§ § § -- February 18, 2004
"Honestly, if I eat any more, I'm going to look like the operatic fat lady by the time the twins are born," Leslie grumbled, staring in disbelief at what little remained of the lunch she had just shared with Roarke and Christian. "I know Mariki would love it if I weighed two-fifty, but I think Dr. Hannaford would have a problem with it."
The men laughed. "That's simply the way Mariki is, child," Roarke assured her. "You shouldn't worry about it; it's just a manifestation of her ongoing insistence that you eat."
Christian nodded and said, "I think so as well. But I have to admit, my Rose, I've never known you to eat so heartily…or quite so much. You had three helpings of everything!"
"I know," said Leslie plaintively, staring at him. "I'm so hungry all the time, it feels as if some alien must have taken over. I've started to wonder if I'm eating too much even for someone who's expecting twins."
"Then we'll bring it up to Dr. Hannaford next week," said Christian. "Just for now…" He stopped, his gaze training on something beyond the table, and Roarke and Leslie both looked in that direction.
Only Roarke recognized the man approaching them. "Good afternoon, Mr. Nordeman, how can we help you?" he inquired.
Christian and Leslie looked at each other while Gregory Nordeman paused beside the table. "I don't mean to interrupt," he said, "but I have a question. Where's Anna-Laura?"
That got Christian's and Leslie's collective attention, and they both turned to look at him now. "I beg your pardon?" Christian said coolly.
Nordeman took a closer look at him and said, "Ah, just the man I was hoping to run into. Your Highness, I've been trying to contact your sister—Princess Anna-Laura—for the last two days. I can't get through to her."
"She isn't on the island any longer, Mr. Nordeman," said Christian bluntly. "She took Lisi home to Lilla Jordsö two days ago."
Nordeman stared at him. "Why?"
"She has some thinking to do," Christian told him, while Leslie and Roarke looked on, both well aware of the emergence of Christian's accustomed royal persona. His "common-man" veneer was well-developed; but under certain circumstances his true colors showed, and this was one such. "She confided in my wife and me last week, explaining that you had offered to let her and Lisi stay with you until our own home is ready…and also that when she declined, you proposed marriage."
Nordeman looked a little disgruntled, peering at Christian with disapproval. "Oh?"
"She was conflicted," said Christian, relaxing in his chair, still easily meeting Nordeman's gaze with a cool regard of his own. "You were moving too quickly for her, and she needed to have time to think about things and to continue working through her grief over Lisi's parents." He studied the older man assessingly. "It's my understanding, from several sources, that you have…shall I say, a forceful personality. Not everyone responds positively to that, Mr. Nordeman, and I think you may have overwhelmed Anna-Laura a bit."
Nordeman eyed Christian with some annoyance. "Just in case you were wondering, Your Highness, I happen to be in love with her. I proposed to her for that reason and that one only."
"Oh, I don't doubt that," Christian said and almost smiled. "I think what you fail to see here is that Anna-Laura may not be ready yet for so great a change in her life."
Nordeman looked a little startled, and Roarke inquired, "Did you consider asking Her Highness about her feelings, Mr. Nordeman? Did you suggest to her that there were other alternatives than merely moving her in with you and marrying her?"
Nordeman floundered, his mouth gaping open, his eyes darting back and forth between Roarke and Christian. Finally he managed, "What're you driving at?"
"You may have to deal with the possibility that Anna-Laura won't want to leave Lilla Jordsö," Christian said.
"Oh, come on," sputtered Nordeman. "You had no problem leaving."
Unexpectedly Christian laughed, though the sound wasn't entirely humorous. "If you know anything at all about the jordiska royal family, Mr. Nordeman, you'll recall that I'm rather the renegade of the lot," he said. "Anna-Laura may be my sister, but that doesn't make her identical to me in temperament or personality. And believe me, she wouldn't appreciate being compared to me in that manner. Anna-Laura, like anyone else, is entirely her own person, and I daresay you need to learn to treat her accordingly." He took in the man's poleaxed look. "It appears to me that this never crossed your mind. And before you begin to bluster at me, you'd better be aware that I don't intimidate easily."
Leslie fought to squelch a grin at Nordeman's discomfiture; Roarke injected sympathy into his smile. "I think it best if you give the princess some time, Mr. Nordeman," he advised gently. "When one falls in love as deeply as you have, it's sometimes difficult to practice restraint. But from all I have heard, you and Princess Anna-Laura have progressed at entirely different rates, emotionally. As Christian said, she is quite likely feeling overwhelmed, what with the loss of her daughter and son-in-law and the speed with which you've attempted to establish a relationship with her. The best thing you can do for her is to give her time."
Nordeman heaved an enormous sigh and finally nodded with obvious reluctance. "All right, then, I'll give her some space." He peered at Christian. "Do you think she'd be willing to stay in touch with me, over e-mail?"
