“You are dismissed,” said the Prince in a bored voice that covered the pleasure he was taking in this interview. Life held few moments as delicious.
“But, sir . . .” said Aufors.
“So? She’s pregnant,” the Prince drawled, eyebrows raised. “You must answer to her father for that, not to me. As for me, I am pleased at the news. It is said to be good luck to have a pregnant woman or new mother along on trips over the sea. Run along, Colonel. I’m sure it will all work out, in the end.”
Genevieve received Aufors’s report as calmly as she could, allowing herself no expression of distress that would further upset him. He was quite troubled enough, more than enough. It took several hours of talk and soothing before he would settle with any pretence of patience into the waiting game she was determined they should play. He was not left idle long, for he was soon drawn back into the Marshal’s employ during every moment he could spare from the duties assigned by the Prince. Though the mission to Mahahm was not to be a large or numerous one, there were many decisions concerning supply and logistics to be made. There were new weapons and devices to be tested and installed on the Lord Paramount’s airship. There were men to be recruited and trained in their use.
During the time that followed, Genevieve tried to maintain a discreet distance from him. She tried not to look at him directly, not to speak to him too lengthilyor too personally. She did this out of conviction it was right, without realizing how her coolness enriched his distrust, not necessarily of her, for he loved her unreservedly, but of the situation, of something evil and amorphous that encompassed them both.
As the season wore by, as Genevieve’s let-out dresses gave way to more flowing ones that Veswees made for her—becoming her confidant in the process—Genevieve blessed the approaching mission to Mahahm, for it kept her father’s attention fully occupied elsewhere. Any notice he had to spare was taken up by a few minor skirmishes in Dania. “Women raiders,” he said, with a twist to his lips that forbade questions. “Thieves, stealing daughters!”
By the time of their departure, Genevieve was some 220 days along— according to the midwife she had consulted on Veswees’s recommendation—with only fifty or so days to go. She, Aufors, and the Marshal were to join the Prince at the much-touted resort in Bliggen, a place that often served as the staging area for trips to Mahahm. Though the rest of the party would travel horseback, Aufors, concerned for Genevieve’s comfort, made arrangements for her to travel by river packet to Reusel-on-mere, by boat from there to Poolwich, and by another boat down to the shores of Bliggen, in Barfezi, where she could be met by a comfortable carriage and brought the rest of the way. It was this detail that finally caught the Marshal’s attention and let him, for the first time, focus on Genevieve. What he saw did not please him, and the outburst was notable for both volume and invective.
Ten days of bitterness followed, capped by the Marshal’s command that Genevieve and Aufors be married, forthwith.
“Now it’s a matter of duty,” Aufors told her caustically, when he went to inform her of her father’s decision. “He says the Prince assented to our marriage, the Prince insists we both go on this mission, and he, the Marshal, is not going to be gossiped about and have his family name put to scorn. Better marriage to a commoner, he says, than the shame of a totally uncovenantly child.”
“You’re sure the Prince doesn’t want me himself? Not anymore?”
“He wants you on this trip, Jenny! Seemingly that’s all he’s ever wanted, really.”
“I can’t understand that,” she cried.
“Maybe he’s had an omen, I don’t know! Maybe he’s consulted a seeress. Deepsea, Jenny, I don’t know what’s in the monster’s mind! Stop all this play! Unless you know, for certain, that our marriage is a bad idea, and why it’s a bad idea, then let us do it. Now. At once.”
Delia, who had learned all of what was going on during the process of letting out seams, offered the opinion that Genevieve should do what both her father and Aufors wanted her to do.