Hush, my duke. Hush. It will be all right. Just listen to my voice. It will be all right. Lady Jessica struggled to be heard over Leto's scream of agony as he lay on the examination cot.

She had not used The Voice on Leto in ages. She couldn't bear to. But as he lay dying of a subtle poison inflicted by a former ally , the Desho Lek, it was necessary until Wellington Yueh had enough knowledge of the substance to know what medicines might be safely administered. At this point, he could not even risk a pain-killer.

You are strong, darling. You will pull through this. I know the pain is terrible. But you will get through this. Wellington Yueh is working round the clock to find an antidote and until he does I will not stop speaking to you. Just focus on the sound of my voice and know that I love you.

By degrees, Duke Leto began to lie still under Lady Jessica's Voice and watchful eye. It was not the stillness of death. She could feel his will to live.

That's right, my love. Save your strength.

"There." Wellington Yueh plunged the syringe into Leto's arm and administered the antidote. "This will start to take care of the poison."

"Thank goodness." Lady Jessica had almost forgotten what it was like to talk normally after 24 hours of using the Voice.

"I was able to risk a mild sedative as well. He should sleep for a time. I suggest that you do the same. Our Duke is not entirely out of danger yet. The antidote I gave him is more of a code-breaker for his immune system. Now his body can deal with the poison."

Leto had been moved to a bed just before Wellington Yueh had administered the cure. Lady Jessica nodded and drew back the covers, crawling in beside her Duke. "Thank you." She had barely uttered two phrases in her own voice again before falling asleep.

Lady Jessica wrung out and placed a cool cloth on her Duke's brow. He ran a high fever, hovering between 103.5 and 104.

"Jessica..." Leto croaked weakly.

"I'm here, Leto."

"Jessica, I'm sorry. I know you were against my going in to rescue Electra. But she bears the name Atradies. We must protect our own... whatever the cost. Allies... our very lives. Or what are we?

"Shh... I know Leto. You explained all this when you had far more strength to do so. What's done is done. Now you just need to get well." She supported his head with one hand and used the other to bring a small cup of broth to his lips. "The fever is letting you sweat out the poison. You need to keep taking in fluids." He drank half the cup before his head sagged under her hand and she guided him back to the pillows.

He fell asleep.

Lady Jessica watched him and thought on many things, in particular her purpose on being sent to him. To produce a daughter, to marry her to the house Harkonen to produce the Kwisatz Haderach. The house Harkonen needed women. They always needed women as they chronically, almost systematically ill-used and murdered them. There were rumors that Harkonen nobles had even killed Bene Gesserit concubines. Lady Jessica reflected on her red hair and shuddered at the thought her own mother may have been one of them.

On a purely personal level, Lady Jessica's heart broke at the thought of her daughter married into such a family, bound to abuse her in some fashion or another, possibly kill her. The order didn't care as long as she had a child first.

Her heart also broke for Leto. It would destroy him to see his own daughter treated in such a way. He wouldn't stand for it.

No, he wouldn't stand for it, Lady Jessica realized.

Right now, her Duke was sick, deathly sick being cared for by Wellington Yueh and herself, nursed back to health by inches. And why? Because a distant cousin, a distasteful creature whom no one had the slightest reason to like, was being brutalized by the house Atradies one remaining ally. Leto had risked death and complete isolation for his house to protect her. Because she bore the name Atradies. What might he do for a beloved daughter in similar circumstances? He would forfeit planets for her rescue and the universe could burn as her funeral pyre should she die. And from Thufur Hyatt all the way to young Duncan Idaho, there was not a man under her Duke who was not loyal to the death. And there were few among them who did not murderously hate the Harkonens. There was no way the abuse of her daughter would not lead to world-destroying war between their houses.

If Lady Jessica was honest with herself, the longer she spent in the House Atradies, the less she came to believe in the plans of her order, their idea that simply combining the right DNA between enough genetic lines would create some ideal person and that everyone else were mere chess pieces and breeding stock towards that end.

Duke Leto was extraordinary. His household was extraordinary.

The intellectual Wellington Yueh, so full of compassion that his Suk conditioning almost seems unnecessary. He understood, as no previous Suk had, Lady Jessica's love for Leto, her need to care for him through any battle wound or illness. He did not shoo her from the sick room but always explained her duke's condition and showed her how best to help. Especially while the old monster Creon had still been duke, there were plenty of opportunities for this friendship to be forged.

Poor little Duncan Idaho, still very much a boy. His family was slaughtered by Harkonen allies. Duke Leto rescued him and brought him back to their household. There was an example of undying loyalty.

Gurney Halleck had been rescued from a Harkonen slave pit. He had been beaten and forced to watch his sister raped to death by battalions of soldiers. But his spirit was not to be broken. Indeed he had risked further imprisonment and even death the day Leto's father died in the ring at the horns of a particularly dangerous bull. Leto had leapt for the ring, intent upon avenging his father's death. Gurney fired his gun and killed the animal, most likely saving Leto's life.

Even through his grief and rage, Leto had seen sense. Rather than execute Gurney he had made him a general. This was not her influence.

Love had not blinded Lady Jessica as the sisterhood would have had her believe. The love for her duke and the friendships she had forged among his household were the realest things she had experienced in her life so far. Love had opened her eyes.

Love had opened her eyes and she could only see folly in the plans of her order. She wasn't sure yet what her response would be but was quite certain she would have one.