A/N: Tw: Nazi mentions, G-slur is used (not in a hateful context.)
Viktor was disappointed to wake up alone the next morning, an immediate sense of fear that Klara might have tried to flee was put to rest with a note penned by Ingrid, one of the head servants (also the one Viktor trusted the most), telling that she took Klara for a morning walk on the grounds.
Relieved, Viktor readied himself, alone, as had been his routine for many years, as though he had never been married at all. He was dressed appropriately for a morning walk on the grounds, that along with his overgrown stubble made him look wilder.
He ventured out to search for his wife, the morning chill bit at the exposed skin of his face. The grounds smelled of pine and petrichor, a smell with many fond memories attached. The sunrise hadn't cut through the fog yet, but it was light enough to see a reasonable distance ahead.
Viktor saw his new wife staring out into the morning fog with Ingrid, taking in the cliffs and the lake surrounding the castle grounds. She was wearing what looked to be Ingrid's clothes, a lucky coincidence that they wore a similar enough size. Her hair blew gently in the wind as she stood still as a statue. He could faintly hear the two women talking, something serious, as he expected.
Ingrid was a severe looking woman in her late fifties. She was tall and strongly built with dark hair slicked back into a neatly braided bun, she generally wore a matronly skirt suit with low heels while in the castle, but she was attired appropriately for an outdoor walk in wintertime.
"Klara, Ingrid." He addressed the two women.
Klara turned around, her eyes had a depth to them in the morning fog that they did not in the sun or under candlelight, the blue-green irises were grayer, like the ocean under a cloudy sky. Her cheeks and nose were red from the cold, as were her fingers.
"Viktor." She greeted him tersely, followed by a deferential 'your highness' from Ingrid. Ingrid looked back and forth to the crown prince and the new princess, the pair of them seemed wound up in each other's presence and ready to fight.
"I don't appreciate waking up alone after my wedding night of all nights." Viktor's bitterness seeped out of his voice.
"I woke up at 4 am and couldn't go back to sleep, the walk was Ingrid's idea." Klara's voice was solemn. "I'm trying to figure out how to tell my family about us and the baby, Ingrid was offering advice."
"You say that as if you have something to be ashamed of by marrying me." Viktor didn't raise his voice, but he would have liked to. "I am also trying to figure out how to reveal this wedding to my family and believe me I will be under harsh scrutiny."
"Let me guess, trying to explain to your family why you dared marry someone so common and poor?" Klara let her own bitterness send barbs.
"Do the two of you intend to act like this when your child is born?" Ingrid knew the circumstances of their marriage, the news traveled through the castle like wildfire, and seeing the prince and new princess interact only confirmed the more salacious rumor she heard of him robbing her of her autonomy.
Ingrid, having known Viktor since he was thirteen, never expected him to find someone after she-who-must-not-be-named left him twenty years ago, so when she heard that not only had he married, but his wife was pregnant, common, and American, she was as shocked as anyone.
And she knew the prince would not be very respectful of a common American woman, he'd think less of her for not being practiced in aristocratic etiquette or have extensive knowledge of their culture and history. But he would take care of her, it was reasonable to assume he would be more attentive to her given her inexperience in aristocratic life.
Klara and Viktor both looked at Ingrid, a flash of shame flickered across Klara's features, embarrassed to have dragged Ingrid into it, yet Viktor was shameless, accustomed to having servants present even at his worst, considering them part of the background. The differences between their upbringings could have been summed up in that one moment.
"The solution is simple." Klara said. "Emancipate me from the guardianship."
"My answer is simpler, no." Viktor mocked Klara.
"If I may have a word with your wife alone, your highness." Ingrid asked permission. Viktor reluctantly granted it.
"I'll be returning to the castle, I expect the two of you to do the same within half an hour." He ordered. He imagined that Ingrid would be giving Klara some sensible womanly advice he had no interest in hearing.
"Of course, I shouldn't be long with your wife." Ingrid said. Viktor gave Klara one last look in her narrowed eyes before leaving the two women to speak.
"This family is dangerous, your highness." Ingrid told Klara after Viktor's slender form faded into the fog. "You being common and American means you have crossed powerful women who would have wanted your position as crown princess."
