Je T'aime. - Chapter 1: Chapter 1

I stood in the east drawing room of the palace of which I dwelled. I glanced up from the canvas on the easel in front of me and gazed out into the garden. With a sudden stroke of inspiration, I added a streak of color to my painting. My eldest sister Marianna leaned over my shoulder. "I like it, Mimi," she said, her eyes moving from the painting to the garden and back again.
"Thank you," I replied. "I hope I can finish it soon. You know how much Joseph loves this garden. I'd like to give it to him sometime. I know he wanted a portrait, but I just can't draw human figures that close."
Marianna sipped her tea. "I see. Well, practice makes perfect, right?" she said with a grin.
"Right." I turned back to my work again. I absent-mindingly reached over to clean my brush, catching myself before I filled my teacup with paint.
My other sister spoke up from her reclined position on the chaise lounge. "Maybe it can be a wedding gift from you. I'm sure he'd like that. That princess he's marrying- her apartments look pretty bare as of late."
I scoffed lightheartedly at my sister. "The wedding's tomorrow, Liesl. I couldn't finish it in time even if I worked all night. It's going to have to wait, I'm afraid."
Liesl smiled. "A christening present, maybe? I'm sure it won't be long after the wedding that we hear the pitter-patter of little feet around here. I've gone far too long without holding a baby."
Marianna rolled her eyes. "Maximilian is three. You're acting like you haven't seen a baby in 20 years."
"It feels like it!" Liesl exclaimed, before falling back into the chaise with a sigh. "Joseph is the heir to Mama's throne. He has to have heirs. What will become of the dynasty?"
"Well," I commented, "There are thirteen of us. If he doesn't have heirs, one of us will. Why do you think Mama endured so many labors?"
"It certainly won't be me," Marianna said. "I'm barely going to let Papa marry me off. I'm too sickly and deformed for any prince to want me anyways." I glanced over at my sister, my eyes catching on the strange curvature in her back that she had always loathed. Her lungs were left crippled, as well, after a near-death bout of illness three years ago. Mama always said that she had 'the lungs of a bird'.
"Yeah, and he'll let you. You know you're Papa's favorite. Like Mimi is Mama's," Liesl said.
"Oh, Liesl, hush. You know Mama loves us all. Her eldest son is getting the heir treatment right now. Her baby is a bridegroom," I rebutted. "If we're ever brides, we'll all get our days to be doted on."
"Who would you marry, Mimi?" Marianna asked. "Some foreign prince? I heard the Prince of Wales is a delight. Doesn't he have brothers? I bet he has brothers with hefty allowances and country houses. Or a Frenchman- you could live at Versailles! I've heard it's an artist's haven there. Or maybe-"
I let out a chuckle, stopping Marianna's rambling. "I'm only eighteen, Marianna. I have time left to think about it."
"Joseph's new bride is eighteen, and she's already been married by proxy and shipped all of the way from Italy." said Liesl.
"Oh, I know who!" Marianna exclaimed. "That friend of yours, the Prince of Saxony. What's his name? Augustus? Alfred? Adolf? He's an art collector, isn't he?"
"Albert. His name is Albert, you know this. He and I are good friends. He may be too low in rank for a marriage to ever be considered between us. He has three older brothers and his country is constantly at risk of invasion. Besides, aren't we cousins of some sort? His mother is Mama's cousin, right?"
"I don't remember being cousins stopping anyone," Liesel remarked from behind her teacup.
"True," I replied. I glanced out of the window and into the finely-manicured garden. I saw my brother, Joseph, a year my senior and a husband-to-be. He paced quietly back and forth, his head hanging low. He always paced when he was deep in thought. My hand lifted to the canvas, seemingly with a mind of its own. I began to sketch Joseph in the garden, his coat-tails lifting slightly in the breeze behind him. The darkened blue of his clothes and the bright hues of the garden's flora made the artistic side of my brain nearly dance.
Liesl leaned in the chaise and squinted at the figure in the garden. "Is that Joseph? He's pacing. What's on his mind?"
"His marriage, I'd assume," replied Marianna, coming to the window to look for herself. "He's never even seen this girl before. I'd hope he's written her a letter or two."
"What's her name?" I inquired. I haven't heard a thing about her besides that she's arriving tomorrow."
"Isabella," replied Marianna. "The Princess of Parma. Mama wanted Joseph to marry her to secure ties with France. King Louis is her grandfather on her mother's side. Her paternal grandfather is the late King Philip of Spain. Parma, from what I've read, is some little territory in the north of Italy."
"Quite the lineage. Hopefully she and Joseph will be happy together, and the marriage brings peace to the Empire. How long has the war been going on now? Four years?"
"Frankly, I can't remember a time where our Austria was not at war."
Liesl sighed. "I suppose, then, we shall have another sister by law. I'm sure Mama has room for one more daughter. There's only nearly a dozen of us!" My sisters and I burst into laughter.
"We'll just have to see how Mama reacts to marrying off her blessed babe. She will no longer be the most important woman in his life," Marianna recalled. "She prayed to Saint Joseph for a son nineteen years ago. Has she prayed for a good wife for him, as well?"
