I returned to the capital with the Dowager Queen after a pilgrimage to Greystone Abbey.
My carriage was blocked halfway by a delicate-looking woman with a swollen belly.
"I beg the heir's wife to grant me and my child a place to stay. I ask for no title, but the baby in my womb is the heir's own flesh and blood. He cannot be left out in the cold."
The heir to the Gilbert marquisate had been married three years without producing an heir of his own. And now, out of nowhere, someone claimed to be carrying his child.
The woman trembled as though she might collapse at any moment, the very picture of helplessness.
"The heir is away from the capital. If his wife mistreats us, if she lets his own flesh and blood be cast aside, does she not fear he'll come home and divorce her?"
Divorce me? This woman was clever, I'd give her that. But she'd gotten one thing wrong.
I was not someone the heir to the Gilbert marquisate could divorce.
——
"Please, I beg the heir's wife to show mercy. Save me."
My carriage had been stopped in the middle of the road. The woman's wailing outside shattered the quiet rest I'd been trying to take.
I had just returned to the capital with the Dowager Queen from our pilgrimage to Greystone Abbey. I'd left the palace and was heading back to the Gilbert Estate when, right at the gates, a woman's sobbing brought my carriage to a halt.
She had a coquettish face, dressed plainly, with only a single white jade hairpin in her hair, and a belly round and heavy with child. Tears glistened in her eyes as she stared at the carriage, looking so pitiful that passersby had already stopped to gawk.
Through the curtain of the carriage, she watched me sit motionless inside and threw herself to the ground, kowtowing desperately. "My lady, please, give Celeste Acevedo a place to belong."
"The child I carry is the heir's flesh and blood. I am alone in this world. I need no title for myself, but the baby in my womb is the heir's only child. He cannot go unrecognized."
"My lady has been married to the heir for years without bearing a child. Surely you would not stand by and watch the Gilbert line die out? I beg you, show mercy."
"The physician said I'm carrying a boy. If I'm allowed into the household, once the child is born, he can be registered under your name. He'll call you Mother."
"I want nothing for myself. But as a mother, I have to fight for my child."
"The heir's wife has never borne a child, so naturally she wouldn't understand a mother's heart."
I watched the tears stream down her face, but there it was, that faint glint of triumph in her eyes. How quaint. These little tricks.
"If you truly wanted nothing, why make such a spectacle of stopping my carriage in the middle of the street?"
"If you wanted a title, you could have come to the estate and discussed it properly. There are ways. So why drag this out for the whole world to see?"
"You're using that child in your belly as leverage to force me into letting you through those gates. Isn't that right?"
The woman called Celeste shook her head frantically, cradling her belly. "No, my lady, Celeste knows nothing of such things. It was the heir who looked after Celeste all along."
"Before he left the capital, the heir promised he would give Celeste a proper title when he returned. But the date has passed and he hasn't come back. My time is nearly here, and I'm terrified."
"I beg the heir's wife to be generous. Give this child a birthright."
"The baby I carry is the heir's firstborn son. He cannot be left outside the Gilbert household."
"Unless my lady, unable to bear children herself, refuses to let any other woman give the heir an heir. Do you mean to let the Gilbert line end?"
Her words set the crowd of onlookers buzzing.
"Well, it's true. The heir's been married for years and there's still no child. That wife of his, not so much as a whisper of a pregnancy."
"You can't just let the Gilbert name die out."
"I heard the heir's wife hasn't even arranged a concubine for him. Jealous type, if you ask me."
"A woman ought to know her virtues. With jealousy like that, how can she manage a noble household? Look at this poor girl, she's about ready to give birth."
