On the international express to Venice, they had once passed through Nurmengard.
Did Austria have a Ministry of Magic?
After all, only a small number of German nobles had come to this gathering. This was Belgian territory, after all. Georgiana spent the next while greeting the Belgian ladies, and the sight reminded Pomona of Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, a runaway princess who shared a one-day romance with an American reporter.
Pomona had bought a bottle of perfume at the British Museum called One-Day Lover. It commemorated Antony and Cleopatra, not Caesar and Cleopatra.
Which of these two Roman men who had appeared in her life mattered more to her?
Whenever her gaze occasionally swept across the crowd, she hoped a man in a golden mask might appear. Unfortunately, this was not a Bal Masqué. Everyone attending wore full formal dress, and some had even put on their sashes.
These people were passersby in her eyes, but was she not likewise a passerby in theirs?
If not for Louis XIV, someone of her status could never have appeared as the "hostess" at such a grand occasion. This should have been Josephine's "stage."
Josephine understood better how to use charm to make herself popular. When she had been a commoner, she had thought welcoming guests was basic courtesy. Yet Joseph II had received a cold reception in Belgium; the Belgian people did not welcome him.
This had nothing to do with courtesy, but with attitude and position. The Belgians did not want to take part in the "Cabinet War" between Austria and Prussia, yet they had no choice but to provide sufficient troops.
Belgium was not a fief. Even the dukes' territories had been granted to the lords as occupied lands.
What they wanted was a happy life. Mechelen liked Margarita