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“I know.”

“They’re barely accepting, as a whole, that my eldest two children are daughters. The approval rating for the change to absolute primogeniture is barely a majority. We’re pressing forward anyway because it’s the right thing to do. Aunt Louise proved a woman can be exceedingly capable at running the country. Far better than Isaiah did before I stood up to him. I don’t know how accepting they’d be of an annulment or how Athmetis would respond to the implications it was only to get out of the country, even if that’s the truth, and they likely already know - or at least suspect - as much.”

“So as my brother, you’d be totally cool with it and understand why, but as my king, you’ll forbid it?” Josiah needed the clarification.

Another sigh escaped his brother as the shoulders that always carried such a heavy load slumped forward. “No. I won’t forbid it, but I can’t be seen as publicly accepting of it at this point either. You may need to leave the country indefinitely and only come back for big events for a while.”

“I’d be sidelined completely? I know I won’t be a working member of the family. I’m okay with that. Happy with it even, but I can’t come fill in for one of the girls when they’re pregnant or their husbands after birth or anything else? I’m your oldest brother not married to royalty from another country. Actually, I’m your only adult brother who’s not married or engaged to royalty from another country.”

The weight increased on his brother, and Benjamin’s head dropped a bit more. “I pray it doesn’t come to that, but it is possible, yes. Especially if the public sees you as abandoning your pregnant wife, regardless of the fact everyone would know you are not the biological father of the baby.”

Josiah felt some of the frustration drain away. “So what would you have us do?”

“Give it a chance. See what happens between the two of you.”

“And if she’s not interested? She hasn’t been widowed very long.” Though she hadn’t pushed him away when she woke up either. If anything, she’d moved a little closer before going back to sleep.

“Then we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

“Sirs?”

The brothers turned to see Chamberlain, the king’s top aide, standing near the door. He gave no indication he’d heard anything, but then Chamberlain had likely heard many things over the years that he would take to the grave with him.

“The doctors are ready to see the princess, however, she refuses to let them start without you, sir.” He looked at Josiah. “Will you be along shortly?”

Josiah turned to Benjamin. “I’ll think about what you said. I’m sure we’ll talk again at some point.”

His brother nodded, but didn’t say anything.

Hurrying to his quarters, Josiah tried to keep his nerves under control. What if there was something wrong?

Plastering a smile on his face, he entered the room to find Bekah on the bed with enough pillows propped behind her that she wasn’t completely flat. The doctors had already started doing some things apparently, but a machine with a monitor sat off to the side. “Thank you for waiting.”

He sat in the chair helpfully placed near Bekah’s side.

“Are you ready for the ultrasound?” the doctor asked. Josiah didn’t know this one. He wasn’t Benjamin’s usual doctor. Maybe he was Gen’s obstetrician.

An assistant of some kind helped Bekah raise her shirt and lower the waistband of her fresh pajama pants, though not too far, and tucked a cloth into them. The doctor squeezed a gel of some kind into a dollop on her lower abdomen then pressed a wand into it.

Images began to appear on the screen, but Josiah had no idea what they were - just blurry black and white images with circles and what looked like snow from an old television.

But the doctor was pointing at one void area and saying it was Bekah’s bladder. A minute later, he pointed to another one and said it was her uterus.

Then a fluttering movement in the center of the screen.

“Is that the baby?” he whispered.

“It is,” the doctor confirmed. “And heartrate looks good. Better than earlier.”

Bekah looked up at Josiah. “What do you mean? Better than earlier?”

“We did a quick scan with a Dopplar wand to check the heartbeat. It was slower than we’d have preferred, but not dangerously so. There wasn’t anything we could have done differently if it had been, but we wanted to know and needed a baseline.” The doctor clicked around a few more times. “Everything looks wonderful.” He grinned at them as they both tried to absorb what he’d just said. “Now, I think we might be able to tell if you’re having a boy or a girl. Do you want to know?”

CHAPTER 11

When Bekah turned to look at him, Josiah was surprised.

“What do you think?” she asked.