Chapter Summaries

Georgiana endured Paulette’s insults at dinner before leaving without eating, while considering how a light-based signaling system could help warn Paris of floods. Paulette demanded that the Paris Agricultural Association move its meeting place, and Dermide asked Georgiana to return the next day.

• Paulette blamed Georgiana for not separating Dermide and Achille during their fight, and Georgiana grew angry at being treated as a mere governess.
• Georgiana recalled the 1910 Paris flood and considered using the Sharp system at Saint-Sulpice Church to transmit river-level warnings when roads and telegraph stations failed.
• Paulette discussed Madame Lebrun’s estranged daughter with Joseph, and Georgiana’s cold reply chilled the dinner conversation.
• Georgiana left the dining room without eating, and Bougainville followed her as her guardian.
• Dermide clung to Georgiana’s skirt and asked whether she would return the next day.
• Paulette objected to the Paris Agricultural Association meeting in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and demanded a new location, while Georgiana left with a bottle of Champagne.

Georgiana mapped out a river-monitoring and intelligence network while discussing France’s regions and political divisions with Bonaparte. He asked her to persuade Murat in Milan, gave her the necklace she had designed, and stayed to study maps as she proposed making a relief map of France.

• Georgiana studied Paris and the Seine, then proposed small hydrological stations that could monitor floods and pass intelligence.
• Georgiana reviewed Limoges’s history and Toulouse’s Royalist influence, and wondered who was monitoring the secret police’s former post along the Garonne.
• Bonaparte opened the Champagne, questioned Georgiana’s plans for transmitting intelligence, and described how cannon fire had carried messages at Mantua.
• Georgiana admitted she had warned Fouché and asked whether she could teach Dermide the Homeric epics; Bonaparte asked her to persuade Murat in Milan.
• Bonaparte gave Georgiana the finished peridot and tiger’s-eye necklace and continued studying maps while she reported on regional power balances.
• Georgiana proposed carving France’s terrain into a large wooden relief map, and Bonaparte told her to discuss it after she had made it.

Georgiana arranged flood-control preparations and made plans for the expanding government offices before leaving for Italy. She reflected on the political and economic pressures surrounding Bonaparte, ending with the belief that forces would restrain him and that he should remain an undefeated general.

• Georgiana halted the Rue de Castiglione renovation and redirected sand from Place de Grève into flood-control sandbags.
• Georgiana planned for hydrological stations and a communications department, but the staff refused to let her give up her room.
• Georgiana considered the dangers of secret political messages and recalled Bernadotte's Royalist sympathies and journey to Rennes.
• Georgiana examined the cotton trade, Irish textile technology, and American plantation owners' resistance to surveying their land.
• Georgiana reflected on property rights, American independence, and the fate of Louis XVI before concluding that forces would restrain Bonaparte.

Georgiana weighed her ties to Paris against her desire to leave, amid Bonaparte’s building projects and the unrest surrounding veterans, foreign influence, and political factions. After settling her final affairs at the Seine River Administration, she headed for Bagatelle Garden, reluctant to leave but determined to preserve the journey as a precious memory.

• Bonaparte ordered Fontaine and Percier to begin building an Arc de Triomphe, while their plans for Rue de Rivoli and Rue de Castiglione required extensive construction and steel.
• Georgiana considered the risks of maps being sold to bankers, the fate of former soldiers in Paris, and whether she had any reason to remain involved in the city’s troubles.
• She thought about changing her route to Milan and leaving France by ship, while reflecting on Bonaparte, Murat, and the political factions around them.
• Georgiana settled her final affairs at the Seine River Administration and left for Bagatelle Garden, looking back at Tuileries Palace before turning toward the road ahead.

Georgiana reflected on abandonment, war, and the losses Bonaparte and others had suffered before meeting a British sailor named John at Bagatelle Garden. After he questioned her relationship with Mr. Smith, she warned him of a trap involving Gibraltar, and then followed an animal’s cry.

• Georgiana surveyed Bagatelle Garden and considered the damage, the neglected racecourse, and the costs of war and abandonment.
• Georgiana took out her wand, reconsidered her anger at Severus, and then lowered it when she noticed a British sailor watching her.
• John introduced himself and said his men had nearly betrayed the man he had been unable to accompany.
• Georgiana warned John that his meeting was a trap and told him the Spaniards intended to seize Gibraltar.
• John asked whether Georgiana loved him and whether she was Mrs. Smith or Mrs. Sèvres, then left the racecourse.
• Georgiana angrily sent a huge splash erupting from the Seine, heard a cry from an animal, and went to investigate.

