Free Captain and a Corset by Mary Wine

can be. But it will all right itself, you’ll see.”
    Sophia lowered her fork. There really was no point in pretending she could eat. “I am truly happy for you, Janette, but when did you begin believing rumors? You used to be much more interesting.”
    Janette laughed. “True. Didn’t we make a solemn promise to one another to never believe gossip?”
    “When we were about eight years old.” Sophia smiled with the memory. “I recall that we even set out the lace napkins to ensure we both remembered how important the occasion was.”
    “That’s right,” Janette agreed. “Which means you shall have to share all the details of your evening with Captain Donkova with me. Otherwise, I shall be left with nothing but gossip.” Janette smiled and dipped her spoon into her bowl and lifted a steaming measure of soup up to her lips. The white steam twisted around her nose for a moment before she turned a ghastly shade of gray and the spoon clattered back into the bowl, splattering soup onto the table.
    “Oh, dear… how clumsy of me.” She dabbed at the table but couldn’t seem to look at the soup. She pushed it away at last, looking as if she was fighting off nausea.
    “What’s the matter?”
    Janette smiled, and her cheeks colored as her eyes glittered with happiness. “I’m pregnant.”
    Sophia nearly choked on her own soup. Janette laughed at the look on her face, which earned her a pout from Sophia. “You said that word just to be shocking, Janette Aston.”
    “Janette Aston Lawley, which makes my announcement quite acceptable,” she argued.
    “I don’t care if you are married and an Illuminist; that word is uncouth.” But Sophia laughed softly in spite of her reprimand. “It does not belong in an open dining hall.”
    Janette leaned forward. “Perhaps not, but since we don’t have to worry about our fathers banishing us to some drafty castle in the Highlands anymore, there isn’t any reason to tailor our speech to please the gossiping horde that we used to have to accommodate before coming here.”
    But I also don’t get to hear my sisters teasing me over the breakfast table.
    Sophia tried to brush the thought aside but Janette knew her far too well. Her friend gasped and looked stricken.
    “I’m so sorry, Sophia. That was terribly mean of me to forget you are separated from your family.”
    “I am quite adjusted to the situation,” Sophia spoke softly, doing her best to mask the sting. “It isn’t as if it is forever.”
    Janette wasn’t fooled. She leaned across the table. “It will be better, now that you’ve taken a lover.”
    “I have not… taken a lover.” She struggled to keep her voice down. “And I assure you, if I were to do anything of the sort, it certainly wouldn’t be Bion Donkova. I am forced to deal with his arrogant, commanding attitude enough during the day, thank you very much.”
    “You forgot to mention handsome.”
    “He is but—” Sophia froze as Janette smirked with victory.
    “But what?” Janette inquired far too innocently.
    “But,” Sophia announced, “he is not my lover.”
    Oh, but you’ve been thinking about what it would be like all day.
    Sophia picked up her fork, intent on finishing her supper so she might escape. Janette rolled her eyes before selecting something else on her dinner plate and sniffing at it.
    ***
    Walking along the corridors that led to the secured Novice wing felt twice as long tonight. Anticipation was twisting through Sophia, growing stronger with every step. Somehow, her rooms had ceased to be a sanctuary from Bion’s irritating persona and become the very place she couldn’t escape him. In fact, her rooms were now the most dangerous place to be with the man because they might have complete privacy—coupled with her lack of self-discipline. She shuffled her steps.
    The two men standing guard at the entrance noticed her and she straightened her back and picked up her feet. They nodded to her and one reached for his