in the next few years, and by the time your heir inherits the title, he or she is going to be like the owner of downtown Dallas.”
“That’s, in essence, what Susan told Amadeus’ dad while they were working out how to arrange things. You guys will have to agree, but let me tell you what Count Peter von Eisenberg suggested. First, Ferdinand III will be making you and Ron, as well as Mom and Dad, counts. And your place, and Mom and Dad’s, will be tax exempt from local taxes. After that, it’s your choice whether to take a buyout of the Sanderlin-Fortney Investment Company or to maintain your ownership in it. Considering what you just said, keep your share. The income will be considerable over the years. Brandon will inherit Mom and Dad’s countship, and Bob is going to be getting an imperial knighthood, which will also make his place tax exempt. Ferdinand is keeping the race track itself, and the stands and the shops. I, or rather the SFIC, keep the water park, and all the land extending southeast at right angles from the end of the canal to where it connects up to the river. That gives us a bit over one and a half square miles. Then there are your places in Simmering, and if the residents of Simmering agree, the whole village of Simmering and its environs. But they have to agree.”
“They will,” Dana said. “You know perfectly well that the villagers in Simmering have been calling us all von Up-time since a week after your gang arrived. They will love it.” Then Dana stopped and got a pensive look on her face. She reached over to the table and picked up a little silver bell and rang it.
Annemarie must have been waiting by the door considering how fast she arrived. “Annie, would you call Jack Pfeifer in? I think he’s going to go down in history.”
The maid blinked, then rushed from the room.
“What’s up, Mom?” Hayley asked.
“Well, the principality is going to need a constitution. Who else are we going to get to write it?”
* * *
It didn’t take long for the word to get around. It was barely evening before a delegation from Simmering arrived, requesting to be included in the new principality. Jack Pfeifer, not one to miss an opportunity, snagged the brewmaster of the Simmering brewery to be the Simmering representative to the constitutional convention. They based their constitution on two documents, the New U.S. Constitution with the modifications involved in changing it to a state in the USE, and the Magdeburg Charter, on which the status of imperial cities was based. Jack wanted to give Hayley a major role in the government of the new principality, but Hayley was having none of it. It all sounded like a lot of work, and she had other things to do with her time, she told them, thinking about Amadeus.
Liechtenstein House, Vienna
Gundaker von Liechtenstein didn’t react noticeably to the news that Hayley Fortney was going to be given that status he and his brothers had been working for their whole lives. That lack of rage bothered Karl. It made him nervous and troubled his thoughts. But there was a great deal going on. He had to get back to the Hofburg for the next round of meetings.
Sarah had left the negotiations to Karl, Judy, and Susan while she tried to figure out how much money to introduce to the Austro-Hungarian empire and how to do so. Karl thought she ought to use the money to buy back the patents that the empire had been selling since a few months after the Ring of Fire, but Sarah was thinking more in terms of low-interest loans to new businesses.
Karl said goodbye to his uncles and headed back to the palace.
* * *
“It does make sense,” Maximilian von Liechtenstein told his younger brother.
“No doubt it does,” Gundaker said. “Just one more perfectly logical betrayal of our family by the crown. We will be good little courtiers and kowtow to the daughter of a mechanic. I need some air. If you will excuse me, Maximilian.” Gundaker rose and bowed stiffly to his brother and left.
Maximilian watched his brother go with the same itch of suspicion that, had he known it, his nephew had had. But his reasons for not paying attention to that itch were different. It wasn’t that he didn’t have time. No. Maximilian simply didn’t want to know. Truth be told, he wasn’t a lot happier about the situation than Gundaker was.
CHAPTER 34
November 1635
Silver Depository, Vienna
Gundaker sat in the small office, going over the books. The sun had set and he was working by one of the up-time-designed down-time-made Coleman lamps. This one was made right here in Vienna by a burgher who had bought the patent. The factory that made them had been redesigned by Peter Barclay, who had wisely accepted payment of an interest in the shop. None of which mattered to Gundaker at all. What mattered to him was that he had excellent light to cook the books, and make it look like Lang had stolen quite a bit more than he had. It wasn’t all that hard. Change a couple of threes to eights, that sort of thing. Then the silver could wait in the vault till he needed it. There would be an audit after the new year, but by then he would have moved the money. Gundaker shivered from the cold and set back to work.