"So that's supposed to justify it?" Klara asked.
"Yes." Ingrid said. Klara was taken aback, not expecting such a blunt, insensitive answer. "This family is rife with scheming and politics surrounding issues you couldn't conceive of. There is a lot you have to learn before you can properly assess situations you will come across. With Prince Eric's assassination and you being pregnant with the second royal child of the new generation, you are in more danger than you could possibly imagine."
"I get the feeling that Viktor sees more benefits to the guardianship than protecting me."
"Does that matter?"
"Of course it does. He's very... domineering when we're together, I wouldn't put it past him to fetishize the idea of practically owning a woman."
"You enjoyed it." Ingrid's accurate perception called Klara's outrage into question.
Stupid girl, it's obvious you enjoyed it and want more, you are only fooling yourself.
"Yes, a lot, actually, it was supposed to be just a bit of fun..."
Who do you think you're fooling?
"So, you have married a man who will lift your family out of poverty, give you and your child the best of everything, and is affectionate. That's more than the vast majority of women ever get." Ingrid's eyes were even sharper than normal. "My fiancé was killed by a resistance group when I was twenty three, we had a one year old son. He wasn't a member of the royal family or served them, he was a civilian who got caught in the crossfire. The royal family offered me a job after his death, if I was not made such an offer, my son would have grown up in poverty. He currently works for GQR industries as an engineer. Don't waste your time feeling sorry for yourself, you might be under your husband's guardianship but you have power, use it to protect people who don't."
Klara was silent, her lips open but no sounds passed through.
No wonder he put you under his guardianship, you're a whiny, pathetic child, and others can see it clearly.
"What power do I have if I have to ask my husband's permission to leave the castle?" Klara finally asked.
"There is an orphanage in Vienna that is rumored to abuse gypsy children in its care. Multiple orphan gypsy children have ended up in the hospital. There is an investigative group forming that is looking into the issue but does not have the funds to investigate the administrators of the orphanage."
"Am I even able to spend money without asking my husband first?"
"I imagine you still have access to your husband's accounts, and besides, your husband is not going to notice you spending ten thousand euros."
"Why isn't Viktor taking this up?"
"He is very preoccupied, Prince Eric's death, acclimating to becoming crown prince, royal babies on the way, a new wife."
"Oh, yes, of course."
"Are you interested, your highness?"
"Yes." Klara said after a confused pause, it would take a long time to get used to being addressed in such a way.
"Good, we'll get to work on it after you speak with your husband."
"What?"
"The two of you have much to work out and discuss, and Prince Viktor will only be free for conversation for so long before he attends to his duties."
When the two women returned to the castle, they were told Viktor had a visitor and they would have to wait for him to finish his business with them. Ingrid insisted that Klara have breakfast, proselytizing the health benefits breakfast had for mothers and their growing babies and scorning coffee and insisting that Klara avoid it to the best of her ability.
Viktor was currently meeting with Stefania Vaduva Popescu. He did not trust the Romani queen and black marketeer, but he saw the necessity in working with her to attain the royal child Adalind was carrying. One wrong move, one hint of betrayal and he'd be tempted to snap her neck himself.
"What is she sucking on?" Viktor asked, pointing at his laptop screen, watching Adalind suck and chew on a mysterious root unbefitting to the luxury of her surroundings.
"Mandrake root." Stefania's voice was deep and raspy. "I gave it to her to slow things down, but if you want the child born in the castle, then I suggest we move quickly."
"We shall wait no longer." Viktor decided. He had no idea how he would explain to his wife the circumstances of the first royal child in a generation, and the absence of its mother, if he had his way, he'd send the child to be raised by Mongolian cowherds so it couldn't be a threat to his own children's claims.
Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, he would wait to tell his wife.
Several minutes after Stefania left, Sebastian entered to tell Viktor his wife was waiting for him. Viktor shut down his laptop and returned it to his study before going to meet his wife. He would not have much time to spend with Klara, but he was in need of a few minutes of respite from the onslaught of meetings and calls he'd be making that day.
