Yarde Reviews & Book Promotion: Will old enemies prove to be friends, and old friends prove to be enemies?

Under A Cloud
By Luv Lubker
Audiobook will be narrated by Ella McNish, Jamie Collette and a full cast.

Publication Date: 30th April 2024

Publisher: Historium Press

Pages: 318 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

Vicky's father, Albert, the Prince Consort, has just died, leaving her and her family under a heavy cloud of grief, without their dearest friend and advisor, at a most critical time: The political horizon grows dark with storm clouds at the entry of Bismarck to Germany's political stage in 1862.

Will Fritz's courage stand the test as he confronts the spider in its web? Is Prussia really fighting for the rights of the Schleswig people, or is so much blood being shed for the sake of Prussia's aggrandizement?

Join Vicky and Fritz on their journeys under the blue cloudless skies of the Mediterranean to the peaceful heather-clad hills of the Highlands of Scotland; to the burning heat of the North African desert to the raging blizzards of a winter war in Denmark.

When Vicky's closest friend disappears, will she be able to keep the secret? Will old enemies prove to be friends, and old friends prove to be enemies?

Excerpt

Karl stared at Bismarck for a moment, and then nodded. “Settle it with him. Let him know what he must do to be kept in touch with the affairs of the Crown, as he wishes.” He turned to his brother. “Farewell, your Majesty.” He spat the words out. “I must get back to Berlin. One can’t stay away too long from the capital when one has charge of the country. One never knows what might happen.” He left the room, laughing to himself.

Karl stepped into his carriage, and the door was shut. He vaguely heard the coachman speak to the horses, but he was far away in thought.

If Fritzch was freed, and the marriage had been put an end to in Prussia, what would he do? Would he stay at his post like a true Hohenzollern soldier? Would he attempt to keep the image he obviously treasured so highly as the Liberal Crown Prince, the people’s darling?

If he would, he might actually be worth something. If he could stand his ground in this matter, he could be convinced to do so about other things, especially without her there to meddle. He would be heartbroken, of course, to be separated from his precious “Frauchen”. At least he would be at first. But what is heartbreak? Karl thought. The end of love and happiness, that was what heartbreak was. However, love, when it came to an end, turned to hatred very quickly. He knew that all too well.

But all of these musings were probably useless. None of this would happen, Karl suspected. Fritzch was far too weak a character to stand on his own two feet. He had already written that he would, if he was pressed to join the Kreutzzeitungpartei, resign his military and government positions, and retire to the country. He would crawl back to England and tie himself again to his wife’s apron-strings.

Of course, that meant Germany would be free of their meddling, but did it really? He shook his head. He couldn’t leave them together to plot behind his back from the safety of England, as her father had done for so many years.

Viktoria. It was such a good German name; it was a shame that it should have been turned into an English name by popular association.

Viktoria. He remembered the first sight he had caught of her, running up the stairs outside the Schloss, her manner and voice so free and childlike. He had been curious to see what she was like, this Lieblingstochter of Louise’s son. So this was the “stupid, useless girl”, as he had called her when he first heard of her birth. She was not stupid – she was clever, and she was attractive – far too clever and attractive for her own good – and Fritzch was clearly under her spell. She thought herself intelligent – well, so had her mother-in-law, and what good had that done her? Intelligent women never learned their lessons. Helmkin himself had admitted that.

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Under A Cloud

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Luv Lubker

Luv Lubker has lived in the Victorian era half her life, making friends with the Brontë sisters and the extended family of Queen Victoria. Now she knows them quite as well as her own family.

Born in a cattle trough in the Appalachian mountains, Luv lives in Texas – when she comes to the modern world.

When she isn't living in the Victorian era, she enjoys being with her family; making and eating delicious raw food, riding her bike (which she only learned to ride at 25, though she has ridden a unicycle since she was 7), and watching animals – the passion of her childhood.

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