Ivetta and her little red dress won that night, in spite of my best efforts to resist her, but I won the next morning when she agreed to stay in our room and rest until Luke and Arianna’s engagement ball. She was much improved on the anti-nausea medication the doctor prescribed. Her appetite was back, and she had no more fainting spells, although I knew the latter may have been more due to her staying off her feet than due to an improvement in appetite. But she wasn’t a person who could sit still, and watching her over those few days was like watching a caged bird. She was fidgety, finding any excuse to get up and move around, unable to settle down and read in just one spot. I needed a better long-term solution, one that would allow me to keep a close eye on her so she didn’t push herself to the point of fainting and still allow her the freedom to live. It was a tricky balance to strike.
The first and most obvious problem was the ball itself. She loved to dance, but that fell neatly in the category of strenuous activity, in my opinion, especially since she never could stop at just one song. I knew she would hate sitting out the dancing, and I also knew she would hate missing the ball entirely. The best solution I could come up with was having her sit on the periphery with me while I handled the assorted business presented to me by my faction members, and on the surface, it wasn’t ideal. She loved to socialize, though, and this would be her first public appearance since Belle’s wedding, so I knew she would attract plenty of attention on her own.
Everybody was asking about her. People I knew, people I didn’t know, people who would never normally approach me, were suddenly stopping me in the hallway to see how she was doing. Their leading questions and stumbling words made it clear that her pregnancy was no secret. I dodged the issue, but I knew she wouldn’t. I hadn’t relayed the doctor’s recommendation to her about keeping it quiet until the second trimester. She would want to know why, and I didn’t want to stress her with the reasons. Better to have her think I was being overbearing than to let her know there was a very real possibility she could lose the baby, or her own life. I was doing enough worrying on that front for both of us.
The second problem was her daily work managing the palace staff. There was no reason she couldn’t continue to do that, and it would provide the mental stimulation she needed to keep her busy over the coming months. She just couldn’t walk all over the palace to do it anymore. There was a room in disuse next to my office, and I had it cleaned up and converted into an office for her. I didn’t tell her what I was doing, nor did I tell her about Jin and Theresa’s engagement ceremony. Those were best left as surprises for later, when she started to get upset with me about the precautions I would insist she take.
“Oh, goodie, you’re letting me out for Luke and Arianna’s engagement ball,” she said lightheartedly the afternoon of Luke and Arianna’s ceremony. Melanie, her new maid, giggled as she pulled the laces of Ivetta’s dress taut.
“Not so tight,” I instructed Melanie, leaning against the wall next to the mirror with my arms crossed over my chest as I watched her get Ivetta ready.
“It’s fine, Melanie,” Ivetta told her, and then she added, “Go sit down, Chevalier. Your hovering is making her nervous.”
“I don’t need you fainting again,” I muttered, but I sat down at my writing desk a few feet away. Melanie was nervous. Her gray eyes kept flicking from me back to Ivetta as her fingers fumbled with the laces.
“I didn’t actually faint,” Ivetta corrected me. “And this dress isn’t nearly as tight as the one I wore at Belle’s wedding.”
“Which may have been why you got light-headed.”
“I don’t think so,” she said, moving over to the vanity for Melanie to do her hair. “That dress actually felt really comfortable. Not that I was comfortable wearing it. It showed far too much skin for that.”
“Then why did you wear it?” I asked irritably. I didn’t like sharing that much of her with anybody, let alone a church full of people.
“It was Belle’s wedding, and it was what she picked out,” she said dismissively, as if that was any excuse. “She already had mine altered to have the sleeves and longer skirt before any of us even saw the dresses.”
“You could have said no.”
She sighed. “In case you didn’t notice, those dresses were the only part of her wedding that didn’t follow tradition. She planned everything else out to make the guests happy. The dresses were the only part she saved for herself to make her happy. It was important to her, and I decided I could deal with it for a few hours.”
“Didn’t you like your wedding, Queen Ivetta?” Melanie asked tentatively as she styled Ivetta’s hair. It was the first time I’d ever heard the girl speak. She was sixteen years old, only three years younger than Ivetta, but she was so painfully shy that the age gap seemed much wider.
“Of course I did, but it was a royal wedding, so I didn’t even get to plan it,” Ivetta replied. “Sariel took care of everything. He let me include some people in the wedding party that otherwise wouldn’t have been there, because that was the most important piece for me. But I didn’t even get to wear the dress I wanted.”
“Oh?” I asked, my brows furrowing in my reflection in her mirror at that revelation. She had never told me there was anything she disliked about our wedding.
