Page 64 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

She swallowed against so many things. Bits and pieces came back to her.

I will love you all more than life itself, but you must come back to me.Surely she had dreamed such passionate words? Surely it was all a dream?

“Wewill go home together?”

“Yes, I’m afraid I will not allow you to be out of my sight for quite some time.” As if to prove it, his gaze tracked over her face. Then he blinked and forced his mouth to curve.

“You will be happy to know I have broken royal tradition, per your request. You told me they should have names that mean something. So I have named them after my brothers. And they only have four names, for why shouldn’t history wonder why our children are so special that they will break tradition?”

She searched his face. Something had changed. She could feel it, and yet...

“You will have to wait to hold them, I’m afraid,” he continued. “But it is a good enough reason to get strong, is it not?”

“Diamandis...”

“Achilleas is asleep, but he is off all the machines. I will bring him over when he wakes. But they are both fine, strapping young princes.”

“Diamandis...”

She didn’t know what she wanted to say, but something in his whole being simply crumpled. He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss there, pure anguish in his gaze.

“I thought I had lost you. I could not bear the thought,” he said roughly.

Her husband. Her sons. Her life and her heart. Everything was fine, and she would get better. She would make sure of it. “Everything will be all right.”

He nodded and kissed her palm once more. “Katerina, I love you. I thought this was a curse. I thought I had doomed you, but Zandra reminded me that while I might be king, I do not have that kind of power.”

Katerina had hoped to hear those words someday, but had mostly convinced herself they would not come, even if she knew he felt such things. Even if she thought she could get through to him. She wanted to reach out and touch him, touch her son.Rafail.But she couldn’t seem to move in the ways she wanted.

“I suppose I had to visit with death to get this kind of confession,” she said, struggling to shift in the bed.

He shook his head, his expression pained. “Because I am a fool. But I will... I will endeavor to forgive myself for the mistakes I have made, because they were made with an honest heart, if nothing else. I will endeavor to make no more, but I suppose this is life. We make mistakes. But I will never mistake this simple fact again. I love you. I want you by my side. I want to be your family, to raise our children as my parents raised theirs. Our children will know love and faith and...everything we wish them to. Together.”

Tears tracked over her cheeks, but her husband wiped them away. Love and faith. Together. The family she had known they could be, if only she could get past his walls.

And now here they were. Not perfect, because shehadnearly died, but this was life. Never perfect, but beautiful nonetheless.

Diamandis pressed a kiss to her forehead, and when Achilleas awoke, he brought the boy over so she could see him. So she could see both of her beautiful sons, in their handsome father’s arms.

She had been alone so long, and now she had a family. One made of love and hope. She was proud to be the queen of Kalyva, and she was good at it. But nothing in her life would ever match the joy of loving her husband, and the pure perfection of being a mother.

A month later, finally healed and strong, Katerina requested something of her husband he almost refused to give.

“I cannot allow it, Katerina.” He even glared at her.

But she sat in the chair, feeding the insatiable Achilleas, who had grown faster than anyone expected. Diamandis held Rafail, pacing, as was often the only way to get the energetic boy to sleep.

“I will see my mother, Diamandis. If you will not bring her here, I will go to her.”

“Over my dead body.”

Which was how, a week later, she was seated in a receiving room while Christos ushered her mother into the room. Diamandis stood behind Katerina’s chair, and the boys were in another room in the care of Zandra and Lysias.

“I thought I was to meet my grandchildren.”

“I made it very clear you would not be, Mother.”

Ghavriella sniffed. “Then I do not understand why I am here after being treated so rudely the last time.”

---