Chapter 2
Cherie lied alone in her bed, looking up at the roof. Hearing a knock on the door, she told the person to open the door. Henry walked into the room, which greatly pleased Cherie. Even though Cherie was too tired to move, she waved at him happily.
�How are you doing, sweetie?� Cherie said.
�I am doing fine. What about you?� Henry replied.
�I�m tired, but I�ll make it,� Cherie replied.
�That�s good to hear, my love,� Henry said as he put her hand in his lap.
�Thanks, dear,� Cherie said with a weary smile.
�You are very welcome,� Henry said.
�When this baby is born I will be able to be more active, but until then I will be limited to bed or a moving chair,� Cherie said. �It is a curse that the Longbert women have, being unable to be active during pregnancy. Look at my sister.�
�Yes, my uncle seems to be handling it well, without skirt-chasing or anything,� Henry said.
�That is because he is in love with my sister,� Cherie said.
�I know, my love,� Henry said, patting Cherie�s hand.
�Do you have something to tell me?� Cherie asked.
�Yes, I do. My parents want us to marry at the end of this year,� Henry said. �Is that alright with you?�
�Yes, Henry, you know I love you,� Cherie said. �Of course I want to marry you.�
�My parents will be pleased. I wonder if Delia and Daniel will want to help us out in our ceremony,� Henry said.
�We shall see,� Cherie said. �I don�t think it will be a problem. You might try asking them, though.�
�That is true,� Henry said.
�Can you believe that Daniel was the top student in the class?� Cherie said.
�He certainly deserved it. He worked harder than the rest of us,� Henry said.
�That is true. I wonder if anyone will be jealous of him, being a commoner and all,� Cherie said. �I feel glad that a commoner could do so well.�
�Me too. There is plenty of room in the higher echelons of power in the Empire for a bright person of common birth and yet uncommon talent. It is better to co-opt talented commoners into the nobility than to let them be frustrated and rebellious about their lack of ability to advance in the aristocratic system,� Henry said.
�Yes, I agree. He would make a good freckly nobleman,� Cherie said, smiling.
�Hahaha, yes,� Henry said.
�Let�s see if that happens soon. After all, if he is able to get into the Imperial Corps of Engineers, he would automatically become a noble, which would be a tremendous honor for him,� Cherie says. �Besides, that would make all of us eligible to be in high government positions, thus making our group of four a force to be reckoned with.�
�I agree. We should help him out if we can. My father has already taken an interest in helping him out after seeing him at the Cork Poetry Festival this winter break,� Henry said.
�That�s good to hear. He�s such a wonderful guy,� Cherie said, smiling.
�Yeah,� Henry said.
�I want to sleep now, but thank you for talking to me and keeping me from getting bored,� Cherie said with a wink.
�That is no problem. It keeps me from getting bored as well,� Henry said.
�See you later,� Cherie said.
�Will do,� Henry said as he closed the door behind him. He then walked right by Bill and Tom without noticing them.
After he had passed, Bill said, �That was a close one.�
�Yeah, if we have too many close calls like these we might not be able to get the kegs over when we throw our party,� Tom said.
�That�s true. This looks like a pretty safe place otherwise, though. We will invite all of the students except for those four buddies,� Bill said.
�There is something fishy about those four, two guys and two girls. Both romantic couples, too, from the looks of it. You saw that Delia unbutton her blouse for that Bravian commoner?� Tom asked.
�Yeah, she�s a cutie. What could she ever see in him?� Bill asked.
�I dunno. Some girls have no taste,� Tom said.
�Well, screw them,� Bill said. �Hopefully 26 people will be at our party, though. That will be a lot of beer.�
�Any other kind of stuff as well?� Tom asked.
�Nope, just beer,� Bill said. �It would be too dangerous trying to sneak in wine. The beer we can hide as normal barrels.�
�That�s true. When do you want this party?� Tom said.
�A week before the end of school. That way people have finished their finals, and are awaiting their final ranks for the year. Enough people should want to be drunk by then,� Bill said.
�Good plan. Except for those four nerds, everyone else seems to be pretty cool,� Tom said.
�There are always a few overachievers to ruin the fun for the rest of us,� Bill said.
�As long as they get stuck in a difficult life while we lie in ease and luxury, surrounded by trophy wives, plenty of mistresses, and lots of earthly possessions,� Tom said.
�Amen to that. That is the kind of life I want, not the kind of life where you actually have to bother doing something,� Bill said.
�I could not imagine having to work for a living. Only uppity commoners and greedy bourgeoisie bother with that,� Tom said.
�Yes, and as long as they never take our spot in rulership, we will all have our place secure at the top of the heap,� Bill said.
�Well, where are we going to hide the beer barrels?� Tom asked.
�How about under the boxes of medicine for the crabs you got this winter break?� Bill replied.
�Hey, no one is supposed to know about my little problem. At least I didn�t get herpes like you did,� Tom answered.
�Hey, I am able to get medicine to calm my outbreaks so that girls don�t know that I have the sores. Otherwise my sexual life would become disastrous,� Bill said.
�Yes, but you can still spread the disease, and herpes is a lot nastier than crabs, which I will be rid of in a few more days,� Tom said.
�That�s true, but who cares about transmitting the disease? After all, I can�t get it any worse myself, and after the girls get it they�ll get stuck with me. I just have to find girls that would be worthy of being stuck with,� Bill said.
�Sounds like a plan to me. What are you going to do when some nobleman comes after both your big and little head after his little princess gets herpes, though?� Tom probingly asked.
�Haven�t thought about that yet. I�m sure I could use a name change though,� Bill said.
�Let�s change the subject,� Tom said. �Lest others hear about our bad winter break.�
�I agree,� Bill said.
The two of them looked around, trying not to appear too suspicious. After a while, upon seeing no one jump out and ambush them, they decided to walk back to the dorm room, having scouted the place to hide the kegs.
�This party should be good,� Tom said.
�Yeah, who cares if the girls wake up with a case of the �oh no�s�, as long as we don�t,� Bill said.
�Yup,� Tom said, smiling. �Let�s hope we don�t end up in the Imperial Marines either.�
�You think the Directrix is really going to do that? I think he was just threatening our parents,� Bill said cockily.
�As long as we don�t have to find out, I�m alright. Besides, he doesn�t look at the dorms all that closely,� Tom said.
�That�s true. His own sister-in-law got pregnant from his nephew. That�s got to be embarrassing,� Bill said.
�Yeah. What a shame. She is a hottie too. I would have liked to have boned her,� Tom said.
�She�s out of your league. She�s even out of my league,� Bill said.
�True, but it doesn�t stop one from dreaming,� Tom said.
�Yeah, that�s true,� Bill said.
Upon hearing the rapping of the windows for lights out, Bill and Tom turned off the light and went to sleep, trying to avoid trouble, at least for tonight. Besides, they figured one should not tick off the Directrix all of the time, and wanted to save up demerits for the big party.
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