YNGVI
Lady Cigyun stared at the open map on her lap, as if she could read it. "I think, perhaps, we could skip Yngvi. I know nothing of note there, and as far as I know, Yngvi has no little heirs to be concerned with. I think a cousin attended our wedding?" She did not sound sure.
Sunilda's interest was minimal, laying her head against the side of the carriage. Anymore, the little babe in her squirmed night and day. A dull ache stabbed at her back repeatedly, feeling her insides twist, and she was scared to ask. "Milady." Lord Arvis slept on her through the night, and though he was back in his mother's side, she was still warm from him.
"Hm?"
"I don't want to skip Yngvi." She was still not large like she'd feared, the odd sort of pregnancies she spied from a far where bellies grew into perfect round spheres, but it was there. Her dress had let out some; she could lay her hand on the underside of her belly and not see it. They'd been a sweet, quiet cohabitation, but she thought the child was ready to come out.
"A castle is a castle," Lady Cigyun said. "Too drafty and-"
"Cigyun."
She looked up. Her posture gave it away, hopefully, for she did not think she could say it out-loud. She gave the lord the map, who did not immediately follow her complaints. "Gods, Svan, I-" Cigyun took the two steps needed to cross the moving carriage, sitting beside her now. Her hand joined hers on her belly, pressing the heel of it tightly against hers. She felt the odd urge to slap Cigyun's hand away. Perhaps her babe thought the same, kicking hard. "Yes, dearie, I feel you. You can make it to Yngvi, I hope. We've no choice. You'll ruin the carriage."
Cigyun leaned in, breath on her cheek. Could she be selfish? Part of her wanted to pull Cigyun into her, while part of her wanted to be touched by nothing. "I hadn't forgotten, I promise. The road and the sun have gotten to me," the baby in her. "Nothing will happen."
When did I say it would? "Thank you, my lady," she offered instead.
*…*
(Cigyun apologized the day she told her, and the day after that, and the day after that, and that, and that, until the apologies moved into promises. Promises became gifts, gifts became invitations, and protection from the duke during that wretched long night. "I never should've-" something else, perhaps, but they were together. )
*…*
Lady Cigyun held her hand. She pushed her hair back and promised, in that way only she could, that she would be fine. Her body knew what to do, when to bear down as so many did before her, and she need only listen. It was hard, completely out of touch with herself, warranting a glare from Yngvi's borrowed wife.
Still, despite Cigyun's literal hand holding, she cried. She hurt in a way she didn't think she could, hiding her sobs in her lady's shoulder; the midwife must've done something to anger Cigyun while she went shy, sulking between her thighs. None of this was wanted, not a single piece. Would it happen again? She hoped not; she had teeth this time; she couldn't manage it a second. The way her body grew, unknowable to herself.
"You're doing so good," she promised. "Just keep going." She squeezed her hand, rubbing her thumb across it. Why not believe her? Her lady had done this before.
It took too long in her opinion, somewhere from her back to her knees, and as another breath stalled in her throat, she heard a cry. The midwife said something, her mouth moving, but all she saw was his skinny face. Vaguely aware of the fact Cigyun left her, dragging the woman out by the arm.
Her baby fit twice over in her arms, eyes screwed shut and crying. It was a soft noise, admittedly. His voice sounded strained to even manage it, heartbroken and wanting; she pressed him into her shoulder, listening to his sniffles. "It's...you're okay," she promised. "Here." He didn't want to be fed, not yet, but she laid her hand on his cheek, and he went quiet. His eyes slowly opened, little spots of red. Oh. "Hi. I'm your momma. It's nice to meet you."
He wiggled in her arms, best he could. "You're probably cold, huh?" He said nothing, obviously, only slightly squirmy as she pressed him—her little baby—tighter into her chest. "You've got a little frock somewhere. We gotta get somewhere comfortable."
She could hear the bickering of her departed party from the hall; her lady did surviveas a duchess. Her thighs quivered as she stood. She waited to open the door until a lull in the…biting. Cigyun noticed her first, smiling warmly—it reached her eyes, and she couldn't remember the last time one of those smiles crossed her sight. "Up already? Strong girl." She was quick to stand by her side. "Let's get you somewhere nice while Tonna cleans up. Come."
