Chapter Fifty-Six
Harry had been looking forward to this. It was Saturday, he was taking the whole weekend away from work, and Ruth was finally able to take the entire day to herself.
Since the new year, she had been inundated with a very in-depth course on royalty. Both Emilia and Charlotte were walking and talking and eating proper food and very nearly toilet trained. Ruth was not needed to breastfeed or change diapers or put them down for naps. She did enjoy the latter of those tasks, but she knew where her duties lay now. Her father had been kind and understanding, holding on and allowing Juliette to fill in for him when he was in treatments or otherwise unable to attend to something or other. But it was Ruth on whose head the crown would land. And while King James had wanted Ruth to have the privilege of being a mother first and foremost while her children were young, the time for waiting was over. She had to focus on learning to be queen now.
And so she had been whisked off to various parts of the country for events nearly every day. When there wasn't an event, she was with her father and observing the tasks he performed each day. She learned the role of the monarch and the relationship with the Legislature, the Leader and its Members, the placation of the nobles, and the attentions to the colonies. Juliette had been doing the royal tour the last three years, which she enjoyed for the attention she received and which everyone else in the family enjoyed because it took her far away from them.
Harry had gotten used to having dinner and sometimes breakfast alone with the girls. They were well looked after while he was working, but Ruth was gone quite often. More than once, he'd not seen her from the time she kissed him goodbye in the morning until she slipped into bed beside him.
But she had told him she had a free day coming up and wanted to spend it in a very specific way. It was late in the summer now, and there was starting to get that lovely bite to the air in the mornings. And to Harry's shock, Ruth wanted to spend the day with the girls outside on the grounds of Leister Palace.
They woke up lazily, sharing a few kisses and hoping for maybe a little something more when a little knock came at their bedroom door.
"Yes?" Harry called, knowing it could only be a very small handful of people who would dare come to the door and also knowing that any of those people could find he and Ruth in bed together—thankfully not naked just yet—and not be bothered.
The door opened and two pairs of little feet padded across the rug. "Hi, Daddy," Emilia said shyly. She was holding Charlotte's hand.
Harry grinned to see their sweet little girls. "Hello, sweetheart. What are you doing in here?"
"Snuggle," Charlotte said simply. Her voice was soft and nervous, like Ruth's.
Ruth herself beamed with joy at her daughters. "That's a wonderful idea. Come on up, come snuggle with us for a little while before we have to get up for breakfast," she prompted.
They made space between them for their little girls to climb into bed with them. Emmy let got of Charlotte and bounded enthusiastically over the bed covers and flopped herself right on top of Harry. He coughed as he tried to regain his breath after his little girl knocked the wind out of him, but he was laughing and holding her tight in his arms. She giggled as he started kissing her cheeks. He'd been doing that since the day she was born. She'd probably grow up and hate it by the time she was about ten, but he was sure he'd never grow tired of the joyful sound of her laughter.
Charlotte was much more reserved than her elder sister, so she took her time crawling over the bed to plant herself right between her parents. Ruth, also the less exuberant parent, held Charlotte gently and kissed her softly, much in contrast to the energetic giggling going on with Harry and Emilia. But soon all four of them settled down, and Harry rolled over so he and Ruth were facing each other with their daughters cuddled between them. The only sound was of their soft breathing.
Harry looked over the children's curly heads to Ruth and they shared a smile. His heart warmed in his chest. He would have quite liked to start the day making love to his wife, but this was just as good. Catherine was off traveling in the care of her security team. Graham was on the army base just two hours away finishing his officer's training before returning to university to get his degree. Emilia and Charlotte were here in his arms with the rare combination of Emmy being quiet and Charlotte being still. Juliette was far away. King James was alive and well. For this one moment, everything was absolutely perfect.
The perfect moment was interrupted, however, by a growling of Harry's stomach. The girls—all three of them—started laughing.
"I think that means we have to get up, lovies. Dad's hungry. And so am I. Let's all get in dressing gowns and figure out what we want to eat, alright?" Ruth suggested, rousting the little ones from the bed. "I think today would be a good day for waffles, don't you?"
That earned cheers from the children, and Harry thought a bit of sausage and a couple waffles sounded like an incredible breakfast. Ruth got up with the girls and ushered them to their room to get them ready for breakfast. Harry hauled himself out of bed and stretched, his joints cracking with every movement. He'd be fifty at his next birthday, and he was not looking forward to it. Aging was a nasty business. He grumbled to himself about it as he made his way to the shower for a quick wash to wake him up.
Two hours later, waffles and sausage and coffee and juice consumed by all to great satisfaction, Harry and Ruth and Emmy and Charlotte were all walking hand in hand out through the back gardens of the palace.
"Mummy, where are we going?" Emmy asked curiously.
"We're going to the woods," Ruth answered.
