Read Online Mozart's Sister by Nancy Moser - Free Book Online Page B

times a day. With its use we
could find out if our patrons were at home without wasting the
expense of a carriage ride.
    But then, a hitch. Just five days after our arrival in Paris, Isabella,
the grown granddaughter of King Louis XV of France, the wife of
our Archduke Joseph, who would be the next emperor of Austria,
died of smallpox, soon after giving birth. A baby daughter also died.
The French court was thrown into mourning, and all entertainment
was suspended for a month. Papa grumbled about that, and the
expense of buying us mourning outfits.
    But after a month, we were free to move forward-and Papa did
so, quite quickly. Just one day after the mourning ended-on
Christmas Eve-we were on our way to the palace of Versailles. It
was thirty-two kilometers west of Paris and had once been a simple
hunting lodge until the current king's grandfather had made it grander than grand. I'd heard stories about the gold and wealth.
Now I was going to see for myself.

    Even at first sight, Versailles made the palace at Schonbrunn
seem small. We rode through golden gates into an immense courtyard surrounded on three sides by buildings that had their own
wings going off in different directions. And the people. Everywhere
people and animals. Some walking as if on a mission, and others
meandering as if their only job was to be seen.
    "What are they all doing here, Papa?" I asked.
    "Seeking favor," he said.
    "Like us?"
    He glanced in my direction as if I'd said something wrong. "We
have been invited. We have not come here on false hope, wanting
something for nothing, as have most of these. We have something
to give to the king and queen-your talent."
    I sat straighter in the carriage. I had something to offer the king
and queen. I was somebody.
    Wolfie jumped onto his knees and pointed out the window of
the carriage. "Look at that pig run!" He giggled, sat down, then
pushed a finger against his nose, making a snout. "A pig digging in
a wig." He oinked.
    "Behave yourself," Mama said.
    The carriage came to a halt. It was time to see our lodgingswe had secured a place to stay at the An Cormier. However, unlike
our room at the van Eycks', this lodging was not free.
    Not free at all. We moved in and soon found everything to be
very expensive. Food was pricey, and we were very glad the December days were warm as summer, for every log of wood cost five sous.
In his next letter home, Papa even asked Herr Hagenauer to write
smaller and on lighter-weight paper, as the recipient of each letteras well as the sender-had to pay according to its weight and size
and shape.
    Papa's first words about Versailles never left me as I moved
through the massive palace: most of the people here were seeking
favor from the king. Did they seek a title? Land? A pardon for a
family member? A job? Had some come because they'd been summoned for an indiscretion? Yet I imagined such negative matters were attended to more swiftly (and discreetly) than those of a more
positive nature. How tiring it would be to be a king and spend your
day granting audience to an endless line of people.

    Yet I heard Papa tell Mama that the king was most concerned
with hunting and liaisons. He glanced at me when he said this, and
I pretended not to know what he meant, but I did. I'd heard such
talk before. Many rulers had mistresses, and this king was no better.
Papa implied Louis had more than one-and one particular mistress
was even treated like a queen. Madame Pompadour. She'd been at
Versailles for twenty years. I wished I could ask Mama about her,
but that was awkward. So ... I hoped to find a friend, one who
might know the gossip.
    I shouldn't have wanted to know about such things.
    But I did.

    We were presented at court more than once. Walking from one
grand room to the next made my neck hurt from looking up at the
painted ceilings and the crystal chandeliers. There was one room
called the Hall of Mirrors that had seventeen (Wolfie and I