"No man is ever ready, my boy," Nikolai said gently, his fondness for this man he considered a son overriding his sense of protocol in calling him something dearer than 'my lord.'<br/><br/>He stretched out his knee and sighed. "And no woman is ever really ready to be a wife - in the way a man thinks of a wife in his bed. Girls are all trained to be wifely outside the marriage bed, but I've yet to see a woman go to her wedding night without some fear."<br/><br/>He grinned and leaned forward, poking Alexei playfully in the arm. "I remember your first time, my lad. All puffed up and proud of yourself for becoming a man afterward, but quaking like a little doe underneath your bravado beforehand. Can't fool your old Nikolai."<br/><br/>He shrugged and studied the man carefully for a long moment of silence.<br/><br/>"Princess Ingrid didn't know your father," he said slowly. "You don't have to be your father to be her husband."