“Not because of Sariel,” she reassured me. “I would have loved a strapless dress - not like Belle’s, of course. But I couldn’t because of the scars. I still loved that dress, though. I’ll have to show it to you sometime, Melanie.” She paused, watching Melanie slide the last hair-pin into place, and then she said, “Melanie, this is beautiful. You’ve really been getting good at hair styling.”
“Thank you,” Melanie said with a shy smile. “I’ve been practicing on my little sister when I go to visit my family. Her hair is brown, like mine, but it’s straight and fine like yours. She gets so excited when I finish, running around the house and saying she’s wearing the queen’s hair.”
“Oh, that sounds so cute. I’d love to meet her sometime,” Ivetta said, smiling as her eyes took on the faraway look I had come to recognize meant she was thinking about the future and our baby.
My stomach twisted painfully. If she lost the baby, she was going to be devastated. I stood up and came to her side, offering her a hand.
“We should go.”
“Will you be needing me to bring you supper?” Melanie asked as I pulled Ivetta to her feet.
“Yes,” I said firmly.
Ivetta’s face fell, but she didn’t say anything as I led her out into the hallway. I summoned the image of her white face at Belle’s wedding to steel my resolve. It wasn’t unreasonable for me to think she shouldn’t stay up late tonight. Not when there was another ball tomorrow night - one that she didn’t know about.
That would soften the blow.
“Jin and Theresa’s engagement ceremony is tomorrow.”
“Really?” she asked excitedly, her face lighting up again as she smiled up at me. “When did this happen?”
“Just before Belle’s wedding,” I replied, the corner of my lip twitching as I sent her a sidelong glance. I had been debating about when to show her the new office, but since I was already surprising her, now seemed appropriate.
“Theresa said Jin was trying to get it scheduled as soon as possible, but I didn’t think he’d manage to get it this soon. She must be so excited,” she said happily, and then she lapsed into a contented silence as we walked. It took her a while to realize I had taken the turnoff toward my office instead of the ballroom. “Where are we going?” she asked, looking up at me again.
“Your office.”
“My…office?” she asked haltingly.
“Here.” I stopped us at the door and opened it, watching for her reaction. She did not disappoint. Her green eyes went wide as she took in the sparsely decorated room. It was the same size as my office, with a large, rich oaken desk in front of a window overlooking the lawn between the palace and the church. Empty built-in bookcases lined one wall, and a circular rug depicting a red rose blossom decorated the floor. I purposely left it plain to give her something else to do.
“This…is mine?” she asked wonderingly, releasing my hand to go to the desk and run her fingers across the wood.
“I don’t intend to keep you in our room until the baby is born,” I replied, leaning against the doorway. “But I won’t have you running around the palace looking for the servants, either. They can come to you now.”
“Did this come from the library?” she asked, looking down at the rug.
“No, but it was made in the same style as those.”
“And I’m right next door to you,” she continued, spinning in a slow circle as she took it all in.
I was enjoying this as much as she was, but if we were to arrive at the ball before Luke and Arianna, we needed to go. “Naturally, I want to keep a close eye on you,” I said, walking up to her.
She spun around to face me and threw her arms around my neck. “Thank you, Chevalier,” she said, standing on tiptoe to kiss me.
“We should go to the ball,” I reminded her, settling my hands on her hips. “There are many people who have been asking to see you.”
“If I behave, and if there aren’t any problems, is there a chance we can stay later at the ball tomorrow?” she asked hopefully.
I chuckled. Her green eyes were shining with delight, and she was so adorable that I wouldn’t have been able to say no even if I intended to. “Yes.”
She kissed me again happily. “Maybe the next few months won’t be so bad, after all.”
That was my goal.
News traveled quickly, and all of Rhodolite seemed to know she was pregnant by the time we made it to the ballroom. Everybody swarmed us when we entered the room, and after I ushered Ivetta through the crowd to a chair, I stepped back and let them fawn over her. I was mildly concerned they would ignore Luke and Arianna when the couple finally arrived. Fortunately, that was not the case, and after they received congratulations, the ballroom split into its usual groups: the dancers, those from Leon’s faction forming a jovial bunch around him, and those from my faction forming an orderly line in front of me. Ivetta listened with interest to the varied political and business affairs I routinely dealt with at these events. I usually had Clavis or Nokto helping with the social side of every discussion, but they left that in Ivetta's hands tonight. Her unparalleled social skills more than made up for her lack of knowledge regarding the intricacies underlying every interaction. It wasn’t long before she was effortlessly inserting herself into conversation as needed to defuse tension and disarm even the most nervous of the people who approached me.
