When I wondered which swashbuckling secret agent type figure MT could task with rescueing her son, the Chevalier immediately came to mind! (Especially since he/she/they definitely knew Elisaveta and Pompadour, and was on the allied against Fritz side of the 7 Years War.)
BTW, the Duc de Croy has an entry about the Chevalier - whom he met repeatedly over the years - in which he's certain d'Eon was a biological woman, which, as wiki tells me, later was disproved upon their death. But that was years later, when D'Eon was so well known that he couldn't have been a good secret agent/Joseph rescuer anymore.
Meanwhile, on the road:
Hussar: Boss, the kid is talking my ear off. Can you ride with him for a while? Seydlitz: He's complaining this much? Hussar: Nah, he wants to know all about the King, and I'm fresh out of non treasonous anecdotes.
*later*
Seydlitz: So, just in theory, your highness, if I asked you to give me your word not to try and escape before we reach the border, seeing as there's so much more you could still learn about us Prussians...
Joseph: Sorry, no can do. I mean, I think you're cool, and that your monarch rocks, but as long as I'm your prisoner, you're having leverage on my mother and my Empire. Honor and common sense demands I should try to escape the moment you're not looking. Tell you what, though: have you ever considered that I'm your future Emperor? If you changed sides and returned with me to Vienna, it wouldn't be treason, it would be obeying a higher loyalty, and also, we pay better. And have better food.
Seydlitz: And a chastity commission, or so I hear. Nope, sorry. I love the ladies too much. Also my King. I suppose.
Joseph: I get that, but you could love him from an Austrian distance. There's precedent, is all I'm saying.
Re: The Very Secret Plans of European Royalty
When I wondered which swashbuckling secret agent type figure MT could task with rescueing her son, the Chevalier immediately came to mind! (Especially since he/she/they definitely knew Elisaveta and Pompadour, and was on the allied against Fritz side of the 7 Years War.)
BTW, the Duc de Croy has an entry about the Chevalier - whom he met repeatedly over the years - in which he's certain d'Eon was a biological woman, which, as wiki tells me, later was disproved upon their death. But that was years later, when D'Eon was so well known that he couldn't have been a good secret agent/Joseph rescuer anymore.
Meanwhile, on the road:
Hussar: Boss, the kid is talking my ear off. Can you ride with him for a while?
Seydlitz: He's complaining this much?
Hussar: Nah, he wants to know all about the King, and I'm fresh out of non treasonous anecdotes.
*later*
Seydlitz: So, just in theory, your highness, if I asked you to give me your word not to try and escape before we reach the border, seeing as there's so much more you could still learn about us Prussians...
Joseph: Sorry, no can do. I mean, I think you're cool, and that your monarch rocks, but as long as I'm your prisoner, you're having leverage on my mother and my Empire. Honor and common sense demands I should try to escape the moment you're not looking. Tell you what, though: have you ever considered that I'm your future Emperor? If you changed sides and returned with me to Vienna, it wouldn't be treason, it would be obeying a higher loyalty, and also, we pay better. And have better food.
Seydlitz: And a chastity commission, or so I hear. Nope, sorry. I love the ladies too much. Also my King. I suppose.
Joseph: I get that, but you could love him from an Austrian distance. There's precedent, is all I'm saying.