February 27th, 1615

Winter was beautiful in Francia. Of course, it was made all the more beautiful for being witnessed from Arindale, Francia's most beautiful castle, in the duchy of Lonnare to the north. The beginning of the snows had brought many changes to the life the duke and duchess had only just begun to settle into, not least of which was the wedding of their friends. It had been sad to see Justine leave them, however happy the event was, and though Juliana de La Roche had proven to be as good a friend, Alys missed Justine as the months passed and she grew rounder with child.

Her first guess at conception seemed to have been wrong - given how grown she was as the snows began to thaw, she knew now that she must have conceived before her illicit wedding to Charles. Not that she minded so very much; she looked forward to being able to hand him his child and see the look on his face when he held his legacy in his arms. That would not be for some time to come, though, and though her pregnancy was progressing well, she was tiring more easily these days.

Lying on her side in the bed she shared with Charles, she was reading in the afternoon sunlight, smiling at the news Justine relayed to her by letter and the promise of a visit as soon as the passes cleared.

That letter included news of a private kind that Justine wanted to share with her good friend, but that had not yet been made public and that she was asking her to keep to herself for now. She might not have minded if the news was shared with the duke, but her brother and his lady was another matter. She needed to be sure before the news was made public, as she didn't want to disappoint anyone if things did not go well.

"Oh, Justine ..." Alys breathed, laughing a little as she read over those lines once again. She could almost hear her friend sharing that tentative hope with her, knowing how it felt to be in those weeks between suspecting and certain. No doubt Bryce was delighted, and his father, too, but the redheaded duchess wished she could be there for her friend during those unsettled weeks. By the time they saw one another again, Justine would know for certain, one way or the other. She sighed softly, rubbing a hand over her high belly as the child within stretched. "And by that time, you might well have decided to join us," she said to the baby resting under her heart. "Your father is going to be twisted around your little finger within seconds when he sets his eyes on you."

"Who are you talking to, love?" the familiar voice of Charles intruded on her thoughts as he stepped into the bedroom, tugging the gloves from his fingers and thankful for the roaring fire in the hearth, for though the snows were melting, there was still a distinct chill in the air.

Tilting her head up, Alys smiled to see her husband enter, though she didn't envy him the chill he was carrying with him. One good thing about being this close to her confinement was the fact that she could legitimately dismiss their ducal court for a good few months and have him mostly to herself. "Oh, just the spawn of your loins, dear heart," she told him, drumming her fingers against her belly. "Did you enjoy your ride?"

"A noble name for a half royal child," he teased, tossing his gloves aside and leaning down to touch a kiss to her brow before moving to unfasten his cloak. "I would have enjoyed it more if that insufferable simp of a mayor had not joined me. Goddess, I get so tired of some of these sniveling lords who think it's my duty to sort out the smallest of their problems. I do not know how Christian manages an entire kingdom when I have trouble enough with one duchy."

She chuckled softly, her expression soft as he kissed her brow. Rising up onto her elbow, she watched as he unfastened his cloak. "In another few weeks, Jos will return here," she reassured her husband. "He and his companions can take a little of that load from your shoulders for a while." She glanced down at the letter in her hand. "And we should expect Justine and Bryce to visit when the snow has thawed entirely."

"You miss them, I know ....your ladies," he said with a small frown as he drew the cloak from his shoulders and laid it aside before moving to the hearth to put another log on the fire. "Winter is hard here in Lonnare, but I like the quiet," he added, which was no great surprise to her.

"I miss my friends," she corrected him gently. "That does not apply to all my ladies." Smiling, she patted the bed beside her. "Take your boots off and come here, let me warm you up." Shuffling to make room for him on their wide bed, she offered her husband a warm smile. "I like the quiet, too," she admitted. "I miss Will, though. I know my uncle needs him in Martel, but I still miss him being just around the next corner."

"Perhaps he will visit, too, when the spring comes," he said, though he could not promise. He missed Will, too. The three of them had grown up together, inseparable for most of their lives, and Will and Charles were as close as brothers. "If I could, I would find a place for him here, but his first duty is to the King," he said, though she knew this all too well, also. He sat himself on the side of their bed to first tug the boots from his feet before he settled in beside her, laying a hand against the swell at her middle. "And how is the small one today' Giving you no trouble, I expect?"

