Chapter One Thousand Three Hundred Forty-Four
19th September 1959
Mitte, Berlin
The line about twin sisters was that there was a smart one and a wild one. They made that assumption about Rea and Vicky. However, Kat had known them from time that she had been holding Rea minutes after she was born and they were waiting for Vicky, so she knew better. They were both of equal intelligence, just they expressed it differently. Rea was the far more the imaginative of the two and far better at coming up with ideas. Vicky was better at putting those ideas into practice. Vicky was actually far from being the wild one in that she seemed to want far more structure and stability than Rea did. Generally, there was a push and pull between the twins where the strengths of one generally made up for the weaknesses of the other. Now though, with Rea and Vicky separated for the first time in their lives, Louis Ferdinand and Charlotte were finding that things had taken a disturbing turn.
Of course, as soon as Kat arrived in the solarium that had become the unofficial office space of the Empress in the Winter Residence, the subject of the twins was the first thing that Charlotte wanted to talk about after tea was served.
“The twins are not particularly well liked” Kat explained, “In the past, everyone has been afraid of what would happen if they were provoked. Now that they are at odds and that has clearly changed.”
“I take it that there are many looking to get even?” Charlotte asked.
“These are teenaged girls we are talking about” Kat replied, “There is a line forming to the left.”
Charlotte frowned when she had heard that. While everyone had agreed that something had needed to be done regarding Marie and Victoria, there were a number of unforeseen consequences that they were having to deal with. The meeting with the Headmistress of the gymnasia about the growing backlash against the twins was one of those things.
“This did cause Marie to turn to Kristina for help” Charlotte said, “So it isn’t a complete disaster.”
It was Kat’s turn to frown. That wasn’t exactly a great outcome either. Kiki helping her sister with a carefully worded essay was one thing. Having a fourteen-year-old leaning on her for emotional support was the last thing that she needed right now though. Kat thought that Kiki was taking on too much, she had already suffered health problems that stemmed from overburdening herself the previous winter. Just how resilient was Kiki mentally? Kat couldn’t begin to have the first clue. Her own experience was that no one really knew until they reached the point where things simply fell apart. That was especially true with overachievers who don’t ask for help until they were flying off into the void.
“Even so” Kat said, “We need to find a way to get the twins to reconcile, they are much stronger together as opposed to whatever this is, even separate they’ll muddle through. I’m more worried about Kiki though, she takes on too much.”
“You would know” Charlotte said.
Kat didn’t want to hear that. How many times had Aunt Marcella talked to her about how she was burning the candle from both ends and that the day would come when she would regret it?
“What do you think of Louis’ latest idea?” Charlotte asked, changing the subject.
“Which one?” Kat asked in reply.
“The Electors.”
“Oh” Kat replied. She had heard that Louis had had proposed a series of reforms in the Reichstag regarding the royal succession. The same proposals had the Royalists on the far right completely outraged, from Kat’s perspective that meant that they probably had a great deal of merit. One of the ideas would be that the next Emperor wouldn’t automatically be the heir of Prussia. Instead, they would be going back to something like the election of the Emperor in the Holy Roman Empire with a modernized spin. Kat knew history well enough to know that whoever got appointed to the role of “Prince Elector” would be granted a tremendous amount of power within society.
“It’s still a secret but Louis is planning on retiring in favor of Freddy when he turns sixty-four, like his grandfather did” Charlotte said, “We would need to have the system set up by then.”
A decade hardly seemed like enough for that task.
“He also wants all the regions of the Empire represented” Charlotte said. No wonder the Royalists were outraged, a democratization of that process was the antithesis of everything that they believed in. What many had dubbed, the lucky sperm club was more in line with their thinking. “Do you have any idea of who ought to represent Berlin as Elector?”
“I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy” Kat said, “I love this city and have spent almost my entire life here, but I know the reality. Too many factions pulling in different directions. Whoever gets the job will either try to please everyone or they will know that its impossible and try to please no one. Either way they will need to be patient until the very special presentation of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in the Reichstag with real knives and blood.”
“Surly that is an exaggeration” Charlotte said.
“Ask Friedrich Ebert Junior if I am wrong?” Kat said, naming the Governing Mayor of Berlin. The City’s politics made the actions of the teenaged girls who Charlotte worried were going to be coming after the twins seem very tame by comparison.
“You can make that happen?” Charlotte asked, only half seriously.
“He owes his entire career to my family” Kat said, “If I call him, he will pick up the phone.”
Charlotte was a little surprised by that. Kat was telling the truth though. There was a reason why her father had avoided getting arrested during his long career. Knowing where all the bodies were buried and which up and coming politicians were already bent was a part of that.