“I know,” Emily said. “He was quite clear on what he wanted.”
It could be worse, she knew. She’d once seen a boy berating his ex-girlfriend, demanding to know why she’d thought he’d spent all that money on her. Of course he was interested in her sexually. She wondered what it meant that neither Caleb nor Cat had spent vast sums of money on her, although she suspected it was meaningless. She was richer than both of them by several orders of magnitude.
“Have fun, then,” Imaiqah said. She pointed a finger at Emily, meaningfully. “And make sure you keep up with your potions. Etta had a scare three years ago and it nearly killed her.”
Emily shrugged. Etta had never really impinged on her attention. One of Imaiqah’s roommates, she thought. Probably a girl from a commoner or noble background, if a pregnancy scare had threatened to turn into a disaster. A magical family wouldn’t be quite so furious if a daughter got pregnant out of wedlock. She would take a year or two off to deliver and wean the child, then she could either bring the baby up herself–as part of the family–or hand it over to her parents and go back to study. It was, she felt, a more rational response to an unplanned baby.
Particularly when abortion is banned on pain of death, she reminded herself. There would be no way to terminate a pregnancy without risking discovery and death.
“I took my potion last month,” she said. The potions always lasted three months, unless she chose to drink a counter-potion early. “I should be fine.”
“Be careful,” Alassa said. “You are a Baroness of Zangaria.”
“Only until your father gets around to striking me from the rolls,” Emily said. She was surprised it hadn’t already happened. Five of the remaining barons were in open revolt, while two of the other four were on the verge of revolting themselves. Alicia wouldn’t dare lodge a protest and Baron Gladstone was a known loyalist. “It won’t be long now.”
“And if he does, I’ll reinstate you,” Alassa promised. She touched her baby bump again, her fingers running over the bulge. “I’ll want you to be the child’s protector, if things go badly wrong.”
“Jade will protect both of you,” Emily said, quietly.
“I know,” Alassa said. She smiled, just for a second. “But anyone who wants to kill me, particularly after the baby is born, will also want to kill him.”
Emily nodded. Jade loved Alassa. He’d do everything in his power to protect her–and avenge her death if someone killed her. A powerful combat sorcerer with nothing to lose…there were necromancers who might tremble at the thought. No, Alassa was right. Anyone who killed her would also try to kill Jade. He’d certainly try to protect and raise his child, even if he didn’t seek revenge. No one would expect him to abandon his baby and walk away.
“If it happens, I’ll be there for the baby,” she said. “I just hope you’re not expecting me to raise him.”
Alassa giggled. “I could do worse.”
“Nightingale,” Emily said. “Or Shadye. Or…”
“I was thinking more of someone appointed by my father,” Alassa said, primly. “Although I suppose Nightingale was technically responsible for my education.”
“He did a fine job,” Imaiqah said, mischievously.
Alassa grinned, then sobered. “I’d expect you to do your best,” she said. She touched the space between her breasts, lightly. “It won’t be easy, if the worst happens. But I have faith in you.”
“Thank you,” Emily said. That meant a lot to her. “We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?”
“It isn’t over yet,” Alassa said. She peered into the distance. “It won’t be over until the war is over.”
That won’t be the end, Emily thought. All the stories of happily ever after never seemed to talk about the struggles in rebuilding a kingdom. Reconstruction had been just as fraught as the Civil War, but it wasn’t studied so extensively in classes. You’ll have to reform your kingdom and somehow balance competing demands from a hundred different factions. And…
A thought struck her. “We had some help from Alicia,” she said. “Will you remember that?”
Alassa’s face darkened. “If I must. And if her child’s parentage is never revealed.”
“Some people are already talking,” Imaiqah said quietly. “The old biddies of both genders counted on their fingers and deduced that Alicia was already pregnant when she married.”
“Bah,” Alassa said. “It isn’t as if anyone cares.”
“They do,” Imaiqah said.
Emily sighed. A magical family might like the idea of the bride being pregnant before the wedding day, just to prove that bride and groom were compatible, but aristocrats preferred to believe that the bride was a virgin when she married. Not, she supposed, that it mattered in Alicia’s case. She was beautiful, but enough people knew that Lord Burrows was more interested in men than women to question if he’d been the one who’d impregnated her. And Alicia had been a king’s ward. Very few men would have dared to try to seduce her.
“They can blame everything on Lord Burrows,” she said. Her face twisted in distaste. “I’m sure the thought of being a Baron, in all but name, was enough to convince him to…perform.”
Alassa chuckled. “It really is astonishing how desirable a large inheritance can make you.”
She squatted on her haunches. “Very well. If Alicia doesn’t cause trouble for me, directly or indirectly, I’ll leave her alone. Everyone will believe, or claim to believe, that Lord Burrows fathered Alexis. But if she does cause trouble it will be the end of her. I want you to make that very clear to her.”
“I will,” Emily said. She wondered if Jade had had the foresight to pack up the chat parchment when they abandoned the warehouse. “I’m sure she’ll be relieved.”
“Yeah,” Alassa said. “I’m sure she’ll be relieved too.”
Emily looked up, sharply, as she heard feet tramping towards them. She readied a spell with the last of her energy, preparing herself for what might be her final fight, then relaxed as Jade stepped into the clearing. He was carrying a staff in one hand, but his face was calm. Cat stood behind him, looking relieved.
“They’ve agreed to join us,” he said. He’d been fairly certain that his connections would help, but he hadn’t been entirely sure. “And to start the march on Swanhaven City.”
Emily lifted her eyebrows. “You expect resistance?”
“I expect that whoever Randor put in my place will have made himself unpopular,” Jade commented. Swanhaven had revolted before, shortly after the wedding. Jade had been popular, when Randor had given him the barony, simply because he wasn’t either Lord Hans or Lady Regina. “However, he will also have a number of troops under his command.”
“Your troops,” Alassa said. She stood, her blonde hair glowing in the light. “I don’t think they will bar our way to the city.”
“I hope not,” Jade said. He helped Imaiqah to stand, then looked around. “Once we have Swanhaven, we move directly to Cockatrice. And then we can really start preparing for war.”
“If we manage to get control of Swanhaven,” Cat said, quietly. “This could still go badly wrong.”
“Jade trained the troops,” Alassa told him. The confidence in her voice was startling, for someone who’d spent six weeks in prison. “They won’t try to stop him.”
Emily hoped, as they started to walk down to the hunting lodge, that Alassa was right.
Chapter Thirty-Nine