Another 17 Months Later

Amelia stood at the window of her private study, watching the gardeners working in the palace gardens. Her hands absently cradled her still-flat stomach, a habit she'd developed over the months of disappointment, as if protective of something that wasn't there.

"Thirty-four months," she whispered to herself. "Almost three years of marriage, and still nothing."

The past seventeen months since her conversation with Theodore had brought more of the same… just more ...