There was a loud noise in the study room of the Austrian country manor.
Next to the rickety desk, stood a middle-aged man wearing a military uniform. At this moment, his originally stern face was flushed with anger, and his breathing was trembling. There was no sign of the majesty of an army commander on his body.
There is only the rage of a father when his daughter is insulted.
Not only was he so angry, the Grand Duchess Henrietta standing next to him also had an ugly face, turning red and white, and her eyes that were always very gentle were also a little overwhelmed at this time.
The reason why this distinguished couple was so angry was a newspaper lying on the desk. The newspaper had been crumpled into a ball, and it was obvious how ravaged it had been.
After the initial anger gradually faded away, Archduke Karl looked around and seemed to subconsciously want to find someone to scold. However, his reason quickly told him that the person he wanted to scold was not around, and might even be there.
There was no chance to scold him, which only added to his anger.
Veins suddenly appeared on his forehead, and he cursed fiercely.
"He is a born Frenchman. He has learned how to find a lover before he ascends to the throne!"
After cursing loudly, he felt that it was not enough to express his hatred, and then slammed the table again, "I have said before that he is a ruthless and ruthless libertine. Why don't you believe it? Do you see it now? I see it.
Come on! He has no qualms about embarrassing Teresa and embarrassing us!"
The more the Grand Duke scolded him, the more uncomfortable he became. Precisely because he was powerless at the moment, he hated his careless son-in-law more and more.
It’s no wonder that he was so angry. Just recently, as Aiglon patrolled France, news about him gradually spread to Austria. Out of concern for his daughter and son-in-law’s family, the Grand Duke and his wife naturally
Pay attention to it.
However, what they didn't expect was that among the numerous reports in the newspapers about the King of Rome's parade, news about a strange woman appeared from time to time.
Soon they all knew the name and origin of this strange woman.
They discovered even more painfully that during this high-profile parade, the princess was enjoying the courtesy of a queen calmly and swaggering around with her son-in-law. And the French people wherever they went also
They were not surprised at all. They were cheered and applauded everywhere, and every activity and speech they made was described in vivid detail in the newspaper, as if she really was the queen.
What kind of transgression is this?
Moreover, the etiquette issue is secondary, and more importantly, where is Teresa placed? She loves her husband so much, but she has to watch another woman follow her husband everywhere in the style of a queen.
, how much resentment must have accumulated in her heart?
When parents think of this, they can't help but feel dizzy with anger.
Because Teresa had never told anything about Agnes in front of her parents, they naturally guessed that this young lady "quickly" recommended herself to the pillow mat in the short time after the Agrons returned to France.
to the future emperor.
Naturally, they were also full of disgust towards Agnes, whom they had never met before, and felt that she must be a shameless aristocratic lady who was greedy for wealth and honor. Anyway, there was no shortage of such women in the court who wanted to rely on their bodies to gain power.
However, the more they hated each other, the more the couple felt that they were powerless.
Now that the son-in-law has grown up and has a country as his backing, he is completely confident. Even if he and his wife have high status, how can they possibly shake the ruler of France?
Anger and helplessness left the couple at a loss for what to do.
After venting for a while, the Archduke finally regained his breath and cursed again, "Albrecht has been writing to us these days, but he has not mentioned a word about this matter and has kept us in the dark.
Behind the scenes... this bastard son has learned how to play tricks with his parents!"
"This must have been specially ordered by Theresa." Madam replied in a low voice, "With Abbott's character, he will definitely write us a letter to explain the situation. Since he didn't, he must have been under pressure from his sister."
The lady's words woke up the Grand Duke. He was stunned for a moment, and then his expression changed from anger to helplessness and regret, and then he let out a long sigh.
"It's pitiful...but what can be done? She chose everything by herself, and now she can only reap the consequences."
The lady couldn't help but sigh for her daughter's misfortune.
And unlike her husband, she not only felt pain and regret for her daughter, but also had another regret - she had always supported the marriage between her daughter and Duke Lechstatt. In her opinion, His Highness did
He was the best match among Teresa's peers. Although the twists and turns of their marriage were uncomfortable, it also added a bit of legend.
This was originally such a legendary story, just like the one she read in books when she was a child.
It was precisely because of her doting on her daughter and her approval of this love that she took the lead in turning against her daughter, and in turn helped her daughter put pressure on her husband, which ultimately led to Teresa going abroad to get married.
She also personally presided over her daughter's wedding, so you can imagine how much she had looked forward to this marriage - but what happened now was like a bolt from the blue, and she was shocked.
Of course, now that the incident has happened, no matter how angry and cursed it is, it will not help. The most important thing now is how to solve this problem so that my daughter will not become a laughing stock all the time.
"My dear, don't be angry, now we have to think of something for Teresa." The lady persuaded her husband.
"What can we do?" the Grand Duke asked. "What can we do? I'm just a retired old man. Can I stop him from doing what he wants to do?"
"Stop being angry!" The wife couldn't help but glance at her husband, and then expressed her thoughts in as calm a tone as possible, "First of all, we have to find out what the actual situation is. You also have to admit that today's newspapers have always been in order to sell sales.
He likes to exaggerate, so maybe these reports are not true?"
"You are really good at comforting yourself!" the Grand Duke sneered, "Do these French people dare to risk their lives to talk nonsense in the newspaper? When did your son-in-law have such a good temper and let others arrange him at will?"
This rhetorical question really hit the point, so much so that Mrs. Henrietta was at a loss for words, but she still stubbornly shook her head.
"No matter what, based on my understanding of His Highness, I believe that he would not deliberately humiliate Theresa in front of everyone... Although he is indeed selfish, he will not reach that point. He has always been interested in Theresa.
