The Chosen Bride

A Lady is Always Tasteful in Speech

Katherine stood in the mirror, a hand resting on her quickly growing belly, "Do you think they will notice?"

Drake looked up from their bed, a wide grin plastered across his face, "What, how big my son has grown? No, not at all. If they ask, though, you tell them that we breed only the highest quality of children. They have to grow to meet the high expectations."

Katherine glared at him through the mirror, "Thomas."

"Kat, we have already been over this. Eleanor has come up with a story. No one will dare question it as long as you stick to the story." He reminded her, rolling out of bed and placing a kiss on the side of her head.

"Yes, Yes."

He reached over her to open a drawer in her vanity, "I bought you something, Kat."

She smiled at him, "You shouldn't have. Money should not be wasted on me."

Drake opened a small, velvet box for her to see an elegant collar of rubies and diamonds, "I cannot have my wife look bare on her first appearance since our wedding."

He was right, after all, for they had spent a great deal of time in Spain after their wedding. They had not even had the chance to go to his estate before they were beckoned to the palace once more. The Queen had taken Katherine under her arm whilst the King borrowed her husband. She was lucky enough to have him returned for the ball.

"Thomas, I love them. Truly, thank you."

She placed a small kiss on his lips, "You have to get dressed though, my love. A good husband will not allow his young wife to go to a ball by herself, will he?"

Drake grinned, "Not at all."

~~~~

"You've grown so quickly!" A friend of Lady Eleanor's cried, gesturing at Katherine's belly.

"My dear, " Eleanor laughed, "You have to remember that my dear cousin married before the ceremony. She and Lord Drake were married back in France and then they wanted to celebrate here too. So, I, feeling very honored to do so, created the ceremony just for the two of them so that they could celebrate with their English friends too. One wedding is simply not enough!"

Katherine smiled softly at her friend. She was glad Eleanor was good at spinning an elaborate story because there was no way Katherine could have done that.

"Oh, I wish I could have had two weddings!" A young lady cried, looking accusingly across the room at her husband.

Katherine laughed nervously, "Yes, it was quite an adventure."

"Anything is an adventure when it comes to your husband, Lady Katherine. Oh, I remember when he was just a wee babe... So sweet." The woman to her right, a Scottish woman, said.

Another pursed her lips together for a second before saying, "'Tis a real shame what happened to his mother."

"Aye." The Scottish woman agreed, shaking her head.

"Nearly destroyed the whole family and estate." Eleanor remembered, shrugging."

Katherine's hand circled around her bump, soothingly. She did not know what the ladies meant for she and Drake had never talked about his side of the family.

"Oh, your poor dear! Do you have any idea what we speak of?" The Duchess of Brandenburg cried, touching her arm.

Katherine looked at Eleanor with a raised eyebrow, "My husband and I had left the past out of our marriage. It did not seem to matter to me the things of the past."