The Accidental Empress (79 page)

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Howard Books

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New York, NY 10020

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2015 by Allison Pataki

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Howard Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Howard Books hardcover edition February 2015

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Interior design by Davina Mock-Maniscalco

Interior map by Jeffrey L. Ward

Jacket design by Jeanne Lee

Front jacket palace photograph by Getty Images

Front jacket empress photograph by Steve Gardner/Pixelworks Studio

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pataki, Allison.

 The accidental empress : a novel / Allison Pataki.

  pages ; cm

 1. Elisabeth, Empress, consort of Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, 1837–1898—Fiction. I. Title.

 PS3616.A8664A64 2015

 813'.6—dc23

2014020804

ISBN 978-1-4767-9022-0

ISBN 978-1-4767-9023-7 (ebook)