By the time Gabriel returned fully to work, the palace had also returned to pretending that imperial birth, recovery, and the existence of an heir under four months old were minor domestic details rather than events capable of shifting the emotional stability of half the government.
Cecil was four months old. Gabriel was back in his office with the sort of terrifying efficiency that suggested maternity had been a temporary inconvenience to his schedule rather than a state of being. The result was predictable: the paperwork had resumed, the meetings had resumed, and Rafael - imperial secretary, duke, victim of bureaucracy - had once again become a very elegant courier of state matters.
