Page 21 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

There was a moment of quiet, short-lived. Marias stood and spoke as if he was speaking for everyone.

“Your Majesty, this is impossible. And seems incredibly far-fetched.”

Diamandis stood abruptly, and the whole table not only quieted but stilled. Even the pompous Marias did not dare speak when Diamandis looked down at him in clear censure.

“Regardless of how it might seem to you, this is the truth, and I would think long and hard before you question it again.”

Marias bowed his head. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

Diamandis sat once more. “We knew we wouldn’t be able to plan it quickly enough, so we began preparations with the ruse of using the princess and her husband as the bride and groom. Surely you can understand that our subterfuge was necessary in order to protect Katerina’s health.”

He sounded so...calculated, Katerina thought. And she knew that was what the council required. It was how he always spoke to them. They always had more arguments when Diamandis showed any emotions—usually frustration.

He knew how to play them, and she knew that they did not like this. It wasn’t just the open questions, the little comments aboutunorthodoxandtraditionandyour parents. It was the way they looked at her.

Like she was gum to be scraped off Diamandis’s shoe. She raised her chin in response. She had spent her whole life fielding looks like that.

And you wanted to escape them, remember?

It was an impossible choice. The best doctors, the best chance for health and survival versus the way these men looked at her and how they would likely look at her children.

But her children would havelove. If not their father’s, then their mother’s.

And Katerina would make certain that was all that mattered.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THEMEETINGWASINTERMINABLE.The questions, the pearl-clutching so over the top that Diamandis’s head throbbed with poorly leashed anger.

He had not expected his council, aside from Lysias, to take all of this information well, but he hadn’t anticipated that so many of his council members would make so little attempt to veil their distaste for acommoner—something many of them were themselves, having only risen in rank by their wealth and position on this council.

Katerina had warned him, and he had not listened. It would not be the first time. She had a better sense of people than he did—a fact that had always irked.

And now, it will make her an excellent queen.

He let that thought be a kind of balm. Perhaps he had not chosen this. Perhaps his plan had been to never wed and instead to pass along the throne to Zandra or her children. This would have been a decent enough plan.

But having an effective queen to act as his partner, rather than simply waiting to die, was perhaps a better option. Perhaps.

“I am not sure how the people will react to this, Your Majesty,” Marias said. Again.

Next to him, Katerina sighed. Loudly. Diamandis gave her a censuring look, but she did not temper her response. Instead, she leaned forward.

“May I address the council?”

Diamandis was surprised by the request but nodded. This was an interesting turn of events. Though she had been present at many a council meeting before, she’d never spoken at one.

She got to her feet and surveyed the table of people below. “Marias,” she said, when she probably should have called him “Mr. Remis.” “It is interesting to me that you are suddenly worried about what the people will think, when I’ve heard you, more than once, insist that the throne is more important than the opinion of its subjects.”

“This isaboutthe throne,” Marias returned. “And who should sit upon it.”

“And why should I not, Marias? What’s done is done. Diamandis and I are married—regardless of Kalyvan ceremony. As you can see, I am quite pregnant. With twins. What would the people think, on the other hand, if Diamandis discarded me and my children?”

Marias puffed out his chest. “That is hardly what I’m suggesting.”

“Then whatareyou suggesting?” she returned, as though she genuinely wanted to hear an answer to that. As though she was waiting with bated breath for him to explain himself.

She was beautiful. Diamandis had never considered what it might be like to have a partner in this. Zandra had slowly begun to take on some responsibilities as a working royal, but she didn’t yet feel comfortable dealing with the politics of things, though she was studying hard to prepare herself. She was just so behind, so out of step, after having lived twenty years on her own and having little to no memory of Kalyva.

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