UN: britto08
LN: Kaarmann-Gagliardi
DH:
Prince Taddeo Silvestro Leonardo,
Prince Taddeo of Venice (29)
DW:
Princess Magdalena Teresa Alexandra Edith,
Princess Magdalena (28)
-DD:
Katarina Adelheid Lucia Elizabeth, Duchess
Katarina of Bruk (9)
-DD:
Juliana Hedwig Renata Gratia (7)
-DS:
Edmund Alexander Taddeo Johann (6)
-DD:
Margarete Anna Isabella Helena (2)
-DS:
Ludwig Elias Walter Silvestro (nb)
Rank:
Princess and
Prince (sister and brother-and-law to the king)
Magdalena, feeling wonderful and healthy after the birth of lovely little
Margarete, was happy when she conceived again when her youngest daughter was one and a half.
Taddeo and she both hoped for another boy, to give little
Edmund an ally amongst his sisters. The children are all quite close, though their personalities are vastly different:
Katarina, as the eldest, is very much a leader, full of confidence and energy and ideas;
Juliana is fun-loving and rambunctious, loves romping and riding and has a sort of mad gift for practical jokes;
Edmund looks up to them both, willingly following his elder sisters in their schemes, and just as energetic as they are;
Margarete, though only a toddler, is already developing a quieter, observant personality, and she loves to be cuddled and read to, which her elder siblings are all more than happy to do. All three of the elder children do very well in their studies, which
Magdalena and
Taddeo make sure a rigerous for all. Both were interested to see how their inceasingly-energetic brood would do with a new baby.
Life was going well for the princess and her family, until the shock of the Dowager's death hit them. They were all at court when she died.
Magdalena was devastated. Her mother had been her greatest advisor, a wonderful grandmother to her children, and a constant source of support and love for all of them, even her two children who were distant from her. She had been such a fixture of life that no one could ever have imagined her dying. Even little
Margarete, who was too little to truly know what was going on, seemed to catch the grief that was all around her.
Magdalena cried with her brothers and their large families (including
Eleonore), then helped to prepare the funeral. She took some solace in knowing that her mother would be buried in the style befitting a queen.
Adelheid arrived just before the funeral was held, and the two sisters came closer together than they had in a long time. It warmed
Magdalena's heart to see Käthelëin and
Katarina become close. Käthelëin also seemed to take a particular liking to
Magdalena herself. She noticed with some misgivings that her niece was very much like she herself had been as a child, with the same faults that had made
Adelheid withdraw from her years ago. She didn't want
Alida or
Franzi to have the same resentments for their sister that
Adelheid had had.
Alida was already a shy, sweet little thing, much like
Adelheid had been as a child, and
Magdalena could tell she preferred her mother to anyone else in the world.
Franzi and
Flip were both sweet and complacent little ones, content to be held and cuddled and passed around the group of relatives.
Lutz,
Magdalena couldn't help noticing, was too much like his father, fussy and prissier than either Käthelëin or
Alida in his way. She loved him, but she worried that he would grow up to be a man without good sense.
Magdalena was overjoyed when
Adelheid discovered she was pregnant and decided to remain in Bial for the duration. She hadn't spent so much time with her sister since they were children, and it felt good to have her and the children around. Even
Lutz seemed to liven up under the influence of his cousins, though too often he would pout and stalk off if they did something he didn't like. It was nice to have
Adelheid present at the birth of her baby, the first birth she had attended.
Magdalena wanted a girl badly, so she could name her after her mother, and for a moment she was vastly disappointed when the baby was a boy. But the moment she held her lovely little son in her arms all those ideas fled. She and
Taddeo named him
Ludwig, the masculine Bialan form of the late Dowager's third name, which made
Adelheid laugh as two more of their children had the same name in different forms.
Elias also honors their mother, as the closest male name to
Elizabeth they could come. His other names honor
Walter and
Taddeo. The children all loved their new little brother at once, and the cousins were all at least intrigued by him, even
Lutz.
Only a few months after
Ludwig's birth,
Adelheid too gave birth, to a beautiful little daughter who caused much excitement among her siblings.
Magdalena was glad to be at last present for the birth of one of
Adelheid's children, and though the little girl was small and premature she was beautiful. When
Prince Charles arrived to christen the babe,
Magdalena could read in their glances and her sister's much-changed attitude toward him that something had happened between them. She knew the signs of a dalliance, having seen them so often at court, and she guesseed that they must have consummated their love. Little
Heike, as the new baby was quickly nicknamed, might even be
Charles's. But, for perhaps the first time in her life,
Magdalena kept her mouth shut. The whole affair with
Walter and
Eleonore and
Hedwig had finally taught her that there were times when her opinion, right as she might think it, might hurt those she loved. And the very last thing on Earth she wanted was to push
Adelheid away again.
Magdalena told herself firmly that if
Adelheid wanted her to know, she would say something herself, and that her only business until then was to love and support her sister. It was much easier to do this with
Adelheid than it had been with
Walter;
Magdalena admitted to herself that she was even glad that her sister had experienced real love, provided that
Adelheid didn't wind up hurt in the end. She also had to admit it was easier to swallow because she hated
Louis so much and wholeheartedly believed he wasn't worthy of someone as lovely and dutiful as
Adelheid.
This message was edited 1/31/2011, 9:45 PM