“She’s finally asleep,” Adrienne says while Suha crouches down to adjust the child’s bonnet as she sinks into the cushion in her cradle.  

“Finally,” Phillipe mutters as well, although the faint smile on his mouth betrays his toxic nature. 

Adrienne straightens up, her hands linger on the outer blankets surrounding the baby before turning to her wife and son. Her black caught brown in the sunlight. There’s a faint crease above her brow.

“It’s strange, peculiar,” the Duchess begins,  her voice low but contemplative. “I wasn’t supposed to be in the city, I had gone to oversee the repairs of the western wall but something pulled me there.”

Suha tilts her head, her silver hair cascading over her shoulder as she regards her wife curiously. “Pulled you?”

Adrienne nods, holding the other women close. “I can’t explain it but it felt like something was calling me, telling me to hurry. And when I got there, I heard a woman’s scream…and then a child’s cry. And when I picked her up, she smiled at me…” She glances at the child softly. “I couldn’t just leave her there, Suha. It just wouldn’t feel right.”

Suha smiles, taking Adrienne's face in her hands. “Of course it would. Perhaps it was divine intervention. My wife is righteous like that. We were even different from the other otherworlders…”

“Being this lovey-dovey is a bit disgusting you know?”

“Phillipe you wouldn’t have been born if we weren’t that lovey-dovey.”

Phillipe looks at her mother, Suha before glancing away, flustered. “Anyways, it’s not your holiness or anything else guiding you there.”

Adrienne lets out a soft, humorless laugh. “Perhaps you’re right. I think it’s my old age deceiving me, making me soft.”

“Mère, you getting soft that will be the day.”

“Careful, boy. One more word and we spar, and you know you won’t win.”

“That’s it, enough!” Suha says, steering the conversation back. “Even so, regardless of how she arrived, she’s here now and safe. Isn’t that what matters?”

The two glance at the sleeping baby and Phillipe sighs. “I suppose you’re right, Maman.”

“As I always am. Anyways, I wonder what my brother will think of our new charge?”

Adrienne groans before pinching the bridge of her nose. “God, your brother is going to think I’ve lost my mind. And that lazy brute is going to ignore his work again, isn’t it?”

Suha’s eyes flicker with mischief, “Not at all,” She waves her hands dismissively. “His Majesty will be thrilled. Both of us have only had sons–he’s always saying that he’s tired of stinky boys in the family–”

Phillipe makes a face. “I beg your pardon, Maman, stinky boys?

“Yes, stinky boys,” Suha replies briskly. “That year all of you came back from the military academy, you’d think a bunch of boars decided to take refuge in the annex. Anyways, a little girl will be a welcome change.”

While the two talk, Adrienne is mentally having a small crisis. Rafi Raj Rim de La Rochefoucauld, her wife’s younger brother and the thorn in her side. The youngest prince of his fifteen siblings and the second child of the emperor’s sixth wife. His sister was ten-fifteen years older than her and with a mother who fell ill and a neglectful father.

Although Suha was never interested in the succession for the throne since she was too busy whipping the magic tower mages into shape, he won the game of succession and defied the odds.

Why?

Because he wanted power to give his oldest sister reign to do what she wanted.

Even though Suha looks much younger than her age due to her magical ability, her brother who was forty-five like the Duchess was still acting like a child with his sister. He found out they were to be married, he challenged her to a duel (one she did not take because she values her life). He was extra annoying when Phillipe and Julian were born and threw all the empire affairs on her, his sister-in-law to play with babies.

If it wasn’t for Her Majesty and his aide, she doesn’t think she’d get through until his shoved off to war.

Like hell, she’ll go through that again.

“This is not how I envisioned my day going.”

“Not mine either, but aren’t you happy?” Adrienne glances over at her wife before learning to give her a soft kiss. “Always, mon amour.” 

“Disgusting, do that elsewhere!”