It was a dreary gray spring day. The dark clouds hung low in the sky and appeared fat and pregnant with rain. Rosetta envied them; she wanted to be just as fat and just as pregnant, but she wasn’t a healthy woman, and bearing a child was a death sentence for both. Rosetta and Dominic had been married for a year, and he was third in line for a promotion to sergeant with the City Watch.

Dominic assured his bride, he could get it, despite the heavy odds against him. He was strong, fast, even-tempered, and his handling of the near food riot last month had saved countless lives. The Commander had personally commended Dominic and made him a lead watchman of the night shift.

That posting would prove to be a curse and then a blessing. It was towards the end of the great war between the kingdom and the Southern desert tribes. When the kingdom’s main army was away,  the city came under siege. If the gates fell, the city and the entire southern district would have been taken.  All seemed lost and then Dominic took command of the remaining forces. He held the Southgate against unimaginable odds until help arrived days later. He was a hero to the city and the region. The Duke offered him a gift of a hundred gold coins. It was a gift the honorable Dominic Escamilla graciously declined.

When the Duke asked if there was anything else he could do for him, Dominic didn’t hesitate. “My wife has a persistent cough and weakness of spirit, and our town surgeon cannot heal her. I fear the worst. Your Grace, I know it may be too much to ask, but will you allow your Royal Surgeon to look at her, if only for a moment?”

The Duke opened his mouth, then closed it. His face became flush, and for a few seconds, he could find no words.  He nodded his head. "Young Champion, your wife shall be more than an honored guest at my castle. She will receive all the care my house can provide. You may leave her safety on my honor."
***

Though Rosetta thought the Royal Surgeon strange and she heard rumors from the servants about bizarre experiments. After three months at the castle she had to admit she had never felt better in her life after receiving his treatments, though she couldn’t remember them. The Duke treated her as if she were his third child; a daughter to add to his two sons. She was happy and finally healthy. All her life, she had been inflicted with weak lungs. She had been unable to run as others did, swim in the lake during hot summers, or get overly excited in typical womanly ways with the man she loved.

When Dominic began to pursue her, she had tried to dissuade him. She ignored him, insulted him, did everything, including attempting to run from him. That had led to her collapsing, and when she awoke, she was in his arms. She immediately began to protest, but he simply smiled at her and then lowered his head to her ear.

“Hush girl, what’s done is done. Did you truly not know you would faint if you tried to run? Did you believe I would leave you in the road?  Did you truly not know I would carry you home?” Dominic stared into her eyes, but Rosetta said nothing.

She looked and saw that he had stopped at Miller’s road. If he turned left, that would lead to her parents’ house, and all he needed to say was that she became ill, and he carried her home. No one would question this, as her sickness was known to all. But if he turned right, that road led to the home he shared with his parents, and as soon as they began down that road, all would naturally assume, she had finally given in to him, as his pursuit of her was also well known, if not understood.

Rosetta looked up at Dominic and then leaned her head against his muscular chest. “I knew,” was all she needed to say.

Dominic turned right with a smile on his face, and a deep shade of red blossoming on Rosetta’s face. The sound of cheers and well wishes from people along the road accompanied them home.
***

Rosetta stood at the bakers, enjoying the scent of fresh sweet bread, a hand instinctively went down to her flat belly as her mind wandered. They had made love all day and night when she returned home. Rosetta closed her eyes and allowed her mind to feel the tiny presence of Dominic’s seeds deep within her. They were moving franticly, so alive, so strong, so much like her Dominic. Like he, they wanted her, and all she had to do was make a tiny adjustment, and they would live long enough to reach her womb. She could practically feel them surging. She imagined they were close to the waiting egg that would become fertilized and become their child.

“Yes,” she whispered and invisible to the naked eye, a small hormonal shift, known to the women of Valeria occurred. She smiled and envisioned thousands of tiny seeds within her notice the change and rejoice with renewed vigor as they now sensed the presence of her egg. She gave a silent prayer of thanks to Vallis, the Duke’s royal surgeon, the Duke, and the Three Gods, naturally.