She just finished breakfast and looked at him less scornfully than she did earlier that morning. Ingrid immediately left, giving Klara a knowing look before leaving the husband and wife to themselves.
"Ingrid thinks we should talk." Klara said.
"About what?"
"About many things, except I really don't want to talk right now." Klara decided, another need presented itself.
"I will be off then." Viktor was too busy for more petty confrontation from his wife. He turned on his heel, walking towards the door, but stopped immediately when a few words passed Klara's lips.
"Did I say you could leave?" Klara called out, her frustration made clear.
Viktor turned around immediately, his senses overwhelmed when he felt her lips pressed greedily against his, grabbing him by the lapels of his jacket and bringing him close.
"Is this the womanly advice Ingrid offered that I couldn't be around to hear?"
"A very loose interpretation of it." Klara said. Viktor gently grabbed her wrists and lowered them.
"We'll have to continue this in the evening." Viktor told his wife, giving her a chaste kiss on the lips. "I have a call with the Bundesnachrichtendienst in fifteen minutes."
German state intelligence.
He left her without another word. Klara understood that solving his cousin's murder was top priority, but she couldn't help but feel a pang of rejection.
It made her only want him more.
"Your highness, are you ready?" Ingrid asked, Klara jumped in surprise, not even knowing the severe woman had entered the room.
"Yes, Viktor didn't have time to talk right now." She said before following Ingrid to enact what would be her first official royal duty.
Later in the evening, it became apparent that Viktor was going to take longer to get back to Klara. He missed dinner, and it was well into the night. Klara tried to save face and not make it seem obvious that she was waiting for him. She retired to her bedchamber after dinner.
Ingrid entered Viktor's study, checking to see if the prince needed anything. His drinking habits as of late concerned Ingrid, they were worse than before.
Viktor invited her in, telling her to shut the door behind her and to take a seat. He was currently working on something, but his brow wasn't quite as furrowed as it was when he spoke to the intelligence agency earlier that day.
"So, how was my wife's little initiation into power?" Viktor asked Ingrid, his pen looping across some sort of contract.
"She's going to receive a report that three of the orphanage heads used to be nazis who inflicted particular torment upon gypsies during the holocaust. A mysterious donor will have assisted the group that uncovered this."
"And to think this scenario wasn't even contrived." Viktor said with disgust in his voice, not proud of his family's and GQR's associations with the nazis. His foolish ancestors didn't realize until it was too late that Hitler intended to dismantle their family, their shame documented and public, it was a blight upon the family history that King Frederick had done hard work to amend when he took the throne after the war, the family and Israel now having strong business and diplomatic relations. "I intend to also have her meet with the family accountant, have a wardrobe fitted to her, have her trained in etiquette and the family history, among other things, she'll be too busy to feel so sorry for herself." A smug grin briefly pulled at his lips. "I see that she trusts you at least a little."
"She is vulnerable." Ingrid affirmed Viktor's assumption.
"Yes, she is, all the more reason to protect her, I don't need her to trust the wrong people." Viktor set his fountain pen back on its stand.
"She wants her mother and sister to come here during her pregnancy." Ingrid gave him the most important detail from their conversation early that morning.
"I can accommodate them for visits, but I do not need several people who have no idea how to navigate high society living here, one is enough."
"Speaking of, have you fulfilled your promise to your wife?"
"I am working on it." Viktor held up the contract a little higher before placing it in a manila folder. He ran his fingers through his hair, his head throbbing with the stress of all the things he needed to do. He took his drink in hand and gave it a sip before continuing. "Intelligence agencies throughout the western world still have yet to find a shred of evidence pointing to Eric's killer, and Adalind is being fetched right now."
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news." A new voice spoke, one of the Verrat, the timing might have been comical if it wasn't for what the hundjager said next. "Fraulein Schade has escaped, two Verrat were killed. One was shot, the other stabbed in the eye with a pen."
Viktor's face reddened, he shook with rage, gripping the crystal glass as the liquor sloshed around. He took a long drink, finishing off the glass's contents before setting it down on the table.
"How?" The Prince hissed, murder in his royal blue eyes.