**Molly brushes off the tears as she walks back to the house. Adalbrecht is waiting inside,  and embraces her. "He will be fine, Molly". "I hope so, Father."

Molly deals with the mundane tasks for feeding, bathing and putting Varick to bed, sending Morgan her love every ten minutes, and trying not to brood  over the distance. Getting dressed alone in her gold and green dress feels sad. She wishes he hadn't had to go. She also doesn't look forward to talking to Edward, not sure she can let go.of her animosity towards him for the murders.

However, once dinner is done and they have moved to the drawing room for cards and brandy, Molly is keen to just get it over with.

The first few hours, they discuss the progress with Morgan, and their joint aims for a solid happy family.  they discuss what happened, the plots, the danger, and how the destruction of Karlsruhe the month after he married Dietlinde influenced 21 year old Edward's decision. They talk about what could have happened differently in regards to Innesbruck or disinheriting, and why that wouldn't work, and also why he would never have taken her as a mistress and never married making Jana less of his heir. They talk about Molly's birth and how there was a chance he would walk away. They talk about how Molly feels safer when viewed as a Veisgrafin because if he had seen Dietlinde as that may be he.would have acted differently. They move on to how things are changing.
E: My brother loves you very much. He talks about you constantly, and he has a lot of remorse that you didn't know that.
M: I know. But this has never been a simple relationship.
E: He loves you, you love him. That is simple.
M: No, Edward. It's not simple, and it was not simple. Maybe you don't realise this because you and Mina have always been The One for each other. But imagine if Mina had met The One and lost him. She would still be your One, but you would always be so cautious of reminding her of him, and of not being her One. 
E: *he watches her distress as she fights tears* You haven't let go. You want him to move on, but you are behaving as if he is still in that same place of grief. 
M: *she nods slowly* I am. I have never stopped thinking of him as her husband, and me as the second wife.
E: Do you view his love for you as lesser than his love for her?
M: I did. He has told me that was incorrect. I thought he loved me just enough to marry me, I didn't know he loved me entirely
E: That is what changed last weekend?
M: *she nods* He told me I was the centre of his world, that he loved me more than "more than life itself"
E: *he smiles a little* He's good. He told me he would sacrifice his soul to keep you safe
M: *she frowns* I know, and I can't accept that
E: *he frowns also* Why? It's romantic 
M: Because if he sacrificed his soul, he would never see her and Jana in heaven. I watched him try to get himself killed so he could be there with them, how could I let him sacrifice being with her just for me?
E: *He considers this* You told him this?
M: *she shakes her head* Not in so many words 
E: *He shakes his* Molly, you need to let this go. How can you expect him to move on when you won't? 
M: *she nods a little* I hold back with him because of her, because I don't want to bring up old memories that make him sad, or make him wish she was here instead
E: *he sighs, feeling guilty about this* Has it occurred to you that he loves you as much as he loved her, and that it is not that you are second best, just that you are chronologically the second?
M: *she flinches. She's always hated that term. But is that because deep in her heart she has always felt it?* You did not see how much he grieved her.
E: *He frowns. He cannot undo the past, but he can alter the future for them maybe* He would have grieved you no less had you been first.
M: *she pauses, thinking on this. Is that true? Would he have spent years in such misery for her? Is it actually possible that the difference was never that Dietlinde was his One, and his soul mate, and perfect, but simply that he had loved her deeply and she had been first? Would he have loved and mourned so much the other way around? Was Molly just as right for him, just as deeply loved,  just as mournable? Was it simply chronology? Could he have lost her and Dietlinde brought him out of the darkness? Would Fate have even allowed that? Is it just possible that Molly is as right for him now as she was then? She doesn't even manage to answer Edward*
E: *he watches this play out on her expression, giving her time whilst he drinks his brandy and gives her a third glass, the last he will permit*
M: I… I had never thought of that 
E: You didn't see him last Thursday morning. He was in an awful state thinking you might die. He wasn't interested in anything except you. I forced whiskey on him just in the hopes of taking the edge off his distress and anger. I have only seen him that angry once. *he recollects the first time, and the beating he received*
M: *she nods, still processing it* I thought he was so calm because though he loved me enough to marry me, make me his Veisgrafin and have heirs from me,  it wasn't as strongly as he loved her, and that it would not be as painful to let me go.
E: *He shakes his head* You're wrong. He adores you. I do not think that that is less than he loved her. He stopped wanting to die because he couldn't bear to be away from you. That's not loving you mildly. He loved you so much he put on hold his plans to be with them again.
M: *she goes quiet a minute before speaking* He told you that? 
E: He told Father that he stopped wanting to die because of "not wanting to be without her"
M: *she bites her lip, trying not to cry* That's… I knew he had come to a place of wanting to live. I had not realised he wanted to live so he could still be with me.
E: *he swills his brandy* What will you do now you know? 
M: *she sips the brandy* I have to let go of the past. I have to love him for now and for the future, and stop holding back.
E: *He nods* You want him to love you entirely, but have you been loving him entirely, or have you been loving him enough? 
M: *she takes a deep breath* I have been loving him cautiously 
E: *he looks at her* After all the healing and growing he has had to do to move on, don't you think he deserves better than that?
M: *she nods, tears on her cheeks* Of course. I was not a compromise he made; having to accept loving me so he could have a future of some comfort and happiness,  I was enough that he battled through it to allow himself to feel the strength of the love he had for me, and to give me the future I deserved. His love was so strong…
E: His love is so strong. He told me he is hopelessly and utterly set on you. Don't waste any more time on the past. If we are all going to move forward, we have to admit our faults and failings, and do better. 
M: *she nods* You are right. Thank you, Edward. This has been more helpful than you can possibly imagine. 

Not much longer later, the clock striking two, she falls exhausted into the bed, wearing his shirt so she feels closer to him. It doesn't even seem like she's dreamt at all when the servant wakes her for food and to dress. 

8am Together, Adalbrecht, Edward, Molly and Varick go to the objectionist church, which has some of the fancier influences of the Vaticine church, and an expectation that women wear veils on their hair. Molly covers her hair, and the four of them make their way to the area where remembrance candles are little. Molly lights the taper, then the candle. Varick holds on to her dress. She says a prayer aloud
Heavenly Father, we light this candle on remembrance of Dietlinde on what would have been her twenty-fourth birthday. We ask for her peace in heaven at your side, and we ask for your comfort for those who grieve her loss. We ask for forgiveness for those who feel they wronged her. Amen". The others close this prayer too. Molly spots the priest and leaves Varick with the men so she can ask about what to do about Varick's religious education.

9am military museum
11am art and history museum 
1pm lunch, meeting a mistress of the Eisenfurst  and the invite to court
2pm book  shopping 
3pm dresses 
4pm Varick back, Molly and Edward to the shop with lingerie
5pm Varick tea and bed prep
The argument between Adal and Ed
7pm Ad & Ed leave, Molly time alone, 1st messenger, making preparations
 8pm long hot bath, journalling, masturbating
930pm Asleep. Nightmare. 

**Her shackles are not made of leather like the ones that bind him to the mast.  Hers are the strong hands of some of the Oreste's crew. Again the swish of the cat o' nine tails, and her husband's jerky movement as the pieces lacerate his back. She screams his name

Woke at 430. Dresses Varick warmly. 

Sets off just before 6 instead of 8.