The Princess's Shocking Story

Meanwhile Yaiviane continued her tale. "We were blissfully happy together until two weeks ago, when the dragon descended on our covered wagon as we headed from one village to the next. I suppose it was pure bad luck that he should fly by just as we were passing that way, and that he should decide to attack us. Gregor was killed and I was captured." She broke down in sobs. "My poor Gregor!"

"You were living with this Gregor as man and wife?"

"Yes."

"Did you actually marry him?" Fred wasn't sure which would be worse: that she had married a commoner or that she had been "living in sin" with him. He knew that the King would be horrified by either. He might well disown his daughter.

"No, we never married. Gregor said that before a priest would agree to marry us he would want to know who our parents were and to talk to them, and that would obviously have been a problem for me. I can see that you are shocked, but I'm afraid that there's more. I think I'm pregnant. I've missed my last two periods."

"It's all very well your getting me to promise not to tell your father, but you can hardly keep a pregnancy secret from him for very long. What are you going to tell him?"

1. "That I ran off to marry a noble prince from a far-away land, but that he died, so I've returned home. Father won't be too cross if I tell him that. And it's almost true. Gregor was a prince as far as I was concerned."
2. "Um, I don't suppose you'd be willing to say that you are the father? You being a nobleman, Papa would take it better. He would insist that you married me, of course. You'd get to be a prince out of it."
3. "I'm going to take lots of very hot baths, and hope to lose the baby before my condition is too obvious."

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