Casey followed Jessica and Marcelle into Jessica’s primary office with a hint of butterflies in her stomach. It was an unwelcome development, especially after all she had done to stop her cousin from overthrowing the Empire, but these butterflies had not responded to orders to behave.
“You wanted to see me?” Jessica asked as she sat.
Marcelle had stayed just long enough to see them here, and then withdrawn, probably already reading Casey’s mind about the need for some modicum of privacy.
Casey let her back settle on the chair, as much as she wanted to sit forward and upright.
“I don’t know who else to talk to,” Casey replied, still searching for the right words, which surprised her even more.
“You’re worried about Trusski?” Jessica was apparently also reading her mind. But Casey already knew she could do that.
“Worried about screwing something up,” Casey said. “About making you or the team look bad by doing or saying the wrong thing at a critical moment.”
Jessica leaned back and grinned.
“Why do you think I tasked Enej with making your life a living hell on the flag bridge?” she asked.
“Huh?”
Casey was lost now. More lost.
Something.
“Casey, new Centurions do not command squadrons from the flag bridge,” Jessica explained. “If they do, the time is measured in minutes, until the right person can step in. I specifically told Enej and Denis to treat you differently. To hand you the flag for long stretches, so you got comfortable with it, and worked out all your bad habits early, so they could correct them.”
“Oh,” Casey realized.
All the smiles, and helpful suggestions. They weren’t just for the Imperial Princess who was in over her head.
Jessica was training her for command. Which made a kind of sense. No Imperial gentleman would be interested in marrying her now, after she had spent years serving with a foreign navy, even as much as Jessica Keller impressed and frightened all of them.
They would probably be afraid it would rub off on Casey…which it had.
Jessica grinned and sipped some coffee, apparently enjoying Casey’s face as it went through its emotional roller-coaster.
“Furthermore,” Jessica said, “As you have told your family, you will need to command a naval vessel, one of these days. Hopefully, it will fly an Imperial flag, but there’s no reason you couldn’t command one of Aquitaine’s warships first, if you were good enough.”
“Really?” Casey let her wildest fantasies emerge into sunlight, even if just for a moment. “Command?”
“Casey, let me share something with you that I don’t think you have ever internalized,” Jessica turned serious. “By forcing the 25-Year-Peace with Fribourg, I’m pretty sure I have won the war I set out to, twenty years ago. Nobody coming up on your side is as good as Emmerich Wachturm. By keeping Dittmar off the throne, the peace will hold, and you have become almost as big a hero to the people of St. Legier and the Empire as Arlo has. By inspiring all those little girls to not just settle for a good marriage, you and I have done more social damage to the Empire than anyone has realized. In another century, it might even become as nice a place for its citizens as Aquitaine is now. Everything I do to help you realize your dreams is another poke in the face of those old, chauvinistic pigs that currently run things. Dittmar’s people, not your father.”
“So making me happy has an ulterior motive?” Casey asked, starting to grin.
“Casey, it is my ulterior motive,” Jessica replied, smiling. “They can’t do or say anything, either, without looking even worse. That’s why Em gave up and traded me for Arlo. He knows better than to try to force you. He’s probably hoping that you’ll tire of all this and want to return to your life of ease and luxury in the palace.”
“I’d run off and become a pirate first,” Casey half-growled.
“We had this conversation already,” Jessica smirked. “That offer always stands, if things ever get that bad again.”
“So you get to be the bad guy and I have to settle for being happy?” Casey asked.
Jessica laughed.
“If you want to put it that way,” she said.
“One of these days, I’m going to need to get married,” Casey shifted gears, thinking out a decade of tactical and strategic thinking. “You suppose Em and Father are expecting me to bring home a husband from the Republic?”
“I wouldn’t put it past them,” Jessica said. “Look at Torsten Wald for an example of long-term planning on their part.”
“Serious?” Casey asked, aware that no amount of rumors or sneakiness had managed to uncover anything about those two as yet.
“Maybe,” Jessica replied, guarded. “He might be stubborn and patient enough to out-wait me. But we were talking about you. I’ll ask an impolite question. Have you met anyone interesting enough to consider?”
“No,” Casey said simply. “Most of them are afraid of me. Or, more specifically, Willow, Marcelle, and Lady Moirrey. Plus probably Jež, Aeliaes, d’Maine, and Kigali. And you.”
“Likely,” Jessica said. “Nobody wants to become an international embarrassment. But we can whisper things, perhaps get things moving, if you have suggestions.”
“No,” Casey decided. “I might have to sneak off with Willow and some of her friends at some point, in disguise, for a crazy girls’ weekend, I haven’t yet met anyone that would stand up to even my scrutiny, let alone Father and Uncle Em.”
“Understood,” Jessica said. “How about now? You ready for Trusski?”
“Yes,” Casey said. “Knowing that I have Captain Wald and Enej close, and his whole team backing me up, helps my confidence. I am the Empire, in their eyes. I need to impress them.”
“Princess Kasimira. Lady Casey zu Wiegand, you already have,” Jessica pronounced. “We just have to survive bloodying Buran’s nose out here, and you will be an even bigger hero, on both sides of the border.”