As the attentive reader has noticed, Countess Karolina Althann — still a rather enigmatic figure at the heart of the intrigue — was related to an even more mysterious Dane, an envoy accredited to Vienna in connection with some legal undertaking. The further circumstances of his mission — not to mention his name — remain unknown to Archduchess Marianne. However, when the dinner conversation turns casually to the Kingdom of Denmark, she does not miss the opportunity to learn at least some background about the relations between the two courts during the period when the nameless envoy was said to have been in Vienna.
My choice of her principal informant on this subject, Mademoiselle Juliana Countess Attems, may seem unexpected at first. Indeed, little is known of her life — still less of her character or appearance, as no portrait of her has survived. Yet a few gentle allusions gathered during my research allow me to imagine her as an academically inclined and well-read young lady, a potential expert in such ‘unfeminine’ fields as history and geography.
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