The dusty Count Torres arrived at the Rose Garden in the evening of the next day.
As soon as he saw Elizabeth, he cried exaggeratedly with snot and tears in front of Sean, the palace guards who followed him, and a group of senior palace servants, as if he was the only remaining loyal minister of the royal family:
"Your Highness Princess, you are so ruthless and rude, which makes Your Majesty and the Queen worried. Because of your leaving without saying goodbye, Your Majesty's old problem of angina relapsed, but you don't have to worry too much. When I left the Holy City, he had already
I have recovered a lot. But the noble Queen was so worried that she shed tears all day long. Your Highness, I apologize for being rude, but you are too impulsive!"
"God bless, His Royal Highness Philip received the letter from the Earl of Rocky Mountain and informed His Majesty that Your Majesty ordered me to set off south immediately. You see, I didn't dare to stop along the way. I couldn't eat well, couldn't sleep well, and lost weight.
Several laps. Almighty Lord, you look good, what a blessing!"
"Okay, Count Torres, I'm fine. Please don't worry, I will go back to the Holy City with you." Elizabeth quickly resumed her status as a princess, her tone a little cold.
Seeing how easily he persuaded the princess, Torres was heartbroken.
You know, it is not a strange thing for Elizabeth to leave the palace, because she has countless criminal records and often sneaks out of the palace to play, but she also knows how to behave and never spends the night outside.
When Elizabeth's maid could not wait for her return that day, she knew something was wrong and had to report to the Queen in panic.
The queen was horrified. In addition to imprisoning all Elizabeth's servants, she immediately mobilized the palace's personal guards and servants to quietly search throughout the city, but found nothing.
At this time, even Carlos II panicked, but out of royal dignity and just in case, even though he was the emperor, he did not dare to send people to search in a big way. In addition to the existing manpower in the palace, Carlos II
Let the secret police act as the main force in tracing people.
After all, the disappearance of a princess will always cause unnecessary misunderstandings and rumors. Moreover, the royal family has found the letters left by Elizabeth. She ran away from home.
But whether it was Carlos II or Joseph Frank, they focused on the Holy City and the capital, and they would never have thought that Elizabeth would go so far this time.
Half a month passed, and Elizabeth must have been in bad shape in the eyes of everyone who knew about it. As Count Torres said, the emperor had relapsed, and the queen was crying all day long, but she couldn't make a big splash.
It was not until Philip Soren received Sean's personal letter that the royal family hurriedly sent Count Torres south.
Despite Sean's explanation in the letter, the Royal Family was still inevitably full of doubts about Sean's explanation.
Carlos II himself believed that Sean might have bad motives, and even thought that Sean had planned a vicious incident of kidnapping a member of the royal family.
It's no wonder that Carlos II thinks so maliciously. Not long ago, he made Sean suffer unjust injustice, and Sean is still unmarried.
Therefore, Count Torres, the Lord Keeper of the Seal, was called to the royal court by Carlos II before he left, and he explained in detail: in case anything bad happens, the reputation of the royal family must be the most important thing.
No matter how willful Elizabeth was, and no matter how dissatisfied she was with her marriage, she was filled with regret when she heard that Carlos II had relapsed because of her willfulness.
Therefore, she offered to go back with Count Torres.
Torres took out a fine silk handkerchief and wiped his tears, and quickly regained his graceful demeanor in front of the foreign minister:
"Earl Connery, on behalf of His Majesty and the Queen, I would like to thank you for taking care of the Princess. In addition, His Royal Highness Philip asked me to express my personal gratitude to you in person on his behalf!"
"I dare not, this is what I should do as a vassal. Salute His Majesty! Salute the Queen and His Royal Highness Philip!"
Sean bowed his head in salute.
"But..." Torres changed the topic, "I came here with great fanfare, and I'm afraid I will fall into the eyes of someone with an intention. I would not regret dying, but the safety of Her Royal Highness the Princess is closely related, and you must know that the rebels have been very active now.
"
"Please rest assured, Lord Privy Seal, except for this rose garden, no outsider in Poitou knows that Her Royal Highness the Princess has lived here for a month." Sean said.
He was also implying that the reputation of the royal family would not be affected by this.
"As for your personal arrival, you are actually here to inspect the construction progress of the new iron-clad cargo ship!" Sean added.
This diverted Torres' attention, because it was directly related to a big business in his family's future. Count Torres asked happily:
"Count, this is really a great news. You must know that now that ocean transportation is cut off, the empire is in urgent need of armored cargo ships with strong defensive capabilities. It is our duty as servants to meet your majesty's needs."
