76 More Cautious

After Franz announced Mariela's pregnancy, the entire palace was in an uproar for over a week. Suddenly the relatively forgotten second princess was the most talked about person in the capital. News spread like wildfire throughout the town.

Al and I found that out while escaping the palace one day for some peace and quiet. No matter how hard we tried it seemed that we couldn't escape our problems. Whispers about the line of succession followed us wherever we went.

Eventually, we were so sick of listening to other people that we headed to the completely empty beach and sat on that rock where we met by chance the day he proposed to me.

"How does Mariela stand it?" I asked.

The poor thing knew she was the subject of much gossip but she was still stuck in her room. Franz never left her side and had guards he trusted personally inspect all of her meals for poison before she consumed them.