Somewhere between her unfortunate heart and the exhaustion, she swayed when the lady gripped her elbow. "He's—cold."
The smile didn't budge. "I know. I will get his clothes." She leaned in close enough that Sunilda could see the chapped corner of her mouth. Her hand tapped his nose; he whined. "Oh. Look at you. Such a cutie."
*…*
The babe wanted nothing to do with his frock, stretching away from her hands. His face scrunched up with another whine, so she wrapped him up again in his blanket. She offered her pinky, pressing it into his soft, crumpled palm; his crying stopped, and she lifted his little self onto her lap, his head pillowed on her thigh. He stared wide-eyed at her, perhaps a little milk drunk; they'd taken one nap already, brief, before he finally decided he was hungry.
Lord and lady had gone to dinner with the lord of Yngvi, partly to be polite and partly to apologize for the inconvenience of a pregnant maidservant ruining a guest room. It was messy. No one ever talked about how messy it was, only how much it hurt (which it did; she'd wiped the tears off her face several times, but they still leaked freely).
She was hungry, herself. She'd poked her head out of the room to find a servant (as if she could give orders) but the suite was empty. Not comfortable wandering around a strange duchy, with infant in tow, so she opted to do what she did best and waited.
The babe got her attention again, nose crinkled; his feet kicked her tender belly. "What, baby?" His name sat ripe on her tongue. Not yet. Just a baby. A baby couldn't be stolen from her heart, but his split name could (somehow; she'd held him for half a day and he already owned her). "The world's so mean, huh?" Carefully, feeling each little bone, she slipped her hand beneath his head. She stroked her thumb across his cheek; he chased it. "Are you hungry? Your butt's dry…"
He did not want fed, but when she laid him against her shoulder he gnawed at it. A biter. The two of them together. Babies slept often, did they not? He snoozed on her nearly as soon as he woke. She ran her fingers along one of the delicate nobs of his spine (swaddling was...a skill). How could anything be so little yet keep her up for months? A baby hungry for lamb, and now he slept as sound as one. "I guess we've both been through a lot, huh?" she asked. "It's okay. This is the hardest it'll be."
Something so sweet about a baby's warmth. His little elbow claimed her chest, pressing into the bony part of it. "I...well, I don't know much. We're going somewhere new and I've never really been anywhere. You and me and our lady and the lord." He snorted. If a sleeping baby could give her attitude, he did. "Just," the baby in her lady, a prince in a capital, "us. One, two, three, and one."
He could stay on her shoulder. It kept him happy, and he'd want something to eat soon. Sore. So very sore. "You can't sleep too much. You've got some people to meet."
His eyes were framed by short black lashes that touched his skinny cheeks, quickly filling with color. The grey pallor of his skin had brightened, and he was steadily warming up. Something so delicate brought from so many wretched months…
Was this love?
A first for everything.
*…*
Lady Cigyun came...home, to her, just as her little boy stretched himself awake, milk dribbling down the corner of his mouth. "Another snack?" she asked. "A good boy." She made the lord wait outside for a moment, cleaning the babe's face with her delicate, slim fingers while she tugged her dress back up. "Okay, dear."
It was early to be glaring, but she wouldn't be surprised if his face was stuck as such. "There's servants for these things, Mother."
"Did you drop anything?"
"No."
"Then you'll do." The lord, still, was a boy with skinny arms. Lady Cigyun took the tray from him, sitting it carefully on the bedside table. "Someone ate all his carrots, so the cake is for him."
Lord Arvis sat beside her. "I always eat them. Can I touch him?" he asked. Sunilda nodded. Brothers. A part of her struggled to see the string between the two. The truth was always there—the sleeplessness, the bruises, the flinching—but it didn't connect to her little baby at all. Still, they shared the hair color and the tint of their eyes. Lord Arvis ran his knuckle along his cheek, and the babe caught it with his mouth. "You bite?"
