Disgraced
Copyright© 2025 by Ogreface
Chapter 27: Four Years after the Wedding
A very pregnant Alita plopped a toddler on Dane’s lap and stormed off, heading for the bathroom. The toddler instantly tried to wiggle off Dane’s lap and then tried to displace the little girl sitting on the emperor’s lap.
“Trade you,” Emperor Brian Jason said as he handed the four-year-old girl to Dane and took the four-year-old heir to the Pleiades empire onto his lap. “Come here, Jason Brian Taurus,” the emperor muttered as he lifted the boy onto his lap. The little girl babbles something about ‘Jassie being naughty’ before she cuddled against Dane’s chest.
They were sitting in the shade of a trellis covered in some vine plant overlooking the ocean. To their left was a huge eternity pool which looked quite stormy as Katy made a splashy dive-bomb jump into the pool. To Dane’s dismay, and the emperor’s amusement, Katy was wearing just a bikini bottom, displaying to everybody that she was about to start puberty. The pool and garden was part of House Taurus, and officially belonged to the Earl of Taurus, the hereditary minor title of the Brian Jason Pleiades, Emperor.
House Taurus consisted of a sandstone structure built in a curved tiered shape facing the sea. The lower level covered about a third of a circle. The side facing the sea seemed to consist entirely of glass. There were four levels, each being shorter than the one below it, with the fourth level covering about a quarter of the building at ground level. The levels above the ground level each had a wide covered balcony with the covering extending over about half the balcony. The exposed roof area on each level consisted of rooftop gardens.
The estate shared a three-kilometer-long private sandy beach with two other estates, the furthest one being the official residence of the duke of Atlas, the hereditary chairman of the imperial council. The three estates shared a private underground monorail line from Dawson City, which was about fifteen kilometers to the north.
Dane felt quite content. He recently completed his degree in Military Science, and got promoted to the rank of major. Next to the pool, Nanette, his senior concubine, was teasing a three-year-old boy who insisted on joining Katy in the pool. The boy was Victor, Dane’s firstborn son. To everybody’s surprise, Alita gave birth to a pigeon-pair, boy-girl twins, similar to Empress Diane’s twins. Abby, Dane’s second concubine, was with Nanette, trying to corral Dane’s two daughters. The one was little Victor’s twin sister, Victoria, and the other one, five months younger, was Emily, Dane’s second daughter by Abby. Dane tried his best not to look to his right because Empress Diane was sitting on the lawn chatting to Lady Sara, the emperor’s pregnant sister, while breastfeeding the emperor’s second son.
Dane heard some voices behind him and turned just in time for Duchess Sarah Ostrander to put her firstborn son on Dane’s other leg. The three-year-old boy was Dane Halgaard Ostrander, heir to the duke of Ceres, and Dane’s god-son. Duchess Sarah was a looker, but a bit preoccupied since she had her daughter, a four-month-old baby in her other arm. She gave Dane a quick peck on the cheek before she joined the empress and Lady Sara on the lawn where she promptly started removing the baby’s diaper.
“Babies popping out of the woodwork,” Duke Rolf of Ceres commented as he bowed to the emperor before sitting down across from the two men. “We encountered Lady Alita going to the bathroom, and sounding very upset at her baby bouncing on her bladder.”
“Are you guys ready to return to Ceres?” the emperor asked the duke of Ceres, who was on Secundus for the six-monthly meeting of the imperial council.
“Trying to get rid of me?” Duke Rolf asked with a smirk. Dane had to let go of his namesake as the little boy wanted down and then stormed off to join Abby and Nanette at the pool. Abby snagged the little guy before he could get to the water and then stripped him out of his clothes before dunking him into the pool. Dane was still amazed at how soon the various noble-born babies learned to float face up in the pool.
“No, but I need to get rid of this guy and soon,” the emperor said as he pointed a thumb at Dane.
“What have I done now?” Dane asked as three-year-old Lady Victoria decided to also go swim. Dane watched as she tried to get out of her clothes while waddling towards Abby and Nanette.
“Not you, your father-in-law,” the emperor said. “I had an urgent message from the chairman of the Sagan council of barons. It seems to be not serious, but Victor had a mild stroke. He is not in danger and is stable, but the council want you back home. If I have to task a cruiser to take you and your family to Sagan, then the same cruiser can take Rolf and Sarah home.”
“Do I need to retire from the Marine Corps?” Dane asked.
“No, I want you to work with Gallagher to move the Ranger training base on Cornell to Sagan, and to expand it,” the emperor said. “You can do that even if Duke Victor decided to retire and hand over the system to you.”
“I guess Craig will want me to leave Aida here,” Dane commented. Aida and Craig have become very close but neither of them have taken the next step to make their relationship formal.
“Diane told me that Aida is more than ready to become Craig’s concubine, but he has not made up his mind yet,” the emperor said.
“Take her back with you,” Duke Rolf suggested. “If he feels for her, he will follow her.”
A week later Dane and Duke Rolf boarded the Imperial Cruiser Electra. After dropping the Ostrander family off in the Ceres system, the Electra continued to the Sagan system to drop the Galan clan off.
Dane watched in amusement as the small horde of toddlers went wild in the weightless conditions of the central shaft of the Electra. Dane’s extended family, consisted of his pregnant viscountess and her twins, his senior concubine, his junior concubine and her baby. Then there is his adopted daughter, Katy, his sister-in-law, Lady Aida, his other mother-in-law, Baroness Gentri, and her companion, Dina. They were all getting off the Electra and onto a marine shuttle in the Sagan system.
“I did not stow away,” Craig argued a losing battle with Aida.