Chapter 25: Christmas 1523
On Sunday morning, two days before Christmas, everything in the castle was calm. A fresh snow blanketed the castle and the grounds over night allowing everything to feel relaxed. However, Sadie's almost silent whimpering woke Shelby and Sebastian up. She was hungry and dealing with more teething pains, so they tended to her needs.
After calming Sadie, Lucinda knocked on the door, having heard Sadie's cries. "Is there anything you need me to help with?" she asked through the door.
"We're good for now. Thank you," Shelby replied.
"Are you sure?" Lucinda asked. "If there is anything you need, I can get it for you."
"If we need anything, I can find you," Sebastian replied.
"All right," Lucinda agreed. "I will go see if the rest of your family is awake."
"Thank you," Sebastian spoke before turning back to Shelby and Sadie. The three were quiet for a few minutes as Sadie had calmed down. Shelby offered Sadie her finger to comfort her. "Is there anything planned for today?" Shelby asked. "Though maybe I should have asked about that before now."
"No, there are no plans," Sebastian answered. "Although, with the fresh snow, maybe we could go outside and have another snowball fight with all my siblings," Sebastian suggested.
A devious smirk appeared on Shelby's face and Sebastian instantly knew she was up for what he suggested. "I'm sure Lucinda could take care of Sadie. Or maybe your mom will want to since she's so keen to have more grandkids."
Sebastian laughed at Shelby's comment; they both knew it was true. "I'll get changed now so I can take Sadie while Lucinda helps you change when she gets back." Shelby nodded as Sebastian headed to the other side of the room. A minute after he finished getting dressed, Lucinda returned to help Shelby get dressed. "Was my family awake?" Sebastian asked as Lucinda helped Shelby with her hair.
"For the most part. I went past the kitchen on my way back and breakfast should be ready soon." She paused as she finished helping Shelby do her hair. "I will be back to let you know when breakfast is ready."
"Thank you," Sebastian replied. He and Shelby spent the few minutes they had before breakfast talking with Sadie and encouraging her to talk to them. She loved the attention from her parents. She giggled as Sebastian held her hands with her feet on his boots to help her practice the motions that went along with walking. When Lucinda returned to take Sadie while her parents went to breakfast, she was reluctant to be held, but was easily calmed down by a toy.
At breakfast, Edward and Elinor were once again more reserved than they normally were. While they ate, Sebastian suggested that the family go outside to enjoy the fresh snow on the grounds. Though Edward and Elinor wanted no part in going outside in the snow, everyone else was excited at the idea of spending the day outside on the castle grounds. Instead, Elinor offered to watch Sadie, as Shelby and Sebastian had expected, while her children went outside.
The morning in the snow went off without incident. Once again, for the afternoon, Sebastian, William, Forest, and Davy went to train and practice.
The final day before the official Christmas celebration passed without any problems. The family didn't argue and it seemed that Elinor finally understood what her children had been trying to tell her. However, there was no telling if she would actually remember it or if she would return to her old ways eventually.
On Christmas Eve, there were a few final things that needed to be done in the decorating department that Shelby and Sebastian had left for everyone to do together. Most of the decorating that they spent the morning doing was in the Great Hall to help prepare the room for the festivities and ball that would occur on New Year's Day.
After spending the morning decorating, the family went outside to enjoy another fresh layer of snow that blanketed the castle over night. Snowballs were made and yet another snowball fight took place. Following the snowball fight, they went to the stables to visit the horses.
As with before, Davy was smitten by Midnight. Though their parents were not there, having decided to stay with Sadie again, and unable to say whether or not they wanted Davy riding a horse, Sebastian and his siblings decided to let him. Davy sat with Shelby on Midnight as Sebastian lead Midnight in a slow trot around her pasture.
The smile never left Davy's face as he rode Midnight with Shelby. When he was done, Sebastian and his siblings decided not to let their parents know Davy had already ridden a horse. They had all been older the first time they rode a horse.
When the family was reunited for their feast at dinner, everyone was once again calm. Edward and Elinor reflected on enjoying the time they spent with Sadie that afternoon while their children told about some of the things they had enjoyed doing that afternoon. At the Christmas Eve feast, everyone was beginning to anticipate the celebrations the following day.