Georgiana arranged renovations to the Ministry of Magic and selected designers and engineers for projects in Paris. As she prepared to leave after an upcoming party, she continued making final appointments for the city’s works.

• Georgiana rejected Rabastan’s suggestion to move the Ministry of Magic and ordered it moved underground, while warning him to avoid Muggle wars.
• Georgiana left the Architecture Academy crowd and commissioned Albert Thomas’s glass-dome design, instructing him to report to the Seine Department.
• Georgiana selected Maurice Ramazzi to design carved wood decorations and chose a bird-and-flower wallpaper design for her study.
• Laplace presented the young talents who had solved his problems, and Georgiana assigned Navier to the Seine River Administration.
• Georgiana returned to the greenhouse to pack her luggage before leaving Paris after the party.

Georgiana prepared to leave for the Mediterranean and accepted Mary, the surviving relative of the man who had saved her life, as a maid. At the Seine River Administration, she watched Mazzi test a Fresnel-lens signaling system and exchanged a coded message with Napoleon before checking her letter-security records.

• Georgiana packed for the Mediterranean, bringing two sets of men's clothes and reflecting on her unfinished work in Paris.
• Mazzi arrived at the Seine River Administration with Mary and asked Georgiana to take her with her.
• Mazzi demonstrated a candle-and-Fresnel-lens communication experiment and asked Georgiana to write to Napoleon.
• Mazzi relayed Napoleon's message, “Paradise,” and Georgiana replied with “Acadia,” which she explained meant Utopia and was also Hermes's birthplace.
• Georgiana found a partly burned letter among her luggage, returned it to a drawer, and showed Mazzi her notebook of stationery serial numbers.

Georgiana warned officials about the Seine's low water, advised where to build an opera house, and discussed public works and finances with Laplace. When Dubois reported a rebellion in Milan, she decided to change her travel route, but Laplace reminded her that she could not intervene without orders.

• Navier arrived with Laplace, discussed his limited grasp of fluid mechanics with Georgiana, and hurried away after Laplace dismissed him.
• Georgiana warned the hydrological station about the Seine's dangerously low water and advised Fontaine to build an Italian-style opera house at Grand Châtelet Prison.
• Georgiana discussed the Court of Audit, construction budgets, and the independence Richard Trevithick and his team needed with Laplace.
• Dubois told Georgiana that Milan had rebelled and urged her not to visit Lombardy for pleasure.
• Georgiana ordered Aligi and Bougainville to change the route, but Laplace cautioned that she could not intervene in Milan without orders.

Georgiana weighed whether to intervene in the worsening situation in Lombardy, while Laplace urged her to stay calm and assess the risks before acting. She prepared herself to keep Leon Sterndale calm as she considered whether to travel with Paulette or cross the Alps to intervene.

• Laplace questioned Dubois about the pamphlet, then explained that the French police could not act in the Southern Alps Republic without Napoleon's authorization.
• Georgiana considered Murat's authority in Italy and concluded that he would listen to Polina because she was Caroline's sister.
• Georgiana reflected on how panic, public rumors, and unreliable evidence could distort judgment, and weighed the risks of intervening in Lombardy.
• Georgiana returned to her suite, observed the newly arrived maids Mary and Oksana, and thought about the risks they had taken.
• Georgiana lay down, calmed herself, and focused on keeping Leon Sterndale calm.

Georgiana reflected on the dangers of her proposed farmer-loan scheme and decided to stop trying to change events and follow her original plan to travel to Italy with Polina. After David visited, Laplace took her to meet Alexander von Humboldt, leaving her anxious but curious about the encounter.

• Georgiana considered how Cartouche's gang, debt, and the proposed farmer loans had shaped France, and recognized that her own scheme could cause serious harm.
• Georgiana renamed the demolished Grand Châtelet Prison the Châtelet Opera House and resolved to follow her original route to Italy with Polina.
• David arrived and showed Georgiana sketches of Napoleon, including one he hoped to use for a large portrait above Vulcan's fireplace.
• Laplace invited Georgiana to meet Alexander von Humboldt, and she objected because she felt unprepared.
• Georgiana explained that the Humboldt Current contributed to drought along Peru's coast, then left with Laplace to meet Humboldt.

