Chapter 23: First Snow & a Proposition
In the weeks and months following the day Shelby and Sebastian spent away from the castle and away from their responsibilities, their relationship continued to get better. They shared the responsibility of taking care of Sadie. To prove that he wanted to be involved in caring for Sadie, Sebastian made sure to schedule meetings around caring for Sadie and in doing so usually scheduling them while Sadie was napping so Shelby could attend the meetings if she wanted to as well; however, not all the meetings ended up taking place during a time when Shelby was able to attend them.
At the beginning of November, Shelby and Sebastian received a letter from King Richard and Queen Katherine of South Upswich requesting a meeting with them. The letter did not offer any indication of what the meeting would be about.
"What do you think we should do?" Sebastian asked one evening after Sadie was asleep. He had been reading over the letter again trying to decide what to do.
"They were the ones with the food shortage problem, right?"
"Yes, they were."
"Maybe they're having another food shortage and they want to meet about it earlier than last year," Shelby offered.
"I think they had more rain this year than last," Sebastian trailed off. "But you think we should the meeting with them?"
"There's no reason not to have the meeting, is there?" Shelby countered.
"That is true," Sebastian spoke. Since it was still fairly early in the evening, Sebastian headed out to talk with their advisors. Richard and Katherine had suggested Wednesday November 21, 1523 for the meeting, so a messenger was sent to South Upswich to let them know Shelby and Sebastian agreed to the meeting. "Everything is in order for the meeting," Sebastian replied as he returned.
"I wish we knew what it was about so we could sort of get ready and be prepared for it."
"As do I," Sebastian agreed.
A silence fell between the two as they .3began reading. "It's snowing," Shelby spoke, glancing out the window a little while later. She marked her page in her book and made her way to the window to watch the snow fall. "It's so peaceful," Shelby spoke once Sebastian stood beside her.
"It is," he agreed.
"I know it's kind of childish, but if the snow hasn't melted in the morning, would you want to go out and mess around in it?"
"Well, it is the first snow of the year," Sebastian spoke.
"The first snow of the year is always exciting."
"I agree. I'm sure someone could take care of Sadie."
"There's a whole castle full of people."
"Good point," Sebastian laughed. The two stood at the window for a few more minutes until the peace was broken by Sadie's cries. "Duty calls," Sebastian said, making his way to the bassinet to get Sadie who needed to be fed before Shelby and Sebastian could go to sleep. Although Sadie was still likely to wake the two in the middle of the night when she was hungry again, she quickly fell asleep after she finished eating; after which Shelby and Sebastian soon decided to get to sleep as well.
XXX
The following morning, Sebastian was the first to wake as some of the early morning light shone through the window. As he sat up in bed, he realized Sadie was making a little noise. Since Shelby was still sleeping, he made his way to the bassinet to take Sadie. She began to fuss and cry a little, so Sebatian began walking around the room with her, hoping to prevent her from waking Shelby up.
While Sadie seemed to calm down for a few minutes, her crying soon grew louder. Sebastian also realized that Sadie's diaper smelled. He scrunched up his nose as he tried to think of what to do. He couldn't go out into the hall in search of someone to change Sadie while wearing his nightgown. When Sadie still hadn't settled down a few minutes later, Sebastian set her back down in the bassinet and rushed to the other side of the room to retrieve his robe. As he put his robe on, Sebastian noticed that Shelby was sitting up.
"Shelby, go back to sleep. I will take care of this," he said, trying to keep his voice soft.
"What?" came Shelby's groggy reply as she ran a hand through her hair to get it out of her face.
"I will take care of Sadie," he said.
"Sebastian, what are you talking about?"
"Sadie started crying and I was going to take her to find someone to change her diaper before she woke you up, but clearly I have failed."
"Trying to keep her from waking me up was a nice thought even though she woke me up," Shelby spoke.
Sebastian offered Shelby a smile. "I'll go find someone to take care of her diaper," Sebastian said a minute later.
Shelby nodded and lay back down in bed. She ended up drifting off into sleep again while Sebastian was out of the room. When he returned, he gently woke her so she could feed Sadie before they went to breakfast.
