Re: Blood and Iron-Chapter 489: The Proposal Part II

Shortly after having his meeting with Karl, Bruno departed for his home in Tyrol. There was no reason to extend his meeting beyond business. At least not in the Hofburg where he was only just barely welcomed as a result of Karl's forgiveness.

But others in that ancient palace still bristled at his presence. And frankly, Bruno never felt comfortable in the halls of old monsters; men whose power had been won by more subterfuge and skullduggery than history cared to admit.

Thus, he was on the first train out of Vienna, and it was not long after Karl and Bruno's meeting that the Archduke of Austria returned to his cousin, Sophie von Hohenberg. Sophie was the eldest child of the late Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg.

While Franz Ferdinand had once been heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, his marriage had been morganatic, permitted, but politically disqualifying. His wife, born of Bohemian nobility, ensured that their children would inherit neither title nor succession rights.

Their assassinations in Sarajevo in 1914 at the hands of Young Bosnia, backed covertly by the Black Hand and the Serbian government had sparked the Great War in both this life and Bruno's previous one.

The royal couple left behind children too young to comprehend the consequences. Sophie, barely on the cusp of adulthood at the time, had been the eldest.

In the years since, Karl had done everything he could to protect Sophie and her brothers. But that protection, however well-meaning, had an expiration date. As Sophie neared full adulthood, the threats became more real, and Karl could no longer guarantee their safety.

That was why he had sought out Bruno. Sophie knew this. She had sensed what her cousin was planning. And though she waited patiently for a word, she had convinced herself that Bruno would decline.

A man like him was powerful, calculating, and always strategic, naturally he would have no reason to accept. I mean how could he? She and her brothers quite literally had no title, no wealth, no legitimacy to offer him.

So when Karl knocked on her chamber door and entered with a face not of defeat, but joy, she was caught off guard.

"He accepted," he said softly.

Sophie blinked, barely able to process the words. She sat down slowly, the weight of it all settling over her like a heavy cloak. She had convinced herself the proposal would fail, and had refused to think through what it might mean otherwise. But now?

Now she was flooded with uncertainty. After a long pause, she managed to ask the only question that seemed to matter in that moment.

"The boy… how old is he?" freewēbnoveℓ.com

Karl's face shifted. He had expected this. And he answered with all the delicacy he could muster.

"He's young," Karl admitted. "Younger than your brothers. A child, at the moment. But in a few years, when he reaches the minimum age… the marriage will be legal."

Sophie turned away slightly, eyes drifting downward to the embroidered silk on her bedspread. Her voice, when it came, was quieter, tinged with hesitation.

"Wasn't there anyone else? Someone... closer to my age?"

Karl sighed, sitting beside her. He reached for her hand with the gentle reassurance of someone who had long acted as both guardian and confidant.

"You have to understand, Sophie. Bruno's family is the true power behind the Kaiser. The military reveres him. His connections stretch across Europe. His wealth dwarfs even what our family once had at its peak.

The mere mention of his name silences entire empires. His son's age might seem problematic now, but Josef carries his father's protection. That makes him the only viable candidate. For you. For your brothers."

Sophie let out a bitter, choked laugh; half mockery, half resignation, as she squeezed Karl's hand. A single tear slipped down her cheek, a silent lament for better times lost to the chaos of life and the evil that men do.

"Goddammit, Karl… You know I can't keep sulking once you bring those two little brats into the picture." She shook her head, then straightened, her tone hardening. "Fine. I'll marry the boy. I've endured worse than gossip and the slander of petty women. Thank you... truly. You have no idea what it means that you'd go this far for us."

Karl put an arm around her shoulder, exhaling with relief. He honestly thought that upon learning Josef's age the girl would reject the betrothal outright.

"You'll be safe now. Truly safe. And no one, no matter how well-connected, will ever dare touch you or your brothers again."

He let the moment linger before adding,

"Bruno wants the two of you to meet. Informally. He's arranging a lunch, when the time is right. He believes in building ties through real connection, not just cold politics. He's a bit strange in that regard...."

Sophie raised an eyebrow. Perplexed that Bruno would be such a man. Especially with the rumors she had heard of his character. She had thought there was nothing to him but ruthless logic.

Karl smiled faintly, already well aware of the girl's thoughts, and managed to break the tension by playfully flicking her between the eyes.

"I know what you've probably heard about him. But if the reports I've received are accurate... he may remind you more of your father than you'd expect. Especially in how he raises his children."

Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, "And for what it's worth... his wife, the Princess Consort of Tyrol? She's of common birth, or at least something akin to it. Their marriage was morganatic too."

Sophie's eyes widened slightly. The Angel of Berlin—so often upheld as the very image of noble grace, was not noble by blood? Or was there more to the story, something that was better left unsaid even here, in private?

After all her cousin's particular choice of words hinted at this possibility, but she dared not have such thoughts, instead she thought that perhaps the rumors about Bruno's tyranny were exaggerated.

Perhaps, just perhaps... his children were not raised in the image of some monstrous patriarch, but by a man who believed in love, loyalty, and legacy in equal measure.

She said nothing more.

But something in her heart, long frozen by grief and fear, began at last to thaw.