Georgiana traveled with Laplace to meet Alexander von Humboldt, while considering how scientific work and political interests could intersect. The chapter left Humboldt presenting geological evidence to Georgiana, as Laplace suggested introducing him to the First Consul and she avoided answering.

• Georgiana rode through Paris with Laplace and considered agricultural lending, trade, and plans to improve the meridian survey with more triangulation networks.
• Georgiana arrived at Alexander von Humboldt's home, where municipal guards kept passersby back, and met the scholar in his book-filled rooms.
• Alexander von Humboldt showed Georgiana an Andean condor and discussed its flight and the fossils he and Bonpland had found in the Andes.
• Laplace quietly suggested that Georgiana introduce Alexander von Humboldt to the First Consul, but Georgiana avoided answering and drank her tea.
• Alexander von Humboldt went to another room to fetch evidence for his theory about the fossils' origins.

Georgiana met the returning explorer Alexander von Humboldt and considered housing his collections at the Jardin des Plantes, then inspected a theater for her planned Sun City. After receiving an intimate letter from the First Consul and meeting Pérouse, she felt that someone wanted her dead and asked Laplace to take her to Polina’s.

• Georgiana learned how Alexander von Humboldt and Bonpland had traveled through Spanish America and completed extensive research before returning to Europe.
• Georgiana and Laplace visited a circular theater beside the Champs-Élysées that its owner planned to use for a panorama of the Battle of the Pyramids.
• A soldier delivered Georgiana a love letter from the First Consul, and she learned that he had sent Pérouse Guillaume Joseph to report as Vulcan Palace’s cashier.
• Pérouse described his service under Estève, Kléber, Desaix, and Menou, prompting Georgiana to recall the expedition to Egypt and Kléber’s assassination.
• Feeling that someone was aiming to kill her, Georgiana asked Laplace to take her to Polina’s residence.

Georgiana visited Polina with Laplace, Pérouet, and Augereau, discussed gas lighting and General Leclerc’s belongings, and learned that the army had experimented with optical signals. The chapter ended with Georgiana startled to hear that French forces had used hot-air balloons, including in Egypt.

• Georgiana discussed installing gas lamps with Polina and agreed to review the plans and safety requirements before renovating their homes.
• Polina gave Augereau a bronze lamp, while Georgiana told Pérouet to keep General Leclerc’s belongings with her and Laplace advised asking the First Consul about possible classified materials.
• Georgiana mixed water into her wine, and Laplace followed her example.
• Pérouet told Georgiana that he had experimented with transmitting signals using light, and said the army had used hot-air balloons, even launching one in Egypt.

Georgiana discussed military signals, navigation, and the Earth’s irregular shape with Alexander von Humboldt, then reflected on her unease and lack of control over her movements. She wrote a letter proposing that her journey begin in Milan and return by ship, but still needed Paulette’s cooperation.

• Georgiana learned about military communications, magnetic coordinates, and methods of measuring the Earth through her conversation with Alexander von Humboldt.
• Georgiana considered Humboldt’s account of earthquakes and recognized that her own sense of danger had made it difficult to feel secure.
• Georgiana sat apart from the others after dinner and began composing a reply while they kept Polina company.
• Georgiana stopped herself from describing the Alps because the chasseurs protecting her were there, then proposed Milan as the journey’s first stop and asked to return by ship.
• Georgiana sealed the letter with her wild bull crest and planned to ask the municipal guard to deliver it before figuring out how to persuade Paulette to cooperate.

Georgiana received Bonaparte’s orders concerning Italy and prepared to travel there with Augereau, but three men attacked her outside a jewelry shop. The gendarmes captured the assassins, and Georgiana left Paris in the carriage, unsure where to go next.

• Georgiana visited Polina with Augereau and agreed to help him choose a piece of jewelry as a gift.
• A cavalryman delivered Bonaparte’s letter, which ordered Georgiana to secure a stable government in Italy and gave her authority over the Southern Alps Republic’s Council of State and police.
• Georgiana and Augereau bought a necklace for Polina and planned to visit the Italian Embassy.
• Three assassins attacked Georgiana outside the jewelry shop, but Augereau fought them off until the gendarmes arrived and captured them.
• Georgiana questioned the captured men, who accused her of corrupting the city and harming its economy, then got into Laplace’s carriage and left.

