"I'll send word to him when we reach land." Wulfsen said. He frowned when he thought of something.

"Wulfsen? What's wrong?" Was he unhappy with her already? Should she have not mentioned sending word to his father? Her brow furrowed.

"Oh, I was just thinking how my father is probably expecting us to produce heirs." Wulfsen said with a shrug. "It will probably be best to not tell him that all of our children will be adopted."

"It's going to be a little difficult to explain why none of our children are the right age or look like us. You don't think it would be better to tell the truth?" Sileas was worried about trying to deceive her future father-in-law.

"We probably should tell him eventually." Wulfsen said. "But he doesn't need to know now..."

"If you think that's best. I suppose we can say I was diagnosed later." She was still troubled. "Hopefully it doesn't come out before we want it to. There are other people who know."

"Do you think any of them would say anything about it?" Wulfsen asked. "If you hadn't told me yourself I never would have known."

"I would hope not. I don't see why they would." She frowned. "I wonder though if Papa or Mama would say anything if asked indirectly about health or something."

"Maybe we should ask them not to tell." Wulfsen said worriedly.

"All right. The only other one might let something slip is Yehudit."

"She would spill something like that?" Wulfsen asked, rubbing his chin.

"Not intentionally. Probably not even directly. But she could be overheard."

"I guess ask her not to discuss it too." Wulfsen sighed.

Sileas rubbed her head. Like that would work any better than anything else she ever asked of her cousin. "I'll try."

Wulfsen thought about how Yehudit refused to leave Sileas and himself alone together and groaned. "She's not... spiteful, is she?"

"No, no, she's not spiteful. Just. Stubborn. Oh so very stubborn."

"She doesn't have any reason to sabotage us, does she?" Wulfsen asked.

"No, no reason I can think of. Unless she starts feeling left out of things when I'm trying to meet her mother's demands that I stay away from her."

"I think it's too late for you to meet her mother's demands." Wulfsen pointed out.

"Of course, she only just issued them but Yehudit...oh God. Aunt Lia might sabotage us just because Yehudit followed me here."

"She would never stoop so low." Wulfsen said, but he paled.

"Aunt Lia? There's no low she wouldn't stoop to in her overprotectiveness over Yehudit."

"Then what can we do?" Wulfsen asked.

Sileas's shoulders slumped. "I don't know." She frowned. "Kill her?"

Wulfsen's eyes widened. "What?!"