"I'm sure she has," I replied. As soon as I finished speaking, a little figure came rushing into the drawing room. In her favorite blush-pink dress, my youngest sister Antonia leapt up onto the windowsill. With a careless swing of her arm, she nearly sent my canvas toppling to the ground. Luckily, I was able to catch it. "Antonia!" I cried out.
"Sorry, Mimi!" she said, clambering across the windowsill. "I'm playing hide-and-seek with Ferdinand and Maximilian. They were gonna catch me!"
I looked down at my little sister, noticing the childhood wonder in her eyes. I couldn't help but let a smile cross my face. "Hide-and-seek, you say? Here," I ushered Antonia in front of my gown, so that she could hide behind the width of my skirts. "Now stay quiet." Antonia nodded and crouched down, trying to make herself as small as possible.
I heard footsteps coming from up the hall. Ferdinand and Maximilian ran into the room. "We know you're there, Antonia!" Ferdinand called out.
"Yeah, we'll find you!" Maximilian called in the same manner as his brother. It was quite amusing to watch Max act threatening as he toddled along.
Antonia stifled back a giggle from behind my gown. "Have you seen her, Mimi?" Ferdinand asked.
"No, I haven't seen Antonia all day," I lied.
Maximilian started bouncing up and down excitedly. "There she is!"
Antonia emerged from behind my gown and tried to make a run for it, but the doorway was blocked by the scowling face of the younger children's governess. "Ferdinand Karl, Maria Antonia, Maximilian Franz! I said no more running!"
"Sorry," all of the children said quietly.
"I'm sorry, Madame von Brandeis," I apologized. "We were just playing around."
"That's quite alright, Your Highness," replied the governess. "You're wanted in your apartments upstairs."
"Thank you," I waved goodbye to my siblings and went up to my apartments.
Hoping this wasn't anything too serious, I entered. Luckily the only one standing there was my handmaiden, Pia. She held up a gown of burgundy and gold. "Would you look at this thing! The seamstresses just sent it up for a fitting."
I ran the sleeve of the gown through my hand, admiring its appliques of golden lace crisscrossing the fabric. "This is quite fancy."
Pia began to unpin the dress I was wearing. "Well, it's an important occasion. The Crown Prince only gets married once."
"Well, that's not exactly true. But this is th first time."
"We all hope that it will be the only time. Otherwise these poor seamstresses will have to make you another fancy dress, at your mother's insistence."
I stood on top of a stool in my bedroom, as still as a doll, as Pia adjusted my gown. "This girl, Joseph's wife. She seems to be arriving with more excitement than any of my siblings' births," I commented. "She must be something special."
"Oh, yes," Pia replied. "All of the servants are worked up in a frenzy trying to get everything ready. But Joseph, after all, is the heir. This marriage means that the dynasty will continue. This girl will be the Empress someday."
"Dynasty, dynasty. You sound like Liesl."
Pia took a pin from between her lips and pulled a loose section of fabric tight. "Do you like this color? I made sure that you would be the only one out of your sisters wearing a maroon shade."
"I do, it's very nice," I examined myself in the mirror. "I would have never thought to try it."
Pia took a step back to examine me. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a golden ribbon. Standing on her tip-toes, she tied it in a bow around my neck. With a sudden spark of inspiration, she reached into my jewelry chest and pulled out a set of ruby jewelry set in silver- earrings, a bracelet, and a brooch. Pia placed them on me carefully before allowing me to step off of the stool and have a look in the mirror. "I love it, I love it! And with some pearls in your hair? Perfect!" Pia clapped her hands together in satisfaction.
I took a closer look at the jewels that decorated my wrist. "I think these were my grandmother's. Élisabeth Charlotte of Orléans."
Pia took a look at the jewels as well. "That's very sweet. A little old family to invite the new."
"You know, now that I've really processed it," I said, fiddling with the antique bracelet. "I'm nervous. I've known that Joseph was getting married for a year now, but I didn't really realize what it meant. I don't know anything about this Isabella girl. She could be a sweet, caring woman that would love and support Joseph and raise a family with him. Or she could be a woman that could pull the entire court to the ground and ruin our reputation. She could help strengthen the bond between Austria and France, or she could make the war worse. With the scale of the French military, they could destroy Austria. It would be the end of us to get on the bad side of the King of France. Joseph better not mess this up. He must be even more nervous and stressed than I am."
"I'm sure he is. But I know your parents would choose the perfect bride for him. I'm sure she's a lovely woman. We will just have to wait and see. Let's get all of this off of you and down to the seamstress, and you can head to bed. Get a good night's sleep, tomorrow's a big day."
With those words, Pia started to undo everything she put onto me. Even as everyone at court started to settle down for the night, thoughts still ran laps in my mind. This mystery girl, the granddaughter of two great kings, was powerful. So powerful that I could feel her presence when she was miles and miles away from the city. Little did I know that Princess Isabella of Parma would change my life forever.