Chapter 17

                                        

                                              
Marquis Mihal had already submitted a formal request to investigate the paternity of Countess Jimena's unborn child. Emberlee had given the Emperor her letter from Father stating that the child could not be his, and the Imperial Physician acting on Empress Clara's orders hovered as the babe-in-question's due date approached. So too did the Imperial Princess' debut, and Emberlee almost hoped the two dates conflicted. It would be a beautiful irony if Jimena managed to take attention away from the Princess' big day after the Empress had put so much favour onto the Countess. 
Despite the late hour, Emberlee called for her Uncle via Mirror and was grateful when he answered it. "Firecracker, how goes the battle?" he didn't waste time. 
"Too soon to tell, too many things to prepare for. The Emperor is aware of Father's lack of paternity towards Jimena's babe, but no other actions have been announced. I know Grandfather would have submitted a complaint by now too, but the investigation into that would be discreet. I have no issue with the babe being an orphan of Ortega instead of a war orphan or outright bastard of Stussica, but it occurred to me that if the Stussicans are truly heinous they might try to eliminate Father so he can't personally testify," she blurted her worse fear out to the one adult she trusted. 
"The thought had already occurred to one firecracker," Uncle Albert almost sounded amused at her naivety to only realize the danger now, "however your Father is already paranoid and prepared for ambush and attacks." It helped lose some of her worries, the truth being that Father was as likely to die in battle as he was to an assassin's blade, neither of which had happened yet. She would just have to trust that Father would continue to survive until they could be reunited. Until then, she simply had to survive the petty machinations of her Stepfamily.
"I will be in the capital for the Imperial Princess' debut, are you safe in a House filled with enemies until then?" Uncle Albert sounded ready to ride to her rescue if needed. 
"It would look painfully suspicious if anything were to happen to me currently, they would be the primary suspects. Jimena's babe is due only shortly after the Princess' celebration so she'll be all but bedbound except for social events. Deidre may attempt to slap me but she's the more likely to verbally berate instant. And Ainsley will follow their lead regardless of her motivations."
But being unable to close violence didn't mean that the Stussicans couldn't find other plots to hurt; the morning after Emberlee arrived in the Capital. the newspapers were filled with the announcement of Deirdre's engagement to the Empress' personal Knight, Sir Ludwig, a highly talented swords master Blessed by the gods of healing. The poor fool likely had no idea the kind of family the Stussicans truly were, he had been a loyal Imperial Knight gifted to Empress Clara by the Emperor. And now Clara had likely commanded this union and he would diligently obey. Maybe Emberlee could help rescue him from it even as she worked to liberate herself from their presence. The engagement may be a surprise to Emberlee, but it ultimately didn't change her course of action. Deirdre being engaged to a Knight changed nothing, it was more a demonstration of the Empress' favour; Emberlee could still have them removed from Ortega. 
She called in the Stussican butler, pleased when he seemed intelligent enough to refer to her as Marchioness without hesitation. It seemed that he at least realized that being on Emberlee's good side was the smarter choice. So she asked him which of the servants she should consider keeping employed
before releasing the whole lot of them; an obvious test of his competence and loyalty. If he tried to argue to keep all of them, she'd know he was still entirely Jimena's supporter, but as expected the butler had more self-preservation than that. He recommended keeping only the servants for the ladies directly, freely admitting that the two attending Jimena were directly from the Imperial Castle and likely reported to the Empress. All the servants that only spoke Stussican were given letters of recommendation and released, diminishing the household staff greatly but that was easy enough to rectify by hiring capital staff temporarily. There was less restructuring required amongst the Guards, the initial incident all the warning these professionals needed to realize that she was the Marchioness, not Jimena. Their loyalty was to the paycheck, not a personal connection; if they wanted to keep working that meant acknowledging that she was in charge.