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Charles periodically."
"I will travel to Feldbruck," Lady Adalhaid responded with a sly smile, "for the birth of your first
child. I think you will want someone there to counteract Hedwiga's bossiness."
"That would be lovely. But who knows when, or if, I will have a child?" Gina's cheeks warmed at
the thought of what she and Dominick would do later in the day, which could, of course, result in a
baby, but she forgot her momentary embarrassment when she heard Lady Adalhaid's next,
puzzling statement, which bore no apparent connection to what she had just said.
"Lady Madelgarde assures me most positively
that Fastrada is not with child. Apparently Fastrada was greatly distressed when the evidence
presented itself right on schedule. She knew a pregnancy was her last hope of holding on to
Charles's affections, for he surely will not lie with her again.
"As for you, let me see now." Lady Adalhaid held up her hands and began, rather ostentatiously, to
count on her fingers. "As near as I can tell, it will be in late January or early February. If I visit
Hiltrude and Audulf at Birnau for the Christmas festivities and travel on to Feldbruck immediately
thereafter, I ought to reach you with sufficient time to spare. Is that arrangement acceptable to
you?"
"What are you implying?" Gina asked. "Even if I were to conceive tonight-well, it's early August.
How could I possibly have a child in January?"
Lady Adalhaid didn't answer. She merely chuckled, making that throaty sound Gina liked to hear,
and regarded Gina out of smiling eyes.
"Unless," Gina said, realization slowly dawning, "you are trying to tell me that I'm already pregnant.
But how can that be?"
"I suppose it happened in the usual way," Lady Adalhaid responded with dry humor. "I assume
that you and Dominick were lying together before you left Feldbruck, which is why he kept you in
his house here in Regensburg, rather than sending you to the women's quarters at the palace.
That was a wise decision in many ways. I began to consider the possibility when I noticed that you
were pale, with circles under your eyes, and you ate little. Your bosom has grown larger. Haven't
you noticed how snug the tops of your dresses are?"
"I developed circles under my eyes because I wasn't sleeping much while I was so worried about
Dominick," Gina said. "That's why I haven't been eating." Yet in the back of her mind lay the
tantalizing memory of a brief conversation she'd had at the infirmary.
"There is a final, conclusive detail," Lady Adalhaid said. "Since you first arrived at Feldbruck,
you've not had a single monthly flow."
"How can you possibly know something like that?" Gina cried, dumbfounded.
"Ella noticed. She told Imma, who then told me. Servants always know these things, sometimes
before their masters or mistresses do."
Of course Ella had noticed. At Feldbruck she and Gina routinely spread out the laundry together,
including the cloths the women used each month. Gina recalled being glad not to have to use and
reuse the same cloths and hoping she'd return to New York before she needed such supplies.
Then, with the journey to Regensburg and all the excitement there, she'd forgotten about the
matter entirely.
"Brother Anselm's assistant told me he thought I had a female problem of some kind, and he said
I ought to speak to you about it," Gina admitted. "I was so concerned about Dominick that that
conversation slipped my mind until now."
"There, you see?" Lady Adalhaid chuckled again. "How can you doubt what even a lay brother has
noticed? Why do you think I went to Charles and insisted that you and Dominick marry quickly?"
"You told Charles I'm having a baby? Before you said anything to me?"
"Of course not. I wouldn't do that. I only told him that you and Dominick were deeply in love
and deserved to marry but that I feared you would refuse him if he asked because you
lacked a dowry. I knew Charles could easily remedy that problem."
"You've been arranging my life behind my back!" Gina cried.
"I have been doing what any loving foster parent would do," Lady Adalhaid replied, unruffled
by the accusation. "I perceive that you are frightened about the future. It's natural, you know.
Any bride who's not a half-wit is worried on her wedding day, and to learn on the same day
that you are to have a child must be somewhat disturbing."
"That's putting it mildly," Gina said, horrified by the possibility that she might be returned to
the twentieth century while pregnant, leaving Dominick to wonder forever about the gender
and the well-being of their child, and leaving her far from his love and tender support.
"You do want to marry Dominick, don't you?" Lady Adalhaid began to look worried. "I'm sure
I'm not mistaken in thinking you love him."
"I love him with all my heart and soul." It was a simple statement of truth that put the uncertain
future into perspective. "I want to marry Dominick and live with him for the rest of my life."
"Well, then, we ought to start for the palace before he begins to think you've run away and
deserted him," Lady Adalhaid said, teasing. "He would come after you, you know."
"I know," Gina said, love and hope and fear all mingling together in her heart "If it were
possible to follow me to the end of time, Dominick would."
Gina did like the simplicity of a Frankish wedding. In the presence of Charles and his
courtiers, but with Fastrada absent, Alcuin read out the terms of their marriage contract.
Gina's dowry of Vincona in Lombardy was given to Dominick to administer. Since he held
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