Didn't Sarah get along very well with him? When she brought François back to visit her relatives, her happy look was definitely not fake..."
The madam's excuses finally made the originally angry Grand Duke feel a little better. However, he was still upset at this time, his mind was very confused, and he couldn't think of any coherent ideas, so he asked himself again irritably.
's wife.
"Okay, let's figure it out. How should we figure it out?!"
"We can't ask Theresa directly. She will definitely be very sad and angry. We first write to Albrecht and tell him that we already know the news and are very angry with him for not reporting the information. If he doesn't want to
If you come back and be imprisoned, tell us honestly everything you know -" Madam continued following her own train of thought, "After figuring out the situation, if everything is an exaggeration by the newspaper, we will treat it as if everything is an exaggeration.
It didn’t happen…”
"Then what if all this is true?" the Grand Duke asked.
"If all this is true, I will personally write to His Highness to advise him not to make such mistakes again." The lady answered her husband directly, "I want to tell Your Highness that although he is young and energetic,
It is human nature to be easily seduced by beauty, but can a woman who falls into his bed for power and money be a good thing? She is just a careerist who wants to follow the crowd. Is it worth destroying the couple's relationship for this? In the future, they will
There are still decades of mutual support as a couple, so don’t ruin it all just because of a moment of confusion..."
"That's too polite of you!" The Grand Duke protested dissatisfied after hearing this, "Besides, would someone like him take your words seriously?"
"We are all a family, so of course we have to be polite when we speak. If I speak too harshly, it might trigger His Highness's rebellious attitude and feel that we are dictating to him, which will make it more difficult for Teresa to deal with, right?
?" Madam disagreed, "Furthermore, I believe that with His Highness's mind, he can clearly distinguish the pros and cons. If a young man does something stupid for a while, we can tolerate it, right?"
Hearing that such an outrageous thing was written lightly as "a moment of confusion" in just a few sentences by Madam, the Grand Duke felt a little bit dumbfounded.
However, after thinking about it, he found that he seemed to have no better way - after all, his son-in-law was about to ascend to the throne of God. He could do almost anything he wanted, and there was nothing he could do to stop him.
Moreover, other people will not care about this kind of romantic affair. After all, for a king, "personal style issues" are not a problem at all. Maybe the kings of various countries are happy to see this young emperor indulge in the gentle land.
Don't cause more trouble for Europe...
In the end, the only ones who were hurt and humiliated were my family.
"If you want to write, just write. I won't write. If I write to him, I'll keep him and scold him to death!" After pondering for a long time, the Grand Duke could only reluctantly agree with his wife's opinion.
"Okay, stop being so murderous. The situation is not that bad." Madam glanced at him again, "Your Highness has always had a bit of a poet's dissolute attitude. Occasionally he is fascinated by wild bees and butterflies.
It's not unimaginable... I believe he will come to his senses soon. Where in the world is there a better queen than our daughter? He can finally think about all this clearly and then make a choice."
The Grand Duke wanted to refute, but he didn't know how to refute his wife's words. In the end, he could only say it with a mixture of ridicule and helplessness.
"You're nicer to him than your mother."
"Of course, if I really had such a son, I would be extremely happy." Madam ignored the sarcasm and instead chuckled, "Don't tell me, I'm afraid Louisa will be there now.
She is thinking secretly, how should she face her son? How could she have imagined that her son would have such achievements!"
"What else can she think? If she continues to stay in Parma, is there a chance she can go back and become the Queen Mother?" Archduke Karl replied coldly, "But I think Metternich may let her serve as both sides in the future.
Let’s communicate with an intermediary.”
Under Madam's deliberate guidance, the topic between the couple finally moved away from the extremely unpleasant place just now.
Although she was shocked and angry when she heard the news at first, for the sake of her daughter's future, she did not indulge her anger, but carefully thought about what to do from her daughter's perspective.
From the fact that "Teresa deliberately prevented her brother from complaining to his parents", the wife judged that Teresa wanted to resolve the matter herself, and did not want to intensify the conflict between the couple because of her parents' intervention - which was precisely because
In this case, the wife did not want to reprimand her son-in-law for his wanton behavior with strong words, but wanted to explain the situation to her son-in-law gently and earnestly, and use tenderness to help this erring child learn to return from the wrong path.
When Aiglon was still in Austria, she was particularly fond of this child, and because of his special situation, she also devoted some maternal love to him. Therefore, like Theresa, she hoped to solve this problem calmly.
After all, there is still a long time for their two children. This small episode is nothing compared to the difficulties they have overcome before. She believes that as long as she makes everything clear, this storm will soon be over.
It will pass.
After all, like Theresa's brother Prince Albrecht, the Grand Duke and his wife were angry that Aigron found a lover just after returning to the country, but what they were even more angry about was that he did it in such a high-profile manner that his mistress took the spotlight.
He stole the limelight from his daughter and committed the crime of transgression.
Both the couple came from royal families and royal families since they were young, and their mentality is naturally suitable for this. To them, the so-called princess is just a higher-level servant. Even if His Highness is temporarily entangled with that princess
, but it’s just to have some fun.
As long as you "return from your lost ways" as soon as possible, this won't be a big deal.
After the couple discussed the matter, Archduke Karl began to write a letter to his son who was far away in Paris.
According to his wife's idea just now, he first reprimanded his son for not reporting what he knew, and then ordered him to immediately tell his parents everything he knew.
However, it was still difficult to eliminate the resentment in his heart. He thought this offense was simply unforgivable, so he couldn't help but add another sentence at the end of the letter.
"When you see her, tell the lady in private that getting carried away will only bring disaster to you. Don't forget the fate of Louis XV's lovers! In order to avoid being bored and having no place to live, save some time in your work.