She runs her fingers through his soft hair, taking in as deep a breath as she can with both the belly and him pressing down on her.
Then, she exhales and begins to sing,
"Oh, oh, the golden rosemary, oh, oh, the golden rosemary grew in the field and it wasn't sown."
He twists slightly to look at her, eyes wide at her song.
"Oh, oh, the golden rosemary, oh, oh, the golden rosemary grew in the field and it wasn't sown. It was my true love who told me, the flower of the field is the rosemary. It was my true love who told me that I'm wildly grown."
He looks at her and smiles. "It's a strange song," he whispers.
Her cheeks flush furiously.
"My mother used to sing to me," she sheepishly says, having never realized before how strange the song was.
"I like it," Aegon says, squeezing her. "Sing again."
She sings again, starting over right where she left off, until sleep tugs at her limbs and body.
He holds her tightly throughout the night, but the Emperor must leave to perform his duties.
Joana wakes up with him at first light, before her maids come to help her begin the day, and assists him in dressing himself in the clothes he had worn the night before.
Then he kisses her a final time before leaving and she returns to the warmth of her bed, awaiting the arrival of her maids.
Jeyne and Dalla dress her in a pink maternity smock, an extra panel added to all of her skirts to accommodate her growing stomach.
They braid and pin up her hair, hidden under a peach-coloured veil before Marra arrives with her food.
A steamy leek soup with roasted mushrooms and scrambled eggs on toast, with a hearty cup of lemon water to wash it all down.
As she eats, Joana looks at Jeyne. "Will you go to the mother and ask her if she will see me today?" There is nothing she wants more in that moment than to speak to her. With her pregnancy, Joana has been given a leave from greeting the Mother every morning.
"Yes, Consort." She leaves with a curtsy.
Joana finishes her meal in silence and stands by the window as she waits for Jeyne to return. She watches the world outside the harem, wondering when was the moment she had gotten used to being locked away. The world of the nobles and the rulers was once strange to her, but the more she read about it and learned, the more she was accustomed to it.
It hadn't always been this way, she learned. The Conquering Emperor had only two ladies; no consorts or concubines, and a son by each. His eldesthonoredd and loved his brother, but when the Cruel Emperor usurped the throne from his nephew and murdered two of them, the empire began to look at younger brothers with suspicious eyes.
A century after that came the Green Emperor, who started a war to get what his father had intended to go to his sister. Only after many deaths could peace settle and return to the empire.
The Unworthy Emperor had promised his aunt, the Loving Sister, who ruled the harem for him, that he wouldn't kill his younger brother, Prince Aemon.
Both had been considered heirs by the Brief Emperor, but the older brother reached the capital first. It was he who had turned the harem from a respectable institution into his whorehouse. Moreover, on his deathbed, he raised all mothers of his younger children to the rank of ladies, when only the mother of the Good Emperor had held it before. Because of him, there were limits on the number of ladies, consorts,s, and concubines now. But only Aegon had truly filled out all the positions since. Most emperors since the Unworthy had fewer consorts and, sometimes, no concubines at all.
But beyond that, the Good Emperor had tried to fix things. He kept his half-siblings alive and well and respected members of his court,t and most of them paid back his kindness in blood.
Though his sons loved each other well, and all had the same mother, the many deaths in the imperial family had led to the ascension of the Unlikely Emperor many years after his grandfather's death and his lady convinced him to slay his nephew, the son of one of his older brothers.
It was to secure the succession of her own sons, the whispers said, and the Sickly Emperor inherited the Unlikely's throne. He was the Hated Emperor's father and when he came to the throne after the Sickly died, he ordered the execution of his surviving uncle and brothers. Perhaps, that should have been a sign of what was to come.
Joana wonders why anyone would send their daughters to serve the imperial family. There must be something beyond the rewards for the birth of imperial children, or the possibility of being kin to the next emperor.
She had come out of a desire to survive, but the other girls did not know of starvation. In truth, there is no need for them to ever risk the possibility of their sons dying.
She is stroking her belly when Jeyne returns, thinking of the child within. Joana turns to see who enters her room and sees as her maid curtsies.
"The Mother will be glad to see you, Consort," she says.
Joana nods. "Thank you, Jeyne," she answers. "Please, take the money so you may go to the market today, and take Dalla with you." The night before, she had given her maids a list of the things she wanted them to buy. Not just money, but bolts of fabric for clothes to be made for her child. Furs for a blanket, toys.
Without waiting for a reply, Joana walks out of the room. She sees no one save for the servants, who step out of her way as a consort pregnant with their emperor's child.