"Master of the Seal, I would be honored to invite you to visit Kangshi Shipbuilding when your body recovers from the fatigue of the journey, and sincerely request you to give us your valuable opinions after visiting the shipyard!" Sean said.
"Haha, let's do it tomorrow morning, I can't wait to see that iron guy." Torres was very happy with Sean's flattery.
Having said that, Torres still used the dinner to ask indirectly how Elizabeth came to Poitou. After all, this was the top priority assigned by the emperor.
Elizabeth has nothing to hide. She only thought of Poitou because of Rose. Coming here was purely accidental and her willfulness. As for Rose, she was the lover of the Earl of Rocky Mountain. This was purely accidental, so Your Majesty guessed
Wrong.
At this point, Torres breathed a sigh of relief.
He had been walking around the palace for a long time, dealing with dignitaries, and could easily tell that Elizabeth was telling the truth. Because he was happy and relaxed, Torres drank two more glasses of fruit wine.
This trip to Poitou is not an easy task for anyone. After receiving the order, Torres headed south as fast as possible. The hard journey along the way almost killed him. Once he relaxed,
He, who had always been pampered, only felt sore all over.
Damn fish monster!
If the sea traffic was calm, the journey south would be much more comfortable. But when he thought about seeing the expected new cargo ship tomorrow, Torres seemed to see countless gold coins.
The next morning, Sean personally accompanied Count Torres to the shipyard.
Governor Byrne and Mayor Stanley received the news from Sean and waited early at the door of the shipyard.
The two of them did not know the true purpose of Torres going south, thinking that the Lord Privy Seal was only concerned about his family's business. But for whatever reason, the name Torres was worthy of their careful attention.
Stanley was obviously more attentive. He even promised in front of his superiors that he would do his best to support the expansion of Kang Shipbuilding and provide as much help as possible to promote the construction of new cargo ships and contribute to the empire's great cause of defeating the fish demon.
Stanley's unusual behavior made Byrne a little surprised, because in Byrne's impression, Stanley was an experienced bureaucrat, very smooth and sophisticated, and would never make such a low-level official mistake in front of a superior officer.
Sean and others accompanied Count Torres aboard the Rocky Mountain parked next to the dock.
The main power equipment of this cargo ship has been installed, and several short-term sea trials have been carried out with the help of tugs. Currently, the installation is being carried out intensively, that is, the rudder, anchor, life-saving auxiliary equipment and internal facilities are being installed.
After installation and debugging are completed, the actual sea trial will be carried out.
Sean boasted very much about this new cargo ship, although now looking back at its original design intention, there are still imperfections. These imperfections can only be perfected when the next ship is built.
Byrne and Stanley were also generous with their compliments, which made Torres very satisfied. The Earl did not know how to build ships, but his strong and slender body represented a powerful force in his opinion.
That night, Count Torres drank a few more drinks because he was happy, so he had to stay at the nearby Grand Hotel Poitou.
Stanley was busy and very attentive. He took the job of Torres's servant. After Byrne left, Stanley found Sean.
"Congratulations, my Mr. Mayor!" Sean smiled.
The initiator was of course Sean, who encouraged Stanley to compete for the governorship of Javia. By coincidence, Count Torres came to Poitou at exactly this time, as if it was an appointment.
This is also Stanley's ambition. Audrey's analysis is completely correct. Stanley really wants to be the governor. He has successfully attracted Sean's attention, and Sean is ready to help him realize his ambition.
The position of this court count is that of Lord Privy Seal. As the name suggests, he is one of the most trusted ministers around Carlos II. In fact, he is an advisor. Taking his path is the shortest way.
Stanley was excited and confused:
"My Earl, Your Excellency the Lord Privy Seal wants this number!"
Stanley held out a palm, which meant half a million gold louis. Half a million dollars was exchanged for a governor, which was said to be the market price, but that was the price of the governorship of a wealthy province.
This half million is not impossible for Stanley to come up with, but it will definitely break his muscles and bones and severely weaken his vitality, unless he is prepared to be a corrupt official and plunder a lot in his future office.
"I'll spend the five hundred thousand!" Sean said directly.
Stanley was secretly happy in his heart, but asked cautiously:
"I wonder what the count expects?"
"I hope Mr. Stanley can turn our neighboring province of Javia into another Genoa!" Sean said, "I have a dream that all the land belonging to Europa will be covered with black railroad tracks; all the land of Europa,
The roar of steam engines can be heard everywhere."
"I also hope that one day in the future, I can take a train directly from the capital of Javia to Poitou to visit my friends. And you, the respected Earl of Rocky Mountain!" Stanley said, "I promise!"
"Believe me, future Governor, that day will come soon!"