§ § § -- July 4, 2004
Christian blew out a long breath when Janine was gone and sagged against the wall beside the door. It had been a very trying day so far, and he wondered uneasily what was going to happen next. There hadn't been enough formula left in the last can to fill poor little Tobias, and Christian had been forced to try everything he could think of to calm the baby down, all to no avail. When Karina, who nearly always finished feeding first, had released her mother's breast for her usual "I'm done, put me to bed" yawn, Leslie had looked up then and said quietly, "Bring Tobias here and let's see if I have enough milk left to fill him up." He had carried the irritable little boy over to her, and without speaking Leslie had let their son latch onto her, leaving Christian to take Karina off to her crib. Since then he'd been afraid to go back downstairs, and had instead closeted himself in the library, tinkering halfheartedly with his family's website but unable to muster up his usual enthusiasm.
When he'd gone down to let Janine in, the living room had been empty. Now he wondered where Leslie was; he'd have thought she'd go to sleep, but no one had been in their bed, either. With Susanna, Karina and Tobias all sated and asleep, he found the quiet in the house to be unnerving, and this drove him back upstairs to start looking for Leslie.
He found her finally in the first-floor guest suite where Margareta had stayed. Ingrid had moved to the empty bedroom next to the triplets' room so that she could help more readily if something came up at night. Leslie sat on the floor at the end of the bed, her back resting against the bed itself, surrounded by the scrapbooks her mother had left her and the ones his sister and nieces had made up for him. She had drawn up her knees and was hugging them, and her forehead rested atop them.
Quietly Christian shifted aside a couple of the scrapbooks and lowered himself to the floor beside her. "Are you all right?" he asked gently.
Leslie slowly lifted her head and stared at him, and he was stunned to see how red her face was, how puffy her eyes were, from what must have been prolonged crying. "Does it matter to you?" she said flatly, shocking him.
"Fate take me, Leslie," Christian said, aghast, "everything about you matters to me. I love you. I'll always love you, don't you know that? Do I have to convince you anew every time we have a fight?"
He saw tears fill her eyes again and sighed softly; she winced and turned away, dropping her head atop her knees again. "I have such a big mouth," he heard her muffled voice groan in despair from behind the curtain of hair that had fallen forward. "I'm sorry, Christian, I really am…"
Christian wrapped an arm around her and rested his head against hers. "My darling, we've both had a trying day. It started badly and got worse. I suppose it was inevitable that we would snap at each other from frustration. I have some apologizing of my own to do—I shouldn't have made that wisecrack about not growing a third arm."
"I shouldn't have gotten impatient with you," Leslie murmured, lifting her head again. "You're right, it's been such an awful day. It seemed like we were really coasting that whole first month since the triplets came. Everything was so smooth. The babies almost seemed to know that we were a little nervous about all the work we have to do to take care of them, and they hardly ever fussed, and we all got used to each other. And then…"
Christian chuckled soundlessly and picked up the narrative. "And then we took them to Anna-Kristina's birthday party on Thursday, and the unusual fuss and noise bothered them, and they missed a feeding…and worse than that, Natalia's natural curiosity about them was more than they could stand."
"Too much poking and prodding," Leslie mumbled. "Maybe they seemed like live dolls to her."
"Quite possible," said Christian soothingly, huddling her close. "And then they had the doctor's appointment and the portrait yesterday, of course, and today the formula ran out…little wonder things have suddenly seemed to go upside down."
"And we forgot to call Father, too," Leslie mumbled.
"Yes, I remembered that myself a little while ago," Christian said, gently tucking her hair behind her ear so he could see her face. "Perhaps we should do that, and take the babies to the main house with us, and let Ingrid have a little time for herself. Oh yes…and Janine left us some homemade jordsklockor…for whatever reason."
Leslie blinked at him and wiped aside a tear that started to slide from her eye. "She baked us more stuff?"