"I don't see any reason she would refuse," Christian said with a half-shrug.
Nordeman nodded, studying the former prince, as if taking his measure; Christian continued to return his scrutiny with cool, quiet self-confidence. Suddenly the older man let out a laugh. "Must be something about this island," he said. "I couldn't intimidate Roarke when I got here. Now I can't intimidate you."
"He still has the soul of a prince," Leslie said with a fond smile at her husband, "and he puts it to good use when he needs to. Nobody steamrollers over Christian."
"Nobody steamrollers over royalty in general," Nordeman agreed, chuckling. "You must be Roarke's daughter, Leslie. It's good to finally meet you. Congratulations on the twins, by the way. Anna-Laura had been looking forward to helping care for them."
Christian raised an eyebrow. "Yes, she was," he agreed.
Nordeman grinned. "Well, if I handle her delicately, maybe she'll come back," he said. "Anyway, I get the message. Not that it changes my ultimate goal, mind you, but I get the message."
"Good," Christian said and shifted a bit in his chair, his expression becoming stern, but belied by a twinkle in his eye. "While you're here, I might suggest that you handle a rather major problem at the newspaper. At least once a month I'm called in to fix their aging computers. I doubt highly that any of those machines is less than eight years old, and some are clearly far older than that—probably twelve or fifteen years, so that they don't even have floppy-disk drives or multi-color monitors. Just the other day I had to go in and make yet another repair. Perhaps you'd do a favor for both the newspaper's employees and me, and make room in the budget for new computers across the board."
Leslie's mouth dropped open and she clapped her hand over it, hoping to stave off a burst of laughter. Roarke smiled very broadly, his own dark eyes sparkling with amusement, while Christian regarded the astonished newspaper owner in silence.
Finally Nordeman began to grin. "You're about the only person I've ever met who'd have the audacity to say that to me," he said. "Tell you what, next time I'm over there, I'll look into it. I'll check out some of these Dark-Age dinosaurs you claim some of my people are using, and I'll give Accounting a working-over till they find the money."
Christian grinned back and offered, "If you need help choosing new models, just give me a call, and I'll be glad to help out."
"You've got a deal, Your Highness," Nordeman said, and he and Christian shook hands across the table amid the laughter.
§ § § -- February 25, 2004
Christian and Leslie sat together in the hospital waiting room for Dr. Hannaford to send word that she was ready to see Leslie; they were each reading a magazine. Leslie let out a soft gasp that made Christian turn to her. "What's wrong, my darling?"
"Nothing at all, my love," Leslie said. "It says here that this summer, 'King's Castle' is finally coming out on DVD. That's so terrific…I've been waiting for that to happen. I grew up on that show, and it's my all-time favorite."
"Ah, I see," said Christian, grinning. "You might keep in mind that by the time that DVD is released, the babies will be here, and they'll give you no time to watch it!" Playfully Leslie stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed.
"Mr. and Mrs. Enstad? Dr. Hannaford is ready for you," a nurse called to them.
"Thank you," Leslie said, rising alongside Christian. Together they went back to the suite of rooms that Dr. Hannaford used, greeting her with smiles and following her to her examining room. Leslie had grown accustomed to undergoing an ultrasound each month; the previous month, she'd also had an amniocentesis done, something that had made Christian as nervous as it had Leslie. Fortunately everything had proven to be normal.
"So how're things coming along? Anything strange to report?" Dr. Hannaford inquired, performing the usual tests.
"I'm eating like a hippo," Leslie said, noting Christian's grin. "I mean, I know I have to make considerations for the fact that I'm carrying twins, but I eat so much that I'm getting suspicious. And Mariki's constant gloating that I'm finally gobbling down everything in sight, the way she's always wanted me to do, doesn't help at all."
Dr. Hannaford, who'd been apprised early on of Mariki's habit of urging Leslie to eat, laughed. "I'm sure it doesn't. But do you really think it's a problem?"
"She goes back for third helpings at most meals," Christian explained, "and for all the years I've known Leslie, she's never done that. Normally even second helpings are extremely rare for her, and for her to overload like this at nearly every meal seems like an oddity."
"Uh-huh," Dr. Hannaford mumbled thoughtfully. "Hmm. Increased appetite isn't unusual in pregnancy, but you do need to be careful about not gaining too much weight too fast. Sounds to me like you're looking for another explanation."
Leslie and Christian shrugged at each other, and Leslie said, "Well, it just seems really weird to me, that's all. To tell you the truth, even Mariki looked at me funny at lunch on Sunday, and said something smart-alecky about not being able to afford to feed me."
Dr. Hannaford straightened up and peered at her, then at Christian, and raised her eyebrows, intrigued. "Very interesting. When Mariki complains, there must be something to it." The Enstads both laughed. "Well, let's get the ultrasound done here, and then we'll see if we can track down the culprit."