"Why?" came Emmy's oft-repeated refrain.
Ruth smiled, always wonderfully patient with the curiosity of children. "When I was a little older than you are, I used to take a book from the library and come out here and find a tree I liked and I would read until it got too dark for me to see the words. And you're both too little to come out by yourself, but I want you to know these woods like I did and to feel comfortable with them. And we get to spend the whole day together, so isn't it nice to have it just be the four of us with no one else around?"
Charlotte was wiggling a little bit in Harry's grasp as they walked—slowly to keep up with her little legs—but he realized her fidgeting increased as Ruth spoke of going to the woods. "What's wrong, Charlotte?" he asked.
She looked up at him, squinting in the sunshine. "Woods are scary," she said simply.
Harry glanced at Ruth, who looked crestfallen. These woods were very important to her, he knew, and it was obviously disheartening that her children might not be as excited as she was to share in them. They all paused on their walk and Harry bent down to pick Charlotte up. "Ruth, why don't you and Emmy go on. Charlotte and I'll catch up in a minute," he suggested.
Ruth nodded and took Emilia's hand and continued down the path to the woods ahead.
"Am I scary, Charlotte?" he asked her, once Ruth and Emmy were out of earshot.
Her little brow furrowed. "Sometimes," she said truthfully. He nearly laughed at that. At least someone still recognized his capabilities.
But he tried a different tack. "What's scarier, me or the woods?"
She thought about that a moment. "Woods."
"Do you think I could protect you from whatever might be scary in the woods? You think I could scare it away if it ever scared you?"
Charlotte brightened. "Yes!"
Harry kissed her cheek. "Good. So just you remember that I'll always protect you from anything scary. And you don't have to be scared when I'm here. So why don't we go catch up to Mum and Emmy and explore?"
"Daddy, you stay with me?" she asked, slightly apprehensive again.
He hugged her close, feeling the desperate need to protect her from this and everything else in the whole world for the rest of her life. "I'll always be with you, sweetheart," he vowed.
Charlotte smiled serenely and patted Harry's cheek happily. "Okay, let's go," she agreed.
"Do you want to walk or do you want me to carry you?" he offered.
"Carry," she replied. "Run, catch up!"
Harry chuckled lightly. He may be pushing fifty, but he could still do this. "Alright, hold on tight," he warned. And once Charlotte was secure in his arms, he raced forward, running toward Ruth and Emmy and running right past him.
"Daddy! Daddy, we're back here!" Emmy shouted, thinking that he must have run past them by accident.
Charlotte was giggling up a storm. Harry and Ruth were both laughing as well as he jogged back to where the girls were strolling. "Gosh, I thought you'd already gotten much further," he teased Emilia.
"Do you want to race Dad to the trees?" Ruth asked the little girl next to her.
"Yeah!" Emmy shrieked with glee. And without another word, she let go of Ruth's hand and bolted down the path.
Harry glowered at Ruth for that trick. These girls were going to tire him out to be sure. Ruth just laughed and called, "Be careful!" after them as they all took off running.
Charlotte thought the whole thing was terribly funny and she giggled as Harry ran to catch up to Emilia. After all, it wouldn't do for her to get too far ahead. But she made it to the border of the forest and grabbed onto the trunk of a mighty oak tree, hugging it as she giggled.
"I win!" Emmy announced, breathing heavily and laughing all the while.
"So you did. Well done, sweetheart," Harry said. He put Charlotte back down on the ground and tried to hide how wiped out that short race made him. "And now you and Charlotte hold hands and go explore and don't go anywhere you can't see me. I'm going to wait for Mummy."
The girls did as they were told, going about ten feet down the path before finding a rock that interested them and bending down to look at it. Harry watched them, still getting his heart rate under control. Ruth sidled up beside him, putting her arms around his waist.
"I'm too old to be the father of two energetic little girls," he lamented quietly, still watching the girls as he held Ruth.
"If you start complaining that you're too old to be their father, I might start to think you're too old for other things, too," Ruth chided.
"Oh? Like what?"
She smirked and lowered her voice so they wouldn't be overheard. "Like going down on me in the shower or shagging me up against the wall."
"I might be too old for those things, too," he teased.
Ruth looked up at him, appalled.
He laughed and kissed the tip of her nose. "How about this: if I get old and feeble, you can climb on top of me in my wheelchair and have your filthy way with me whenever you want. Deal?"
She was laughing again at that. "Alright, deal. But I do expect you to go down on me in the shower until you can't kneel down and get up on your own anymore."
"You have my word, Princess. I dedicate the whole strength of my knees to your pleasure," he said with feigned seriousness.
Ruth nudged him with another laugh. "Enough of that. Let's go play with the girls." She let go of him and went over to see what had interested their daughters so. Harry followed her with a smile.