Cat wanted to snort at the term of endearment that fell from his lips, wanted to ask just how many whores he had called that very thing, but she resisted the urge. For the past few months she had been passive, even deliberately ignorant, of his existence and the things that he did, but now? Now her daughter was several months old and she was starting to realize that if they wanted to, the whole Realm could be laughing behind their hands at her. The woman who was married to a very well-known womanizer, the Lord of a Kingdom who had brought bastards to court without a thought for how it looked. If she'd had bastards, she wondered as she pulled a tight smile onto her face for the passing lady and certainly not for him, would he have been alright with her flaunting them as he had?
No man would be. Because no man, as Cat had long suspected, had the same sort of honor that women did. "The whole world is watching," she repeated, voice still quiet and a smile that didn't reach her eyes on her lips. "And you have bastards trailing in your shadow. Surely the sort of example we should set for all the children." Her free hand smoothed back a loose blonde curl before it rested on Karanteg's arm, squeezing slightly in what was most definitely not affection. "I suppose at least you did not bring them to introduce to the court." Vaguely, she wondered if they would simply call her Leavey and leave it at that, without tagging on the former names. Her sister wouldn't like it very much if they left off Stannard. Where was her sister, for that matter? She would make all of this much more bearable.