"Seems so," Christian said, amused. "Fate knows why, but she did. Anyhow, why don't we give ourselves a chance to settle down just a bit, and then call Mr. Roarke, and when the babies have had their next feeding, we'll go to the main house? I think we need to get out." He saw her expression and grinned. "I know we got out the last two days. I meant to a calmer environment this time."
Leslie grinned back finally, and he hugged her close. "I think that's just what we need," she agreed, tucking her head against his neck and relaxing. "I'm really sorry, my love, believe me. It's been a harrowing few days, but I shouldn't have taken it out on you."
"I expect we'll have more of that in the months ahead," Christian said, "but we'll just do our best to take them in stride. I'm sorry too, my darling. I suppose it's a wonder we didn't completely explode at each other."
"I think we were restraining ourselves because of the triplets—they were already worked up, and they'd have been even more inconsolable—and because Janine was there." Leslie sighed and lifted her head to smile at him. "Just so long as we don't let it push us apart, that's all. I love you so much, Christian."
"I love you too, my Rose, for all my days," he promised quietly and kissed her. For the first time since a few weeks before the triplets' birth, Christian felt her responding with the passion that had always raised his own response to greater heights, that had made lovemaking with her so much more than it had been with anyone else.
She noticed it too and pulled back after a moment. "Oh wow," she whispered. "It's coming back after all. I was afraid it wouldn't…I talked to Dr. Hannaford about it the last time I saw her before the triplets were born. She told me to be patient and give it time, because with most new mothers it takes a few weeks, and some even longer."
"I see," Christian said, smiling. "You're feeling better, then?"
Leslie nodded. "There's no pain…and I've missed making love with you. Of course," she added with a wry smile, "we'll have to sneak it in while the triplets are asleep or something…" They laughed softly and hugged each other again. "But thinking of making love with you is getting me excited about it. Maybe we can't indulge in long sessions like we used to, but it's going to feel so good with you again. You've been so patient, too."
Christian grinned. "I've had a tremendous amount of practice being patient," he told her, laughing. "My sex life was all but nonexistent till I dated Karin Grimsby, but since I wasn't in love with her, I had no problem going celibate again until I met you and learned what true lovemaking is. I simply kept reminding myself that it would be worth the wait." He kissed her and then got to his feet, pulling her onto hers. "So tell me about the scrapbooks. Did you find yourself nostalgic?"
"Sort of," Leslie said, standing in his embrace and gazing at the books on the floor. "I wondered what Mom had recorded about my development as a baby, and I wondered what you looked like in your first few years…and I got so lonely for you. We'll have to start putting together scrapbooks for the babies."
Christian raised an eyebrow. "Scrapbooks, plural? As in, one for each triplet?"
"Of course," she said and grinned. "I mean, really, who wants to share their scrapbook with a sibling?" Christian began to laugh, and Leslie hugged him. "Well, come on, let's put these back where they belong and then give Father a call."
§ § § -- July 5, 2004
Roarke admired his grandchildren as they slept, and after the three adults had exchanged a few good-natured jokes about how children were most adorable when they were sleeping, he gestured at the chairs in front of his desk while Christian and Leslie set the three infant carriers on the floor between them. "Please, sit down, both of you," he said. "I am very sorry there was no chance for us to discuss this yesterday."
"Perhaps it's as well," Christian remarked. "We ourselves had a rather hectic and emotional day yesterday. So, what's troubling you?"
Roarke settled into his chair and cleared his throat, then regarded his daughter and son-in-law curiously. "How have you two been getting along, with the assistance you've been receiving since the triplets were born?"
"Quite well," Christian said. "Margareta gave up and went home, of course, but as it happens, Ingrid—the servant she left behind—has been invaluable to us. She handles all the cooking and housework, and is the perfect third arm we need whenever we have to carry all three babies around at once. And we hired a teenager to handle our grocery shopping…"
"Yes," Roarke mused, drawing the word out, thus alerting Leslie, who sat up a little. "Janine Polidari, I believe—the niece of your friend Camille, am I correct, Leslie?"
