"No, Mama, I won't marry him!" A young girl in a pale green dress of an old-fashioned Rococo style screamed without the slightest ladylike restraint. "I hate Louis, and Louis hates me too. Have you all lost your minds? This will only bring disaster!"
Smack! A resounding slap landed on the girl's face. Josephine's face was filled with fury; she looked like a lioness about to pounce.
"Don't make me do what other mothers do and have your ladies-in-waiting watch over you until you board the wedding carriage," Josephine said.
As if she no longer recognized Josephine, the girl covered her slapped cheek and looked at her with tearful eyes.
From their conversation, Pomona figured out who the girl was.
She was Napoleon's stepdaughter, Josephine's daughter from her previous marriage, the future mother of Napoleon III—Hortense de Beauharnais. And the Louis they had mentioned must be Napoleon's younger brother, the future King Louis Bonaparte of the Netherlands.
"I am a person, not one of your jewels," Miss Beauharnais said tremulously. "You have no right to do this."
"Of course I have the right, because I am your mother!" Josephine snapped, then sat back down on the sofa. "You may leave now!"
Crying, Miss Beauharnais turned and left her mother's receiving room.
While no one else was paying attention to her, Pomona hurriedly pulled down her hood, letting the Invisibility Cloak conceal her, and followed Hortense out.
They passed through the renovated corridors of Tuileries Palace, which now vaguely bore the style of the Imperial era, and arrived at the main hall. From there, they went out into Tuileries Garden, where quite a few young people were strolling beneath the sun.
Women's fashion had not changed much yet, but men's clothing had changed drastically. Besides officers in uniform, there were young