Chapter Seventy-Two

It was a quiet Saturday. Ruth liked quiet days. Saturdays especially. No one was bothering her. Nothing on calendar for her to worry about. Just a quiet day with a little lie in and breakfast with her family and an afternoon to catch up on things.

Today was particularly nice. Emilia had some homework to do, and Charlotte was getting very good at reading. Ruth invited her daughters to join her in the queen's private study for the afternoon. The three of them were all sharing the same space and working quietly.

Periodically, Ruth looked up to gaze at her beautiful, brilliant little girls. Emilia's cascade of curly blonde locks hung messily as she bent over her homework at the table where Ruth had set her up. She was intensely focused. For all that Emmy was brash and attention-seeking, she understood hard work and seriousness. She had thankfully grown out of her distractable nature. When it mattered, at least. She understood that schoolwork was important, and she devoted all of her competitive nature to striving for the best in everything she did. When she was not doing something like that, however, she was constantly chattering and asking questions and going a million miles a minute, it seemed. Ruth had yet to find an end to her patience for her daughter's questions. She hoped she never, ever would.

"Mummy, how do you spell 'significant'?" Emilia asked, tossing her hair over to the side to look over at her mother.

Ruth smiled. "How do you think it's spelled?" she asked in return.

Emilia scowled. She knew better than to ask for the answers from her parents. Both Ruth and Harry always forced their children to try for themselves, ensuring that so long as they tried, their parents would be there to help them. Emmy thought for a moment and looked down at her page and tried, "S-I-G-N-I-F-I-G-E-N-T?"

"Very close. That's a hard one. It ends with 'C-A-N-T' but you nearly got it," Ruth said.

"Thank you," Emmy said, a small smile on her lips at knowing she'd done well. She returned to her work, and Ruth knew she should do the same.

But instead, Ruth's gaze moved to the armchair where Charlotte sat with her nose in a book. She had moved beyond pictures books, which made sense at eight years old, but it still made Ruth feel a little sad. Her baby was a baby no more. Charlotte's dark curls were pulled back away from her face. Charlotte absolutely hated her hair getting in her way; Emmy didn't seem to mind it. But Charlotte was still a more active child. She had developed a love of sport, taking after her father and the elder Pearce siblings. Ruth and Emmy both couldn't be bothered with such things. Charlotte, though, loved nothing more than running around and playing something. She was still quiet and a bit shy, but she blossomed through sport. Even now, when she was sitting comfortably reading a book, her foot bobbed and her fingers fidgeted with the pages. She had not been still during waking hours in all her life. Graham had a similar tendency, Ruth had seen, but not like Charlotte. Though Graham's childhood was very different than Charlotte's. He might have been forced to stop himself from fidgeting the way Charlotte was allowed. After all, Graham spent the first eight years of his life living without his father, and then when his mother died, the young boy was sent off to boarding schools while Harry was stationed overseas.

It pained Ruth to think about, in fact, the way all four of Harry's children had disappointing childhoods, though all in different ways. Catherine and Graham had barely known their father until they were almost teenagers, and they'd lost their mother when they were young. Emilia and Charlotte had two loving and present parents—as present as they could manage, at least. But Catherine and Graham had the freedom of anonymity. They lived a relatively normal life as children. Ruth's little girls had not been normal for a single second. They had been born to the Crown Princess. Emilia was born knowing she would become queen. There was nothing normal about that at all.

A knock at the door shook Ruth from her maudlin musings. "Yes?" she called.

The visitor was not a member of staff, as she had expected, nor was it Harry, who sometimes came by on days like this so the four of them could spend the time together. Instead, it was the very last person Ruth ever anticipated or welcomed. Queen Juliet.

The Dowager Queen breezed in, barely bowing to Ruth and only doing so out of the sheer necessity of it. It also did not escape Ruth's notice that Juliet wore a very elegant cream-colored suit and looked extremely elegant. Ruth herself was dressed in one of her old long dark skirts and a faded blue jumper. Queen Louisa though she was, Ruth found herself once again feeling small and insignificant in Juliet's presence. That would have been a more apt word for Emmy to try and spell.

"Ruth, dear, I'm glad you're not busy," Juliet said, coming right up to the queen's desk and sitting down without being invited.

"I am working on a few things, but I can spare a few minutes," Ruth answered as politely as she could muster. "Is there something you need?" She spared a glance over Juliet's shoulder to see both Charlotte and Emilia staring daggers at their great aunt's back. The girls had not spent too much time with Juliet. Harry and Ruth had taken great pains to ensure that. Though it seemed as though the dislike of the woman felt by the rest of the family had rubbed off on the princesses.

"Yes," Juliet continued, choosing to take no notice of the frosty reception. "The royal tour next year."

