The Reinvention of Love

through the trees makes me catch my breath. It is really a palace. “Château” is much too humble a word for it.
    “To think that could have been mine,” says Princess Mathilde, noting my reaction. She was once engaged to her cousin, the Emperor. “And it would have been,” she adds, “if Louis hadn’t decided to marry for love.”
    The château is even more impressive inside. There is a ballroom with gold pillars, walls of huge windows flanking each side, and several enormous chandeliers. There is a salon decorated entirely in blue – walls and chairs and drapery. My bedroom has gilt on the ceiling and an ornate marble fireplace.
    I had thought that I was the only guest of the Emperor and Empress, but Mathilde just laughs when I mention this to her.
    “They entertain over a hundred people a week,” she says. “There will be at least forty other guests this weekend.”
    I don’t do well at Compiègne. My court shoes pinch. My borrowed valet rolls his eyes when I get lost trying to find mybedroom after lunch in the dining room. At dinner the first night I am seated relatively close to the Empress. For a while I concentrate on the heavy silver cutlery, but when I do look up, I notice that the Empress Eugénie has a watch pinned to her vest, and that the watch does not show the right time. In fact, it does not seem to be working at all, is stuck at four o’clock, an hour long since past. I gather my courage, clear my throat and address myself to the Empress.
    “Pardon me,” I say, “but I can’t help noticing that your watch seems to have stopped. You might want to get it repaired.”
    The Empress glowers at me. “I will never get it repaired,” she says.
    From across the table, Mathilde is waving her fork at me. Too late, I realize she’s signalling me to stop talking.
    “But why?” I persist.
    “Because it is my lucky watch,” says the Empress.
    “All the more reason to get it fixed,” I say.
    The Empress looks over at Mathilde. “I think you need to educate your small friend,” she says.
    After dinner, Mathilde pulls me aside.
    “Eugénie was wearing that watch when she met Louis,” she says. “She was at a garden party and realized her watch had stopped, so she asked him the time. That stopped watch changed her life. She has no desire to have it repaired.”
    I cannot seem to get anything right. After dinner there is the choice of dancing in the ballroom, or listening to the mechanical piano in the blue salon. I choose the piano, thinking it will be less complicated than dancing, a pastime of which I’ve never been particularly fond. But the mechanical piano needs to be turned by a crank to play, and the Empress, seeing me enter the room, immediately volunteers me for the job. After a few rotations I am exhausted, but can’t free myself until the Empress says so. She has me cranking the piano for ages, perspiration running down my face, my arm feeling as though it is going todrop off from the terrible exertion. Afterwards my arm hurts so badly that I ask my valet to massage it. He laughs and goes out to smoke in the garden.
    The next morning every man, except for me, goes hunting. Mathilde asks me to come with her and the Empress on a drive to Pierrefonds to see Eugénie’s collection of armour, but I decline. I can only imagine what horrible faux pas I will commit if I spend any more time in the Empress’s company.
    I look for the Emperor, hoping to have a chat with him about becoming a Senator, but he has gone hunting with the male guests. I look for the library, don’t find it, end up in the magnificent ballroom. But here my luck changes. There is a young lady in the ballroom, a beautiful young lady, and instead of avoiding or ignoring me, she comes up to me. She offers her hand. I take it.
    “Will you take me to dinner tonight?” she says.
    I can’t believe my good fortune.
    “Of course,” I say.
    “Good,” she says. “I’ll look for you in the reception room at eight.” And she turns on her delicate heel and is gone.
    I search out my valet, who is chatting to one of the parlour maids in the hallway outside my bedroom.
    “Where is the nearest inn?” I ask.
    “Inn?”
    “Somewhere to dine tonight.”
    “But you’re a guest here,” he says. “Why would you want to go and dine elsewhere?”
    Princess Mathilde finally returns from her tour of the armour. I walk out with her through the garden.
    “I’ve met the most charming young lady,” I say. “And she is