Franz Karl, Franz Jacques and Beatrice Have a Talk

Beatrice and Franz Jacques are in their undergarments. Beatrice seats upon her husband's lap, once again kissing lovingly. Franz Jacques has a hand on her developing stomach. His child inside. They would not doubt escalated into sex had it not been for the knock on the door.

"Jacques! It's me! Your cousin!" jovially yells Franz Karl from the other side of the door. "Let me in!"

The two are quite bothered and frustrated by Franz Jacques' cousin so suddenly interrupting them while they are in the process of becoming intimate.

"Let me in, cousin! Now!"

Beatrice gets off her husband and they head to the door still in their undergarments. Neither of them care if Franz Karl saw them in such a immodest state. "About time you opened up." says Franz Karl with snide smile.

"What do you want, Karl!" Jacques snarls. Beatrice crosses her arms under her boobs and glares threateningly at her husband's cousin. Now about five months pregnant, Beatrica's boobs are fairly swollen as is her belly.

Franz Karl steps inside their room and slams the door behind him. His eyes roam around the room before grinning excitedly. "Oh unprecedented. Isn't this your old marital room, Beatrice, and isn't that the exact same bed where all your children were conceived?"

Jacques sighs, "Why are you here, Karl?"

Karl turns around and faces Jacques, "I'm disappointed, cousin. Disappointed indeed. I had really thought a man such yourself, a man with such an anti-spy network, could be so careless." Karl pulls out a small box from his sleeve and hands it to Beatrice. "Open it, my cousin by law. It doesn't have a poisonous spider inside and it's too small to carry a snake."

Beatrice looks to husband. "It's okay, dear. Open it." Beatrice carefully opens the tiny box and inside is a bloody but dry severed tongue. Beatrice was not most women who would have screamed and dropped the box. Instead she slams the box shut and throws it to her husband who opens it himself before closing it.

"I take it you don't like the gift. It is supposed to be a late wedding present. I was absent after all." Karl takes a seat.

"What is this, Karl?" Jacques demands. "I fail to see how a tongue can be considered a gift?!"

Karl rolls his eyes. "A severed tongue can't tell or reveal the secrets it holds. But don't worry. I had the woman who owned that tongue killed beforehand and given a proper burial afterwards."

"What are you talking about!" Beatrice demands.

Karl rolls his eyes again, "You and my cousin were careless. On your son's wedding night, you two were so caught up in the moment of your passion that you failed to make sure your door was properly locked. It doesn't take much for someone to slowly crack the door open and listen to whatever you had to say. Though I do believe the six glasses of ale you both each drunk had something to do with your carelessness that night. It wasn't a spy, just a servant who had gotten too curious and you know what they say about curiosity. It kills. Worse, the servant was a gossiper. Luckily, the first person she spoke to was someone who worked for me." Karl smirks direly at Jacques, "Tell me, Jacques my cousin, how exactly does it feel being married to a woman who murdered her previous husband." Karl's eyes brighten and his smirks widens further, "Oh wait you had a hand in that too. Truly remarkable how you were both able to make it seem like he died of grief."

Both Jacques and Beatrice move to deny it but Karl cuts them off, "Don't deny it. Please don't." He smiles.

"What do you want, Karl?" Jacques sighs.

"So much like him..." Karl taps his cousin's shoulder. "It's the exact same thing he asked when I talked to him."

"You...!" Beatrice looked mortified, "You told him!"

"No, I didn't tell him anything. But I imagine he is not going to take it well at all if he ever finds out what you two did. Although his Queen and her maidservant had their careless moments too. Children, honestly." He shakes his head in mock disappointment, "Always so sloppy. I am disappointed in them. Just as I am with the both of you. I had expected so much more from you, Jacques.” He says to Jacques as though he was reprimanding a child. “Still it's an interesting plan... posing that maidservant's bastard as his heir. It's been done before but not that often. Not like what you and I do, cousin."

"I am nothing like you, Karl." Jacques snarls.

"Aren't you now? After what you did with her? Don’t make me laugh." Karl raises a mocking eyebrow. "Do you have any idea what could have happened if that servant met someone else that night? Jacques, you have done some terrible things like I have. Neither you nor I are saints. Now you may do it to protect your family or for selfish reasons. But I do it to elevate mine."

Franz Jacques doesn’t quite believe him though. “So am I to believe that you aren’t a selfish man?”

“No,” Karl replies bluntly. “I am a selfish man. I am a terribly selfish man. I am capable and most willing to do terrible things if it gets something done. But I would never help a woman kill her husband.”

Jacques raises his brow and sneers, “Of course you would.”

Karl with a smile shrugs, “You’re right. Of course I would. But I wouldn’t do it just so I could sleep with her.”

"And should I count myself lucky that I am family otherwise you would have thrown my under the carriage like most people whom you see has no further use for?"

"As cold as it would be," Karl says all calm and gentle like, "precisely. You are family. I look after my family and I try to give them a good future. That includes you, Beatrice. Despite your crimes of regicide, you are still family. With you being married to my cousin and well, we all know the rest."

Karl takes a bottle of their wine and pours himself a glass, "You asked me what I want." Karl takes a sip, "I'll tell you what I told your son. I want the armies of Ostgrenze under my beck and call, your anti-spy network and" he faces Beatrice, "your influence on the Driton Royal Family. I also asked him to relinquish ownership of Toscana. I'm sure we'll have plenty more to discuss regarding that but you get the point."

Jacques just demands, "What are you planning, Karl?"

"Something big. That's all you need to know for now. If I have your promise of cooperation, we can all benefit from this. You betray me, you let me down and everything your son has done and has worked for will come undone. Believe it or not, I don't want that happening. You are a family and I look after my family. Seeing the boy raise in power does my heart good."

"We help you," says Beatrice, "and you keep your mouth shut. Is that the deal?"

"I like to think more of it as family helping out family but you can think of it that way if you want. Don't be gloom about it, Beatrice. You have plenty to gain from helping me and everything to lose if you betray me. There is nothing worse than family stabbing family in the back."

"You have our cooperation, Karl."

Franz Karl taps Franz Jacques' shoulder again. "Same thing the boy-king said. Happy to have you on board, cousin. We'll talk some more later." and he says one last time before heading out the door, "Don't let me down."

The room is silent between Beatrice and Jacques before Beatrice furiously grabs the bottle of wine and throws it at the walls. "THAT SON OF A BITCH!"

"I know, my love. I know." He holds her from behind and she relaxes, "But he holds too much power over us. And believe it or not, he does care about family. Had this been any other noble, he would have done so much worse. That man is too dangerous to make an enemy out of."