Ruth frowned. Juliet had been taking the royal tours for the last decade or so. Harry had done short trips here and there to the colonies in the past and more frequently in the recent two years since the former colonies became commonwealth nations. Ruth herself did not like to travel, particularly while the girls were young. "What about the royal tour?" Ruth asked warily.

"You ought to go. You and Harry and your girls."

The suggestion was startling to say the least. "What?" Ruth was unsure how to react to such a thing.

Juliet sighed in exasperation, as though Ruth were some simpleton to whom she needed to speak down. As usual. "You are supposed to be the figurehead queen to all of these new countries. I didn't go to most of them last year because it wasn't safe. But the wars are all over now. You granted them independence for heaven knows what terrible reason, so you ought to go there."

The fact that Juliet disagreed with Ruth granting independence to the colonies was absolutely unsurprising. But the fact that she was now giving a very good recommendation and for a very good reason…quite surprising to say the least. "A-alright," Ruth said weakly.

Juliet gave a simple nod. Apparently that was all she had to say on the matter. Ruth felt like her head was swimming. She was distracted from the issue of the royal tour, however, when Juliet turned around to look at Emmy and Charlotte. "They're bigger," she noted.

Ruth's maternal protectiveness came roaring to the forefront of her thoughts. "They are growing up, yes." She waited for Juliet to dare to say anything even suggesting disparagement of her daughters.

But instead, Juliet said something else even more surprising than anything to this point. "Emilia, are you paying attention to your mother? You'll do well to follow her example when you're queen one day."

Emmy was startled by being addressed by a woman who had otherwise been content to ignore her existence. "Y-yes," she stammered. Her blue eyes were wide and a little afraid.

Juliet turned back to Ruth, a small smile playing on her lips. "I know it'll be long after we're gone, but she will look lovely on the stamp."

"I…I suppose she will," Ruth responded, stuttering as much as her daughter had.

"You have a beautiful family, Ruth. You and Harry have done very well. I will be the first to say that I had anticipated failure at every turn. Between your mousy ways and his foolishness. But you've all risen to the occasion. Your father and grandfather would both be very proud. Though I daresay they wouldn't be as surprised as I am. They both thought much more highly of you than I ever have."

Somewhere in there were actual sincere compliments. Better than could have ever been expected from Juliet. Ruth did not know what to say. She just stared in shock.

Juliet scoffed at Ruth's silence. "You see? This is why I never expect much. Honestly, how you've reigned without utter disaster for five years…"

"I have to ask you something," Ruth interrupted.

"Yes?" It was said as a challenge, Juliet's brow arched in curiosity.

"Did you purposefully prevent an heir for Edmund?" she blurted.

A darkness appeared in Juliet's face. An expression that betrayed a hint of fear. A hint of hurt. "For a time, yes. It's no secret that I never wanted children. But when King Richard had the heart attack, I did try. And it never happened. Edmund and I thought we had more time, of course. I know I'm the cause of your fate. Your daughter's fate. But I suppose you should know that I did try to prevent it for all our sakes," Juliet answered softly.

There was a vulnerability in her truth that moved Ruth more than she might have anticipated. "Thank you," she said with a nod.

"I'm sure it was Harry who put that into your head."

Ruth just nodded.

"He'd know better than most. I'm sure you know…"

"Yes. We needn't discuss it." Certainly not in front of Charlotte and Emilia, both of whom were listening to the conversation with rapt attention.

Juliet agreed with a nod. "Anyway, things were never supposed to turn out this way for either of us. But you've done well."

"And that shocks you," Ruth said knowingly.

"Yes," she admitted. "But that doesn't lessen the fact that you have done well, Ruth. I am proud to serve you as my queen. And with that, I'll leave you to your work. Let me know if you'd like to discuss anything for the royal tour, but I'll assume that you and your family will take it on this time around." She stood up and smoothed the wrinkles from her skirt.

Ruth stood as well. "I will speak with my advisors. I may consult you on some things for it," she said. And she extended her hand.

Juliet looked at the queen's outstretched hand with slight surprise. But she shook it with her own. And with that, she went out the way she'd come. She did not acknowledge Emilia or Charlotte, once again.

When the door was closed again, Ruth slumped down in her chair, feeling rather wrung out.

"Mummy? What was all that?" Emmy asked.

Ruth laughed lightly. "That, sweet girl, was something of a miracle. Your dad is never going to believe what just happened. You'll have to back me up when I tell him Juliet was kind to me."

"Was she?" Charlotte countered.

"Yes," Ruth assured her. "For Juliet, that was incredibly kind. Gracious, actually. And someday I'll explain exactly how much that meant to me. Once I can figure it out myself. But we all have things we should get back to, don't we?"

Ruth's daughters nodded and returned to their respective tasks. Ruth watched them for another moment before getting back to work herself.