Leslie nodded. "Yes, that's right. She's been a great help. She's actually developed an interest in Lilla Jordsö…evidently trying to learn some of the language…and she baked some jordsklocka pastries and brought them over, just yesterday. My gosh, she even gave us a cake for Christian's birthday."
Roarke stared at her and said, "Did she indeed!"
His tone made Christian and Leslie look at each other before Leslie turned back to him and asked, "Is there something wrong, Father?"
Roarke sat back and considered for a few seconds before replying. "There may be," he said at last. "It may interest you to know, Christian, that just before Princess Margareta returned to Lilla Jordsö, she spoke with me about a matter that had been bothering her—specifically, to be blunt, she told me that she believed young Janine has a crush on you."
Christian chuckled and shook his head. "I find that hard to believe," he said.
But Leslie wasn't laughing; she was staring at Roarke. "Oh no," she said softly. "That's the last thing we need! Maybe I could dismiss the words in jordiska and even the pastries…but she bought Christian a birthday cake!" She leaned forward, without noticing that Christian's laughter had ceased, and asked, "How did Margareta come up with that?"
"From what I could gather, it was purely through observation, and only one or two instances of it," Roarke said, and summarized his discussion with Margareta. By the time he finished, both Christian and Leslie were gaping at him. "It seems the princess takes note of even the smallest things; I was somewhat surprised to find that she had reached such a conclusion from what little she saw. However, your mention of the things Janine has been doing in relation to Christian and his heritage seems to tie in with Margareta's concerns. I believe, Christian, that you are the object of a very strong teenage crush."
Christian sighed heavily and said, "Magga has always had a way of noticing things, especially things she shouldn't. She seems to have radar ears sometimes, and she keeps a sharp eye on everything around her. Of Arnulf's three daughters, she was the only one who never questioned the reasons her father threw me into marriage with Marina, because she understood from the outset what was going on. When Anna-Kristina and Briella wondered why I was in that mess, she didn't. I remember having to tell them precisely why I wasn't allowed at the time to make my own life with Leslie; Magga simply knew. When she was a child, Arnulf and Kristina both used to complain at times that she often knew things she wasn't supposed to." He sighed again and looked at Roarke. "What on earth would make a sixteen-year-old develop such feelings for me?"
"As I told Margareta," Roarke said, "a girl may develop a crush on a celebrity figure as a way of avoiding undesirable aspects of her real life. This may be the case with Janine. She hasn't lived here very long, perhaps a year or so, and may not have adjusted."
Christian frowned slightly. "Come to think of it, yesterday when she presented me with those jordsklockorna, I asked her purely conversationally if she had any plans for the Fourth of July holiday. She positively gushed about the celebrations in Boston, speaking of it as someone who held it very dear to her heart and desperately missed it. It rather amused me to hear how much pride she had in being from Boston, probably because I had some of my own pride in being jordisk." He looked at Leslie. "I wanted to ask you what the Pops and the 'half-shell' and the Esplanade and the Charles were, but I never remembered to do that after I sent her home and recalled our argument from earlier."
Leslie laughed. "Lucky for you I know what all that is, even though I'm actually from Connecticut. The Boston Pops orchestra is well-known around the country for their Fourth of July and Christmas concerts, and in the former celebrations, they play on an acoustically-designed open-air stage called the half-shell because of its shape. It sits on the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge, on a strip of land called the Esplanade. Mom always wanted to take the twins and me to see one of the Fourth concerts in person, but Michael would've had massive fits, so we never went. But I remember seeing them and the Christmas concerts on TV. I can understand Janine's nostalgia for them." She frowned thoughtfully and looked at Roarke. "Now that I think about it, I remember Camille mentioning a few times that Janine still hasn't really resigned herself to her new life here. She said Janine's incredibly homesick and really resents Andrea for uprooting her and her sister and bringing them here after Andrea's divorce."
