Hortense was close to giving birth. With her enormous belly, she moved as slowly as an elephant.
Whether considering the importance of the mother or the child in her womb, she was no longer suited to host the reception at Sèvres every ten days.
The scholars' daughters might have been good at conversation, but they knew nothing about business, much less organizing gatherings. At that point, Julie took the initiative to seek out Georgiana.
Julie was certainly fertile, but like Lucien's wife, she had given birth to a daughter last year.
Dermide was the same age as Bernadotte's son Oscar, and Napoleon was Oscar's godfather as well.
Sometimes Georgiana could not help sympathizing with Joseph. His rivals were actually a three-year-old child and an unborn baby. But she soon remembered that Napoleon III was Hortense's second son, which meant the child currently in Hortense's womb would very likely die young.
Joseph enjoyed pursuing women. Though illegitimate children could inherit nothing, if one of those children was a boy, then as long as his mother replaced Julie, he could become legitimate.
To consolidate her position and keep watch over her husband, Julie chose to take on the responsibility.
This was Georgiana's weakness of character: she enjoyed creating things, but not maintaining them, especially not complicated interpersonal relationships.
The scheming between children was completely under her control, but she could not handle the adult world. Otherwise, Severus would not have been the one dealing with the pure-blood aristocrats.
Hortense had run the reception quite well. A fair number of the expensive furnishings had been sold, and overall the income and expenses balanced out. But once those furnishings had been turned into cash, the treasury took half, making one wonder just how desperately short of money the government of France was.
After returning