Come clean

For a second, you debate not telling him the truth. You stare at the man as he waits for you to make your move. Inside your head, you wonder what would be the outcome if you don't tell him. What happens when your hairs look more like her handmaiden then her. Would he realize, Would he rebel, no you can not lose one of your most trusted nobles to a lie.

You grab The Duke's arm, "Not just yet; there is something you need to understand first." The Duke's eyes look as if they are staring through you as he tries to guess what you are going to say next. "Your daughter is smart and wise, she will make a great queen, but she will not be producing my hair."

Duke Renard face goes from joy to anger. "So, you're going to disown my grandchildren and favor some bastard child."

You squeeze his arms tightly. "Learn your place, Duke. Do not ever think you can put words in a king's month. Did I say that I would disown your grandchildren> You pause but not long enough for him to speak. " If your daughter gives you a grandchild, It will be my hair, but I can say, from no fault of my own, she will not be giving you a grandchild."

His anger is quickly replaced by shame and embarrassment as he understands exactly what you said, and his knee gives out before you. "My daughter is barren, isn't she?"

You give him a firm one-word answer, "Yes."

He looks up at you with tears in his eyes "My King forgive you for assuming you had ill intentions. In fact, you are even willing to take my broken daughter for the shake of my family. However, no matter how much it makes me happy to hear that you are ready to do that for my family, as your loyal subject, I must insist that you find someone else."

"Why? she will make a great queen." You ask

He continues, "My King, A Queen's first priority is to give her King a hair. Marrying her would be the end of your ligament royal line."

You laugh, which lessens the tension of the room. "Didn't I say that she is wise beyond her age. She has already come up with a solution to that problem."

Duke Renard collects himself and stands up from the ground. "Her handmaiden?"

you calmly answer, "Yes."

"That won't work. She looks nothing like my daughter." He takes a breath as he accepts that is daughter will not be giving him a grandchild."If you still wish to give my family this give, you must allow you to gift you her mother as her royal handmaiden so that she can help my daughter with her queenly duties."

Both of you know that he just offered his wife to have your children in place of his daughter. "What about you?"

He gives a hint of a smile, "Camilla mother is well renowned for her beauty and fertility; she has already given me two sons and a daughter. Which means Camilla must have gotten both of those traits from me."