Her breaths hung in the air, what little of her that y exposed long-sinumbed by the chill. However, she made no pints, handling her horse with the same fort and grace as if the wind didn’t carry snowfkes, ground slick with slush.

  Arouwenty-odd others apanied her. All but one of those wore armour, the inside partially padded with leather io keep the freezial from their clothes, and they had ons at their sides, a mix of swords, maces, and hey rode in a loose circle around her, little differeween the road and the ground at this time.

  While they headed to the top of a hill, they took a longer route that curved along the rise, an easier ast to make safely. It granted quite the view. The southern side of the hill would show the sprawling capital of Bavaria, yet this northern side showed vast fields covered in an almost pristine yer of glittering snow.

  Her fief certainly had farms of its own, but it could not pete with the abundant farmnd of her neighbour. In truth, she felt it a relief, knowing how much harder a famine would hit such a pot just that the cities would still o be fed, but that harvests were the easiest to tax—and rather substantial too.

  An idle thought, she hoped the Marquess had prepared for su eventuality; it would be an annoyao have chaos spilling over.

  Upon the hill y a manor. It held history in its design, a few wings frressively older times that had, upon their stru, bee the main manor, only to be ter usurped. The oldest now took on the role of stables, a rge building of a siorey and made of wood and mud with a thatched roof. ing off from it at a wide angle was a stone building, two storeys tall and squarish; it was made e, irregur stones, and had several crude eys added in more ret years, nated to the kits and sleeping quarters for the footmen and guards.

  Last of all was the current manor. While also made of stohese were sbs little different to bricks but for the grey colour, and ste tiles made up the roof. It had also been twice expanded over the years, first to extend the two-storey building by another room or two, and then to vert part of the roof into something of a tower, a third-storey of a single room with a ft roof.

  Those buildings all occupied the highest point of the hill. Lower down, the echoes of a buildings lingered in how parts of the slopes were fttened out. What wooden palisade had oncircled the area was now repced by sturdy walls of heavy stone.

  Cirg around to the city-fag side, she and her ente arrived at the gatehouse. It was not as simple nor i as a gate that could be raised and lowered, but, at least for today, she felt fident she would not be seeing what it could do to less-wele guests.

  Of the twenty-odd, only three dismounted with her and only two horses joihem through the open gates. She had o speak to anyone, her knight responsible for talking to the servants at this time; he arranged with a stable-boy for the horses to be put up.

  The guests, oher hand, headed to the manor proper. Although a slope slick with slush, stairs made it a fortable climb, albeit still a perilous one if careless and so they did not rush.

  Her gaze fell upon the walls, curious. She knew well the te, te Marquess, if only from her father’s records. It seemed to her he had no expectation of a serious foe making it this far. An impressive wall, but not a fortification parable to those at the border with Bohemia or Austria.

  Rather, these were a reminder of the status the manor held.

  Upon approag the front door, the heavy wood swung open and a young child ran out. “Aunty!”

  Without hesitation, Julia k down o stone, her arms wide until she hugged tight the child. “Oh my, how you have grown. To think you are already eight years old,” she said.

  The child giggled. “I’m not that old… yet!”

  “Nine years old?”

  “No, younger!”

  “Well then, you certainly are rather big for ye if you’re only two,” she said, lifting the child up as she stood.

  The child ughed louder, holding tight. “I’m five, but I shall be six in spring,” she said, pride in her voice.

  Julia chuckled. “Well, Miss Charlotte, I shall look forward to pig out a suitable gift for su occasio us think… for my sixth birthday, my father gave me a book about flowers. I loved it so much, I have tried to press one of every matg flower. However, I am rather past the age to enjoy such a hobby—would you like to finish what I started?”

  She walked forwards as she spoke, ing ihe entrance hall where the Maress patiently waited with the other children.

  Charlotte didn’t hesitate to answer, her enthusiastiodding shaking Julia’s bance. “Oh yes! That would be most wonderful,” she said, her mouth wide in a childish grin.

  Julia chuckled as she let the child down and she stayed down in her squat. “I shall have it arranged on my return,” she said, then turned her sights to the other two children. Otto, although hiding behind his mother, looked at Julia with utter adoration, his eyes wide and smile shy.

  Then there was the littlest one who shared her his little Julia already tried to toddle over, her mother’s hand holding her back as if a cat pig up her kitten by the scruff of its neck. At the elder Julia’s nod, the little Julia was unleashed, rag over in t steps.

  “Little Lia, look at you! Whe met, you could only crawl, yet now run as fast as a hunting hound,” she said, her voice warm and her embraing the giggling toddler. After a moment, Julia pulled back, then lifted the toddler into the air, even throwing her up a toud catg her. “I am forever hoo share my h such a boisterous babe. Thank the Lord for us to be merry and full of life, for there is no greater joy.”