She was happy, everybody was excited, and a heaviness settled on my shoulders along with the twisting in my stomach. I needed to make sure she kept the baby, even if that meant imposing strict restrictions on what she could and couldn’t do. Suddenly, I was analyzing every aspect of her day, sorting everything into categories of acceptability. Her social engagements, and especially her weekly visits with Belle, needed to continue, but I didn’t want her leaving the palace, let alone riding in a bumpy carriage. I would have to talk to Sariel about rearranging her schedule. Then again, she would get restless if I didn’t allow her to go anywhere. It should be fairly safe to take her out for an occasional short ride on Blade. His smooth gaits were trustworthy; Rose’s sometimes rougher gaits were not.
We stayed later at Jin and Theresa’s engagement ball, but not too late, and I broke the news to her the next morning of what I had decided going forward. She made no protest, though her pursed lips told me what she thought. And she accepted without complaint her guards’ constant reminders to sit down and take a break, along with the meals Melanie brought her at set hours and the almost daily desserts Yves made for her. The occasional looks of irritation she shot in my direction made her opinion of all the fussing clear. I didn’t care. That look was easier to take than the pain and anguish I saw in her eyes when her mother died, a look that I didn’t want to see ever again, and certainly not in connection with our baby.
Lightening her schedule was easier than I expected. Sariel had taken an interest in the blonde bridesmaid from Belle’s wedding, a young woman named Sarah, and any reduction in his workload meant more opportunity for him to slip away from the palace to visit her at her father’s bakery in town. I didn’t mind, so long as he got his work done, and he did. Luke’s and Jin’s weddings were both scheduled for fall, eight days apart, and quickly approaching as summer flew by.
“Did you hear about Sariel and Sarah?” Clavis asked excitedly, bursting into my office late one afternoon early in the fall.
Nokto set his quill down and stretched his hands out in front of him, interlacing his fingers together and ducking his head to reach forward until his shoulders audibly popped. I inwardly winced at the sound, although it had been a long day, and I could use a good stretch, too.
“What about them?” he asked with a satisfied groan.
“He proposed!”
Nokto’s head snapped upright, his crimson eyes wide as he stared at Clavis’ grinning face. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. The devil’s getting hitched,” Clavis said, his golden eyes glittering with amusement.
“Maybe there is something to that bouquet toss,” Nokto mused as he stood up. “Sarah caught Belle’s, and didn’t Arianna catch Ivetta’s?”
Luke opened the door and poked his head in. “Yves just brought dessert next door!”
“I’ll need to put more time in with my knights,” Nokto muttered, following Clavis out.
“Or stop eating Ivetta’s food,” I commented as I locked the door behind us.
“As if she’s going to eat it all,” Clavis called back over his shoulder.
Her voice drifted out of the open doorway of her office, as if in answer to Clavis. “There should be just enough for one slice per person, assuming-”
“Don’t forget us,” Luke interrupted as he walked in with the rest of us following.
Yves was cutting a triple layer chocolate cake into slices and distributing them to Leon’s faction, which was already gathered, as was Theresa, sitting shamelessly on Jin’s lap. This had become a daily occurrence. Ivetta and I usually ate dinner in the privacy of our room, and she retired after that, so dessert had become a pre-dinner affair. But it was not usual for her green eyes to be sparkling with barely contained excitement as they met mine. I made my way to what had become my spot, sitting on the desk next to her with my back turned to the rest of the room, and she dropped her gaze quickly to the slice of cake in front of her.
“You have good news,” I said quietly, though I didn’t need to drop my voice too much to avoid being overheard. My brothers were very loudly discussing Sariel and Sarah.
She nodded, smiling shyly up at me.
“What’s the big secret?” Leon called from his corner of the room.
“It’s no secret,” she said dismissively, returning to her cake. “I had my weekly check-up today.”
“And?” Theresa prompted excitedly.
“And, so far, so good,” Ivetta replied simply, glancing up at me again.
“That’s not all,” Nokto said knowingly. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“You don’t need to know,” I said coolly.
But I did, and the doctor hadn’t stopped by my office to tell me the news, so I didn’t want to delay any longer than necessary. Ivetta seemed to feel the same. Fortunately, the conversation turned again, this time toward Luke’s upcoming wedding, leaving us free to finish our cake as quickly as possible. As soon as her plate was empty, I stood and offered her my hand.
“Let’s go.”
“What? So soon?” Clavis asked with feigned injury.
“I’m sure I’ll see you all tomorrow,” Ivetta replied as I led her out the door. “Have a good night!”
In the relative privacy of the hallway, I released her hand and slid my arm around her waist. The bulge of her stomach under my hand had only recently appeared. “Well?”
“So impatient,” she teased, smiling up at me. “But I guess I can tell you now. You already know the nausea is getting better, and during the exam today, the baby kicked the doctor.”
A forbidden spark of hope lit in my chest. “Is that so?”
“The doctor said that means I’m starting my second trimester, and he’s much less worried about anything going wrong. So you should stop worrying, too.”
