‘Napoleon!’ Josephine sat up in alarm, staring across the room to where her husband stood gazing up at the sky as the lace curtains billowed round him like a shroud. His hands were clutching the window frame and he did not move, or respond to her. Throwing back the bedsheet, Josephine snatched up her silk gown and slipped into it as she hurried across the room and took his arm.
‘Napoleon? My love.’
The rain was sweeping in through the window now and he blinked as if recovering from a trance, and looked at his wife.‘What? What is it?’
‘Close the window. Close it and come back to bed. Before you catch a chill.’
Josephine gently drew him away from the window and closed it behind them, securing the latch firmly. Outside the rain pattered off the glass, streaking the view of the gardens as they were brilliantly illuminated by lightning again, before the thunder crashed out over Paris. Napoleon walked slowly back towards the bed and climbed in under the sheet, while Josephine lay down on the other side and then edged across so that she could cradle his head against her breast.
‘What’s worrying you so?’ she asked softly.
Napoleon was silent for a moment, his eyes wide open and staring at the gilded mouldings on the ceiling. His brow furrowed slightly. ‘There is going to be another war. It cannot be avoided.’
‘We are already at war. Unless the British have changed their minds.’ He smiled her light-hearted tone. ‘We are always at war with Britain. I’m talking about Prussia. I thought we’d humbled them for some years yet. Seems that I hadn’t counted on that vixen wife of Frederick William’s. He is a weak fool and Talleyrand can play him like a fiddle. But that Queen of his, Louise, is made of tougher material. She has been agitating against us from the moment the peace treaty was signed.’
Josephine smiled, and wound one of his dark curls around her little finger. ‘You should never underestimate women, my love.’
Napoleon’s gaze flickered away from the ceiling and he tilted his head round so that he could look into her eyes. ‘I know. I made that mistake once before.’
Josephine felt an old anxiety well up in the pit of her stomach as she recalled the affairs she had conducted while Napoleon had been away campaigning in Italy and then Egypt in the early years of their marriage. She had nearly lost him when Napoleon discovered her infidelity.There was a quick flicker of anger as she recalled that he had been unfaithful himself.Then the thought was banished and she turned her mind back to Prussia as Napoleon continued.
‘I had thought the Prussians lacked the nerve for war.There we were, on the eve of Austerlitz, and the Russians and Austrians thought I was as good as beaten. It was only then that the Prussians decided to throw in their lot with my enemies and demand that I let them broker a peace. And after Austerlitz?’ He sniffed with contempt. ‘Frederick William sends me his congratulations on a magnificent victory.The man has the heart of a mouse. He could not sign a treaty with us fast enough.At one stroke of the pen I had humiliated Prussia and left Britain to continue the fight alone . . . And now my spies tell me that Prussia is planning to make war on France. Why? Why do they want war?’
Josephine tugged his hair gently. ‘Perhaps because you humiliated them too much.You might have heeded Talleyrand’s advice and treated them more leniently. I’m no diplomat, but I would have thought that another nation is more likely to remain an ally if it is treated well, rather than having its pride ground underfoot.’
Napoleon rolled over and propped himself up on an elbow so that he could look down at his wife. ‘I treated them as leniently as they deserved under the circumstances.’
Josephine raised her eyebrows. ‘You might think so, but from their point of view the treaty might not look lenient. I think that’s your trouble, my love.You cannot see the world through other people’s eyes. You live only for your ambitions, and are inclined to treat others as a means to that end. Talleyrand is always telling me that there can never be a lasting peace while nations are unwilling or unable to see things from each other’s perspective.’
‘Talleyrand.What does he know?’
‘More than enough to make a fine statesman. Otherwise you would not depend upon him so much.’
‘I do not depend on him at all. I do not depend on anyone,’ Napoleon added coldly, and then his mouth flickered into a smile. ‘Except you, my darling. And as you pointed out, you are no diplomat. You could not understand such affairs. Prussia, and the other powers of Europe, resent the dominance of France.They resent me.They will not be won round by reason.They must be controlled with an iron fist, and once they know the limits of my tolerance and abide by them, then we shall have peace.’
‘Perhaps this peace of yours will, in their eyes, look like subjugation.’
‘It is possible. But that is not important. As long as they do as I wish they can have their peace.’
Josephine smiled. ‘That is precisely the kind of imposition that they resent so much. Why, take that business with Hanover. That’s typical of the way you treat other nations and why we are surrounded by wary enemies rather than allies. First of all you offer Hanover to the Prussians to bribe them to stay out of the war with Russia and Austria. Then, when the British approach you about holding peace negotiations, you go behind Frederick William’s back and offer Hanover to them as a bargaining counter.’
‘It was a rational enough move,’ Napoleon protested.
‘Really? And did you not consider the possibility that the British would inform Frederick William of your duplicity? How indignant, how angry do you think such a ploy might make the Prussians? Or did you think they might see it as a rational enough move as well?’ Josephine shook her head. ‘Sometimes you shock me, Napoleon. You make your grand plans with so little regard for the opinion of others. And now, as a consequence, you face dragging France into another war.’
‘I do not drag France. She goes willingly wherever I lead her.’
‘I think you will find that many of the people are considerably less willing than they were.’
‘That is not true.’
‘Because you say so? On what evidence?’
‘I have the evidence of my own eyes, Josephine. Wherever I go crowds cheer me.’
‘Of course they do. They could hardly do otherwise with Fouché’s men scouring the streets looking for any signs of disloyalty as an excuse for arresting your political enemies.’