"As I suspected," said Roarke. "She's lonely and homesick, misses her friends and her old life, and undoubtedly closed herself off from her classmates this past school year—thus the development of her crush on Christian."
"Should we do anything about it, Father?" Leslie asked.
Roarke smiled a little and assured her, "I daresay her crush is harmless enough. I'll admit that it seems she's trying overtly to gain your attention, Christian, and perhaps your approval. But it appears that her overtures thus far—baking pastries, learning a few words of your language, bringing you a birthday cake—have been merely signs of her admiration for you, and perhaps a determination to become somehow important to you for reasons other than merely being your temporary employee."
"Besides," Leslie teased her disconcerted husband, "she has good taste. Obviously she latched onto you because she was bowled over by how gorgeous you are."
"Oh, for fate's sake," Christian muttered, and Roarke and Leslie both laughed. "I expect I've been the object of countless teenage crushes in my day, in Lilla Jordsö. For that matter, I was actually receiving letters from girls in my teenage years, especially after Carl Johan and Amalia were married and he was officially 'off the market', if I remember the phrase correctly. But nothing ever came close to this. Perhaps these seemingly bold overtures have to do with Janine being from a country where there's no monarchy but a great fascination with celebrity. In Lilla Jordsö, as a prince, there was…dare I put it this way…too much awe, I suppose. Too wide a social gap."
Roarke nodded. "Yes, making you unreachable to your people, who set royalty apart from other celebrities such as actors and singers. At any rate, I don't wish to alarm either of you, but I do think it wise that you know."
"How'd you find out?" Leslie asked curiously.
"It happened last week when you two brought the triplets in for their appointment with Dr. Corbett, and Janine and her mother came out with the doctor. You didn't notice, of course, Christian, but Janine never took her eyes off you. That put me in mind of my conversation with Princess Margareta, and I began to rethink my original stance on the matter." Roarke glanced back and forth between them for a moment, then said, "I don't think you need worry about it, unless the young lady does something to overstep the bounds. You may then have to decide whether to try to clarify things for her, release her from the job you hired her for, or some other solution."
Christian and Leslie looked at each other again and both nodded slowly. "I hope it doesn't come down to that," Christian said. "She seems like a nice girl." He noticed Leslie's scrutiny and grinned. "Don't fear, my Rose. If it does in fact come down to it, I'll make it clear to her that I'm thirty years older than she is, and that I'm extremely happily married, no matter what she saw yesterday morning."
Leslie laughed, reaching out to squeeze his hand. "Well, I wasn't worried that she was going to run off with you. I just wonder what'll happen if you ever do have to set her straight. Camille mentioned once that she's a typical sullen teenager right about now, still smarting over her parents' divorce, her father's refusal to do more than send child-support checks, and especially her forced move from Massachusetts."
"In which case," Roarke put in, "if you find it necessary to speak with her, Christian, I would advise you to be as gentle as you can. She will be very much embarrassed by the fact that you know her crush for what it is, and by what she will see as your making light of it. It's typical of teenagers that what adults see as minor setbacks, they consider life-altering events that will haunt them for the remainder of their lives. In any case, if she crosses a line that you feel uncomfortable with—and especially if it seems to you to be threatening in an overt way to Leslie or the triplets—you'll want to be forewarned to handle the problem."
"I think I can manage something," Christian said. "I grew up dealing with the public, meeting our people now and then and learning to be warm without being too personal. In any case, I thank you for bringing this up. I admit to thinking some of her actions were a little odd, but I never connected them with the idea that she might have a crush."
Roarke smiled. "Often enough, the object of a crush never becomes aware of it. In any case, suppose we move on to other things…such as whether you've yet been able to update your family's website, Christian, and what news you may have from Lilla Jordsö."
