“I have summoned a priestess just in case. You need to be examined.”
Shame burned through Talia’s face, and she glared up at Varkas.
“It is nothing. I only lost my footing for a second.”
“You were writhing with back pain until yesterday. Stay still.”
Varkas tightened his arms around her squirming form and turned a frigid look on Edric.
The knight, flustered eyes darting, shrank and went rigid, as if the tip of a blade had just been set against his throat.
“You should take your leave now. This is no time to linger.”
“…I was just about to set out.”
Edric swallowed audibly, his voice stiff with tension.
Varkas watched him with an unreadable face before turning toward the door. “Then go at once. I had the stablemaster prepare a fresh mount, so take it for your journey.”
“Ah… thank you for your consideration.”
Ignoring the polite reply, Varkas walked straight out of the drawing room.
Talia looked over his shoulder at the knight frozen in place, then peered up at Varkas. Meeting his steady, blue-gray gaze, she drew her shoulders in instinctively.
His expression was placid, no different from usual. Why, then, had a sudden chill run down her spine?
“What were you and Ruben discussing?”
“Nothing… nothing of consequence.”
At her evasive murmur, Varkas’s eyes narrowed.
He pressed again, his voice dropping to a low scrape.
“What was ‘nothing of consequence’?”
Talia’s gaze shifted uncomfortably.
There was no reason to hide what Edric had told her, but she knew he would not take kindly to her digging behind his back.
After a brief pause, she offered a flimsy excuse.
“We were only exchanging pleasantries.”
· · ·
“He has always been a busybody. He merely wanted to see how I was faring…”
Unnerved by the lingering silence, she tacked on the explanation, only to see a cold glint pass through his eyes.
Only then did Talia realize he was in a foul mood. What she could not understand was why.
Was he furious that her careless stumble had nearly put the child in danger?
As she searched his features with mounting unease, Varkas climbed the stairs, muttering flatly,
“You seem rather close with Ruben.”
“He was merely assigned to guard me for a few months.”
Talia gave a reflexive scoff.
“He meddles in everything. I have never known a more persistent nag! He would make a better wet nurse than a knight.”
Yet the more she ran Edric down, the more Varkas’s face seemed to set into stone.
Given how coldly he had dismissed him, she had assumed they were on poor terms. Was the man actually a valued subordinate?
She held her tongue and watched him warily until they reached the bedchamber, where Varkas signaled the servant waiting in the corridor.
“Open it.”
The servant dropped his rag and pushed the door wide without delay.
Stepping inside, Varkas set her gently on the bed and slid her coat from her shoulders as if it were second nature.
“How is your back?”
“It is fine. I slept well last night, so it aches less than usual.”
Usually he would have shown a sliver of relief at that, but he remained silent.
After staring at her swollen belly for a long beat, Varkas straightened and poured her a cup of the herbal infusion the healers had left ready.
Soon after, the priestess and two healers arrived in haste at his summons and set to work examining her.
Naturally, neither she nor the unborn child had suffered any harm.
The priestess, dragged all the way from the castle chapel, let out a soft sigh.
“Now that you have reached the stable months, strict bed rest is no longer necessary. Light movement, so long as it does not strain you, will actually ease the ache in your back.”
Talia shot Varkas a look that plainly said, See?
Arms crossed over his chest, Varkas looked down at them with a furrowed brow, demanding specifics.
“What precisely qualifies as ‘not straining’?”
“Anything Her Grace can manage without feeling overtaxed.”
Packing her instruments, the priestess answered with an expression caught between a smile and a wince.
After weeks of constant questioning, the feared Grand Duke of Shearkan seemed to have shrunk in her eyes to nothing more than an anxious young husband fretting over his first child.
She added with mild patience, “A gentle walk of ten to thirty minutes will also help with the pelvic strain. But someone must always be there to support you. If you fall and take an impact to your abdomen, the child could be injured.”
The priestess gave her a pointed look, and Talia curled her hands over her stomach, abashed.
When the priestess took her leave, the healers took over. Marisen drew a folding screen to apply ointment to her legs and replace the dressings, while Tiuran arranged pillows behind her back to help her settle comfortably.
Once the bustle died down, Varkas dismissed them all.
Realizing he had stayed behind because he had something to say, Talia stiffened.
He stood over her with folded arms, letting the silence stretch before he finally spoke.
“You are a married woman, and the Grand Duchess of the East.”
Talia blinked up at him, bewildered.
Can he not see my belly?
While she wondered why he was stating the obvious, Varkas continued dryly,
“I will not tolerate you frolicking with men as you did in your reckless girlhood. Conduct yourself as befits a Grand Duchess.”
Heat rushed into Talia’s face at the unexpected rebuke.
Fury flared to the crown of her head.
“I only exchanged a few words with a knight who used to serve me. What about that is unbecoming?”
“Being alone in a closed room with another man is improper on its face. You know that well enough.”
He was right. A married noblewoman was expected to keep an attendant at her side at all times, especially in the company of a man who was not her husband.
Yet Talia, who had never kept anyone close save her nanny and Varkas since childhood, despised having shadows follow her every step. It felt like surveillance.
She glared at him, unyielding.
“Do not speak as though I were conducting a secret tryst. There are over two hundred souls living in this keep! Servants were passing by the drawing room doors the entire time.”
“And every one of them saw you secluded with a young man from the capital. Did it never occur to you that their tongues might wag?”
“If any of them dares wag their filthy tongue, I will have it torn out!”
Rage boiling over, Talia snarled back,
“I am crippled and heavy with child. Who would even want me? Even if I flung myself at them naked, no man would spare me a second glance! They would run for their lives!”
The words were barely out of her mouth when a dark shadow fell over her.
Talia flinched. Varkas leaned down, his face inches from hers, and murmured with frigid weight,
“Do not say such things.”
In all the time since their marriage, she could count on one hand the moments he had turned on her with such raw intimidation.
Seeing the fear in her eyes, Varkas drew back and exhaled deeply. When he spoke again, his voice had leveled into calm.
“…I spoke out of turn. If I offended you, forgive me.”
It was a formal apology meant to quell an unproductive spat, not an admission that he believed himself wrong.
Talia kept silent, lowering her gaze. Seeing the rims of her eyes turn red, Varkas sighed and sat on the edge of the mattress, pulling her onto his lap to stroke her hair.
It felt like being slapped only to be offered a sweet, yet Talia did not pull away. A profound relief washed over her to find that the cold, terrifying adversary of the past had retreated, leaving behind the dutiful protector.
“…Let us take a brief walk after we eat.”
Once he was certain she had calmed, he made the suggestion quietly.
Talia shook her head, sullen.
“Forget it. Go tend to your duties. I only want to sleep.”
Varkas’s lips parted as though to object, but he merely helped her lie back against the pillows and left the room.
She rose quietly and limped to the window. Across the vast courtyard, she could see the distant figure of Edric Ruben leading his horse.
Before long, he was galloping across the rolling hills. Overhead, thick snow clouds crept into the sky. She silently prayed it was not a bad omen.
Winter vanished in the blink of an eye. And Talia soon lost the leisure to brood over northern uprisings or impending war. As her belly swelled heavier each day, the pain in her hips and back grew almost beyond endurance.
END