After Sadie was fed and content, Shelby lay her down in the bassinet as she and Sebastian headed to the other side of the room. With the trust and understanding they had developed after Sadie was born, Shelby was comfortable and okay with having Sebastian help her get dressed in the morning. He had been true to his word and hadn't tried to pressure her into trying for a son.
A few minutes after the two finished getting dressed, Lucinda arrived to take care of Sadie while the two were at breakfast and for the day.
"When we go outside, were you thinking of getting away from the castle into the woods for the morning?" Sebastian asked as they ate.
"Can we?"
"We're the King and Queen, of course we can."
"Are there meetings and diplomatic things we need to attend to?"
Sebastian shrugged. "Those things can wait."
"All right," Shelby agreed. "Maybe we could go back into the woods. The snow is still on the trees and it looks amazing."
"Sounds good. You did suggest we go into the woods when it's snow covered the last time we had a full day to ourselves and went riding in the woods."
"True."
After Shelby and Sebastian finished eating, they decided to go back to their room. They needed to retrieve their coats and make sure they had enough layers for spending the morning outside. About ten minutes after returning to their room, Shelby and Sebastian had gathered their coats and extra layers. Out in the stables, Shelby and Sebastian quickly mounted Midnight and Ace then headed towards the clearing where they had their picnic several months prior.
"What do you normally do when it snows in your time?" Sebastian asked as they rode a little while later.
"The city I live in doesn't get all that much snow, but on occasion when we get a couple inches at a time we have snowball fights. Especially when Barry, Naldo, Cyd, and I were younger," Shelby sighed.
"I'm sorry you have to be away from your friends and family because of me," Sebastian spoke sincerely. "I can't imagine having to be away from my family for as long as you've had to be."
Shelby was silent for several long moments before she spoke again. "It's okay. Or at least more okay than it was at first now that we get along better," she paused. "And I'm glad we went back to get these boots," Shelby added. "These boots are much better at keeping my feet warm than some of the ones I have at home."
"You mean boots don't always keep your feet warm in your time?"
"Sometimes boots are more for style than they are for function."
"Why?"
"Usually I don't need boots to keep my feet warm," Shelby noted. "There are boots that are meant to keep your feet warm, but I have maybe one pair," she explained.
"Your time is weird."
"It can be," Shelby agreed as they got to a clearing.
"Does this look familiar?"
"Not in the slightest."
"Well, this is it," Sebastian said as he dismounted. Knowing Ace wouldn't run away, he went to help Shelby down.
"Now I'm really glad I'm wearing these boots," Shelby said, looking down to the foot of snow at her feet.
Sebastian laughed and took Ace and Midnight's reins to secure them to a tree. While Sebastian was distracted securing Ace and Midnight to a tree, Shelby reached down to get a handful of snow. Since Sebastian's back was turned to her, he had no idea what she was doing. With Sebastian facing away from her, Shelby tossed the snowball at his back right as he finished securing Ace and Midnight to the tree.
Shelby could hear Sebastian let out a deep breath through his nose before he turned to face her. "What was that for?" he asked, his tone remaining even.
"To start a snowball fight," Shelby replied with a smirk.
"That was one of the reasons we decided to do this today," Sebastian reasoned as he began making his way towards her.
"You're not mad?"
"Somewhat annoyed––yes. Mad––no," Sebastian replied, beginning to make his way towards her.
As Sebastian made his way over to her, Shelby was again struck by how much Sebastian had changed. Old Sebastian would have been furious that she had thrown a snowball at him. Old Sebastian probably would have pinned her to a tree to remind her that he was in charge and anything she did to stand up to him would have repercussions. Old Sebastian also would have never allowed them to go out for the day with the intention of playing in the snow and having a snowball fight.
"How do we go about a snowball fight?" Sebastian asked once he reached Shelby.
"Make snowballs and start throwing!" Shelby exclaimed, quickly turning her back to Sebastian and dashing away from the clearing in search of somewhere to hide. Shelby quickly realized that running in heavy winter clothes and a dress was somewhat difficult, but she found a large fallen tree to hide behind to begin making her snowballs.
As she began making snowballs, Shelby dared a glance over the log to find where Sebastian hid. After a couple minutes of scanning the area, Shelby was able to spot Sebastian's hiding spot because she could see his breath rising into the air. She was sure he had seen where she hid, but it didn't matter; they were there to have fun, not win the snowball fight.
