Renard and Lucilla meet their Grandchildren

You bring Holda to the palace where she will live from now on. Lisandra in tow with her baby. Camilla receives Holda well enough. However she mistook at first Lisandra to be another one of the women you’ve bedded and impregnated. But you quickly clear up that little misunderstanding and tell her Lisandra is actually your father’s mistress and the baby in her arms in your bastard half-sister. You had previously warned both Holda and Lisandra to never ever comment on your wife’s appearance. You can tell that Holda is desperately trying to hold back whatever she might want to say about Camilla.

“And you might you be?” Camilla asks Holda politely.

“I am Holda, my Queen. Older bastard daughter of Lisandra, the late King’s royal mistress.”

“And are you my husband’s half-sister as well?”

“No, my Queen. I was born before my mother met the late King. I am not related by blood to our present King.”

“Camilla, I have decided to take Holda as a mistress.”

Camilla sighs and shakes her head while snickering, “Oh my dear beloved husband, does your lust know no bounds? Can you not keep it in your trousers? You have Dorothye, you have Eliza, you have Helga, you have Sophie, you have that Angelika girl and you have me” She loving clasps her hands behind your neck, “Are none of us enough for you? Do we not satisfy you?” She kisses you and you kiss her back.

“You have a good relationship with your wife.” Holda gasps, causing your kiss to end.

“Yes, I thought I had made that clear enough.”

“I had just thought she would not object. I didn’t consider she and you have a loving relationship.”

“Well now you know.” Says Camilla.

“Can I still be a mistress if this is the case?”

Lisandra touched her older daughter on the shoulder, “My dear girl, noblemen and Kings take mistresses all the time for various reasons. If the Queen is fine with it, then all the better of it.”

“Your mother is right.” You say. “Either way, you are my mistress from now on.”

Suddenly Camilla’s eyes widen. An idea forms in her mind and she whispers it to you causing your eyes to equally widen. By the end of her whispering, both of you spawn a devilish smile on your lips. “Oh my love, you have indeed changed since we met.”

“Just imagine it, my love.” Camilla walks over to Holda and lands her hand on Holda’s belly. “This growing round with your children.”

“So I am to carry and bear his children. We’ve already agreed to that.” Holda says, not fully knowing what you and Camilla had just agreed to. You chuckle and then kiss Holda on both her cheeks.

“My love, my parents are here and they want to see their grandchildren.”

You sigh, “Best not keep them waiting, I suppose. Lisandra, I’ve been told your old quarters were left untouched after you left. Please see yourselves there. I shall find a separate room for Holda later after I have seen to my in-laws.”

“As you say, my King.” Holda holds you close and plants a kiss on your lips.

You and Camilla meet her parents in the throne room. Your children in your arms and both are still too young to understand anything. “Your highnesses,” Duke Renard and Duchess Lucilla bow.

But there is another person with them. A woman in her 50s. She wears the grab worn by healers and midwives. “Your highnesses,” she says. “My young King,” she says to you, “I am Bertha. I am the healer under your wife’s family’s service. It is an honor to meet you.”

So this is the healer who knows of Camilla’s infertility and inability to bear children of her own.

“Camilla has told me some things about you.” You tell her.

“Oh is this them?” Lucilla moves a little closer to you and Camilla. “Aw they’re so adorable.” She gets a good look at her ‘grandchildren’. Renard also moves in close and gets a look at the babies.

“Just look at them, Lucilla. Our grandchildren.” Says Renard proudly.

Lucilla claps her hands together. The glee is just radiating off her. “I almost thought this day wouldn’t come. But here they are. Little, tiny, extensions of us and of Camilla and the King.”

“That they are. Our blood will seat the throne one day.”

Lucilla and Renard’s eyes run across the little bodies of the babies and even lock into Boudica’s green eyes which she inherited from Dorothye.

Bertha on the other hand looks at the entire scene with a look of disbelief but remains silent all throughout. Renard and Lucilla take the babies into their arms and coo at them as is expected from grandparents. She could tell that her Lady Lucilla is in a state of bliss at finally being a grandmother and her Lord Renard is filled to the brim with pride, knowing his grandson will one day seat the throne. Except Bertha knows that Camilla is not the mother of the babies and Renard and Lucilla are not their grandparents. These children were born from someone else and have no blood relations with the people claiming to be their mother and grandparents.

Bertha thinks of a most likely candidate for the real mother. But with no real proof, it is best for her not to say anything. Keeping this a secret from Renard and Lucilla is not a danger to their lives and she could always claim plausible deniability if the truth ever gets out. Camilla may not be the mother but Bertha is sure that you are still the father. If you plan to have a bastard of yours inherit your throne, then Bertha isn’t about to stop you.