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Chapter 22

Grantville

Late 1636


“Good lord,” Hazel Patton said. Idelette Cavriani’s brother had actually gotten the cat. Or, to be more precise, he had gotten a wide selection of more or less Siamese-looking cats of French origin, several of them being uncut toms that she estimated to be three or four years old. With assorted females. And kittens.

She called Marsha Jones in as a consultant. Marsha took the polaroid photo back, looked at the eligible contestants presented for her review, and said, “Well, their markings do change as they mature and Saucy was just a kitten, still almost white when Becky took him. He only had pale outlines where the points would develop. I’m not real sure . . .  but that one there looks the most like Pitty Pat. Let’s go with him.”

Hazel officially declared “him” to be “The Cat.” That is, the official, genuine, article. The same kitten who left with Rebecca Abrabanel.

Marc got on the train to Magdeburg with the Official Siamese Cat in his cage and two of the prettiest kittens in smaller cages, radioed ahead so that Amalie Elisabeth would be prepared, and basked in the satisfaction of a job well done.

Marsha Jones firmly told Miranda that, no, she could not have another kitten. “In a few years, you’ll be going off to school or getting married and then where would I be? Stuck with your cats, that’s where!”

Denis handed over to Hazel Patton the male whose appearance she declared to be second most close to breed standard and therefore to be best utilized in her rebreeding program, as a token of thanks.

He then set out to sell cats, buoyed up by excellent marketing advice provided by Idelette Cavriani. Once he countered her wary, “I suppose you’re Catholic,” with a bright, “Oh, no, our branch of the family is Huguenot,” she threw herself unstintingly into Project Lemercier. By January, he was able to afford a semester’s tuition at the technical college.


Magdeburg

Early December 1636


There was a triumphant reception committee waiting for the train when it pulled in, including many ladies of high rank. The landgravine-regent of Hesse-Kassel formally received The Cat on behalf of Secretary of State Abrabanel and the USE government. Marc gave one kitten to a representative of Princess Kristina and the second, in heartfelt gratitude for their timely intervention in the October interview, to Charlotte and Philipp.

The newspapers went wild.

But, somehow, none of them ever mentioned Marc. As far as the public knew, The Cat had been delivered by an anonymous courier who had already left town before any reporter lined up an interview.

* * *

“The cat caper appears to have been a considerable success,” Leopold commented. “Although you might possibly have seen fit to mention it to me in advance.”

“There wasn’t anything else going on right then,” Marc countered. “It was something to do.”

“That involved going into Gaston’s France?” Leopold turned around again, continuing to pace the anteroom in the Magdeburg town house of Landgravine-Regent Amalie Elisabeth of Hesse-Kassel.

“Well, yes.” Marc didn’t say obviously, even though he thought it was fairly obvious, given that he had been and returned. “It wasn’t as if I needed to be conspicuous about it. No talking to important politicians. No getting in contact with courtiers. I didn’t even check in with Soubise.”

Leopold tilted his head to the side, one eyebrow raised.

“No, I didn’t. Not even with Raudegen. Nothing that would have drawn any attention to me on the part of Gaston’s surveillance operatives.”

“I’ll grant you that . . . ” Leopold started to say.

The door opened. “The landgravine will see you now,” her secretary said.

After all the demands of politesse had been satisfied, Amalie Elisabeth gestured. “Do sit down, please, both of you. This may take some time.”

Both men responded with half-bows and each took a chair. “You have summoned us because . . . ” Leopold began.

