Catherine and the Black Emperor

039. Johanna's Espionage

Elizabeth stormed into Johanna's room, holding a half-burnt secret letter and questioning her.

"Is this yours?!"

Ekaterina came out of her bedroom and saw Shuvalov with a group of secret police. She immediately rushed into her mother's room.

"Please forgive me, Your Majesty, my Russian is not good. I meant to, I meant to..."

Elizabeth stared coldly at her: "You cannot explain the torment you will suffer before you die! I must know what message you passed to Frederick!"

Johanna was terrified and completely lost her composure.

Elizabeth then turned her cold gaze to Ekaterina: "Do you know?"

"Know what?" Ekaterina asked, her voice filled with surprise and uncertainty.

"Tell me!" Elizabeth pressed.

"First, you need to let me know what you're talking about and what happened," Ekaterina replied calmly.

"Your mother is spying on us! Spying on the court! Spying on Russia! She's a Prussian spy! This is a secret letter she wrote to Frederick, do you want to see it?!" Elizabeth's voice was high-pitched and agitated.

Johanna knelt on the ground: "Your Majesty, I have written that I am overwhelmed by the attention of a great man—"

Elizabeth interrupted her: "You're lying! You wrote to him only for money! You have no idea how much money your daughter will get as Grand Duchess, you foolish and selfish woman!"

Johanna wept bitterly, "Your Majesty, I know I was wrong, please forgive me!"

Catherine also knelt on the ground, pleading, "Your Majesty, please forgive my mother! We'll go home right now! We'll leave immediately! I will be grateful to Your Majesty, I will pray for your good health, I—"

"Go home?! Isn't this your home?" Elizabeth asked angrily.

Johanna looked desperate.

Despite the Empress's anger, Catherine continued to look at the man, her eyes filled with pleading hunger.

Finally, Elizabeth ordered Shuvalov: "Take the Princess away and make her explain everything—the secret prisoner, Lestoker's torture, and so on—so she can say goodbye to her daughter!"

Shuvalov forcibly took Johanna away. Ekaterina tried to hold onto her mother, but the secret police stopped her, and she could only watch as they took her mother away.

Ekaterina sat listlessly in the chair, her mind blank.

Upon seeing Sergei, she immediately ran towards him.

"Your Highness, my mother—"

Sergei raised his hand: "I know everything. This matter has a great impact, and the investigation will last for some time. Everyone, including me, will become a suspect, after all, your mother did know a lot of political secrets."

"But you don't need to worry. The first thing you need to do is to extricate yourself from this matter. Only the Grand Duchess's status can protect you, and indirectly protect your mother."

Catherine was very clever; after Sergei's reminder, she immediately understood.

As long as she, the heir to the throne, is not accused of treason and espionage, she can retain her status as Grand Duchess. Even if her mother cannot escape the charges, she will escape execution because her daughter is the Grand Duchess's fiancée.

"Your Highness, will you also be suspected?" Ekaterina asked nervously.

Sergei nodded: "I, your servant, and everyone who has come into contact with you and your mother, cannot escape it, not even the Grand Duke."

"My mother has implicated so many people," Ekaterina lamented.

"All you have to do now is wait for news. Just answer all questions truthfully. I can't stay here any longer." Sergei then left.

He came here for two reasons: first, to remind Ekaterina not to panic and to keep calm; and second, to tell Gemma to inform Matrena so that his relationship with Ekaterina wouldn't be labeled as "ambiguous."

Based on his understanding of Matrena over this period of time, he knew that she was someone who genuinely cared about Ekaterina, so he trusted Matrena's choice.

"I hope everything goes well."

To ensure everything went smoothly, Sergei went to Karamardi again. After accepting a bag of rubles, Karamardi found Peter and solemnly instructed him on several things.

"I have already told Her Majesty that all the burrows will be sealed off, your hunting dogs will no longer be able to pass through, all wild animals will not be allowed to be used for dog training, such as foxes can be replaced by domestic rabbits, and all rats will also be eliminated."

Upon hearing this, Peter, coupled with Elizabeth's recent order to demolish the kennels and take away all his hunting dogs, finally flew into a rage and stormed into Elizabeth's office.

Although in the end, Elizabeth managed to suppress Peter's anger, this successfully diverted some of Elizabeth's attention.

Two days later, Sergei was taken away for investigation, and he was interrogated by Shuvalov.

However, ever since Sergei learned that Betskoy was acting on Elizabeth's orders to seduce Johanna, he had been intentionally or unintentionally avoiding Betskoy and Johanna. With corroboration from his servants, he was quickly cleared of suspicion.

In January 1745, the Secret Committee was established.

"You are now back to being my assistant, no longer a suspect. Let's work together to get this headache over with as soon as possible." Shuvalov handed the relevant interrogation transcripts to Sergei.

This is indeed a headache.

Since Catherine has been cleared of suspicion, convicting Johanna would not force Catherine to relinquish her position as Grand Duchess. If she is not convicted, Elizabeth would consider him, the chairman of the special court, to be incompetent.

Shuvalov is in a very bad situation.

"Happy to help." Sergei smiled and took on this hot potato.

On the other hand, Elizabeth learned that Catherine was innocent and was eager to make amends to her. She not only moved Catherine to an extremely luxurious suite, but also sent her trunk after trunk of dresses and jewelry.

"The bride-to-be of the throne should have many dresses. Do you know how many I have?" Elizabeth asked Catherine with a smile.

"1000 sets?" Ekaterina guessed.

Elizabeth gave a boastful and astonishing answer: "32000 sets!"

"87," Ekaterina murmured to herself.

"What '87?" Elizabeth's curiosity shifted from the mirror given to her by the Venetian ambassador back to Catherine.

"If Your Majesty wears a different formal dress every day, you can wear it for another 87 years and 7 months."

Elizabeth smiled sincerely: "You're very good at math."

Ekaterina smiled but remained silent.

As Elizabeth was about to leave, Catherine called out to her, "Your Majesty."

Elizabeth stood in the doorway without turning around: "I know what you're going to ask, but thankfully you've waited until now. I'm in a good mood, so I can tell you that your mother wasn't tortured. After she's finished explaining everything, she'll let you all meet her one last time!"