Vicky’s father, Albert, the Prince Consort, has just died, leaving her and her family under a heavy cloud of grief, without their dearest friend and advisor, at a most critical time: The political horizon grows dark with storm clouds at the entry of Bismarck to Germany’s political stage in 1862.
Will Fritz’s courage stand the test as he confronts the spider in its web? Is Prussia really fighting for the rights of the Schleswig people, or is so much blood being shed for the sake of Prussia’s aggrandizement?
Join Vicky and Fritz on their journeys under the blue cloudless skies of the Mediterranean to the peaceful heather-clad hills of the Highlands of Scotland; to the burning heat of the North African desert to the raging blizzards of a winter war in Denmark.
When Vicky’s closest friend disappears, will she be able to keep the secret? Will old enemies prove to be friends, and old friends prove to be enemies?
Excerpt
“Later, I sat watching the sunrise, my thoughts with you. Now it was I who wished that we could watch the sunrise together, as you wished a few months ago at Balmoral. Can it only be a few months since those beautiful, peaceful days there? But I did not wish you to watch the sunrise I watched – the sun, rising to show the horror of war, the dead and wounded, and the slaughter soon to come.
“How such beauty and such horror coexist is beyond me. There was a slight line of light on the horizon, the sky turned a soft rose, soon turning to brilliant crimson, and the sun appeared in all his glory. But he appeared to look down on the torture the people – the Prussian and the Danish – were to inflict on each other. The beauty of the scene was soon spoiled, the smoke from the shells at times so intense as to blot out the sky.
“About eight o’clock, I joined Wrangel and many others on our way to the Spitzberge, or Avnbjorg, the high hill overlooking the scene, and out of firing range. Fritz Karl finally appeared, swinging himself into the saddle, and joined us, taking the lead. He stood out, certainly, from afar, his uniform scarlet and his boots as glossy a black as ever. Everyone else wore their worn, faded – in many cases quite filthy – uniforms, and the shine of our boots was the last thing on our minds.
“Just before ten o’clock, silence fell. The shelling ceased, giving way to a nerve-racking silence. Nothing appeared to move; there were no birds; the Danes did not show themselves.
“A minute before ten, a band in our second trench struck up a loud marching song, which the men’s voices soon joined.
“Fritz Karl had sat perfectly still on his horse, his eye on his watch. Now he rose in the stirrups, drew his sword, and, at precisely ten o’clock, waved his sword so it caught the sun’s rays, screaming at the top of his voice, ‘Attack!’
“The cry of ‘Forward!’ ‘Forward!’ ‘Forward!’ went on through all our ranks and trenches. The men swarmed out of the fourth parallel and up Düppel like a swarm of bees from a burning hive.
“The Danish fired, but the first wave of bullets were not properly directed and many hit the water harmlessly. Many men fell in the first charge, but after only seven minutes, a Prussian flag fluttered above a Danish redoubt. This was torn down, but replaced quickly with several more.
“I shall not write much here of the battle which followed. The Danes were conquered with remarkable speed, and many prisoners taken – none of our men taken. Onkel Karl’s Johanniter corps work wonders among the wounded, as do the people of the new organization which they call ‘the Red Cross’. But no amount of surgeons can work fast enough in a time like this – and many men do not make it through the night.
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Meet Luv Lubker
Luv Lubker has lived in the Victorian era half her life, making friends with the Brontë sisters and the extended family of Queen Victoria. Now she knows them quite as well as her own family.
Born in a cattle trough in the Appalachian mountains, Luv lives in Texas – when she comes to the modern world.
When she isn’t living in the Victorian era, she enjoys being with her family; making and eating delicious raw food, riding her bike (which she only learned to ride at 25, though she has ridden a unicycle since she was 7), and watching animals – the passion of her childhood.
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