Book 2: Troubling Times

Ainslee

Rafe turns to me in shock, and I can’t blame him. I probably should have told him sooner. “You’re pregnant?!” he yelps.

“Uhm, well… yes…” I admit, hugging my stomach.

“You two have a lot to talk about,” my cousin, Karl, chuckles. “Might I suggest we all turn in for the evening? I’ve already told you I will send my troops. I gave my word, after all. You just need to hold up your end.”

“O-Of course,” Rafe stammers, still looking shocked.

Karl nods to some servants standing subtly by the receiving room doors. “Take them to the crimson room. We’ll talk more over breakfast.”

“Yes. Over breakfast…” Rafe replies to Karl though his eyes are completely zeroed in on me.

“Don’t keep her up too late. She needs to rest for the sake of the child, after all,” Karl reminds Rafe with a wink. Then he walks out of the receiving room in a swirl of robes.

“Maybe we should go take a bath?” I squeak.

“Mhm. Or maybe ‘we’ should