Shelby ducked back behind the log to continue adding to her arsenal of snowballs. She looked up a couple minutes later when a snowball flew past her and landed on the ground next to and behind her.
"I met to hit the tree next to you as a warning shot," Sebastian called.
"You missed," Shelby called back before again ducking down. While she was ducked down, another snowball flew in Shelby's direction, this time grazing the tree beside Shelby.
"Darn it!" Sebastian exclaimed.
Shelby smirked as the second snowball just barely hit Sebastian's target. Sebastian was still standing out in the open, so Shelby sat up and got ready to throw one of her snowballs. It was a direct hit on Sebastian's chest. His surprised expression told her everything she needed to know.
A smirk formed on Sebastian's face as he ducked down to his stock of snowballs. He began throwing several in Shelby's direction. Shelby was expecting his return fire and had already ducked down. While most of Sebastian's snowballs seemed to veer off course, a couple hit the log Shelby hid behind. Rather than tease Sebastian for missing her, Shelby began throwing her own snowballs in Sebastian's direction. During their exchange of fire, both Shelby and Sebastian got hit a couple times in addition to the many misses they both had. Soon after Shelby ran out of snowballs, it appeared Sebastian had as well.
"I'm out," he admitted.
"Me too," Shelby replied, climbing back over the log to head to the clearing where Sebastian joined her.
"What do we do now?" Sebastian asked.
"I don't know," Shelby answered. "I don't want to head back to the castle yet, but I'm kind of worn out from the snowball fight."
"We could go on a leisurely ride for a little while before lunch." Sebastian suggested.
"What if we made snow angels or snow people," Shelby added. "It might not be something a King and Queen would normally do," she trailed off.
"What exactly are snow angels and snow people?"
"Okay, a snow angel is when you lay down in the snow and move your arms and legs back in forth in what looks like an angel once you stand up," Shelby explained. "Then snow people are when you put two or three snowballs of different sizes together and it's sort of like a person." Sebastian nodded with a somewhat intrigued expression. "What do you think?" Shelby asked after a minute.
"Sounds like fun," Sebastian answered.
"Then let's get to it," Shelby said. Together, the two spent the next hour making snow angels and snow people in the clearing. As it grew near lunch and the cold became too much, Shelby and Sebastian decided to head back towards the castle. Behind them in the clearing, they left behind a plethora of destroyed snowballs, several snow angels, and a few snow people families.
Upon arrival back to the castle, Shelby and Sebastian were immediately lead to the Great Room where they were able to sit by a large fire to warm up. A few minutes after sitting down, some tea was brought in for them. "Thank you," Shelby and Sebastian spoke as a servant set down the tea pot and two cups in front of the two. The woman curtsied before leaving the room.
"The only thing that could make this better is if Sadie was here and I had a good book to read," Shelby spoke after a couple minutes once they had time to warm up.
"That would be nice," Sebatian agreed as the two fell into a comfortable silence.
A little while later, Lucinda entered the room carrying Sadie on her hip. "She seemed to want to see you and I heard you were back in the castle," Lucinda explained.
"I will gladly take her," Shelby spoke, setting her tea down on the table so she could take Sadie from Lucinda.
"I'll let you two settle in here for a little while longer," Lucinda said. "Lunch should be ready soon. I will come let you know when everything is ready," she finished with a smile as turned to leave the room.
With Sadie, Shelby returned to sit in front of the fire with Sebastian. They sat in silence for a few minutes before he asked to hold Sadie and continued holding her until they went to lunch. Lucinda again took Sadie, who had fallen asleep in Sebastian's arms. The remainder of the day carried on in normalcy.
XXX
On Wednesday November 21st, Shelby and Sebastian needed to get up earlier than normal to ensure that they were ready for their meeting with Richard and Katherine. The two monarchs had remained quiet about their intentions with the meeting, so Shelby and Sebastian still had no idea what the meeting was about.
After taking care of Sadie, Shelby and Sebastian handed her over to Lucinda since she would be caring for Sadie during the morning and afternoon while the two were in the meeting and preparing for it. The remainder of the morning, they went over some final preparations and soon it was time for lunch.
Soon after Shelby and Sebastian finished lunch, Angus escorted them to the West Gate where they would meet Richard and Sebastian when they arrived.