Leslie raised her maternity top and Dr. Hannaford measured the top of the bulge to see how far her uterus had expanded; she "hmm"-ed again, evoking another shared glance between Christian and Leslie. "Be right back." She left, and Leslie squinted down at her expanding midsection.
Christian laid a hand over her now-distended navel. "It looks bigger," he commented.
"I thought so too," Leslie said a little uneasily, and they looked at each other again.
Dr. Hannaford came back at that moment and Leslie lay back on the examining table, taking Christian's hand while the doctor slathered conductive gel on Leslie's abdomen. In a few minutes they were all eyeing the monitor where the ultrasound image flickered, the expectant parents trying as usual to make sense of the pictures. Slowly Dr. Hannaford moved the transducer over Leslie's skin, making several passes and carefully examining the results before releasing a low whistle. "I'll be damned," she mumbled, making the Enstads stare at her with huge eyes. "I'll be absolutely damned. How'd that one get by us?"
"What's the matter?" Christian demanded.
Dr. Hannaford heard the royal command under his urgency and gave him a rueful smile. "You two'll really have to stock up now. You're expecting triplets."
"No!" Leslie and Christian both exclaimed at once. Leslie added incredulously, "How is that possible? I mean, I'm five months pregnant, and you've found it only just now?"
"It happens at times, and more frequently than you'd think," the doctor said. "It's pretty crowded in there, Mrs. Enstad, and there's no way three babies can occupy that space in a line straight across. You have two up front, where they're fairly easy to see, and then there's the shy bird, hiding behind the others. Number three has been camouflaging him- or herself this entire time. The only reason I saw it here is because the little devil's head was situated right in between the other two babies. Now Mrs. Enstad," she said, taking Leslie's free hand, "hold this right here and I'll try to pick out each baby for you." She wrapped Leslie's hand around the transducer, then went to the monitor and traced the outline of each fetus. "Number one is already head-down," she noted, "so I expect that one will be born first when labor starts. Here's number two, facing number one." She traced that outline; the second baby was still heads-up. "Now, here's the third one—see the head, right here, like a bulge sticking out of number two's shoulder? Watch." She backed up long enough to move the transducer again; the image shifted a bit so that the "bulge" in question was at the center of the screen. As if in response, Christian and Leslie saw the first baby's feet begin to kick, and Leslie let out a soft sound of surprise, feeling the movement at the same time. While the first baby was kicking, the third baby's head moved abruptly, so that it registered clearly on the ultrasound monitor.
"Oh, my God," Leslie breathed. "I don't know what to say."
"We're going to have an instant family," said Christian, shocked. He turned to Dr. Hannaford and added, only half jokingly, "If you tell us next month that you can see a fourth baby in there, we're going to get a second opinion."
Dr. Hannaford laughed; Leslie joined in, with somewhat less enthusiasm. She and Christian stared at the frozen monitor image throughout the rest of the examination, while Dr. Hannaford confirmed hearing three distinct heartbeats now that the first baby had changed position and allowed the third one's presence to be revealed. When the Enstads were finally released, neither of them spoke for a long time.
At their own home, they stared at each other in the living room, eyes still wide. At last Christian mumbled, "I suppose I need to update the website again."
"Have there ever been royal triplets before?" Leslie asked, feeling dazed.
"I don't know, and I'm not sure even Anna-Laura knows. To be honest, my Rose, I don't know whether having precedent would be a comfort or not. We could be the first in the entire family history to produce triplets." Christian shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels and toes for a moment, considering it, while Leslie slowly flattened both hands over her distended middle and tried to picture three small human beings inside.
"Our lives are going to be totally different from the moment the twins…I mean, the triplets are born," she said softly. "We'll never have the same easy schedule again, my love. And we're going to need live-in help more than ever, now that we're having three."
Christian looked up and took in her expression, then smiled and gathered her in against him. She was big enough now that to hold her close, he had to put his arms around her from one side. "You know, I think when word gets out, and all the family members have been told, we may very well have volunteers. Even if Anna-Laura doesn't come back, we may find that others will quickly and gladly take her place." He grinned. "We'll be just fine, my darling Leslie. I've been thinking of hiring another specialist anyway, since business has been booming the last few weeks; there's no reason not to proceed with that now, so that I can take time away from work without worrying about leaving the staff shorthanded. And when our friends hear about it…herregud, imagine the size and scope of the baby shower the women are probably going to hold for you." They both laughed. "We'll manage, my Rose, I promise," Christian murmured, and they hugged each other.
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Thanks to PDXWiz for help in coming up with a name for Brian and Lauren's newborn son!
Next up: Leslie gets to meet an actress from her all-time favorite TV series—but it might put both of them in danger of their lives…