A Beast's Tale

Chapter 85

Ivetta and her little red dress won that night, in spite of my best efforts to resist her, but I won the next morning when she agreed to stay in our room and rest until Luke and Arianna's engagement ball. She was much improved on the anti-nausea medication the doctor prescribed. Her appetite was back, and she had no more fainting spells, although I knew the latter may have been more due to her staying off her feet than due to an improvement in appetite. But she wasn't a person who could sit still, and watching her over those few days was like watching a caged bird. She was fidgety, finding any excuse to get up and move around, unable to settle down and read in just one spot. I needed a better long-term solution, one that would allow me to keep a close eye on her so she didn't push herself to the point of fainting and still allow her the freedom to live. It was a tricky balance to strike.

The first and most obvious problem was the ball itself. She loved to dance, but that fell neatly in the category of strenuous activity, in my opinion, especially since she never could stop at just one song. I knew she would hate sitting out the dancing, and I also knew she would hate missing the ball entirely. The best solution I could come up with was having her sit on the periphery with me while I handled the assorted business presented to me by my faction members, and on the surface, it wasn't ideal. She loved to socialize, though, and this would be her first public appearance since Belle's wedding, so I knew she would attract plenty of attention on her own.

Everybody was asking about her. People I knew, people I didn't know, people who would never normally approach me, were suddenly stopping me in the hallway to see how she was doing. Their leading questions and stumbling words made it clear that her pregnancy was no secret. I dodged the issue, but I knew she wouldn't. I hadn't relayed the doctor's recommendation to her about keeping it quiet until the second trimester. She would want to know why, and I didn't want to stress her with the reasons. Better to have her think I was being overbearing than to let her know there was a very real possibility she could lose the baby, or her own life. I was doing enough worrying on that front for both of us.

The second problem was her daily work managing the palace staff. There was no reason she couldn't continue to do that, and it would provide the mental stimulation she needed to keep her busy over the coming months. She just couldn't walk all over the palace to do it anymore. There was a room in disuse next to my office, and I had it cleaned up and converted into an office for her. I didn't tell her what I was doing, nor did I tell her about Jin and Theresa's engagement ceremony. Those were best left as surprises for later, when she started to get upset with me about the precautions I would insist she take.

"Oh, goodie, you're letting me out for Luke and Arianna's engagement ball," she said lightheartedly the afternoon of Luke and Arianna's ceremony. Melanie, her new maid, giggled as she pulled the laces of Ivetta's dress taut.

"Not so tight," I instructed Melanie, leaning against the wall next to the mirror with my arms crossed over my chest as I watched her get Ivetta ready.

"It's fine, Melanie," Ivetta told her, and then she added, "Go sit down, Chevalier. Your hovering is making her nervous."

"I don't need you fainting again," I muttered, but I sat down at my writing desk a few feet away. Melanie was nervous. Her gray eyes kept flicking from me back to Ivetta as her fingers fumbled with the laces.

"I didn't actually faint," Ivetta corrected me. "And this dress isn't nearly as tight as the one I wore at Belle's wedding."

"Which may have been why you got light-headed."

"I don't think so," she said, moving over to the vanity for Melanie to do her hair. "That dress actually felt really comfortable. Not that I was comfortable wearing it. It showed far too much skin for that."