  She let the toddler babble a few half-words at her, then slid her to the side, holding her up with one hand. Her other hand freed, she beed for Otto and, after a moment’s hesitation, he ran over as well—if only to show he was also boisterous, merry, and full of life. With a dip down, she scooped him up, having him rest oher hip. fortable with her strength, she thely twisted side to side and the children ughed their i ughs.

  Ohey had been suitably greeted, she let them down and, finally, turo greet her host with a curtsey. “Maress Bavaria, my thanks for having me.”

  Just that Dorothy waved her off and strode over to personally brush off the snow that had settled on her shoulders. “Let us have you warmed up. Truly, how you ride in this weather? A dy should take her carriage.”

  Julia gave a smile at the m, letting her host finish befiving a reply. “It is because of this weather I did not dare take a carriage. The roads between us have little use after the harvests and to go via the capital would take a week—if not more.”

  After a sigh, Dorothy returned her smile, then cpped her hands. At ohe butler and maids leapt into a. Julia’s coat and hat were hung up; a warmed shawl draped over her shoulders.

  “We have hot drinks through in the drawing room,” Dorothy said, leading the way. With the fun over, a nanny and a nursemaid shepherded the youwo children away, while the older one carefully walked over to a stern governess with attempted poise.

  Julia half-turned. “Sir Ludwig, dismissed.”

  “Yes, ma’am!” he said with a salute and, half a sed ter, the younger man with him echoed his words.

  So she strode after her host, her maid following behind.

  The manor’s interior spoke of a ducal elegance. Fine rugs and tapestries covered much of the floor and walls, along with busts and paintings for decoration. As if they were children, the hallway was rather wide, the ceiling high, and the dark drand.

  Ohey arrived at the drawing room, Dorothy ushered her guest to the seats by the r firepd urged a maid to add more wood.

  “Pray drink. If you would like, I could even borrow some of Albert’s brandy,” Dorothy said, her spiratorial tone apanied by a matg smile.

  Julia gently ughed at the joke, then sipped at the offered tea. “My thanks for the offer, but I would make do with wi meals,” she said, pausing for another sip. “Could my maid be seen to?”

  “Oh of course,” Dorothy said and nothing else o be said; the maid who had just added more logs to the fire strode over to door with Gianna in tow.

  Nothing else o be said by Julia either, so she sipped some more, the almost-scalding drink prig at her chilled throat.

  “I must apologise. When you said two days, knowing the distand the weather, I thought you would arrive no earlier than evening. Do tell me, what would you like to eat?” Dorothy asked, her voice g awkwardness despite her words.

  Julia gave a soft smile. “If I may ask for anything, then a butter sandwich.”

  “Oh Julia, you do wound me,” she said, tilting her head. “Please, allow me to be a hospitable host.”

  “Pray five me for being a miserly guest. My appetite is rather shaken by the travelling, so I would only ask for something light. Besides, Bavaria is known for her wheat and milk, is she not? I could only imagine how wonderful the bread and butter of her manor is.”

  C her mouth, Dorothy chuckled, then lowered her hand to show a broad smile. “My, how I have missed your pany,” she said.

  “Me too,” Julia said in a half-whisper.

  With a gesture, Dorothy sent the maid overseeing the tea to pass on the request to the kits, all the while keeping her gaze on her guest. “Still, if I may chide you on behalf of your parents, it really is no good for a dy to be out riding in this weather,” she said, a motherly weight to her words.

  Julia lowered her head, a toubarrassment c her posture as she seemed to shrink in her seat. “I wish it was so, but, before a dy, I am a ruler. Perhaps, if I had family to support me, I could be meek and delicate; however, the Wars of Heresy spared little of my father’s family and my mother’s family are mere oners, what support they could offer only serving to undermine my position. So I must be strong. I must be someone worthy of ruling my subjects.”

  She spoke in a quiet voiot meant for any but her host to hear, yet it was not a frail voice. At the heart of it, a firm fidence y and it y bare.

  “There is o take this old dy’s words too seriously. I know your position is difficult, I do. However, that is precisely why I must remind you that, beh your title, you are a woman. I would hate for you to push yourself now and then, wheime es, struggle to ceive.”

  A weight seemed to settle on Julia at those words. So still, tense, her face without so much as a polite smile. When she spoke, it sounded hollow. “How is it that I am to ceive when my betrothed would marry another?”

  “Julia… there is o hold yourself to such things,” Dorothy softly said.

  “If the King has approved it, how is it that I could disagree? Yet I must ao God. If I did wed another, I would only invite divine punishment upon myself. More than that, I pledged my soul to him,” she said, ending in a whisper. “I am not the kind of woman who would then offer a suitor that which I no longer have.”