"We'll be going to court for the season ourselves," she reminded him gently. "And the king will expect us to bring our child with us. Christian loves babies, as I recall. Will won't be able to resist teasing you about being wrapped around the finger of someone tiny, just the way he is wrapped around his boys' fingers." She laughed, laying her hand over his as he touched the gravid swell of her womb. "No trouble today. I am just tired," she admitted in amusement. "I never thought carrying a baby in my womb would be so exhausting. The commons do it all the time, and they work long hours at hard tasks. I'm turning into a delicate flower, Beau."

"They have little choice if they wish to feed their families," he reminded her, wishing there was a better way, but it was a duchy and it would not function properly without the landed lords and their serfs. He had made some changes, however, putting an end to some of the harsh ways in which the lords treated those who worked their lands. His fingers wandered gently over the swell of her pregnancy, before leaning close to whisper to the child within. "Can you hear me, small one" You must be kind to your mother, for I love her dearly."

Alys' smile softened as he addressed their child - the first of many she hoped to give him over the years to come - feeling the stretch of little limbs inside her press out against the warmth of Charles' palm. "He always responds to you," she murmured, stroking her fingers through her husband's tousled hair affectionately. "I feel so awfully lazy for going back to bed today. Am I lazy?"

"How do you know our child is a he and not a she?" he asked, as he almost always did when she presumed they were having a son. It mattered little to him whether it was a boy or a girl; he was sure they would have plenty of time in the future to have both. He couldn't help but smirk at her question though. "Very lazy, but you're allowed."

"Because I want so much to give you a son and make your line secure, love," she told him with disarming honesty. She could be unpredictable in her moods sometimes; fiery one moment, soft the next, as apt to tease as she was to be serious, but the one person she was always herself with was her husband. They had both been through too much to get here for either one of them to continue playing the games they had learned perfectly in order to survive with one another. His answer made her laugh. "Oh, well, since my lord says I am allowed, perhaps I should stay in bed until I give birth?"

"I've no doubt you will give me a son one day, but I promise to love all our children equally, whether be they son or daughter," he assured her with a soft smile as he leaned close for a kiss, his fingers still in caress of the child beneath his hand. "And then you would grow fat and spoiled, besides lazy," he pointed out, a teasing smirk at his lips.

Charles snorted at the very idea of inviting his grandmother to live with them at Arindale. He'd rather invite the devil himself. "Over my dead body," he replied, though he certainly did want that to happen anytime soon. "The stipend I provide is more than generous. It is her voracious appetite for luxury that saps her funds." More specifically, his grandmother's fondness of jewels and finery and other unnecessary frippery. "I will not have her here, sucking the life out of our happiness and getting her claws into our child. I'll increase her stipend, if I must, but she is not living here." A wicked grin curled his lips as a thought came to mind. "Shall I share with her how harsh our winters are and how dull it is here without any court dramas to entertain?" Both of them enjoyed the lack of drama, and the quiet of winter, but that would not stop him from impressing upon his grandmother how miserable she'd be here.

"No, you won't increase her stipend," Alys told him, shaking her head with a faint smile. "Give her a choice - maintain her position at court on the stipend she already has, or live on her own estate, supported by her own means. She has never given you any reason to believe she cares anything for you; her only interest now is in your proximity to the throne. She no longer has the queen to hide behind, love. If she wants to stay at court, she should be modest in her ways, or she will make more enemies than she knows how to handle."

He sighed, not really wanting to spoil their perfect afternoon with talk of his harpy of a grandmother. "She should be happy I am able to afford her a stipend at all. I can go no further at court. I was happy to be a knight, and I am lucky to be a duke. I don't know what it is she wants of me. Clearly, I cannot be king!" Nor had he any desire to be king. He was more than happy with a duchy, and it was more than he'd ever hoped for or expected. "I hate to speak ill of her, but how much longer can she live, really' She has to be at least seventy by now."

