Alice was grateful that the remainder of their vacation was fairly quiet. The day after the wedding, her grandfather had to go back to work during the mornings and afternoons, and as planned, the rest of them played tourist. They had spent an entire day in the Tower of London, and had nearly had to physically pull Clark out at closing time. There were so many museums and historical sites that Clark had wanted to see, being an avid history buff like her husband, that Hieronymous had to remind him that they would be returning to England and he could get another crack at them then.

Somewhere along the way, she managed to pick up a few souvenirs. She had to have something to show her parents that had been purchased with her 'Christmas money,' and she had wanted to find something for her roommates as well. With all the things they had accumulated over the holidays, Clark was the first one to bring up the logistics of the situation.

"How are we going to get everything home, or to Iris anyway?" he asked over supper one evening when their grandfather had told that they were welcome to take whatever they liked from their wardrobes.

"Oh, we can have it boxed up and sent through magical channels," Grandfather answered. "With as much screening as luggage goes through in airports anyway, seeing spell books and birds that breathe fire would seem suspicious to normals."

Neither of them had received a bird, so she decided that he was merely speaking metaphorically. "I don't think that I'll take everything, I might want something here for future visits, but there isn't that much room in my closet at school as it is," Alice said. "Do you mind if I store a few things in your room Hieronymous?"

Her husband froze a moment before swallowing. "I'll have to rearrange a few things once we get back, but that should be fine," he got out.

Alice guessed that he was thinking about what he might have to endure from Potsdam once she found out. The woman would probably assume that she was starting to move in with her husband, but doing so gradually so Hieronymous would not notice it as much.

At least his father's actions had not really delayed the possibility of that happening. He had sworn that the potion only enhanced her fertility and canceled out any birth-control measures for a period of three months, which would not be all that long after her eighteenth birthday anyway. The part that controlled that it would be a boy actually lasted five years, but since neither of them cared what the gender of their first child would be anyway, she considered that effect negligible.

One thing that had surprised her was that Clark, when they were alone, admitted that her father-in-law had let slip about his failed effort when talking to him. She was not sure whether she should be relieved or not. She had known that Clark would suspect something was up, but it did not seem the sort of thing to go telling one's brother about. It had been awkward enough telling her grandfather, but she could tell from his expression as soon as she came downstairs that he had known that something had happened. As she had guessed, there had been a ward set on the door between her and her husband's rooms. When she had entered through that way to tell Hieronymous that his father had arrived before the opera, that had set the alarm off and her Grandfather had immediately known. He had ignored that because he knew the purpose of that visit had been benign, but then had forgotten to reset the alarm after they had returned. It had still, however, recorded Hieronymous and herself using the door and the times of the night they did so.

Apparently, initially her grandfather had been concerned about whether or not their relationship was as they presented it. Even after he was satisfied that they were being honest about it, he still did not dismiss the ward electing to keep an eye on them. It sounded like something her father might have done, but with wards instead of electronics. That morning, though, the information the ward had given him made him suspect the elder Grabiner must have managed something in spite of them all watching him.

Clark, who had not set any wards, had admitted that he had dug a little for the information. Apparently, he had thought that she had had enough on her plate and had wanted to make sure there was not anything additional that she had to deal with.

"Have you thought about if you're coming home this summer, or staying with your husband?" Clark asked her one morning when out riding with him. Hieronymous had decided to hole himself up in the library that morning. She had decided that he probably just needed a little time to himself. He did not normally spend as much time as he had lately in social settings. There was also the powerful allure of Grandfather's books to consider.

"We haven't really talked about it yet," she answered, stroking her mare's mane as they let the horses walk slowly.

"Let me rephrase that," Clark tried again. "Would you be content staying away from Hieronymous all summer? You could just tell Mom and Dad that you decided to enroll in an honors program or something."

Lately she had been so busy trying to take one thing at a time, that she had not thought about it that much. "I don't know," she answered. She knew that her brother was asking about when she was going to move out of her home permanently. It felt strange to be talking about it. Was it really so long ago that she had been playing with the dolls she had so recently surrendered to Nancy? It felt like it had been yesterday, it felt like it had been a decade.

"I'd miss having you around, we all would," he continued. "It's just that I don't think that it would take long before Mom and Dad caught on that you were up to something if you kept going back and forth. Dad might put a tracker on you just checking if his equipment was still working, or something. And it's a pretty good guess that you won't be able to make yourself stay away from your husband for very long."

Alice sighed. Her brother was correct. There was a definite price to having intelligent parents. They might understand if she said she was working or taking summer classes to explain her disappearances if she stayed at home, but sooner or later they would sense something else was going on. She just did not have a deceptive personality, and her father was particularly astute in sensing lies. And then they would check up on her, which would cause problems. She had much better odds with attempting only one deception, while remaining as close to the truth as possible, which would mean staying at school for the summer. "I'm going to have to think about it."

Of course, moving out of her home did not necessarily mean moving in with her husband. She could live in the school dorm, if she wanted to…but would she even want to? Would she decide she was ready to be with her husband full-time by summer break? It occurred to her that her staying over the summer in school would feed the rumor mill there, but did she even care anymore? Aside from the occasional class project or duel, she no longer interacted with the general populace of the student body on a regular basis. They treated her as something separate from them, something neither avoided nor endorsed. Was it because they thought that they would not be able to understand her that they avoided trying to know her on a personal level, or was it a result of her husband's intimidating demeanor? Not to mention that they had been married for almost a year, so she guessed that most of the students thought that they had been sharing a bed anyway. If she did not stay during the summer, it would probably fuel rumors that she and Hieronymous were having relationship problems…unless she publicized an important reason that she had to be away.

