Chapter Text
Camilla Paulet, the Marchioness of Winchester in her own right gazed at the beautiful view of the Bourbon grand duchy lands through the window of her favorite carriage.
She is currently on route from the lands of her brother-in-law Rylan Roth, 3rd Grand Duke of Bourbon and heading for Frankfurt -the Eastern Empires’ capital.
Camilla clicks her tongue in some slight frustration.That fool Rylan Roth! How dare he send my nephew, my poor dead sweet little sister Guinevere’s only child, to the currently unpredictable court!
As of right now, the Emperor’s court is in a state of unease and unpredictability with the appearance of a strange woman rumored to be His Majesty’s first ever mistress and infatuation.
I hadn’t thought that Sovieshu Vict had it in him to take on a mistress, especially since he loathe his father’s lovers for the grief that they caused his mother. Most infamously is the one that was exiled to another kingdom and I believe ended up in Bluvohan.
Ah, but what had she expected?
Men are so very fickle and capricious.
A boy can loath his father’s whor* but then he grows up into a man and goes around sowing his wild oates’ wherever he very much pleases without a care in the world.
Camilla’s father had certainly been such a man, such a person, when had still been alive.
At least my sweet Thomas is no such man, Camilla opens her velvet red fan and she begins to use it to blow air towards herself.
Her sweet and devoted husband Thomas Beaufort -the third son of the current Count Rochford- is nothing like her dead father.
He’s sweet and loyal and devoted. And Camilla is the only woman that Thomas Beaufort sees.
Camilla sighs and leans back into the cushioned seat of the carriage.Why am I thinking of Father and Thomas? What is important right now is protecting sweet Guinevere’s Adam from the vipers in the imperial court!
As much as Camilla thinks that her young nephew needs to be fostered out in order to learn the ways of the world, sending the poor sickly boy to the vipers filled court is not something she would even approve of at all!
The nobles at court are more likely to snicker and gossip about poor Adam behind his back.
After all, Adam is the only legitimate heir to the Grand Duchy of Bourbon. So how can such an important child be sickly and frail at all?
Guinevere would not want for her son to be raised in a scornful place that will just harm his health. Closeness to the imperial family be damned! Adam will be much better off in Winchester or with a relative of his mother.
Perhaps Camilla should have pushed so much harder for Adam to be fostered with her and Thomas.
Adam would have definitely benefited from growing up with his maternal cousins instead of with his father’s banner men’s children (and possibly with servants spawns and heaven forbid with any bastard siblings).
Though as much as Camilla Paulet very much loathes to admit it, Rylan’s plan of sending Adam to court for the sole goal of becoming close to the First Princess has its merit.
The Emperor has no male children with his wife, the Empress consort Navier of the House of Trovi.
(And wasn’t House Trovi’s mottoHumble and Loyal’? Navier’s own motto is SemperVigilans, which translates into Always Vigilant)
And although it is true that the Eastern Empire had never had a female ruler in her own right in its long history.
Especially in comparison to some of the other neighboring countries like the Western Kingdom. Or some of the countries that had been conquered and swallowed up by the East in the past.
There have been past Emperors who derive their claims to the throne from a female line of the family tree.
And perhaps most famous of the female line descendants is Emperor Sebastien II.
Sebastien II had been the son of an Eastern princess whose father had no legitimate surviving male heirs.
Of course Sebastien II had to fight a war against the descendants of some of his mother’s sisters in order to reclaim his grandfather’s throne.
There is a good reason why Emperor Sebastien had been known as Sebastien the Warlike. After all Sebastien had fought in plenty of the battles fought during his war for the Eastern throne.
(And he had killed some of his own cousins during that bloody war for the Eastern Throne. The Cousins’ War has not been forgotten and it never will be)
If Adam marries Princess Ethaniel then it would combine their shared claims to the Eastern throne. Their son will be able to rally men behind him so easily because of how strong his claim will be.
And even if Sovieshu Vict gets a son and heir from his Empress, Adam marrying the first princess will still be a wonderful and perfect match.
It looks like I have much to plot about, Camilla hums.Rylan is useless in terms of scheming properly so I will be Adam’s strongest ally in the quest of gaining the first Princess Ethaniel’s hand in marriage. I think that I will write to Thomas about sending Willam our second boy and Giselle our second daughter to me at court while he rules my marquisate in my name alongside my eldest child, our sweet and so very clever Roland, who is my heir.
Camilla Paulet, the Marchioness of Winchester in her own right smiles at the thought of her family.
Yes, her plan seems good.
Camilla looks through the window at the beauty of the outside landscape and she smiles.
The future seems golden.