"Never put anything near a baby's mouth." Cigyun sat on her other side, passing him his plate. "You bit, too." Preferably, Cigyun would be out of her nice dress by now, dressed thinly for bed, but she couldn't reach the buttons in the middle of her back by herself, and the lord was preoccupied with infants and cake. Cigyun balanced a bowl on her knee, a smooth metal spoon gripped between her knuckles. It was the exhaustion making her envious, surely. It wasn't soup in the bowl, but she was hungry enough tonight she would've eaten it anyway. Pieces of Yngvi yellow corn stuck out from the potatoes and chicken (or, rather, the fat little birds nobility ate).
"I did not!" Cigyun smiled, just for her, turning her head towards her by her chin. Her tongue stuck to her cheek. She lifted the spoon to her mouth. They were close, again, and it'd be easy to avoid the spoon.
"Eat."
"I can feed myself, mila-"
"Hush. This is the least I can do." Her little baby, freed again of his blanket, swung his closed hand against her wrist. She peeked at him, his shiny eyes. Why not?
So, sweet as ever, Cigyun fed her. She covered her baby's eyes in case her hand shook. Cigyun, for all her claims of never being there for anyone, took good care of her. She wiped the corner of her mouth off when she missed, and she felt a sudden kinship with her babe in how she wanted to chase it.
What was that?
She shook her head for another bite. Cigyun's brow creased. "One more. You just had a baby."
Too pretty to tell no, if only to keep her face fresh, Sunilda complied. One bite turned into two, and then three, all it took to finish the bowl. "There you go," Cigyun said softly. Sunilda brushed her thumb along her baby's fragile temple. "And now I fear I must tell you the bad news."
"What could be bad out of your mouth?" Lord Arvis said first. He'd been so quiet.
Cigyun set the bowl down behind them. She pulled a leg onto the mattress and her knee folded against hers, hands in her lap. "I cannot give you the time you deserve to rest. We must keep," Lord Arvis did not know yet, "going. Time is finite."
He tilted his head. "Are we going up to Friege next?" he asked. "We could winter there if Fa...Father allowed it." How often had he thought of the duke? She didn't know the lord's feelings towards him, never in full, yet what else did he need besides his mother? The longer they were away, the less Lady Cigyun flinched, the more she held his hand.
But she was not from Friege.
"Not...yet." Hopefully for all the time he spent reading, he was not dumb. He was pointedly not dull, but who knew? "I think you will like where we go. You trust me, do you not?"
"Of course." If he thought deeper on it, on why they were skipping one duchy after a romp through the rest of the country, he didn't say. "I need new pants. They don't cover my ankles any more."
"I know. We will go shopping before we leave." The duke's name and gold would dry up eventually; a tiny place in Verdane could be anywhere in Verdane, but when Cigyun undressed at night, her bellybutton stuck out. Time was short.
*…*
Little baby in her arms, she was not expected to watch the lord. Yngvi had no children, so the lord got what he wanted in the form of being attached to his mother.
She did not know what much to do besides sit with her baby and look at him. He slept quite a bit; he cried when his butt got wet, and when she put him down. She did not want to sit all day, so she held him to her chest and paced the length of their sitting room. His nose dug into her, breaths wet against her skin.
"You wanna look outside?" she asked. He didn't answer, obviously, tiny hand stuck between their bodies, fingers curled in the collar of her dress. She pulled a weighty curtain to the side, leaning against the thick panes of glass. "I've never been to Yngvi before. I haven't been to a lot of places, admittedly. Everything's new for me too." He yawned, struggling to lift his head. "Can you see? Here." The softest little whine as she titled his head for him.
Still, she moved him. The sun was dim today, his first glimpse of it. He was easy to talk to, somehow. Was he listening? Probably not, but he wasn't not listening. "The sun back home -" home? Velthomer wasn't going to be his home, was it? Somewhere in Verdane. Was anything in Velthomer his, anyway? They'd awkwardly live in her lady's quarters, yet another bas—bast—child from the duke, no one important. "Well. The sun's a lot hotter where we're from. Lazy hot. I've only been in Yngvi your whole life, but it's not a bad place."
