The Noble Ladies' Orphanage

Chapter 20

Maria's chest felt fluttery as the carriage pulled up in front of the orphanage. Men with wooden planks and tools had spent all morning erecting a large platform in front of the steps of the Noble Ladies' Orphanage, and they now piled their tools into saddle sacks on a poor old pony and led him down the cobblestone street. Court attendants draped ribbons around the platform and told bystanders to make room for the Margrave's carriage.

Maria met the Archduchess in the foyer of the building for instructions. "How is Ursula doing?" the Archduchess asked.

"Wonderfully," Maria said, "except she keeps putting food underneath her bed, as if she's afraid she's going to run out."

"Poor thing!" the Archduchess said. "I suppose she'll soon get used to always having enough to eat, though."

"Yes, I hope so," Maria said. "And thank you for the clothes for her."

"It was no trouble at all. Let's get ready for this ceremony. We're going to introduce you first," she said, "and I'm telling the other Hapsburg girls to stand next to you on the platform. Next, we'll introduce the Czech noble girls, and then we'll introduce the peasants as a group. There will be a small speech by the Margrave, everyone will applaud, and then you girls will wave to the crowd and walk into the building in a line. I'm instructing the girls to follow you."

"Okay," Maria said.

Young ladies were assembling in the foyer. Several of them had been staying in the orphanage for the past few nights, but a few of the girls had not yet seen the building at all and would be arriving within the hour.

"Why are some of the girls wearing identical dresses?" Maria asked.

"A couple of the peasant girls showed up in rags. We couldn't have them looking like that at the ceremony, so we had a simple dress made up for them. And shoes. One of them didn't have a pair of shoes. Can you believe that?"

"Wow," Maria said. "Do I have to say anything? In the ceremony, I mean."

"No," the Archduchess said. "There will be far too much said as it is. Just stand there and look pretty. You do look pretty, by the way. That's a very becoming color on you."

Maria looked down at her new indigo dress. Her mother hated the color, but Maria liked its depth. She thought Juliet would look becoming in indigo.

Another carriage pulled up. "Oh no," Maria groaned.

Leopold sprung from the carriage as soon as the footman opened the door.

"Glorious day, simply glo-ri-ous," Leopold said. Maria's mother waited in the carriage for Leopold to give her his hand. When he forgot, the footman finally stepped in and helped her mother from the carriage. Claudia followed.

Leopold walked directly to the group of young ladies standing around on the steps in front of the orphanage. He kissed each of their hands. Some of them visibly cringed.

"You're really going to do this then," Claudia whispered to Maria.

"Yes, I'm really going to do this," Maria said. "I don't know why you don't do it, too."

Claudia looked up at the cloudless sky, and Maria could see there were tears welling in her eyes. Claudia pressed her lips tightly together and looked away so Maria wouldn't see her brush the tears away.

Maria put an arm around her sister. "I know it's tough," she said.

"It doesn't seem like it's tough for you," Claudia said. "You don't care what mother thinks, so you can just do what you want."