After the meal, the family returned to the Great Hall where they spent the evening by the fire relaxing and telling stories. Some of the stories they shared were about previous Christmases while others were made up stories they told. Several hours later, when Sadie began to get fussy, everyone departed ways to head to their rooms for the night so they would be well rested for the festivities the following day.
XXX
On Christmas morning, everyone woke to another fresh layer of snow covering the grounds. Excitement filled the air as everyone woke up on Christmas morning.
Lucinda woke Shelby and Sebastian before Sadie had the chance to do so by crying. Despite not knowing it was a holiday, even Sadie seemed to be in a better mood than normal. Although Shelby still needed to feed Sadie, since she had teeth coming in, the kitchen staff had been tasked with preparing soft food for her to eat so she could eat with her family.
When Shelby and Sebastian arrived to the dining hall with Sadie, she was excited to see everyone. Though it was only breakfast, the meal was still meant to be grand.
"So," Sebastian began a little into the meal. "I'm sure you have noticed that while we helped decorate the Great Hall yesterday, the Great Room where we have spent much of our time lately is still mostly undecorated. Since Shelby and I have been doing some decorating together and you all helped yesterday, we were hoping that we could decorate the Great Room together as a family. How does that sound to everyone?" he asked.
"Yes!" Davy exclaimed. "I mean, yes, I would very much like that."
"I thought it might be fun," Shelby began. "My family and I used to decorate together and it was so much fun," she finished, trailing off slightly when she realized she was referring to her real family. She had no idea what Daisy's family might have done for Christmas.
"Remember when I was young and we would all decorate," Sebastian jumped in to cover for Shelby's slip up. "We used to decorate as a family before things got too busy when we got older."
"Ah, yes," Elinor sighed.
"That's what we would like to do," Sebastian again spoke. "Would you like to help decorate?"
Everyone nodded their agreement before they turned back to finish their breakfast. Despite not having his family's agreement, Sebastian had already planned for servants to bring the decorations for the Great Room there while they ate so it would be ready for them after breakfast.
When everyone finished eating and Sadie was cleaned up from the mess she made of herself while eating, the family made their way to the Great Room. "What do we do first?" Davy asked immediately when they arrived as he looked at the boxes of decorations.
"We will want to start by putting a bunch of candles around the room," Sebastian spoke. "Even though we don't need them to see right now, they'll be nice decorations."
"Okay," Davy agreed, already searching for the candles. When he found them, he'd begin putting them wherever he saw fit. If he found somewhere he wanted to put one that he couldn't reach, he asked Shelby or one of his siblings to help him reach the spot.
After all the candles were placed around the room, everyone turned their attention to the Christmas tree. "I may have asked this last year," Shelby began, turning to Sebastian. "But are Christmas trees common now? Do people usually decorate them?"
"It's not very popular with the common people, so right now I think it's more common for royalty and the higher classes."
"Ah, okay," Shelby replied.
"Ready to decorate?" he asked.
"Yes," Shelby spoke as they went to join the rest of his family.
The remainder of the morning was a joyous time as the family decorated the Christmas tree together. When the time came for them to leave for their lunch feast, there were only a few things that needed to be done yet, one of those was making the Yulebocken, something they decided they would do after lunch.
"Decorating this morning was quite enjoyable," Elinor commented as they sat down for lunch.
"Especially since there was no arguing," Rosalinda commented under her breath, causing William and Angus, who had joined them for lunch, to laugh since they sat beside her.
"What was that, Darling?" Elinor asked, noticing the movement of Rosalinda's lips.
"Oh, nothing, Mother, I was just telling Angus something," she answered.
"Very well," Elinor replied, turning her attention to the food that was spread across the table.
Rosalinda, Angus, and William again shared a laugh before filling their plates for lunch.
"Sebastian," Shelby turned to him, keeping her voice quiet. "How often do you and your siblings do stuff like that to your parents?" she asked after watching the interaction.
"Less than we used to," Sebastian replied. "I'm surprised we never got in trouble for it."
"Did you play pranks on your parents when you were younger?" Shelby questioned.
"Mostly Rosalinda, William, Jane, and I," Sebastian replied. "The others were mostly too young. Though Angus would sometimes join in when us kids played pranks on each other since he lived in a neighboring villa. Did you pull many pranks when you were younger?"
