Page 57 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

“Well, it would give him time to miss you, maybe.”

“You’re very supportive, Princess. I don’t know how to express how much I appreciate it.” She rubbed her stomach, where that same old pain was lodged. Maybe one of the babies was kicking a nerve.

“Are you all right?” Zandra asked.

“Just one of my twinges.”

“Twinges?”

“A little pain, here and there. Nothing consistent. Nothing to worry about.” Still, this one wasn’t going away quite so quickly.

“I don’t have any twinges. And you’re quite pale.”

“Well, you only have one in there.”

“Katerina, you should consult your doctor before we make any more plans to leave, don’t you think?”

“We? I thought Lysias would not want to be separated from you.”

“He won’t, but I’m hardly letting you go by yourself. You need a friend. Lysias will stay here and talk some sense into my stubborn brother, and I will go with you. We’ll take a little break for a few days and come back next week and sort everything through. Doesn’t that sound good?”

“I would not count on anyone getting through to your stubborn brother if I cannot.”

Zandra smiled at that. “You have always been the best at getting through to him, that is true. But maybe a little distance, a little missing you is just the ticket. Now, you stay right here. I’ll have someone fetch your doctor and then we’ll begin making plans, all right?”

Katerina nodded, overwhelmed by Zandra’s kindness and warmth. “You don’t have to go with me, really, Zandra. I appreciate—”

“I won’t hear any more about it,” she said, heading for the door. “We’re sisters.”

Sisters. Katerina had a sister. A family.

Finally.

Diamandis spent his morning going through historical records he’d never before allowed himself to consult. He got the full picture of who Marias had been to his father.

And who he had not been.

Then, he planned. At first, he did this alone, and then, in a moment he would have once called weakness, he consulted Lysias.

“I think giving him his full retirement is too kind,” Lysias said, brooding, which was rather unlike his usually irreverent brother-in-law.

“We will call it insurance over a kindness.” Diamandis knew he should feelsomething, but mostly he felt numb.

The man he’d trusted was a grasping traitor. Not so overtly that he could be sent to jail, but just insidious enough to make it clear he had never been on Diamandis’s side.

Ever.

A staff member announced Marias’s arrival.

“Would you like me to stay?” Lysias asked. Diamandis saw it for what it was: a kind, supportive gesture between friends. Family.

When they’d been boys together, they had been close friends. Like brothers. It had taken nothing at all for Diamandis’s advisers to convince him that Lysias was a traitor to the crown, deserving of any bad thing that happened to him.

“I have not been a good friend to you.”

“I think the same could be said about me. Even if my attempt at revenge did reunite you with your sister, I assure you it was purely accidental.”

But it did not feel like an accident. It felt like a second chance. “I would like this to change.”

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