AN: Here we are another chapter for you all!
(Two weeks since the previous chapter, it's now Christmas Eve- which is also the twins birthday!)
"I've had it up to here, Mary, Every time I try to approach the subject with your father he complains of ruddy chest pains, and insists that I cease and desist, and I'd like to think that I am a patient man, or at least a tolerant one-"
"Oh you are, darling, you are!" Mary cut in. As much as she wished her father would just listen to Matthew, she couldn't focus fully on him. She felt fat and weighed down by the children in her womb, and she would never admit it, but all she wanted to do was lay down, eat an entire loaf of bread with an entire pot of chocolate fondue, and then make love to her husband. But as it was he was pacing back and forth across the nursery and getting the children all in a tizzy, and she was doing her best to prepare her children for an early supper.
"I'm sorry, Mary, I'm losing my head over this. But look at this boy!" Matthew said as he gestured to their oldest son who was innocently playing with blocks. "I cannot lose all of this, for him! This belongs to him more than it ever will belong to me!"
"Darling, what are you talking about?" Mary sighed. She finally finished buttoning up Catherine's dress- a thoughtful gift from Grandmama Cora- and set the child down on the floor to play.
"Mary, I don't care for any of this for myself- but you deserve it, it's your birthright." Matthew explained. "And because I believe that it truly belongs to you, it only makes sense that your heir should inherit."
"My heir? Darling, your heir. Though I suppose, he is our heir." Mary laughed.
"Which is beside the point. It is merely a happy coincidence for our heir to be one and the same, because you know how close it came to- well never mind that! I don't want to go over your father's head, but time is of the essence, If we can lay the ground work for the changes before the snow melts, we stand a fighting chance!" Matthew explained, so passionately that Mary found herself feeling utterly distracted.
"I agree with you entirely Darling. But I...I cannot talk about this tonight, Matthew, please, just this one night dear? So that we can celebrate?" Mary asked, and all of his tension melted away, he could refuse her nothing. "Look what I taught them today darling!" Mary insisted as she wobbled on over to where The three children were gathered. "William, Kit, How old are you today?"
"Two!" Kit cried jubilantly, but quiet resigned little William simply held up two of his chubby little fingers.
"Very good, yes, Two!" Mary said and clapped. "And what about you Reggie, how many are you? Remember?" And both parent's broke into proud applause when their littlest boy held up one finger.
"Geniuses, all three of them!" Matthew insisted and lifted Reggie up into the air.
"Pa!" The little baby voice called very clearly.
"See what I mean darling? Absolutely brilliant!" Matthew insisted. Mary smiled and nodded. "Well, let us go down then, and let the festivities begin!" He headed to the door with the children hot on his trail, leaving Mary sitting on the floor with a goofy smile on her lips.
"Um darling?" Mary called.
"Yes dear?" Matthew asked, tilting his head back into the room. Mary raised an eyebrow at him, and he set Reggie down on his feet, and went quickly to help pull her up off of the ground. "I'm sorry darling!" He apologized.
"No harm done darling, come, let us go to join the party, as it were!" Mary laughed, and took her husbands hand as they gathered up their little ones and headed to the steps.
...
"They're so darling! Oh, my beautiful grand babies!" Cora sighed dreamily as the twins dug face first into chocolate cake.
"Me too?" Belle asked indigently as she stared longingly at the cake.
"Yes, you too darling, but we have to wait, remember? Because today is Cousin Catherine and Cousin William's birthday." Edith said calmly to the little girl to her left.
"Belle too! Come Belle!" Kit called suddenly, and before anyone could stop the baby, she simply leaned forward, and crawled upon the table until she reached her cousins- at first everyone was silent, but then the room broke into laughter.
"Imagine, Edith's daughter of all the grand children to do it!" Violet said with a slight smirk.
"I'm so sorry, everyone, we're still working on teaching her manners!" Edith gasped with a blush. Gregory stood up to retrieve her, but Robert waved him off.
"No no, what was it that French Queen said once? "Let them eat cake"." Robert said, and everyone had to laugh again.
"Well, it hardly seems fair for Reggie to be left out of the fun!" Matthew declared. He quickly lifted the boy from his seat, and sat him between his siblings.
"What good fun it is to have their birthday and Christmas one right after the other!" Isobel said with a laugh. It was at this time that Carson came in, and took in all the disorder- children sitting on the table, chocolate cake all over their faces, and the table cloth, and the family all laughing wildly at it.
"Oh, we're sorry Carson, this is all very improper we know!" Mary said through her laughter.
"Oh, No, it's no trouble Mi'Lady." Carson assured her- he even had to smile a little at how sweet the children looked. Little Lady Catherine looked so like Lady Mary, even though her hair was blonde and curly. And Little Belle was so much like her mother- even the two boys were reminiscent of their mother, though truth be told the boys looked so much more like Matthew.
"It's so fun having children in the house for Christmas again- oh Robert, don't you agree?" Cora asked and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. He turned his head and smiled at her as he placed one of his own hands on hers. Her smile faltered when she felt just how cold and bony his hands had become.
"Yes, it is such good fun to have a visit from father Christmas!" Robert said with a grin.
"About that- I'm afraid I don't understand this new fangled tradition of hanging a stocking and filling it with gifts. Do they not receive enough gifts under the tree?" Violet asked.
"Oh Grandmama, it's not new fangled; in France Father Christmas has been putting gifts in slippers for ages! This is just the...The English way." Sybil insisted as she took a sip of her water. "It's all very good fun, Gradmama, especially now that the children are two. Recent studies show that Children develop their first permanent memories around this age. Therefore it is very important to make beautiful things for them to remember."
"Someone has been reading up on child rearing." Gregory said. Sybil nodded and smiled.