She wanted to say his name. Lay it on her tongue and set it to his heart. She wanted to apologize to him, for trying to ignore him all these months; she wanted him to never know anything about the past months, besides her mistress's smile and his older brother's scowl.
*…*
The baby hated being on his back and out of her arms. Still, she was sore, and could not imagine standing all day with him. Cigyun had him a blanket made months ago, when she first told her, by the same woman who made the lord's when he was a tiny thing. It now laid beneath him on the carpeted floor—a muted green against his downy red-hair, bordered with misshapen yellow bunnies—and he, in his white frock, squirmed around best he could, keening.
She sat with him, rubbing his rounded belly. "I know," she said softly. "I'm mean." His feet pedaled, heels thumping against the floor. "Apparently being your momma means I need to be sometimes, but I don't think I can. Just don't be rotten."
He stared blankly past her. Oh well. She knew what she meant. "Don't worry." Talking to him again, like this was a real, whole conversation, but at least he was here now, stretched out before her. Real and here and hers. "I think I'm suppose to be putting you on your tummy." His foot caught, letting him wiggle away from her. She set her hand on his ankle. He blew air out his nose, a bull raring to go.
The hour was early (almost annoyingly so, but a hungry baby was a baby), so she was not alone in the suite. Lady Cigyun had woken a few minutes after her, now out of the washroom with her hair pulled up. "Are you certain you'll be alright with both of them?"
"I don't see why I wouldn't be."
Cigyun sighed. "All right. I will not be long, hopefully. Arvis was up late, so try to have him up with lunch if he doesn't rouse. Poor boy's starting to worry over the oddest things! I think it's too much time with you, honestly," said kindly. "No matter. I just hope our knights are willing to keep traveling with us as far as they can. The last thing we need is for them to rebel. I'm not even certain how far I can take Velthomer's soldiers, meager these two are."
The baby got his own goodbye, bent to tap his dotted nose. His eyes focused on her finger, still for the brief moment, before they lost interest and went around the room. Could he see? Her time with babies wasn't much, from girlhood to maidhood, and into a reluctant womanhood. Weird women made weird children, but a week into this he did not seem bad. "You be good, little sir." Her lady gave her shoulder a squeeze.
Then, they were alone. Lady Cigyun silently closed the door behind her as if she snuck out often (to sleep with princes or dukes or concoct plans to leave them). Gods and more.
Velthomer's soldiers-turned-drivers were far from gods. They kept us the charade of just a duchess being friendly, but Sunilda would be glad to be rid of them. How much of Grannvale was left, anyway? Far from Velthomer—she didn't recognize the flowers dotting the walkways, nor did she know the dark, spiny trees bare of leaves. The skies darkened differently, the stars tilted slightly off center.
Really, how hard could it be to read a map and check? The baby grumbled when she picked him up, quieted once more the moment his cheek claimed her shoulder. Just the two of them. Where else could he be? She tucked his blanket around him too. Lady Cigyun's chest with her map was unguarded, lord in his own room, so she fished it out and took it back out with her. She headed for the couch, bathed in early morning light. The baby—full and played out as much as he could be—slept. Mindful of the potential terror, she sat down, keeping him close. Her arm cushioned his butt.
"Not gonna help?" she asked. He snored; she did not.
She knew not a thing about Grannvale. This map was her first, and she a dull girl. Velthomer hugged Aed, though, and they hadn't passed through any desert on the way here. Her index finger dragged across the thin paper. Silesse to the north, right? Up in the corner, travelling by road from castle to castle. Here, nestled in the corner of the country, were they? The border of the map ended up cut off two thumbs away from the splotch that made Yngvi (supposedly). Verdane sat unmarked by the map or seen by anyone besides her lady.
*...*
Lord Arvis woke the same time the baby did (from his third nap and fourth snack) and just before his mother returned. The lord held the baby, claimed by the small thing and awkward with one another on the floor. The baby laid on his back (once more!) between his outstretched legs, the two of them deep in conversation, giving her a moment to be struck by Cigyun's eyes.