"If there was any care in her for you, she would have shown it by now," hsi wife said gently. "We can keep her in relative comfort, but I will not shed tears when she dies. I think I'd be more moved to learn that Bereth was dead than your grandmother." It was an awful thing to say, but completely honest. She shrugged, leaning close to kiss him again. "Our children will be loved by their grandparents," she promised him. "My mother may not approve of us, but she doesn't approve of Ursula, either. That hasn't stopped her from spoiling Will's sons absolutely rotten."

"If anyone spoils them, it will be Will," Charles remarked, though the truth was it was himself and Alys who would be more likely to spoil them than anyone else. He made no remark regarding the eventuality of his grandmother's passing. She could not possibly live forever. He had long since stopped trying to please her, satisfied with merely tolerating her. It pained him to know Alys despised her even more than she despised Bereth. The woman was his own flesh and blood, after all, but he knew her hatred was born of the woman's own treatment of him.

She laughed, looping her arms about his neck as she curled close. "Will is likely to storm the castle as soon as he hears he is an uncle again," she warned her husband cheerfully. "Any excuse to get away from the court and just be himself for a while." Though they both knew that Will would have visited them before now if Christian did not need him so much.

"I would have him here with us, if I could," Charles remarked, though Alys knew that already. They had discussed it many times. Will was the one person they both felt a little bit lost without, which only made their visits that much more precious. It was an impossible situation, but it would be spring soon and travel would commence again - as would war.

"We can always hope for a peaceful year," she mused, though they both knew that might be a lost cause. Though Coimbra had been defeated, there was no guarantee that peace would hold, and the news from Edessa did not sound promising, either. "Perhaps there will be no need to do anything but socialize with one another this year."

"Perhaps," he admitted with a doubtful frown. War had been so much a part of their lives for so long, it was hard to imagine life without it. And even if there were no open hostilities, here on the border, they could not be too careful. "Enough talk about politics," he said, dismissing the topic as too depressing for the bedroom. Instead, he pressed a tender kiss to the side of her neck. "Are you tired, love?"

"I am never too tired for you, dear heart," she promised him affectionately, drawing her fingers through his hair. "Although if you tell me to get dressed, I'm going to pinch your backside so hard you'll be wincing to sit down for a week."

"Get dressed?" he chuckled. "No, love, I had something else in mind," he said, as he drew her onto her back, his fingers pushing the fabric back from to further bare her shoulder as his lips traced the line of her neck. It was clear what he had in mind, though he was far more careful with her these days than he had been before she'd become pregnant.

"Oh, I see ..." Her laughter trailed off into tender sighs as gentle quiet and warm affection eased into the soft love-making he had grown so adept at as her belly had rounded over the past months. Such a far cry from the impatient passion they had shared before they were wed, and yet he was not changed. She still loved him as deeply as ever she had before - more, perhaps, now she belonged to him entirely.

There were, after all, other ways to please each other besides the actual act of intercourse, and Charles was an accomplished enough lover to know them all, much to Alys' benefit. Even here in Arindale, they had little enough time to themselves and both did their best to make use of that time. Charles had never been a selfish lover, even when he'd been toying with the women at court. It was, perhaps, one of the reasons he'd become so popular, though his handsome good looks and rakish charm hadn't hurt his chances with the ladies, but now it was Alys who benefited from that experience, the ladies of his past forgotten.

She had her own skills to bring to their bed, skills learned to keep her first husband happy in their short marriage, skills she now enjoyed plying Charles with whenever he allowed her. But more than that, she had learned him; how to please the man she loved and would always love, the father of her child and lord of her life. What he gave her, she returned, heedless of how clearly their household could hear them. One thing the people of Arindale were in now doubt of - their duchy was home to love once again, and the children that would fill these halls would be the product of that love.

They did not need hours to share that love, having learned how to take advantage of every quiet moment they had alone together. The household had learned to leave them alone during such times as these, happy there was a loving couple in residence at Arindale once again after so many long years. There was laughter here again, love and happiness and most importantly to the people who called Arindale home, there was hope for a peaceful and prosperous future for them and their children.

With the snow finally beginning to thaw after their first winter there, the Duke and Duchess of Lonnare had finally made Arindale their home. This was where their hearts were happiest, where their smiles came most easily; this was where their children would be born. The most beautiful castle in all of Francia would ring with warmth for generations if they had their way, thanks to a king who loved his family far more than he cared for reputation or status. It was home.