This brought her to the additional angle she had to consider. "It doesn't help that I'm worried about Nancy. Grandfather says that since it's White magic she's using, they are having a hard time containing it."

"Hey, I'll be there," Clark said. "And the 'repair' lady that can be there in an instant if we sense something's gone wrong."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "And here I was thinking that it was my responsibility to keep the rest of you from getting yourselves killed. You want to take over my duties as the oldest?" she said with a smile.

Clark shrugged. "It can't be any worse than finding out that when Grandfather dies, retires, or runs for the High Council I will have to deal with politicians until I can pass it on to my own kid. You already left me that one."

Alice winced. "Sorry Clark. I got so caught up in my own problems I forgot to ask you how you felt about your role in all of this. Wait…the High Council?"

"The small board of directors that sets agendas, runs the rest of the Council, declares war, and that sort of thing. He has enough support to get elected when the next member dies or retires, but he's legally bound to represent House Carleton in the Council until such a time as he has an heir that can do it for him. He can't do both."

She frowned. "So he will probably take the first opportunity that presents itself then?"

Her brother shrugged. "If he thinks I'm ready, he will. It will be an interesting life, and I'm sure I can think of a lot of worse ways to be spending it. At least I'm guaranteed a job after I graduate."

"It won't be a normal life, and probably not an easy one either," she said. "On the other hand, you are usually drawn to whatever is not really normal."

"Normality is a fallacy," Clark said with a grin. "Every kid grows up thinking that whatever situation they are in is 'normal.' But you are right in stating that our situation is not commonplace."

Alice smiled. "And so we get to be irregular together, House Carleton and House Grabiner."

Clark laughed. "And everyone will think it's a joke until someone explains about your marriage. Unless told otherwise, they'll assume Grandfather and your father-in-law arranged it as some sort of a truce."

"Oh yes," she admitted. "Peace by marriage; a tactic used for millennia." She wondered if the aforementioned men were busy negotiating the terms of the 'truce' at this very moment. With the rest of the marriage to be formalized in less than a month, both men would have to look like they were on the same page concerning it. The truth that they had nothing to do with it would simplify the matter, but neither would gain from it. She guessed that the truth would be spread only if they could not come to some other terms. "Why, has Grandfather started getting offers for you?"

Clark grimaced. "Sort of," he admitted.

"Did someone make the appropriate connection at the opera or something?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Well, apparently you were seen, and you look so much like our grandmother that you were figured out. Someone saw the ring on your hand but not on Hieronymous,' so they had him figured for your fiancé but didn't know who he was."

"I suppose there's a small blessing in that," she said. Apparently, Hieronymous had been away from England for so long that no one had recognized him…or perhaps had not realized that he was a possibility given the context of being engaged to Lord Carleton's heir.

"Grandfather says most people took me for the son of whoever Grabiner was disguised as," he continued. "It did open up the subject of how old his grandchildren were getting, and he says he's admitted that the next oldest is a sixteen-year-old grandson."

"And not knowing any more than that, offers have been starting to come in," Alice finished for him.

"Yeah," her brother admitted. "He says that he doesn't intend to push me into anything, though, and would be happy for me to find my own wife. I'm just thinking that if I don't find one maybe…."

She wished that she could lean out of the saddle enough to give her brother a hug. "Don't worry about it yet Clark. You're only sixteen, so you have plenty of time. And you haven't even asked Virginia to go out with you yet."

"True," he acknowledged, brightening slightly. "And grandfather said in cases of arranged marriages, long courtships are the norm and either of us could break it off at any time if we wanted to. He says that sometimes one-year contract marriages are used in a similar way."

This would explain some of the elder Grabiner's panic when he initially thought he knew what his son's situation was. A single-year contract was no more binding than a courtship agreement. She suspected that the only real difference between the two is that the marriage would legitimize any child born to the couple and allow automatic admittance to the House, while the courtship agreement would not.

By the time January 3rd rolled around, everyone was ready to go back home. The things they could not or should not take on the plane were packed in boxes, and sent off. Their bags were packed, and they said their goodbyes ensuring their grandfather that they would love to come again when they could.

The trip home was much the same as the trip to England had been, with the exception of driving straight to Iris once they had gotten into the car. It was supper time when they finally got back to the school, and Hieronymous unloaded the trunk reminding her to come to his rooms sometime to get whatever she wanted out of the boxes that had surely beaten them there.

"How was it?" Ellen asked eagerly as soon as she got into the room. Virginia, who had been stuffing herself with cookies and still had her mouth full, simply gave her a hug.

Alice tugged her suitcase into the room, shut the door, and then quickly wove a ward. "First, swallow Virginia." She waited for her roommate to comply before starting. "Grandfather's estate is lovely, Christmas was good but a little strange, we went to the opera, and…. Oh, I met my father-in-law who dosed me with a love/fertility potion, which could have affected the political landscape of the wizard world if it hadn't been caught, and Hieronymous and I had another wedding."

Both girls stared at her, wide-eyed and slack-jawed.

Alice sighed. "Ok, I suppose you want a little elaboration on that," she said before launching into the full story.