Hands relaxed in front of her, she explained the need for corrective measures to rebalance society, the urgency for tougher laws to deal with the turbulence infesting Western Europe, and Stanislas wanted to flee her filthy talk. But Anna stood there, arms folded, fixed to the moment as she gazed, and he knew he couldn’t coax her away.
Now a sympathetic smile from Mademoiselle Le Brune at the plight of the unemployed, their tragic numbers deliberately undercounted by governments, she stressed. Now a shake of her head at the mounting violence that defaced some of the most beautiful countries in the world: France, Austria, and Germany. Now a shrug in a show of humility for the men she represented, unlike the corrupt elitists in Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, didn’t have every answer. But they di
