Napoleon Bonaparte owned an English spyglass. Through it, he had viewed coastlines, mountains, trenches, and formations, but never the stars.
The Paris Observatory stood on the left bank of the Seine. Louis XIV had built it on the advice of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the Secretary of State for the Navy. Its first director had been Cassini, France's famed astronomer, who discovered Jupiter's four moons there.
It was dangerous to enter Paris from Versailles after nightfall, so Georgiana and Leon's "date" was moved to the Grand Trianon, to the glass-roofed room with the little warship.
With his head pillowed on her lap, he lay on the ship's deck and watched the stars filling the sky, saying not a word.
Paris was not the sea. He surely was not seasick as he had been when he last set out for Egypt, but she was not in the mood to speak to him either.
She read The Prince. The book was now difficult to find in either shops or libraries; perhaps only the Church and the Royal Library still had copies.
Later, he discussed the matter of trust and good faith with her. Monsieur Bonaparte believed that the highest art of politics was knowing not to go too far.
In history, Britain and France had never fully resumed normal trade after the Treaty of Amiens. France had already conceded the tobacco trade, and from Bonaparte's words, she could tell that Britain could not keep demanding more. Going too far was no longer the highest art of politics.
She did not blame Sophie, nor did she deliberately distance herself from Madame de Montesquieu. She acted as though nothing had happened and continued treating them as she always had.
Leon had actually opposed Montesquieu's views. Georgiana had not known that then, but after their conversation aboard