Her eyes fluttered open. In an instant, she was aware. The deep breaths, the weight that made her bed as if on a gentle slope, even the warmth. It was not unpleasant. Not that she would call it pleasant, though. It simply was.

  As if her awareness spread, those deep breaths softened and, soon, the gentle slope became steep, his hand sinking into the mattress as he pushed himself up.

  He was a handsome man. She could say as much by the sight. Whether she found him handsome was not a question she could ahough. Her life had been moulded around being a different prince’s wife and so she had grown numb to such things. Or rather, had numbed herself. A marriage without leverage. The less she had, the less she would lose—and she would lose it all uhat prince’s care.

  Suumbing could not be simply undone. Even if it could, she saw no reason to try. This marriage had no need for plications. She had no desire for suplications. Weaknesses.

  “I apologise if I woke you,” he whispered.

  She replied with a thin smile, her eyes narrowed in a squint, and she brought up a fio press to her lips. For a mihey simply stared at each other. He saw no reason to question her and she saw no reason to expin.

  So it was that, rather thaher of them, the bedroom’s door soon creaked open and a familiar maid slipped inside. “Dear need not worry, rather typical that my routiarts this early. Of course, given st night’s exertions, I would e dower a bath.”

  He listened with a polite expression that became ever more trolled as she spoke, yet he could not keep the blush from mingling with his sunned cheeks. “Is that so?” he said, his gaze sliding away from hers.

  Her lips curled. “Gianna is my maid and knows nothing, so be at ease with her. The only other here who knows nothing is Mr er; however, it should be said he was my father’s butler. I trust him as I am a tinuation of my father’s will. For dear, I would keep that in mind.”

  Although he regarded the maid, it was her warm nor cold, clear that he simply wished to remember the face. “Gianna.”

  Her maid paused in her preparations, mistress’s clothes in hand, to bow at the master’s mention of her, even if he only said her o better his memory.

  “I wonder, would dear apao bathe? It does ache to be separated for even a heartbeat,” she said, her tenderly delivered words at odds with a smile that looked wicked when he gnced back at her.

  A sigh slipped out of him. “Must I be teased so early?” he asked.

  “Is dear saying it is fio tease him at all other hours?” she asked, this time her smile certainly wicked.

  He ran his hand across his fad through the front of his hair, leaving behind an exasperated smile.

  Soon enough, in the bedroom’s attached bathroom, she lowered herself into the hot water, breath mingling with steam. Otled, she dismissed her maid with a flick. “My dear shall help wash me. After all, it is only right that one should offer a proper apology for sujustices, no?”

  That st word was directed at him and he once more could only offer a smile and a sigh in answer. Meanwhile, her maid bowed her head in aowledgement, thehe room.

  So it was only the newly-weds. The silence held distant chatter of birds, muffled footsteps of maids in the halls, and the gentle spshes of her movements. She seemed as if aloh how shameless she was in her scrubbing. Sure enough, she might as well have been alone, her husband’s gaze fixed firmly elsewhere.

  Eventually, he spoke. “She knows nothing?”

  “Mm, so I would rather keep her that way. In much the same way, while I believe there should be s between husband and wife, the knowing of a secret iably ges us. So, I would ask dear to trust my judgement on what secrets are best not known, while also promising that, if asked, I would be truthful. I would offer dear the same and ask for the same promise.”

  Her tinued use of dear in private drew another empty smile out of him. “Is su arra warranted?” he asked.

  She paused her bathing to stare at him until he gnced over. With their gazes meeting, she raised an eyebrow. “Only dear knows the weight of his secrets. That I am the one proposing this, it need not be said how heavy my secrets are.”

  His gaze slid away in a silent cession. “What of your ag, is that warraoo?” he asked.

  “Does dear remember me at all from my time at the Royal Pace?”

  “I mostly recall how Hector spoke of you,” he said. In the silehat followed, though, he mulled it over. “Docile, I suppose. You looked at him as if he was your sun, the light of your world, which made his ents all the more off-putting.”

  She ughed, the gentle sound filling the room as they echoed off the walls. Her voice, though, notably did not echo, quiet. “The truth is I never loved him. Well, perhaps when my father still breathed, I did. However, it was to my be to be perceived as pletely enamoured with him. It still is. As long as others think my as are inteo aggravate him up, they do not sider what else I may be aplishing.”

  “Like your assistao Lord Bavaria and then to Lord Bohemia,” he said in a matg quiet.

  At that remark, she cupped her hands ier and brought them up, thehe water spsh down. “Indeed. From what I have heard, I sought favours to oppose the betrothal’s an. When Lord Bavaria petitioned on my behalf, it was a ruse to remind the King that I had lost the only family I had left in a st attempt to have him resider.”

  “Your ag even had me fooled.”

  “Pray do not misuand,” she said, and for the first time he heard a chill in her voice. “That I never loved him does not mean I do not now hate him. What he took from me, what he denied me, ot be uated. I shall never know motherhood, estranged from the future my father prepared for me. It is as if am in limbo.”

  A moment, then he asked, “Is that the truth?”

  Her ughter again spilled, spshing against the walls and running uhe doors to any listening. “It is close enough. Disgust, perhaps, fits better. He is not fit to rule.”

  “However, he would have been an ideal ruler with you at his side.”

  She found herself uedly surprised. “Dear already knows me so well,” she said lightly.

  With a hand on his , he asked, “Do I, or am I simply being shown another act?”

  “I wonder?” she said, the tone oh so sweet.

  His empty chuckle didn’t quite fill the room as well as her ughter. “Perhaps I should begin to learn my lihat I may py the role mein Schatz has prepared for me.”