"Not really. My brothers are more the pranksters in my family," Shelby replied, making sure to keep her voice quiet.
"What would they do?"
"Most of the time, they made messes failing at making food, but when you put them together, something is bound to happen."
Sebastian offered a nod, but dropped the conversation since they were around his family who couldn't find out that Shelby wasn't from their time and wasn't Daisy. They instead turned their attention to the conversation the rest of the family was taking part in. The conversation continued to be pleasant as they ate.
Once they finished eating, some servants came to clear the table and allow the family to make their Yulebocken together. After finishing the Yulebocken, the family returned to their own rooms to retrieve their coats so they could spend the afternoon outside.
While everyone enjoyed the time they spent together outside, Edward and Elinor were ready to return inside before any of their children were. They offered to bring Sadie inside with them and watch her for Shelby and Sebastian; however, Sadie was enjoying her time outside and watching the snow fall, so she stayed outside. When they visited the horses, Dacy enjoyed trying to tell Sadie about horses despite the fact that she wouldn't remember anything he taught her. Shelby and Sebastian especially got a kick out of Davy's enjoyment at being older than someone else he was with.
As it grew darker, the group made their way inside so they could wash up before the evening feast.
Once again, everyone was able to enjoy the meal. Sadie once again enjoyed having the meal with her family despite making a mess of her face with the soft food she was given. After the meal, the family returned to the Great Room to sit in front of the fire and enjoy their handiwork from decorating the room with candles that morning. They spent the evening relaxing together before parting ways with their final goodnights for the night.
XXX
In the days following Christmas, the family continued to spend time together during the day. In that time, Sebastian and his brothers would often spend time training and practicing.
Though the days in the week following Christmas were relaxing, on Saturday and Sunday, the 29th and 30th, the family all decided to sleep in as much as they could. On Sunday, even Sadie seemed to want to sleep in as she woke Shelby and Sebastian up later in the morning than she usually did. As she appeared to not be hungry and just wanted attention, Shelby picked her up and walked around the room with her.
"Remember what you told me about your traditions for the new year last year?" Sebastian asked.
"Yeah. Why?"
"Would you want to do that again?"
"Really? You'd want to stay up until midnight again?"
"Yes. Why not?" Sebastian replied. "Sadie should be asleep by then and I thought it was fun trying to sneak to the kitchen last year."
Shelby shook her head and laughed. "Are you really sure you want to do that?"
"Of course," Sebastian agreed with a mischievous grin.
"Okay," Shelby replied. The two spent a few more minutes talking before there was a knock on the door.
"Are you awake?" Lucinda's voice was soft.
"Yeah, we're awake," Shelby answered.
A few seconds later, Lucinda entered the room. "How long have you been awake?"
"Not very long," Sebastian replied.
Lucinda nodded. "Shelby, are you ready for me to help you get dressed?" Shelby nodded in reply and followed Lucinda to the other side of the room after making sure Sadie was happy with Sebastian.
A few minutes later, Shelby took Sadie while Sebastian got dressed. They soon joined his family for breakfast as they had since their arrival. On New Year's Eve, after spending the day with Sebastian's family, Shelby and Sebastian claimed to be feeling tired and said they wanted to get to bed early.
However, rather than going to bed early that night, Shelby and Sebastian would be spending their evening relaxing and waiting for midnight as they had planned to do. Earlier in the day, the two made sure they had enough books to keep them occupied throughout the evening. Sadie also relaxed since her teething pains had been less severe for a couple days.
Though Shelby and Sebastian wanted to stay up late that night, they knew they wouldn't be able to unless they got some more rest before midnight. By 8, Shelby and Sebastian were relaxing in their room and decided to each nap for an hour while the other was awake and then trade off. By just after 10 that evening, they both felt well rested enough to stay up for the remainder of the night.
"Ready to go get some food for us?" Shelby asked.
"We should make sure Sadie's sound asleep first, shouldn't we?" Sebastian questioned.
"Right. Obviously," Shelby replied, making her way over to Sadie's bassinet. After determining that Sadie was still sound asleep, the two put their robes on to head to the kitchen. "Which way is the best way to sneak to the kitchen?" Shelby asked when the two entered the dark and deserted hallway.