I chuckled. “You know I can’t do that, little dove.”
“I know,” she said resignedly. “Which is why I’m letting you fuss over me unnecessarily.”
Second trimester. The likelihood of a miscarriage just decreased significantly. The chance of something happening to her also lessened. Maybe…maybe I could relax, just a little. The next big hurdle was labor. I couldn’t do anything to prepare her for that. And right now, I didn’t even want to think about it. She was walking past me into our room, pulling hair-pins out as she made her way to her vanity, her silhouette from the back unchanged thanks to the way she carried the baby’s weight forward. I scooped her up, chuckling at her shriek of surprise as I carried her to the bed.
“Chevalier, I’m too heavy!” she protested, giggling, as I pressed her into the sheets.
I silenced her with a kiss, climbing into bed beside her and keeping a light hand on her stomach. The baby - our baby - was in there. “You’ve barely gained any weight, Ivetta,” I breathed before I kissed her again. The sudden excitement swelling in my chest was overwhelming.
“The doctor says I’m gaining appropriately,” she reassured me between kisses, giggling as I started rubbing circles on her stomach. “That tickles. The baby hasn’t kicked since the doctor felt it, so-”
Just then, I felt movement under my hand. It was brief, but it was there, and it made my heart stop.
“Ivetta,” I managed to say.
Her green eyes sparkled brightly as she laughed at my shocked expression. “That’s our baby, Chevalier,” she said, combing her fingers through my hair.
The excitement I felt before was nothing compared to this. I caught her wrist and brought it to my lips, showering kisses along the inside of her wrist and palm, up and down each finger, watching her squirm as I found another ticklish spot between her fingers. She was beautiful, giggling and laughing beside me, and she was carrying our baby. Our baby, who was very alive and, suddenly, very real.
“Chevalier, stop,” she protested weakly. “Melanie will be here soon with our dinner.”
“She’s not here yet,” I replied, releasing her hand and catching her chin to hold her still for a long, passionate kiss.
“Mm, Chevalier…”
“It’s real, Ivetta,” I breathed, dropping a series of shorter, but no less passionate, kisses across and around her lips.
“Of course it’s real,” she replied, undoing my cloak and pushing it off of my shoulders. “If we’re going to continue this, we should get more comfortable, hm?”
I chuckled and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “You’re a mother, Ivetta.”
“You noticed,” she teased, tugging on the leather of my sword belt. “That means you’re a father, Chevalier. And before you start worrying about that, you’re already a better king and husband than your father was, and I know you’re going to be a better father than him, too. So, if you have to worry about something, just stick to me, okay?”
“With pleasure,” I purred in her ear.
The knock at the door was not unexpected, but also not wanted. I sighed and pulled back. “We can continue this after you eat.”
I picked my cloak up from the floor and hung it on the coat rack as I passed it on the way to the door. Melanie didn’t meet my gaze when I let her in, but then, she never did. She looked past me at Ivetta, sitting on the edge of the bed and removing her hair-pins, her face flushed and her dress rumpled. Melanie blushed and ducked her head, scurrying past me to set the table.
She really was just a child.
“Sorry, Melanie,” Ivetta said.
“It’s fine,” Melanie squeaked.
Ivetta shot me a warning look. I concealed my mirth until Melanie darted out the door.
“She is an improvement from Theresa,” I noted, chuckling as I pulled Ivetta’s chair out for her.
“We won’t have to worry about her gushing about her boyfriend in excruciating detail, that’s for sure,” she agreed. “I love Theresa, but she can be a bit much sometimes.”
I pushed her chair in and kissed her neck. “Eat.”
She giggled. “You’re getting impatient again. Sit down and join me. I have a feeling you’ll need your strength,” she said suggestively, glancing up at me coyly. “Or, if you don’t feel like eating, maybe you can start a hot bath for us?”
“A pregnant woman should not be this seductive,” I murmured, wrapping my arms around her and nuzzling into her neck.
“I know what you like,” she replied smugly. “Go start the bath. I’ll be in shortly, and then you can worry about me all you want.”
I pulled back reluctantly and straightened up, running my fingers through her loose hair. “We will need to discuss names.”
“You really are excited now, aren’t you?” she asked, leaning back and smiling up at me.
“Just eat. I’ll show you how excited I am when you’re done.” I leaned in and murmured in her ear, “I know what you like, too, Ivetta.”
“Ooh, I like the sound of that. Are you going to stop treating me like I’m made of glass now?”
“We’ll see.” I kissed her neck and left for the bathroom,the sounds of my heart pounding in my ears and her giggling behind me mixing and echoing in my head. The baby was kicking, my wife was giggling, and I…I was starting to look forward to what the future may hold.23Please respect copyright.PENANAGmK2FNzB1g