"All three of you!" Cigyun said. Lord Arvis leaned back on his hands, blinking at the sight of her. "Three. It's quite nice to say."
Ignored for a moment, the baby whimpered. Sunilda, careful of all the ways the lord didn't like to be touched, moved in to get him. Once more, like she was someone special, he quieted at her hands on him, laying him across her arms. "There," she said. Strong, ferocious babe he was, he showed his gums.
"Hey." Lord Arvis brought his attention back to her. "I had him."
"In a minute, milord." The baby twisted his hand in her dress. He blabbered something, tongue caught between his lips. "What are you talking about?" she asked softly. He wiggled his fingers. The great burden of a baby's—her baby's secret knowledge.
She took a step back until her knees bumped into the couch. She sat, again, transfixed by the shape of his eyes, the greatness of his lashes falling further onto his cheeks. Sunilda briefly saw Lady Cigyun joining her son on the floor, to her amusement, legs folded deerlike under her on the carpet. "Have you been good?" she asked.
"Mother." The lord usually was. He and the baby, he and his brother, had woken at the same, both a smidge crotchety, but easy to make happy. Lord Arvis just needed his hair brushed out and some breakfast; the baby wanted her arms and her breast. Easy children. "Where did you go?"
"Oh, I didn't tell you, did I?" The baby mewled, so it was back on her shoulder. He'd been up nearly two hours, long they were, and he jabbered to himself there. She gave his butt a pat—one, two, three—as he settled in. "You deserve to know, I suppose," and Sunilda did not believe her ears, with how similar it sounded to their night in Chalphy, but a check gave her Cigyun's radiant, lovely face, unblemished by the truth. "We...are going to travel without our guards for a bit. They will go on by themselves up to Friege and Dozel, while I take you and Sunny somewhere special."
Lord Arvis sat up properly. He couldn't keep that furrow off his face. "Where...where are we to go if not Friege?" he asked. The map ended soon, but the map back ho—back in Velthomer went past Grannvale.
Lady Cigyun smiled. "Judgral is not just Grannvale, son. I know of something special and grand. How cruel would I be if I kept it from you?"
Cruel. A child stirred in her stomach to a man the lord did not like. Any child, maybe, would belong to a man the lord did not like, but why think of that? His coveted spot as his mother's only would come to an end. Her own baby, shallow breaths tousling the small hairs on her neck. (The duke called a dozen women his, but never the babes. Would the prince do right by her lady? Would he get the chance to?)
"But…" the boy looked to her. She shrugged her unoccupied arm. "Are we to meet up with them again? Father will not be happy when he hears."
"I will deal with Father." Lady Cigyun laid her hands out for him. They weren't alone, so the lord would not be that tender, keeping his hands to himself. "We'll be alright. Mummy...Mummy just needs to show you something before it's too late. Would you deny me that, Arvis?"
He shook his head rapidly. "No. But nothing is too late if I'm with you, Mother," he said in one go. He would not be the loving child he hid away, but he edged forward, one of his mother's ringed hands sitting on his knee now. Sunilda felt awkward like this, an unkempt, shunned girl-mother watching a stiff lad show himself to his mother. It was uncalled for, if she wanted to be bold. They slept together more than he did with Cigyun, weather turning for the worse and his jaw looser than ever. "May I ask something for something, Mother?"
"Anything."
"I'd like a book before we go. I've read the ones in my chest."
Cigyun nodded. "We'll see what we can find. A few months without tutoring won't make you witless, but...well, you'll see. I cannot promise you everything. Come here, if you'll be so clement." Her voice cracked. Sunilda cocked her head at the sound, rare without the duke near. What was troubling to Cigyun? She owed the two of them their privacy, though, all they did for her (lady more than lord). She slid her eyes shut, catching Arvis' head meeting his mother's before she did.
*…*
The amendable Lord Arvis disappeared and was replaced by his haughty, pushy Velthomer dukeling. "What did you say to him?" Sunilda asked aside. His old self did not apply to the new baby, holding his foot with his hand. The baby kicked back.
"Just…" Cigyun sighed. "I cannot tell him all, much as I want to," she bid back.