"This way," Sebastian said as he began to lead the way through the halls. Shelby nodded as she followed behind Sebastian down a couple halls. They heard a servant coming and had to hide briefly as they waited for him to pass. Once Sebastian ensured the hall was clear, he motioned for Shelby to follow him.
When they got to the kitchen, Shelby and Sebastian quickly gathered the things they wanted to eat and drink while they waited for midnight. They each only took a couple things so they'd be able to carry it all back to their room. As they exited the kitchen, Shelby went in front of Sebastian. When they made it to the end of the first hall outside the kitchen, Sebastian heard someone coming before Shelby noticed. Since they each had a hand free, he used his free hand to grab the wrist of Shelby's free hand and pull her back so they could hide against the wall without being noticed.
After stopping Shelby, Sebastian quickly explained that he heard someone coming so they stood with their backs against the wall, facing the way the person was walking so they wouldn't be seen as the servant walked past.
For the tense moments as they waited for the servant to pass, Shelby and Sebastian both held their breaths. When the person passed, they both breathed a sigh of relief and looked down to their hands since Sebastian hadn't let go of Shelby's. "Sorry," he spoke, hastily pulling his hand away.
"No worries," Shelby replied, turning away from Sebastian as she felt her cheeks grow warm.
Sebastian began forward once again as Shelby kept her head slightly down to hide the blush that covered it. There was no way she could actually feel something other than dislike and hatred for Sebastian. The thought was crazy. Sebastian wasn't a nice guy––or rather, he wasn't at first. She knew he was different now. Sebastian had changed. But there was no way she could like him.
When the two got closer to their room, Shelby reached up to her cheeks and was relieved to find that the heat had left them. Even if her face was still slightly flushed, the darkness of their room would help her hide it. "I'll take that from you if you want to check on Sadie," Sebastian offered as they entered their room. Shelby nodded. "Is Sadie good?" he asked, making sure to keep his voice low so he wouldn't wake Sadie up.
"Yeah, she's still sound asleep."
"Great. What do we want to do to pass the time?"
"We could read," Shelby offered.
"What about story telling?" Sebastian suggested.
Shelby furrowed her brow, "What do you mean?"
"What's one of your favorite stories to tell? Something that happened with you and your brothers or with your best friend, Cyd?"
Slowly, Shelby nodded. "Why don't you start with your favorite story. Or what's one of your favorite things you did with your siblings or friends?"
"Okay," Sebastian paused. "It wasn't until I was thirteen that my knight training began even though I was already engaged to Daisy. But around the time I was ten and William was nine, we would go into the woods with Angus, find sticks, and use them as swords. We all knew we wanted to be knights to protect the kingdom when we were older, even though we didn't fully understand what that meant."
"Do you have a memory of that that stands out most clearly?"
Sebastian hummed as he paused in thought. "Maybe the first time we were playing in the woods and we decided to ditch Rosalinda and Jane to play on our own," Sebastian began. "That was the first time we decided to use sticks as swords since we didn't have to worry about them trying to tell us to be careful. The three of us had fun and decided to do it again."
"That sounds like fun. Although it probably could have been dangerous if you weren't careful with the sticks. Anyway, did Forest ever start to join in?"
"Around the time he was six or seven he started coming with us. Now, what's your favorite story to tell or thing that happened."
"I think one of my favorite things was an epic girl's day we did with Daisy when we kind of time traveled."
"What do you mean by kind of time traveled?"
"Technically we did. But Cyd and I sort of traveled to, I guess you would say, different realities. We were in timelines without each other," Shelby began before telling the story of the epic girl's day. She related how the day had begun and the disagreement she and Cyd had that lead to them jumping to separate timelines. She told Sebastian how they had eventually been able to get back to each and find Daisy.
"Okay," Sebastian nodded. "But I do have a couple questions. What is a mannequin and what is mall jail?"
"Right," Shelby laughed, almost forgetting that Sebastian didn't know everything about the 21st century. "First, a mall is basically like a big market with a bunch of different stores. If you do something they don't like at the mall, they put you in mall jail which is essentially like a dungeon."
"Okay."
"And a mannequin is a fake person. Like, it was never alive, but stores use them to model clothes."
Again, Sebastian nodded. "I realized I have a couple more questions."
"What are they?"
"What is a mall train and what is a photo booth?"
"So the mall train is just this little train in the mall that you can ride around in and a train is basically like a carriage, but it's powered by something like coal not horses. Basically it just takes you from one place to another and it's much quicker than horses."
