Plausible reason for Rothenbourg being recalled from Madrid other than ill health so he can be in the Alsace with Fritz while Fritz' presence is still kept a secret: Austrians (and Lorraine!) to the rescue!
Your Lorraine idea has just helped me out with another plot point! Now, my plots for long fic (and this is shaping up to be one) tend to go through about 20 iterations, so no promises this will make it into the final product (if there is one, anything fic-related is a huge battle right now), but figuring things out is the best part of writing for me, so discussing plots is almost as much fun as writing them. :D
Anyway, I'm leaning toward: - Wilhelmine goes to Bayreuth fully intending to get married, - Once there, she finds out Fritz is alive and in Alsace, - Bayreuth Friedrich lets her off the hook using cahn's wonderful scene.
So someone has to get word to her that Fritz is alive, but this is an extremely well-kept secret with which very few people are entrusted, and is not something they want to put in writing, because the consequences if FW finds out are still horrendous, and they're still within reach of him and people who might feel obliged to extradite to him.
I've been wanting Peter Keith to have his moment of glory by bravely riding back into the HRE to let Wilhelmine know about Fritz and help her escape to France, even with a price on Keith's head and FW trying to get him captured and/or extradited all over Europe, but since Keith is the single least sensible person to go for this reason, I have to come up with some kind of scenario where he's the only one who *can* go, at least without letting anyone else in on the secret, which they're trying to avoid.
Lorraine is perfectly geographically situated for this, if we go with the following: - Fritz, Suhm, and Duhan are hanging out in Masevaux, reading books and waiting for FW to cool off. - Fritz gets help faking his death to get FW to let Wilhelmine get married. - Katte and Keith are in Paris, looking for Fritz. - Rottembourg has to go to Lorraine to do the diplomatic work for which he was recalled. Now that Suhm is in Masevaux, R's not needed at home every day to keep Fritz from going crazy in isolation, *but* he's still in the vicinity in case he's needed. - Katte and Keith go to Lorraine to meet up with Rottembourg and ask him about that "Fritz is dead" news report. - Rottembourg tells them Fritz is alive and in Alsace. - Word reaches France that Wilhelmine has left Berlin and is on her way to Bayreuth to get married. - Katte and Keith want to let her know before she marries some stranger who might be horrible to her, and give her the option of joining her brother instead. Or, as cahn put it, to be with her first love. :P - Rottembourg can't go, because he's on diplomatic assignment. - Katte knows Fritz will *kill* him if he risks his life riding back into the HRE without even seeing Fritz. (At this point, they've been separated for the better part of a year, and Fritz thinks Katte is dead, because Katte's been keeping his head low while looking for Fritz, since FW is still after said head.) - Every day counts, because once W says her vows, everything changes. - No time for Keith to go with Katte down to Alsace and ask Suhm (the obvious choice) to go or Fritz to give permission to let someone else in on the secret.
All of which leads to: go, Keith, go!
And Metz, capital of Lorraine, is on the way from Paris to Bayreuth, and Masevaux is far enough south that a detour might well make the difference between Wilhelmine being married and being unmarried when the secret messenger shows up. Here, look, it's beautiful:
So Keith and Katte will temporarily part ways at Metz, while Keith rides east and Katte rides south. (This fandom is teaching me so much geography, lol. :P)
Then Bayreuth Friedrich gets entrusted with the secret and releases her from the engagement, but FW's spies/minions are still keeping a close eye on Wilhelmine, plus BF's dad Margrave wants the dowry, so if she suddenly announces the marriage is off and she's leaving Bayreuth going to France...that's not gonna fly. So our heroine Pannewitz still gets to have her own clothes-swapping moment of glory with a big "In your face, FW!"
A big continuing thanks for all the plotting help, guys! <3 And the sounding board. If I can't write this, I love being able to share it with people anyway.
Re: Count Rothenburg (the French one)
Your Lorraine idea has just helped me out with another plot point! Now, my plots for long fic (and this is shaping up to be one) tend to go through about 20 iterations, so no promises this will make it into the final product (if there is one, anything fic-related is a huge battle right now), but figuring things out is the best part of writing for me, so discussing plots is almost as much fun as writing them. :D
Anyway, I'm leaning toward:
- Wilhelmine goes to Bayreuth fully intending to get married,
- Once there, she finds out Fritz is alive and in Alsace,
- Bayreuth Friedrich lets her off the hook using
So someone has to get word to her that Fritz is alive, but this is an extremely well-kept secret with which very few people are entrusted, and is not something they want to put in writing, because the consequences if FW finds out are still horrendous, and they're still within reach of him and people who might feel obliged to extradite to him.
I've been wanting Peter Keith to have his moment of glory by bravely riding back into the HRE to let Wilhelmine know about Fritz and help her escape to France, even with a price on Keith's head and FW trying to get him captured and/or extradited all over Europe, but since Keith is the single least sensible person to go for this reason, I have to come up with some kind of scenario where he's the only one who *can* go, at least without letting anyone else in on the secret, which they're trying to avoid.
Lorraine is perfectly geographically situated for this, if we go with the following:
- Fritz, Suhm, and Duhan are hanging out in Masevaux, reading books and waiting for FW to cool off.
- Fritz gets help faking his death to get FW to let Wilhelmine get married.
- Katte and Keith are in Paris, looking for Fritz.
- Rottembourg has to go to Lorraine to do the diplomatic work for which he was recalled. Now that Suhm is in Masevaux, R's not needed at home every day to keep Fritz from going crazy in isolation, *but* he's still in the vicinity in case he's needed.
- Katte and Keith go to Lorraine to meet up with Rottembourg and ask him about that "Fritz is dead" news report.
- Rottembourg tells them Fritz is alive and in Alsace.
- Word reaches France that Wilhelmine has left Berlin and is on her way to Bayreuth to get married.
- Katte and Keith want to let her know before she marries some stranger who might be horrible to her, and give her the option of joining her brother instead. Or, as
- Rottembourg can't go, because he's on diplomatic assignment.
- Katte knows Fritz will *kill* him if he risks his life riding back into the HRE without even seeing Fritz. (At this point, they've been separated for the better part of a year, and Fritz thinks Katte is dead, because Katte's been keeping his head low while looking for Fritz, since FW is still after said head.)
- Every day counts, because once W says her vows, everything changes.
- No time for Keith to go with Katte down to Alsace and ask Suhm (the obvious choice) to go or Fritz to give permission to let someone else in on the secret.
All of which leads to: go, Keith, go!
And Metz, capital of Lorraine, is on the way from Paris to Bayreuth, and Masevaux is far enough south that a detour might well make the difference between Wilhelmine being married and being unmarried when the secret messenger shows up. Here, look, it's beautiful:
So Keith and Katte will temporarily part ways at Metz, while Keith rides east and Katte rides south. (This fandom is teaching me so much geography, lol. :P)
Then Bayreuth Friedrich gets entrusted with the secret and releases her from the engagement, but FW's spies/minions are still keeping a close eye on Wilhelmine, plus BF's dad Margrave wants the dowry, so if she suddenly announces the marriage is off and she's leaving Bayreuth going to France...that's not gonna fly. So our heroine Pannewitz still gets to have her own clothes-swapping moment of glory with a big "In your face, FW!"
A big continuing thanks for all the plotting help, guys! <3 And the sounding board. If I can't write this, I love being able to share it with people anyway.