"You haven't heard anything more, right?" Shelby asked. "I know we've been together most of the day, but I wish we knew something," Shelby spoke.
"No, I haven't heard anything. If I do, I'll tell you. I just don't understand why they won't tell us why they want to meet. Our advisors don't even know anything either."
Shelby nodded, knowing exactly how Sebastian felt without any information about the meeting. They both wished they had some idea what they meeting was for so they could prepare for it. "How much longer do you think until they get here?" Shelby asked several minutes later.
"I thought they would have been here by now," Sebastian said.
As if on cue, a carriage appeared in the distance heading towards the West Gate. "Speak of the devil," Shelby said under her breath.
"What?" Sebastian whispered to Shelby.
"Nothing," Shelby whispered her reply so Angus wouldn't over hear them. "Just an expression that's probably not used now," she added before standing regal beside Sebastian as she was meant to.
The carriage soon arrived and Angus was quick to approach. He waited for the driver to open the door and offered his hand to Katherine to help her out of the carriage. Richard exited on his own before he and Katherine greeted Shelby and Sebastian. After exchanging greetings, Angus lead the pair of monarchs to the room where the meeting would be held.
"What is your reason for requesting a meeting with Shelby and I?" Sebastian asked, getting right to the point once the four were seated.
"Bit forward, are you not?" Richard asked, his tone harsh and condescending towards Sebastian.
"Sorry," Sebastian apologized. "You just neglected giving us any information about what your intentions were with this meeting and we would like to know," he finished as Shelby nodded in agreement.
"We have a proposition to present to you," Katherine spoke in a smooth, even, and controlled tone.
"What sort of proposition?" Shelby asked, quickly becoming suspicious of the proposition to two had, especially considering Katherine's tone.
"One to form stronger bonds between our countries," Richard began. "One to bring our countries together forever. John is betrothed to a princess of another country and will not be taking over our kingdom which leaves Henry. He will be turning four next month, so the age difference between him and Sadie is not that much when you consider it. Since they are close in age as Katherine and I are as well as you two are, their marriage could work to forever join our kingdoms as one country."
"Sadie's not even six months old!" Shelby exclaimed.
"It's never too early to arrange these sort of things," Katherine spoke, once again speaking in a smooth tone.
Shelby scoffed. She recognized the deceptive tone Katherine was using. "I don't think so. I'm not sure if you're aware of it or not, but it's fairly common that kids don't make it to adulthood right now. Plus, I don't want to marry off my five month old daughter."
Richard scoffed in reply. "Even if she is young, there is no harm in arranging the marriage. Sebastian, what do you think? You do not agree with the ridiculousness your wife is talking about, correct?"
"Well, Richard, Katherine I have to say that I agree with Shelby. Sadie is young. We don't know what might happen to her in the next sixteen to eighteen years until she is old enough to marry. In addition, Shelby and I have already discussed matters of our children's marriages. We decided even before Sadie was born that we wanted our children to choose whom they would like to marry for themselves. Sadie will be involved in deciding who her husband will be."
Richard's expression dropped. "Are you––are you pulling some sort of trick on us? You can not possibly mean any of that."
"Why would I pull a trick on you? Why would I not mean what I said?"
"Because that is not how things work!" Katherine exclaimed.
"Maybe not in South Upswich, but it's how we want things to work in North Upswich and how things will work starting now," Sebastian replied.
Shelby nodded. "This meeting is over."
"What?" Richard again scoffed, his eyes wide and mouth agape.
"You heard what Shelby said loud and clear," Sebastian said, his tone hard.
"Are you sure you do not want to consider this more?" Katherine asked.
"Not at all," Shelby replied.
"N––No?" Richard asked.
Shelby and Sebastian looked to each other and made brief eye contact before turning back to Richard and Katherine. "No," they replied as one.
Richard and Katherine gave Shelby and Sebastian dumbfounded looks. "Are––are you sure you will not reconsider?" Richard stuttered more timidly.
"We will not reconsider. We will only reconsider if Sadie is old enough to be involved in the process and would actually want to marry your younger son," Shelby said.
"We could, however, escort you back to the West Gate and your carriage," Sebastian offered.
"We can find it ourselves," Richard's tone was low and harsh.