  Dorothy’s face showed a weight of its own, her heavy gaze finding it hard to stay on her guest. “Oh Julia, when it es to these things, God uands and fives us. Especially when it is out of our trol.”

  For a while, Julia said nothing, keeping her head bowed, until finally she broke the silen a whisper so quiet Dorothy could almost believe it the wind, and what she heard was something she almost wished she didn’t believe.

  “Do you think Prince Hector shall let me live, never mind marry?”

  It was a question that, in the end, Dorothy could only answer with another question: “Well, that may depend upon what exactly the dowry was.”

  Julia gave a single, empty ugh. “A book my mother wrote.”

  Dorothy’s eyes widened, only for her to then frown. “A book?”

  “Her family has a long history entwined with the Italian troubles—not to say they are mere bystanders, nor that they are the primary culprits. Regardless, her family’s notes gave her a particurly thh history of politig to review. What she wrote is what I may only call a book of tyranny. At a g looks as if a historical record, yet what it records is how certain people and families came to power, and the methods they used are… let us say less than Christian.”

  After listening, Dorothy’s expression softened. “That is curious, yet I do not uand how it would be of io the King?” she said, a slight hesitation to her voice.

  “Well, to be frank, it is in the King’s ihat such a book is not known. It would give the worst of us lords and dies underhanded methods to gain and hold onto power. Not only that, but, betweewo of us… I know Prince Hector yearns for fame. If my fears are true, he intends t Switzernd into the Empire and march south into Italy.”

  Of all the things Dorothy had anticipated discussing with her beloved guest, this kind of treasonous talk was not one of them, yet she was irely surprised. The Prince’s choice of bride had hardly been without tention.

  However, she still felt as if something eluded her. “You believe the King wished for Prince Hector to not know the book?”

  “I do,” Julia said, her voice quiet, yet fident.

  “Is it truly so… insidious that he would hate his son learning its secrets?”

  Julia did not answer right away, but brought up her hand and made the sign of the cross on her chest first. “It tains numerous crimes of the Church too.”

  She paused for a moment, letting that statement sink in, then tinued.

  “My father made sure I knew well the deep wounds the Wars of Heresy have left, wounds which have yet to heal. However, whenever Prince Hector discussed such history, he spoke full of pride at how his grandfather led such marvellous armies, the likes of which we may only hope to never see raised again. Whether out of ambition or zealotry, I could see him using such crimes as justification for an expedition south.

  “Even if not him, for this book to be known, it may well spark another era of cruelty and violence.”

  Finally, she raised her head and her gaze found her host’s, Dorothy’s face pale, hands ched, bung up the fabric of her dress. Upon their eyes meeting, she gave a weak smile. “I uand now why the King would wish for such a book to remain hidden. However, I do not uand why such a book would be written in the first pce.”

  “My mother… loved Italy,” Julia said, a gentleo her voice. “She loved it so much despite seeing such evil throughout its ret history. Although she knew such a book would cause untold chaos, she hoped to study the matter and refi so that, instead of instrug others how to do evil, it would make them aware of such evil and expin how to oppose it, hoping for the people of Italy to one day stand united.

  “However, my father was… short-sighted. With my mother passing, he became terrified of what would happen to me if he joined her too soon. So he iated with the King. I do not know the precise terms, only that the betrothal resulted and the King gained possession of the book. All I have left are some notes she had drafted for her sed book.”

  Silence followed, deep and thick, the kind that swallowed words, Dorothy often going to speak only to stop herself. Eventually, though, a kn out and Julia’s humble meal was delivered, providing a release from the tension, especially as the maid now joihem in the room to oversee the tea.

  That did not mean Julia could not still speak of it. “Although I have not mentiohose details to Lord Bavaria, I would not ask a wife to keep secrets from her husband, certainly not as a guest in his residehat said, we did not part on the best of terms st time…. I worry he would make a poor judgement from knowing this.”

  Dorothy sighed, taking a moment to press between her eyes. “Albert, as good as he is, has bee rather sceptical after everything that happened. I uand, truly I do, and it is not that I disagree, but when his scepticism should drive a wedge between himself and good people such as yourself—I wish he would rely on my judgement a little more.”

  “It ot be helped. These lords would see me as a woman to be dismissed, or a threat to be squashed. I have learo accept it,” Julia said, her anger nor sorrow in her voice.

  Dorothy went to speak, yet could n herself to disagree, so she took a deep breath and moved on. “Well, regardless of everything else, it is good to have you here. When I thought of you spending Christmas alone, my heart ached.”

  “It is good to be here,” she replied, her small smile back.