  “I have no i in writing pys. However, I would reend dear uses Frenstead. It better suits his station.”

  “Of course, mo pain,” he said, humour in his voice that did not linger on his face.

  For a while, siletled atop their quiet breaths. The hot water, lightly sted, massaged away yesterday’s aches, even a simple ceremony far from simple when it involved a prince.

  “Do give father my thanks for his gifts,” she said.

  His mouth widened into a smile. “I think the amusement it gave him is thanks enough, being asked for a bunch of animals as if we were living in the Old Testament.”

  “Those animals are worth tless thanks,” she simply said, her serious nor sarcastic.

  “Truly?” he asked lightly.

  She traced a pattern atop the water and watched the ripples spread and merge. “In particur, to sell a Polish warhorse is a capital offence. I do not disagree with that weight. They are a supreme breed for war,” she said.

  “That they might be, yet will there be a pce for them? You have already bested them with gunpowder,” he said, i c his tone warmer.

  “Did I?” she said with a smile only the water saw. “It would have been my plete loss if not for the circumstances.”

  His eyes narrowed, brow pulled together in a wrinkle. “I fess those circumstances are not known to me.”

  “Well, there will be no she of time to discuss this ter. Dear should be more ed with his first campaign,” she said, the bait she left for him as entig as always.

  So he happily bit. “Mm, I wonder where mo pin shall send me,” he said, humour in his voice.

  She replied with a titter. “Dear is fortualy in the spring a lovely pce. I have even paved the way—both literally and figuratively.”

  Of course, he had expected that. “Another boon for you that our marriage shall ect to your erritory.” There was no disgust in his words, rather a subtle praise, the graent of her forethought something that became more apparent with time.

  However, she replied with a sharp sp, water spshing over the side of the tub.

  “Allow me to be clear, I would quer no ohat is something men do to make up for their own inadequacy. If one ot rule without pilging, then one is not a ruler, but a thug,” she said, her voice carrying a chill.

  It left him hesitant, unsure if this was another act he was supposed to question. In the end, he offered a quiet, “Of course, dive me.”

  “How could I not five dear?”

  More chilling than before was how warm she once again sounded, another reminder for him that, regardless of where she resided now, she had grown up in the Royal Pace.

  “This shall be a joiure with the Austrians to blockade the Veians. We shall move down in the west while they take the east, then surround the goon. Of course, it may seem futile when they may simply bring in supplies by boat, but that is to misuand the purpose of the blockade.”

  Although he did not sider himself tale such thought, it felt as if she had always made sure to say just enough—and not fuse the matter by saying too much. “We sever Venice from the mainnd, yet for urpose if not to subjugate them? Or is it that you would gift that nd to the Austrians?”

  While her smile went unseen by him, he heard it clearly. “It truly is always quest for men. No, the Austrians shall adjust their border, but there is tension with Hungary and Croatia, as well as agreements with other Italian powers to temper their greed.”

  She slipped deeper into the water, a long sigh esg her as she did.

  “Does dear not remember the purpose of my trip?”

  He stilled, chided, frustrated with himself. “Trade,” he whispered.

  Her smile grew and she said no more.

  “The Veian mainnd produces much grain that would o be sold elsewhere,” he said.

  She drew in another deep breath, held it for a moment, then slowly let it out. “There are many moving parts involved. In truth, I ot detail a specifi at this time. What I clearly give are the goals. First, that my army gains logistical experience. Sed, that we may sarts of the Veian mainnd into trading with us. Third, albeit unlikely and less important, that we may e away with a token cession from the Veians.”

  He listened, listened close. It was not that she said anything particurly ludicrous nenius, instead fasated by this perspective, that she so clearly knew what her success looked like—success that did not strictly require a sitle won.

  It was not as simple as cause and effect, rather that she reshaped the world to be in her favour. She built a road, not only for a particur reason, but for the opportu could and would present her. Her marriage to him now seemed much the same—her every meeting with him.

  Indeed, how great must Alexander’s inadequacy have been.

  Although she indulged his silence for a while, she had better things to do thahe entire day idle, so she tinued. “At the present rate of making, dear should have four thousand infantry, a quarter armed with firearms. I hope to increase that to two thousand firearms and an overall force of five thousand. With the emphasis on merary forces in Italy, our modest cavalry detat should prove valuable and invaluable. Without the iion to siege, I have issioned smaller, more mobile ons, which be both moved at greater speed and used more readily in battles, while their primary use should be to fortify defensive positions.”

  His fiips drummed together, head hanging forwards. “Rather than the gooablish a perimeter far enough that, if they should nd troops, the point of their attack withstand the brunt while allied forces march to surround.”

  “Dear is indeed wise.”

  He froze, then a wry smile broke free. Had that been her pn all along or had she given him the requirements and the fidehat there was an answer?

  “To begin with, then, dear shall be in and of the militia at the mayor’s appoi. We io gradually introduce mandatory service with annual training thereafter. Dear would use this time to refine how he intends to mahe army, as well as begin recruitment.”

  “You afford this army?”

  He spoke it not as a harsh question, almost a polite statement. Still, she ughed, gentle sounds of spshing water as she adjusted her position. “I ot afford to not afford it. So, if I am to have it, let it bring value.”

  Again, he could not ent on the validity of what she had said. A normal erhaps, but how could he even begin to guess at the profits of her “blockade”? However, he could appreciate her iion to make use of what she had.

  What she had—would have—was more than just an army to her, but aension of both diplomad ey, as everything seemed to be.

  Spshes rang out, this time as she rose from the bath. “As for the sheep father acquired, it need not be said that I shall put them to good use too,” she said, her tone light, teasing.

  He could only ugh. “Of course, mo .”

  Of course she would.