Bedtime came, and the lord did not let her tuck him in. He laid bitterly on his side, pinching his sheets. His heart, rendered asunder in Chalphy, was put back together, and she was not privy to all of it. "May I sit with you, milord?" she asked. He did not tell her no, but he inched over to grant her more room. His slim shoulder fit beneath her hand. "May I know what troubles you?" she continued.
"No. I don't want to talk tonight."
"Okay." His back canted to her thigh. It did not thunder; the sky did not shatter over them, so he was quick to sleep. His chest rose and fell in smooth hills, and when his mouth parted (a trait, curiously enough, he shared with his infant brother), she eased off the bed.
Nothing hurt tonight—not her heart, or stomach, or icky parts, but her ear prickled. Was the boy up again? He slept in increments, slumbering more than waking, but he was hers, no one else's, and her arms fit him perfectly. He was perfect, down to his dastardly nose and curled toes. Yet somehow, when she entered her and Lady Cigyun's shared room, the babe was gone, blanket and all. Sunilda did not immediately panic, but her steps down the dark hallway (candle left in the lord's room) hastened.
He could not go far. He could not go anywhere on his own. Who needed her like that?
Being an idiot was her first response when the answer was obvious. Lady Cigyun sat on the chaise, her little head of red squared away in her arms. A smile, again, for her. "I told you your momma would be back," she told the boy, who gripped her finger. "Someone whinged his way here, Sunny. He's quite persuasive."
Was it too late for a drink? She wouldn't bother the kitchen, but there was a water pitcher on the mantle. How hard was it not to be dull? "He's alright? He was sleeping." A drink could come later, following the path of the carpet to keep her feet warm. The little thing did not notice her when she came in the room, but as she approached, he lifted his august head in duty, red eyes swaying.
Her lady nodded. Like her boy, she made room for her. "The little sir and I were just having a talk. I helped him with his troubles and he helped with mine." Cigyun gave a firm pat on his back, and he burped. "See?"
"He is easy to talk to." She'd done it the whole time. He turned his head out, squinting. Swaddled tightly, he was just a head poking out of a blanket. She laid her hand on his cheek. "Hi, honey." Held in Cigyun's arms, he looked quite content. He claimed her chest and part of her flat belly. Wiggling his bottom half, his feet tapped against it. "Are - are you really -?" she started. She could not bring herself to say it, lest the baby blabbed to the lord.
Cigyun tilted her head. "Pregnant? I should hope, or this is a long standing stomach ache."
"It's just-"
"You barely showed," Cigyun interrupted. "And I barely did with Arvis. He was as small as you, if you can believe it," the baby did not, "with not a speck of hair. Look at him now." Tall, skinny, the unfortunate curl of his bangs at his chin. Before she could think more, Cigyun rested her hand atop hers. "Come, feel. She's quite strong."
"She?" But she wanted to, so she did (who was here with her lady? not the prince). Laying her hand on her stomach, she waited. A little daughter to a prince.
The baby with them mumbled to himself, worming. "I do not mean to be presumptuous but Arvis is the first boy born to my family in...I don't even know." Her babe was a small thing, held with a single arm as Cigyun met her hand again. Her nightgown did not hide much, the baby's cheek squished against her bare skin. "Really? Being shy now? I might have to lay you down, little sir." Sunilda wondered if Little Sir was on his way out; it was late, and he'd be due for a snack after the midnight hour, if he kept as he had.
Little Sir slept on the couch behind their wedded knees. The moment he left Cigyun's arms to hers, he broke free, fisting her skirt as he slept. "Well, even if someone keeps quiet, it's a feeling I know. I love the boy but my time with him was not...the greatest." Only two years together, despite it feeling longer. Velthomer would do that, she supposed, rarely anything good to be found within its walls. "No matter. My mistakes will catch up to me, and I hope when they find me, it will be in my first home." Suddenly, brow creased in a mirror to her son's, "My home. Goodness, no one will have lived in it for almost ten years!"
