In the last couple of days before the wedding, at the very end of April, the Bishop of Basel moved the priest from his rooms in the church so Genevieve could have them to prepare for her wedding. Things got hectic and Genevieve reached the point where she could not think straight. Good thing she had Margo, Nelly, and Edelweiss looking after her.

Mother Ingrid, Ursula, and Gisela got invited to the wedding. Genevieve fretted about that along with everything else, but they decided not to come. They gave plenty of excuses. Genevieve felt glad they would not be there, but then she felt guilty about feeling glad.

The day before the wedding, Genevieve felt sick. She feared her wedding dress would show the baby and her life would be ruined. It was early enough in her pregnancy so she did not show anything at all, but her imagination ran away with her. She did not sleep that night, wondering what she could say to the man for the next however long. He was a nice man, as Bernard told her, but in some ways she lived such an isolated life.

Genevieve knew how to cook and clean. She knew how to sew and weave, and even how to hammer the shingles back on when the wind took them. She knew nothing about high society, or how to be part of the nobility. She could not imagine tea and crumpets with the ladies. She did not even know what crumpets were, but maybe she was getting a few centuries ahead of herself. All she really knew was Mother Ingrid, Ursula, and Gisela were not good role models.

She feared she would be really bored with servants to do everything for her. She would probably have to get a nurse, or a nanny for the baby, so even that would be mostly out of her hands. She could learn to read and write and do her arithmetic. She probably ought to learn to ride a horse. She imagined Margo and Nelly could teach her to shoot an arrow. Hunting was acceptable, though she was not sure about women hunting.

She imagined herself weaving tapestries all day, every day. She imagined making small talk with the ladies, talking about the weather. That would drive her mad. and that brought her back to wondering what crumpets were, anyway.

She wondered if Otto would be happy with her. She wondered if she could make him happy. She feared he might get as bored with her as she got bored with the high life. She had no real, honest idea how to rule a household. As she thought, Mother Ingrid was not a good example, but she had no other example. She knew even less about ruling a whole province. She never even had any say in her own county, and never knew which properties around Breisach she actually owned.

She imagined the sophisticated ladies of Aquae, or Aix, as she thought of it would eat her alive. And that did not even cover her relationship with Leibulf, the eight-year-old son. Who knew what direction that might go?

Mostly, she worried about what Otto would say when he discovered she was the Kairos, the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history. He knew nothing about the other lives she had lived, much less about how she could call upon them in time of need. He would inevitably find out unless circumstances always turned in her favor. Like when did that ever happen? More immediately, she worried about what he might say when he discovered she had responsibility for all the liitle sprites of the air, fire, water, and the earth, such as elves and fairies, and including dwarfs and even dark elves that most people called goblins. She had responsibility for trolls, ogres, imps, and gnomes of every shape, size, and kind. The number of little ones had to be counted in the billions. She tried not to think of that lest she suddenly be overwhelmed with exactly how many.

Genevieve instinctively knew that her life as the Kairos would rise up and bite her. Something would happen to threaten history, like yet another attempt on Charles’ life—Charlemagne’s life, and she would have to act. She already had space aliens hiding in the Jura Mountains. She already had a plot by the Masters to kill Charles and her, and maybe several plots if Darky and Blondy were Masters inspired and not just working for Desiderius, King of the Lombards. Something would come up. He would find out, and what would he think? What would he say? What could she say?

She spent a lot of time in prayer. Being in the rooms normally occupied by the priest helped.

When it came time for the wedding, she had not slept for thirty hours. Naturally, the Bishop decided to speak for well over two hours. Genevieve mostly stayed awake. She was surprised an unmarried man could have so much to say about marriage. She vaguely understood after the fact, that much of it was about his own upbringing and the example of marriage his own parents set. She honestly could not concentrate while he was speaking for all that time. All together the wedding took over three hours and Genevieve figured the congregation had to be mostly asleep by the time they finished. Poor Otto had to kneel so long, with his bad leg and all, he had a hard time getting back up when it was time.

After that, everything became a blur. She remembered eating something and saying thank you a hundred times, at least, for all the well wishes and congratulations. She drank the wedding toast but could not remember drinking anything else. First chance she got, she fell into a very inviting bed and passed out. She slept the rest of that day and the full night. Otto said he mostly sat in a chair by her side and watched her and smiled. She felt bad for him. She told herself she would make it up to him.

Charles and the Frankish army left right away. They planned to gather just before the pass that would take them into Italy. Desiderius was gathering the army of Lombardy on the other side of the pass once he knew where Charles would be coming through the mountains. Desiderius imagined setting a trap for the Franks, but Lord Evergreen watched and figured out how to turn the trap on the Lombards. He also kept track of Bernard via the fairy grapevine. Charles would not move until Bernard reached the pass of Great Saint Bernard.

~~~*~~~

Genevieve and Otto stayed a week in Basel while the armies of Aquitaine, Burgundy, and Provence gathered in Geneva and Lausanne. It was a very different sort of honeymoon week than the week she spent with Charles. Charles and Genevieve spent much of that week in bed. Otto and Genevieve spent much of that week getting to know each other and eating. It was on the fourth day that Genevieve had to confess herself.

They picnicked on the Rhine in a secluded garden with plenty of trees and spring flowers. Captain Hector always made sure two soldiers kept an eye on the Margrave and his Lady, but they stayed out of the way. Margo and Nelly were also there, somewhere near in case they should be needed, but they did not intrude. At first, everything was quiet. Genevieve feared she might actually be running out of things to talk about. She felt the shy coming on, but that got interrupted by the sound overhead. A small Ape shuttle slowly floated over the water. It made no effort to hide. The occupants were clearly looking for Genevieve, and Genevieve had to excuse herself. She did not give herself a chance to worry about it.