Georgiana reflected on Napoleon’s political plans for Italy and the uncertain prospects of trade around the Red Sea, then prepared for an afternoon party. The chapter left her choosing to wear a pink dress because Napoleon liked it, despite her dislike of it.

• Georgiana woke at the Jardin des Plantes and dismissed the previous night’s attack by three Muggles as a failure of the municipal guard’s defenses.
• Georgiana considered Napoleon’s plans for Italy, where Murat, Aligi, and Julian Ouvrard were handling business that was also family business.
• Georgiana noted that Home Popham had secured trade only with the Sultan of Aden and doubted he would succeed elsewhere around the Red Sea.
• Bertin presented Georgiana with a pink Ionian dress and reserved the purple one for Princess Polina.
• Bertin showed Georgiana a finished tailcoat, and Georgiana learned that Cambacérès took musk medicine despite Napoleon’s warning.
• Georgiana chose the pink dress because Napoleon liked it, though she did not want to wear it.

Georgiana prepared a speech for Milan and received a British passport under the name Georgiana Smith, along with news that Padma was safe and Home Popham was under investigation. Sir Merry warned that England would not protect her or take responsibility for events in Milan, and Georgiana planned to leave France the next day.

• Georgiana drafted a speech about legal procedure and extradition before Oksana announced a visitor.
• Mr. Merry gave Georgiana a passport using the name Georgiana Smith and told her Padma was safe.
• Mr. Merry gave Georgiana an interrogation record about Home Popham's past and current investigation.
• Mr. Merry warned Georgiana that, as a stateless person, she had no British protection and that England would disclaim responsibility for what happened in Milan.
• Georgiana told Mr. Merry she would leave the next day, then studied Roman property law and went to check the venue preparations.

Georgiana weighed legal safeguards and practical preparations for her trip to Italy while encountering Dr. Deyeux and a hostile American Scourer. She left the greenhouse for the Botanical Library after recalling something about the procedures in Italy’s final witch case.

• Georgiana considered how first trials and appeals should work, especially for foreigners, and reflected on the danger of unjust judgments.
• Dr. Deyeux approached Georgiana and suggested that she take a doctor to Italy to promote smallpox inoculation; she said she would consider it and walked away.
• Georgiana encountered Fourcroy and thought about education, then heard an American Scourer challenge her about using magic.
• Georgiana told the Scourer that she had knights, and after recalling the procedures in Italy’s final witch case, headed to the Botanical Library.

Georgiana studied maps covering Paris, Europe, and the world as she considered defenses, urban planning, and maritime routes, then met a doctor applying to work at a planned pediatric hospital. The applicant revealed that he was François Muller, composer of “La Marseillaise,” and asked whether she would hire him.

• Georgiana reviewed plans to strengthen Jardin des Plantes and considered demolishing Great Châtelet and replacing it with an opera house.
• Georgiana examined maps of Europe and South America, thinking through territorial disputes and possible sea routes.
• Georgiana recalled Robert Fulton’s rejected efforts to promote submarines and steamships, and felt helpless about the lack of interest.
• Etienne Muller introduced himself as a former soldier who had nearly died in Egypt and now wanted to become a pediatrician.
• Muller said he had composed “La Marseillaise,” and Georgiana recognized him as François Muller before he asked whether he could get the job.

Georgiana reflected on Muller's turbulent military past and discussed Humboldt's discoveries, American land policy, and Paris's public health and flood-control problems. As she prepared to leave Paris, she set aside her map and left the library, leaving the city’s sanitation and housing challenges for others to address.

• Muller opposed the plundering of Rome, discovered a secret mercury mine, and later lost his command after urging Napoleon to invade Sicily instead of Egypt.
• Muller was captured during the Egyptian campaign, remained at the Algerian Bey's court until 1802, and returned to France without reclaiming his former identity.
• Georgiana considered Humboldt's South American research and the implications of American land policy while arranging for his plant specimens to be considered for display at the Jardin des Plantes.
• Georgiana considered Paris's waste, disease, housing, and flood risks, including plans to provide homes for canal workers.
• Georgiana put away the map and left the library because she was leaving the next day.