"Ahh," Sebastian nodded.
"Then a photo booth is where you get your picture taken. It's like a portrait, but much quicker and no one needs to paint them."
Sebastian again nodded and from there the conversation continued with Sebastian asking more questions about the 21st century. In some cases, it was things he already knew a little about and wanted to know more. Other things Sebastian had questions about what school and work were like in the 21st century. "Your time sounds amazing," Sebastian spoke.
"Well, the 1500s can be pretty cool too. Although, living here takes a little getting used to."
"As I'm sure it would take me time to get used to living in your time if I ever had to."
"True," Shelby agreed. "Moving to a new city is a big adjustment to make let alone living in a different century."
Sebastian nodded his agreement as the two continued to talk for a while longer. "It's almost midnight," Sebastian spoke, glancing over to the clock.
Shelby nodded.
"Would you like to toast our drinks at midnight like we did last year?" he questioned, already getting out of bed and making his way to the table.
"Sounds good," Shelby agreed, watching Sebastian make his way to the table. As she watched him, she began to reflect once again on how much he had changed since she got trapped in the 1520s. He'd begun changing by this time the year before, but he'd continued to change for the better even more since then.
"What do you want to drink?" Sebastian asked, drawing Shelby from her thoughts.
"What?"
"Water or wine?"
"Water," Shelby answered. "I wouldn't be able to drink in my time and you're not supposed to while pregnant or breastfeeding because it's dangerous for your baby, so water is fine."
"All right," Sebastian replied, pouring water for both of them.
Shelby's thoughts of how much Sebastian had changed also reminded her of how she felt earlier when Sebastian took her wrist to stop her from being discovered. She couldn't believe she could like him. Still, she had her doubts.
"Here you go," Sebastian said as he got back to the bed and handed Shelby her glass of water; she set it down on the table beside her.
The two sat reading for a couple minutes before picking their drinks up as it grew nearer to midnight. "Ten, nine, eight," the two watched the clock as they counted down. "Three, two, one, happy new year," they spoke as they brought their drinks together in a toast.
"Did we take care of everything right away last year?" Shelby asked after she and Sebastian finished their drinks.
"I don't remember," Sebastian said. "Maybe we should take care of it just to make sure it isn't found."
"All right," Shelby agreed. The two got out of bed and put their robes back on to venture through the halls of the castle. They left after making sure that Sadie was still sound asleep.
Unlike when they had made their way out of their room the first time, Shelby and Sebastian didn't pass any servants. They made it back to their room without being discovered and were soon asleep.
A/N: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone. I hope you're able to enjoy the holiday season with loved ones.
Although this chapter begins to focus on things other than Christmas, I thought it would be fitting to post a chapter that features Christmas for Shelby and Sebastian on Christmas for us in the 21st century.
I again don't have much more to add. I likely won't be able to post another chapter next week and keep with the schedule I've had of posting a chapter a week. I have several family parties for Christmas and New Year's celebrations in the coming week.
I appreciate constructive criticism as it helps me become a better writer. Feel free to leave a review if that's something you want to do. See you all in the new year! :)
Reviews:
sweetsimplegirl (chapter 23): Even though you weren't able to review right away, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and that Shelby and Sebastian's relationship is developing naturally. While there are part of the story later that include skipping past a lot of time, that is able to happen because of these chapters establishing their new relationship.
sweetsimplegirl (chapter 24): I'm glad you like that Sebastian calls Sadie Sade. Since I decided to do so in having Shelby call her that, I thought it would be fitting if he did so too. I'm glad you enjoyed that Shelby and Sebastian's siblings are bonding; it's always fun to poke fun at Elinor. When Shelby admits to wanting to be with her family, she's really just missing them because she's spending another Christmas without them. I hadn't actually thought about that implying that it might be without Sadie likely because I know how the story will end (and it is a happy ending).
Ansy: I probably shouldn't say this, but it's actually really fun to write Elinor as an annoying and terrible mother-in-law. She will have her moments of being better in the future, but she has a difficult time getting rid of her habits. As I've mentioned before, I try to make the story realistic, so including milestones like Sadie's first teeth coming in helps bring in that and some of the struggles parents face. And I love getting to write Sebastian as the man he is now.