Ten years in Grannvale. Almost ten years. "Surely someone has. I know you don't have siblings, but…"
Cigyun shook her head. "My father passed in an accident when I was a girl, and my mother caught a cough. I have some kin on my father's side, but the house belongs to my mother's."
"Did your mother not have siblings?"
"No, dear." She smiled, something bright. "I cannot talk about my odd family tree here." Odd. It sounded different from her mouth (as most things did). Sunilda was an odd girl from a family too big to feed her, and she wondered on occasion how many nieces and nephews she might have. (It was stupid to think about them, once she remembered how quick they were rid of her).
Before she could get into it, something kicked her. First, she assumed her baby woke with a vengeance, but he slept soundly. Her eyes flickered to Cigyun's, who's radiant smile only grew. Real. It was all real. "Thank you, little dear," she said. "You almost made me look like a fool!" Another kick; she always thought her baby's kicking was him waking up, and she wondered if this was true here. Were babes the same? Bits of the lord were in her boy, the unfortunate reality of her own life, but her boy and Cigyun's new child shared nothing.
"Does he know?" she blurted out.
Again, "No." She sat up straighter, closer to her, the neckline of her gown unfurling. "Nearly a year before-" her own hand on her stomach. "Why would he suspect it?"
"That's...what happens you sleep with a man."
"There are more ways to sleep with a man than on your back, Svan."
"Cigyun!"
"You're the one you brought it up!" The baby slept through it all, nose crinkled. "Twice now."
Twice, yes. She knew of it, but not much else. It was fine by her to never know until she took a husband, and in that unseen world, she probably wouldn't want to know either. "Do...do you mean to tell him?" Perhaps she was too casual about the prince, but there was no other way to talk about him. No one needed to know.
"He will know in time. There are other things I must do first."
*...*
Unsurprisingly, the lord did well with the horses. He sat between the drivers, ridged shoulders and steady chin, just clearing their elbows. He held the reins, quiet as they gave him tips. He looked silly up there, if she could think so, but the boy was smart, capable at anything besides tag, and one day, he would have been (will be?) Velthomer's duke. Lady Cigyun continued to skirt around the greater issues, but she could not pry it out of her.
"What did you tell them?" she asked. Little Sir watched from her shoulder, tiny hand curled around a wooden ring. Cigyun's lessons were before breakfast, and Sunilda did not want to learn. Like Arvis, Cigyun had a knack for things.
"That they are good, handsome knights approaching Friege during a courting season, and after they winter there, they may return to Velthomer where they will meet us." Lady Cigyun laughed. "We will get into Verdane by the fact I have a horrible Grannvalean husband and the men of my village must know." Sunilda eyed her. "They won't do anything. I am the first in years to travel so far from home."
A horse snorted. Lord Arvis got a clap on the back when the wheels turned, boy startling and the offending soldier starting to apologize. They were handsome enough, she supposed, to be entertained by women for a season, or distracted by the idea. "They bought that?" she asked. "That we will magically meet them?"
"A bit of fussing. I may not be their duke, but they certainly can't speak over me. I will say it's different ordering a man around! The household is girlies like you." Cigyun sounded quite pleased with herself. "I wish I'd done a bit more of it before we left." The household stood, yes, filled with many guests.
She wouldn't fault the lady. She wiggled her way into the house, to her lady's side and warm meals, but her company didn't mean a thing, like any other woman now. The horse hooves struck softly on the pounded earth; Little Sir twisted his head. "Can you see?" she asked. "Those are horses. Big creatures." Disbelieving, his eyes met hers. She kissed his forehead. "I'm not the biggest fan of em, but they get the job done," she said. He stared-wide eyed at her. "What?"
His head went back down, put-out by holding it up.
Lady Cigyun waited for them to be done. "Are you certain you don't want to learn?" she asked. "I'm positive the horses will like you. You never know what could happen, Sunny."
What would happen? The duke did not care for Cigyun, but how would he know? The prince did (supposedly), but he could not abandon his post. Winter was a long season, so by time the knights reached Velthomer, they could be nothing. The baby kicked her. She forgave him instantly. "I'm certain. Lord Arvis does it well. I don't think he can drive, anyhow."