<span style="font-style: italic">You can’t know that for certain…</span>she thought silently as his voice dropped off and his attention shifted to the window. While she’d not seen it herself, there was enough talk of the royal family’s antics, of how they handled any sort of treachery. What Brádach spoke of…it was suicide. If not for her, than for him as she couldn’t see another outcome where he didn’t end up on the chopping block, barring that his plan—whatever that plan was—succeeded. Her brow furrowed, unable to look over at him as he continued, trying to take it all in as unbiased and open-minded as possible.<br/><br/>…And it brought tears to her eyes.<br/><br/>He wanted a family with her, an honest-to-goodness family where they didn’t have to hide what they had. He wanted a family where the three of them could be together like any normal family could, without worry about another figure looming over them. The tears brimming in her eyes threatened to spill over as he tried to catch her gaze, holding out for as long as she dared before caving and finding his kind eyes with her own.<span style="font-style: italic">Don’t cry…don’t cry…</span>a voice chanted to her over and over again as he continued, his hand resting on her stomach as he reminisced about what it was like without a father.<br/><br/>She couldn’t have that for her child… She<span style="font-style: italic">wouldn’t</span>have that for her child. Ivor wasn’t their father, nor would he be their father. It wasn’t as though he’d love her child, even if it was his by some slim curse that fate bestowed. They’d be sent off to schooling and not see him regardless. With Brád…with Brád, they had a shot at a normal life, one filled with love; no, they’d never want for love or anything at all as they’d have it well in hand.  What else could she want out of life?<br/><br/>To marry for love, not for necessity, the very thing that he wanted with her. They couldn’t legally marry, as there was no undoing a marriage in God’s eyes. What she and Ivor had was permanent until such time that death took one of them, and even with that, she’d never be permitted to marry Brádach, not with his lack of standing. That meant they’d have to run, to get away from Sirmia, to go somewhere where their faces weren’t recognized.<br/><br/>But that’s what Maria wanted. She wanted to marry Brádach, to live with him as a family, not here.<br/><br/>“…How can you be so certain you won’t be found out?” Maria asked, unable to quell the urge to ask. “I want to marry you…I want to be a family with you. To even simply hold your hand and walk with you without suspicion or cause for alarm would be so far ahead of what we have now… You have to secret into my room to spend any time with me alone, and I cannot openly ask of you without causing concern among my ladies-in-waiting. Until tonight, I’d been living a nightmare thinking I was having Ivor’s child…and now that I know it to be yours, I don’t want anything to mess up what we could have. You, and I, married…with a child of our own, not some bastard child who wouldn’t know their father. I won’t have that for them…”<br/><br/>There was a pause as a tear fell free and trickled slowly down her cheek. “…But if you get hurt, I won’t be able to forgive myself.” Her fingers fiddled with the bedding for something to do. “…Promise me that, if you have any word that your plan will fail…you’ll forgo it. Promise me that, if it becomes too dangerous for you here, you’ll take our child and run… They can’t do anything to me, but our child…they could.<span style="font-style: italic">You</span>…they could.” Her eyes found his again as she searched his gaze for something; what that something was, she wasn’t entirely certain.<br/><br/>“Promise me…”