"We will be leaving now," Katherine added. The two stood and shoved their chairs back with a harshness that matched Richard's tone.
"Are you sure you don't want someone to lead you back to your carriage?" Sebastian asked. "I could have Angus take you there."
"Sure. Do that," Richard replied, his resolve faltering slightly.
"As you wish," Sebastian said with a nod. "Shelby, would you care to accompany me?" he asked, offering his arm to her.
"Sure," Shelby agreed with a pointed smile she directed to Richard and Katherine. The two left the room and broke out in laughter a little way down the hall once they were out of earshot of Richard and Katherine. "We better find Angus," Shelby said after a minute as she tried to control her laughter.
"You're right," Sebastian agreed as they hurried down the hall where they found Angus.
"Hey, Angus," Shelby greeted.
"What are you two doing here?" Angus asked with furrowed brow. "Are you done with the meeting already?" he asked, catching first Sebastian's eye and then Shelby's.
"There were some. . . disagreements between us," Sebastian explained.
"And because of those disagreements, they would like you, not us, to escort them back to their carriage," Shelby added.
"We can tell you about it later," Sebastian offered.
"All right," Angus replied. He turned to head back to the meeting room. Since they were in line with where Richard and Katherine would go, Shelby and Sebastian decided to wait to see them off.
"Have a good day," Sebastian said as Angus walked past with Richard and Katherine.
Richard's reply was to shoot a glare in Sebastian's direction.
"We can still be allies," Shelby added. "We're just not ready to promise Sadie in marriage to your son."
"We can continue being allies," Sebastian called after them. Though they couldn't see that Richard and Katherine had heard them, Angus turned to face them and gave a brief nod.
"Well that went well," Shelby laughed.
"Absolutely perfect," Sebastian agreed.
Still laughing, the two headed back towards their room. The afternoon had been cleared in anticipation of the meeting. Since the meeting had been short, the two had free time for the afternoon. "Christmas is about a month away," Shelby began. "Is your family going to be staying at the castle again?"
Sebastian hummed in thought. "I guess we hadn't discussed that yet, but it would make sense. We can't really leave the castle and William is living here on a permanent basis now. I should send a letter to my family and see what their thoughts on the matter are."
"Okay."
"Would you like to head out by Midnight and Ace for a little while with the free time we have?"
"Sounds good," Shelby agreed. The two continued to their room where they retrieved their coats before spending their afternoon in the stables. It was nice to once again be able to step back from their duties and have time to relax.
That evening as Shelby read, Sebastian wrote a letter to his family to see what their plans for the holidays were. He'd have someone send the letter to his family the following day. Once he finished writing the letter, Sebastian sat down beside Shelby to read his own book. They went to bed that night feeling relaxed.
A/N: In the last chapter, Shelby mentioned wanting to see the forest while it was snow covered, so through the use of time skips, it happened in this chapter. Another note on this chapter is about the first meeting Shelby and Sebastian had with Richard and Katherine is that it took place in chapter 17, and that was the one where they decided they would have their kids choose who they marry.
I love writing the moments where Sebastian is soft and shows he cares about Shelby because I ship them much more than I should. Also, since I think I was the first to put them together as a couple in a story, I'd like to suggest Shelbastian as their ship name. Even if nobody else agrees with that being their ship name, I'm gonna use it as such.
Anyway, as always, thanks for taking the time to read. I'd love to know what you thought if you feel inclined to leave a review.
Reviews:
Ansy: I'm glad you enjoyed the date Sebastian planned for them. These last few chapters have been to really work towards showing the ways Sebastian has changed and that the two don't realize it, but they're kind of falling for each other. When I was editing the last chapter, I was very tempted to have Sebastian kiss Shelby, but it felt like it was too soon. By not having it happen now, I'm hoping to have added meaning when it does happen. The birthday changing is an interesting concept. Since I had it be different times of the year from the 21st to 16th century, it was something that needed to happen.
sweetsimplegirl: I really love getting to write Sebastian now has he's changed and grown as a person which is also evident in Shelby's ability to trust him now. There are still going to be more moments of Sebastian wanting to know about Shelby's time because he wants to better understand her. I'm glad their date came across as sweet like it was meant to. The conversation is going to come in handy in chapter 29, which is probably one of my favorite chapters. :)