Page 125 of Happily Ever After

And it was staring Dieter and Wulfram in the face, steaming gently in china bowls.

Dieter looked up at Wulfram, who was staring back at him.

As Dieter watched, Wulf’s shoulders lowered, perhaps in resignation, and he sighed one long, measured exhale.

Dieter gingerly leaned over the bowl and sniffed. The warm aroma of mild cheese and cream mixed with bread friedin butter. “It smells good.”

Wulfram tasted it. “They made it well. It shouldn’t go to waste.”

“I could eat.”

They ate themilchsuppeand considered the soldiers who had preferred warm soup to war.

When they finished, Dieter leaned back in his chair, full. “That was tasty.”

“Would you like that drink?”

“Otherwise, you got me in here under false pretenses.”

Wulf stood and poured them bothan inch or so of whiskey.

Dieter sipped, and the liquor spread over his tongue in a soothing wave of warmth. “Nice. What is this?”

“Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve.”

Perhaps the most expensive bourbon whiskey in the world, which had been aged twenty-five years and cost over three hundred dollars a shot, if you could find it.

If this was another of Wulfram’s signals, it was a favorable sign.

Dieter said, “It’s nice.”

Wulfram sat in a leather-upholstered chair and crossed his long legs.

Dieter sat opposite him and placed the crystal glass on a small table between the chairs. The inlaid wood was designed like a compass.

Wulfram didn’t say anything, just sipped the drink.

Not talking wasn’t curing anything between them.

Dieter cast about for neutral topics: the weather, cars, maybeweapons. They’d already talked about the liquor.

And yet, Clausewitz did say that it is better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.

Time for strategy and audacity.

Dieter said, “Flicka says she isn’t a princess anymore.”

Wulfram snorted. “I heard the rumor that she thinks she isn’t.”

“She keeps saying it. I hired her as a logistics coordinator for RogueSecurity.”

Wulfram inclined his head to the side and studied his whiskey, nodding slightly. “She’ll be good at that.”

“Well, she wants to do something. She renounced her title and her inheritance in front of your father and Pierre,” Dieter said. “Loudly.”

“She didn’t renounce it in front of me,” Wulfram said, his tone dry, “and I’ve been the head of the House of Hannover for years.”

“Yourfather seemed to believe her.”