“I have heard that you received news from France, by a somewhat circuitous route, that might be of concern to the USE administration. As the Crown Loyalists are still not entirely within the emperor’s confidence, much less that of the Fourth of July Party, I am hoping . . . ”

“I am not certain, my lady. This came to us from Colonel Raudegen, who at the instance of Henri de Rohan is currently in the household of the duke’s brother Soubise and his sister, Mademoiselle Anne, in Paris. Rohan, of course, has borrowed Raudegen from Grand Duke Bernhard, so in a sense he monitors French developments, specifically Huguenot developments, for both of his superiors. The household is watched by Gaston’s men, of course. Raudegen sent the information encrypted, by way of my sister-in-law in Brussels, disguised as a portion of an ordinary banking transaction . . . ”

By the time the landgravine and his father finished being discreet with one another, Marc realized that, as a consequence of the success of his illicit escapade, he was about to be off to Brussels to see Aunt Alis, which would most likely be followed by off to France to check in with Raudegen, both of which errands were on an urgent schedule, which signified that he wouldn’t be going back to Besançon to see his almost-a-fiancée any time soon now, which meant that it would be some time before he could bring her to Magdeburg and install her in the landgravine’s household, even though Amalie Elisabeth had committed herself to make that happen at some future date. One that seemed to get vaguer and vaguer as the months went by. Which meant that the possibility of his actually marrying Susanna was floating off toward some foggy and undetermined future day. Again.

As soon as he and his father got back to their rooms, he scribbled a hurried note, addressed to his love in care of the duc de Rohan’s household in Besançon, and stamped it. That would have to do.

Upon hearing his son’s quite intentionally deep and melodramatic sigh of despair, which he was not about to take seriously for even one minute, Leopold looked at him. “No, it’s not easy for the girl,” he said. “It’s never been easy for your mother, either.”

“What?” Marc was a bit disoriented by the sudden new topic.

“That you are perpetually on your way to somewhere else. That I, all my life, have been perpetually on my way somewhere else. That I have hopped about all over the European continent, from pillar to post, from long before the Ring of Fire occurred and with no cessation since it happened.”

“I suppose that it always seemed normal to me.”

Leopold looked out the window. “My intention has always been to ensure, so far as I could, that in any given year, there would be some polity willing to serve as a refuge and sanctuary for those of my co-religionists who were in that same year being expelled from some other principality. If Gaston revokes the Edict of Nantes . . . There’s no guarantee that he will; we don’t have anyone sufficiently deep inside his close circle of advisors to know what he may or may not be planning, which is frustrating. But he’s well aware that it was revoked in that other future.”

He turned around. “Right now, in regard to the Huguenots in France, I believe that Hesse-Kassel is the best option. There are overtures from Ansbach, even from Solms-Laubach, but Hesse-Kassel is preferable. For one thing, it’s much closer to France than Ansbach and far larger than Laubach. It’s not just that the landgravine is herself Calvinist, but that she is anxious to promote economic development in the principality for the benefit of her son. The principality has instituted a form of primogeniture, so young Wilhelm will become the sole ruler in due time. Also for her other children, of course, but she is mainly anxious that Hesse will, in the coming years, maintain a position of influence within the USE. It’s natural. Claudia de’ Medici is seeking the same for Tyrol. The USE brings benefits, but unification also brings implied threats to the quasi-independence of the component parts of the realm, so it is only prudent of them to be alert.

“As for how her anxiety for Hesse may benefit us . . . Yes, the USE has a policy of toleration, but it really is not applied equally in all the component states and provinces. The northern Netherlands might provide refuge, but Frederik Hendrik has to balance thoughts of how many potential refugees, additional Calvinists and foreign ones at that, he could receive without upsetting Fernando. The current English regime is not favorable to those who might logically, and in practice would, ally with the Puritan faction. Poland is hopeless; Bohemia unpromising. The balance among the Swiss cantons is precarious and they have the immediate challenge of integrating the Swabian cities. Hesse, by contrast, is fairly close and apparently willing . . . though Ansbach would do in a crisis situation.”

Leopold turned around and leaned on the back of a chair. “So for the time being, do the landgravine’s bidding. Do Rohan’s bidding. Passing inconveniences for us and our family are minor, insignificant, compared to the catastrophes that might occur and which I dearly hope to avert. If you get discouraged, think back to how useful the information that you brought back from Naples was when it came to our assessing Spanish intentions. And hope that if Gaston fails, if a new Louis XIV ascends the French throne, that in another fifty years you will not still be crisscrossing the map of Europe looking for places that will accept Calvinist refugees.”


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Framed