Free The Memorist by M. J. Rose Page A

slightly forced but determined as he launched into a detailed description of the area. “This is the Ringstrasse,the boulevard that circles the inner city. It was built in 1857 when the Emperor ordered the thirteenth-century walls that were here to be torn down.”
    It was strange, given the circumstances, but also a relief to pay attention as Sebastian pointed out the large twin museums—one art, one natural history—and Emperor Ferdinand’s palace.
    “A personal tour,” she said lightly. “How lovely.”
    “My mother ran a travel agency and gave tours. Over the summers, when the tourists descended, I was often drafted to help out. It comes naturally.”
    “I spent those same summers in my mother’s antiques store. You probably had more fun. At least you were outside.” She looked out the window. “It looks so much like somewhere I’ve been before. Paris maybe?”
    “Yes, a lot of the Emperor’s Vienna was based on Parisian design. For a European city, much of what you see is relatively new, built in the 1800s. It was this rebuilding and the fortune the Emperor spent that led to his losing popularity with the people. And now, we’re entering the inner city,” he said as he steered the car down yet another twisting street.
    “That building looks out of place here.” She pointed to an art deco bank on the corner. “Too new.”
    “Funny. It’s from the thirties…not so new. It’s difficult in a city with so much history to find a balance and keep Vienna’s architectural integrity…”
    Meer had stopped listening. Up ahead was a café with large plate-glass windows framed in carved, weathered wood. “I know where we are. I’ve seen this street before. The auction house is only another half block from here.”
    “How do you know how far it is?”
    “I must have seen it in a movie. There have been somany movies shot here. Isn’t this a famous area of the city?”
    Sebastian parked the car and came around to the passenger side, opened the car door for her and offered his hand to her to help her out. The gesture surprised her for its old-fashioned sweetness, which made the intense shivering that overtook her and the sense of foreboding that flooded her all the more unusual. Within seconds, the people passing by, the car, the reality of the moment, all shimmered and seemed to become translucent. A metallic taste filled her mouth and made her teeth hurt. Her shoulders tensed and her jaw muscles tightened. A ripple of pain shook her. Deep in her back, where she’d broken her spine when she was nine years old, the fused vertebrae throbbed. And then she heard the beautiful and terrifying music and disappeared into remembering.

Chapter 13
    Vienna, Austria
September 22 nd , 1814
    A s the music began, Major Archer Wells, resplendent in his crisp blue uniform with his rows of gold medals and insignia, extended his hand to Margaux and she allowed him to escort her onto the overcrowded dance floor. Waltzing was the last thing on her mind but Caspar would be disappointed if she sat at home and worried. You can do this , she could hear him say in his deep voice that always seemed to reach out and embrace her. You can do anything .
    Looking around the ballroom it seemed as if all of Europe was in Vienna for the Congress and that most of them were at this gala affair being given by Austria’s foreign minister, Prince Klemens Lothar Wenzel von Metternich. Reapportioning Europe after Napoleon’s devastating wars was hard work but it was also an excuse for Vienna’s hosts and hostesses to show off to the sixteen thousand dignitaries and delegates who’d taken up residence in the city, bringing not just their wives, mistressesand servants but their own spies as well. Surely with so many people here, she could find a way to raise the money she needed to put together a search party to find and save her husband. There had to be a way. Her heart had been frozen until yesterday, and now there was hope. She was finally