The holiday season ca to an end quicker than Bruno had wanted it to. And with it, Bruno said goodbye to the city of Constantinople and his family mbers within it.
There was a hint of finality in his azure-blue eyes as he looked upon the Hagia Sophia with a subtle and grim suspicion that this was likely his final ti visiting the ancient city.
He and Heidi left Greece by yacht, returning to the docks in Trieste after a brief and calm cruise ho.
When Bruno stepped foot in the port city that belonged to the Archduchy of Austria, he found himself smiling softly at the Reichsbanner flying proudly over the port.
Heidi imdiately took notice of her husband’s sudden shift in mood and wrapped her arm around him. Dragging herself close to his body as she did so.
"You know what they say: there’s no place like ho, right?"
There’s no place like ho... The words struck Bruno’s mind, causing him to chuckle briefly while shaking his head. He wrapped his arm around his wife’s shoulder and walked towards the train station with her in tow.
Their luggage and other needs would be returned to the Palace outside Innsbruck by their household staff.
When Bruno arrived at the ticket gate, he waited in line like any other civilian. If it were any other ti in his life, he would never have needed to wait. But now he was retired, and was just like any other old man in the crowd.
As he and Heidi stood in line, a young child ran away from his mother and bumped into Bruno’s leg, falling to the floor. The child looked up at Bruno’s imposing gaze and began to cry.
Heidi instantly stepped forward to calm the child.
"You poor thing, you should be careful where you’re running off to. Are you hurt? Where’s your mother?"
While Heidi consoled the child, his mother rushed over, shouting his na in a foreign language.
"Ales! Ales! Ales where are you! Ales you co here this instant!"
However, when she turned the corner and found the boy, she noticed that Heidi had already cald him with her natural grace.
By the looks of the woman who stepped forward to claim her child, she was no doubt one of the Reich’s Slovenian subjects. A young mother, not yet in her thirties. Modestly dressed, clearly from a working-class family.
And yet, despite being Serbian, she spoke perfect Austrian Standard German as she bowed her head after retrieving her son, who was no longer crying but laughing playfully.
"Thank you... My son can be a handful at tis, especially when he runs off like this... I’m sorry if he caused you any trouble."
Heidi surprised the woman when she responded in her natural language.
"No apologies needed; it is only natural that I help. I’m afraid your boy was more startled by my husband’s grouchy appearance than he was by being hard. Believe it or not this old man used to be able to swoon princesses off their feet with his sullen gaze."
Bruno rolled his eyes at his wife’s remarks, but the young mother simply found their dynamic amusing.
"I don’t doubt it, he has very good bone structure, he must have been quite the charr when he was younger... I take it you two are Austrian?"
Bruno forced himself into the conversation as he corrected the woman in a friendly manner.
"Prussian by birth... Tirolean by the grace of God."
The woman’s eyes shifted subtly to caution as she heard these words.
"Tirolean? It’s not every day we get sobody from the Alps here on the coast. I take it you’re headed ho then? Well, I shouldn’t keep you. It was nice eting both of you, and thanks again for looking after this little troublemaker."
The woman didn’t wait for a response and was quick to scurry off with her son. Leaving Heidi in disbelief.
"That was weird, wasn’t it? It was as if the mont she heard where we were from she got startled..."
Bruno turned his focus back to the ticket counter, but his words were far from distant.
"She knew who I was. I don’t have the best reputation in the Balkans...."
Heidi scoffed as she stood by Bruno’s side, believing perhaps the man was being paranoid.
"How could she possibly have known who you were?"
Bruno rolled his eyes before looking over at his wife as if she were being dangerously naïve.
"How many Prussian-born Tiroleans my age are there that could swoon princesses off their feet when they were younger?"
When Heidi realized the logic behind Bruno’s words, she subtly looked over her shoulder, what she was she looking for? Perhaps even she didn’t know. For a fleeting second she wondered whether hatred lingered longer than victory.
Bruno then stepped forward and placed his governnt-issued ID on the counter.
"Two tickets to Innsbruck, please."
The clerk was in the act of stamping the tickets when he stopped himself. Staring at the ID and the na written on it, he was forced to do a double take to confirm his eyes weren’t deceiving him.
He looked up at Bruno, then down at the ID once more, only to look up at Bruno again. The entire ti Bruno’s expression didn’t change; it was as emotionless as the one on his ID’s photo.
Upon realizing he was making the Grand Prince of Tyrol wait longer than necessary, the man was quick to stamp the tickets before pointing Bruno and Heidi in the direction of their train.
"Platform 3, just to the left of the counter. You can’t miss it!"
Bruno nodded and thanked the man before grabbing Heidi’s hands and leading her off to the platform.
As the two stood there waiting for the train to arrive, Heidi asked a simple question.
"If you have a bad reputation in the Balkans isn’t giving the counter clerk your actual ID a bad idea?"
Bruno shook his head, not bothering to look around him. He kept his wife close to him as he spoke to her.
"The one hundred people who will be stepping onto the carriage with us are all n in my employnt... I prefer not to attract attention when traveling, but if I do, I make sure that there are no threats in the vicinity that can harm ."
Heidi subtly glanced around her and found that indeed all the n on their platform were military-aged n. And by the looks of it they weren’t locals. Their attire ranged from formal and professional to blue-collar worker and casual. But each of them blended in perfectly to their surroundings.
Heidi was honestly impressed with the lengths Bruno went to in order to orchestrate their security, and was about to ask a question when Bruno interrupted her.
"Whatever you’re imagining she and her child were cleared before they reached . The woman was frightened to find the Butcher of Belgrade standing in front of her. That is all...."
It was only after Bruno said this, and the two of them stepped into their carriage that Heidi relaxed herself. Sitting by Bruno’s side, she rested her head on his shoulder.
’I don’t know how you did this for so many years. It must be exhausting knowing that everywhere you go, you’re a target for soone with a vendetta."
Bruno chuckled as he dragged his wife’s head closer to his chest, kissing her on the forehead as he petted her silky silver hair.
"That’s why I employ n whose entire purpose is to ensure that doesn’t happen. I don’t have to worry about it, because I trust them to keep our family safe...."
Heidi refused to ask any further questions. She never needed to know the thods Bruno went to in order to keep them safe. Long ago she may have personally made use of her old connections to German intelligence in order to do the sa.
But the stains on her hands had long since washed clean. And it was because Bruno had dragged her hands out of the muck and taken on the role himself that she could live in blissful ignorance of the threats that existed in the shadows to their House, and the lengths Bruno went to banish them.
The journey from Trieste to Innsbruck via the new maglev trains was shorter than they could have imagined. And soon enough, the Patriarch of House von Zehntner and his wife would return to the Alps.
Where Bruno would look forward to the new year, and what it brought him. Though the year had begun, there were still several months before the Reichstag’s election would near. And it was only after they had concluded that Bruno would be nad the new Chancellor of the German Reich.
Until then, he would cherish monts like this. Where he could walk the streets not as a soldier, general, conqueror, or statesman. Nor as a prince, but as a man who had earned the right, at last, to be ordinary.
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