Her course was a week late.

The first two days of its absence, Freya had played it off as stress. Dancing on eggshells around her husband was a stressor, obviously, and that was without the additional strain of knowing that she was now an adulterer. That she now believed herself capable of loving another more than she ever loved her husband. That intimacy could be beautiful. All beliefs she swore to never hold as a dutiful wife.

A week, though. Her course was as consistent as the moon's cycle. It arrived each month on the same day, nearly to the point where she could pinpoint the hour it was to begin. There were no other symptoms yet, except perhaps a bit of moodiness on her part, but that was to be expected, wasn't it? Mood swings and exhaustion were what so many of her friends described as signs in the early days of their pregnancies. Merlin, Freya hoped this was the same.

It wasn't lost upon her that the first pregnancy she believed herself to be capable of came after an affair with another man. A few of the more daring healers she visited had suggested the problem might lie with Daniel, but without ever addressing it there was no way to know. She certainly wasn't about to ask him, either. Daniel's insecurities ruled their lives with an iron fist, accusing him of being impotent would only further smother them both. The baby she hoped she carried — please — was more than likely fathered by August. A prospect which simultaneously melted her insides to goo and filled her with intense fear.

She silently entered Daniel'a study in their rented home carrying a small and unfilled picture frame. The summer was drawing to a close and soon, too soon, they'd be returning to the gloominess of London. "Hi," Freya greeted him a tad nervously. The baby might've been fathered by August, but Daniel would be its father. He deserved to know first. "I was hoping to have a cup of tea on the balcony. Would you care to join me?"

Baby Stamp: 5 weeks