location & time: january 3rd, nighttime. 

everything made sense now. 

while charlotte looked at her silhouette in the mirror, she asked herself how she couldn't interpret the signs her body was giving to her. fatigue, nausea, the turmoil of emotions in just a few hours --- when her bleeding stopped coming monthly, charlotte thought god was punishing her for changing faiths. however, when she brought her thoughts to the patriarch, he soothed them away. the change on her body was quite noticeable, but charlotte didn’t paid much attention to it. she was aware of her growing appetite, but that passed down as a consequence of her adjustment of the russian cold weather. 

( the pregnancy explained the nausea --- oh, charlotte hated it. it wasn’t uncommon for her to feel sick. even as a child, the french princess was prone to sickness during some occasions. but travelling by land ? it was the first time charlotte didn’t enjoy the new landscapes she could see. )

but when she felt something kicking on her belly during a catholic mass, it was when charlotte asked for help. the news were shocking --- the princess couldn’t believe she was expecting a child. charlotte was aware that doing so was her duty --- to give vasily his desirable heirs, and thus, helping to spread the tsardom influence through europe. but charlotte felt so helpless. the child would not be born from their parents love, as she always dreamed. 

and she would not ask anything from vasily than just love the child, regardless of their gender. her husband could hate her, despise her after such request --- she could handle it, after all, charlotte was used to cold glares and rude words. but not loving an innocent infant, as her parents did to herself ? she wouldn’t bear to know that her first child could have the same destiny as their mother. 

charlotte didn’t hear the door opening, nor vasily’s heavy steps, too engrossed on the round silhouette of her abdomen. the sight scared her. but when her husband’s reflection reached her eyes, charlotte took her hands of her belly quickly, her cheeks reddening.