"I'm afraid I'm not good for much else except reading these days." She said with a laugh, and looked over at Tom, who was smiling, absolutely transfixed on the children who were burying their hands and faces into the cake. "Darling?"
"Hm? Oh, I was just thinking, they reminded me of my cousins in Dublin." Tom said.
"Did you have a lot of family in Dublin, Tom?" Cora asked as she took a sip of her wine.
"I suppose. Cousins, my Ma, Aunts and Uncles- I've got one brother what lives in Liverpool." Tom said, getting a dreamy look in his eye. Sybil took his hand and smiled at him.
"Do you miss them much?" Isobel asked.
"Of course I do. But my family is here beside me. So long as she's with me, I'll be happy." Tom said. Sybil blushed, and leaned over to kiss him, not caring a wit for who might be watching.
"Our family...Our dear family." Mary sighed as she reached for Matthew's hand. He took it and planted a kiss on it, and leaned over towards her.
"I know that it's a bit unacceptable, it being Christmas eve and all, but do you suppose we could give our children their baths and put them to bed tonight?" Matthew asked.
"I don't see why not- I mean, we are adults, I think we can decide things like that for ourselves." Mary whispered back, and then turned her full attention to Kit who was calling for her rather loudly. "Yes my darling?" Mary cooed and automatically reached out her arms to the girl who was only about a foot away from her, lifting her up before she could think about all of the chocolate icing that her baby was covered in.
"Mama try!" Kit insisted vehemently, and before anyone knew what was happening, the blonde little girl had stuffed a handful of cake crumbs all over her mothers face. For a moment no one reacted, no one moved, or even breathed. But then Mary started to laugh- not a light chuckle, but a laugh that she felt deep in her chest. Slowly it spread to everyone at the table, Even Violet chuckled, and then disguised it with a rather dignified cough.
"Yes, Mama try! Thank you my darling girl- Mama likes it very much!" Mary laughed, and Kit looked at her proudly. She glanced over at Matthew, to see him staring at them both with pride shining in his eyes. He was so extremely proud- proud to be able to call both of them his own. And right now, with chocolate cake smeared over both of their faces, with big beautiful smiles...they were captivating. And they were his. "Well, I think that I should go wash up. And I might as well take this little rascal with me!" Mary concluded with a grin. "And well I'm at it, I think perhaps we should take up William and Reginald, and get them clean while I'm on a roll."
"Of course, of course." Robert nodded and smiled pridefully as his beautiful eldest daughter rose slowly from her seat, only struggling minimally to carry Catherine around her protruding belly.
"Matthew?" Mary said and Inclined her head towards the boys. He grinned and nodded, rising quickly to scoop up both of his sons in his arms. The boys began to laugh and hit his cheeks, leaving smears of chocolate across them, but he didn't mind. How he had missed being able to take supper with his children, and then put them to bed afterwards. "We'll be back down in two shakes of a lambs tail." Mary promised lightly, and strode out of the room gracefully.
...
"Two years ago tonight, we thought we'd only have one child. We thought you'd never walk again. Look at us now." Mary chuckled. They lay in their bed, cuddled together, swathed in a soft quilt, hands clasped over her ever growing belly.
"We are so incredibly lucky darling. Blessed." Matthew agreed, and kissed her hair. How had he ended up so lucky?
"You know dear, I'm...I am very glad to have Kit, William, and Reggie, and Lord knows I'm excited for these two to join us. But I think once they're out and about, We should take precautions to keep from having any more- just for a while, any how." Mary said nervously. "Not that I wouldn't gladly have a dozen more children with you, darling, I would...But to have five children all two and under...even with a nanny and our mothers, it'll be very time consuming, and I want to enjoy the ones we already have before...before we start on any new ones. And I don't think abstaining is a very logical option for us."
"Would you believe I was going to broach this subject with you after the twins were born?" Matthew asked, and Mary chuckled. "I really was! I figured that discussing it now wasn't necessary, since we can't exactly conceive another one at the moment."
"Of course, I know that darling. I was afraid you'd think I was being...I don't know. Selfish, or ungrateful?" Mary huffed.
"Now why would I think that?" Matthew asked.
"Because when you were in the chair, I thought, God, we'll only ever have the one child, even though I wished for more, and I know that you wanted a larger family. And now we've got the opposite problem, we can't seem to stop having children." Mary laughed, and Matthew joined her. "And I'm so happy that we have them. I want to have more- we've got a big house to fill with them. But I think we must space them out a bit more."
"I agree with you darling, I do. You're not selfish, or ungrateful. Darling, you know what I think about you. You're the best woman in the entire world." Matthew said, and kissed Mary's protest away.
"Matthew, I love you." Mary whispered.
"Almost as much as I love you." He agreed, and pressed another kiss to her forehead.
...
"I can't even put the children on my lap anymore, It upsets William the most. They also don't understand that I can't lower myself to the floor to play with them. I'm afraid that no matter how much Matthew tries to compensate, it's not enough for them." Mary laughed, and Edith nodded sympathetically. "I can't wait until these two get out."
"I can't wait for this one. I don't know why I was so desperate for this!" Sybil moaned. "Okay, I do. I'll be a mother, I'm already a mother. And I'm so excited for her. But I'm ready for this to be through."
"It'll be over soon enough Sybil dear. Believe me, when the time comes you'll be wondering why you were so anxious for it to get here." Edith chuckled. Sybil's eyes grew wide, and Mary reached over to pat her hand.
"Don't worry, Sybil dear, you're obviously the strongest of the three of us. So if Edith and I can do it, you certainly can." Mary assured her gently. "You know it's true Sybbie, You'll be just fine."
"Oh, of course. Yes. I am." Sybil said surely, though her words quivered.
"Well, as much as I love being here with you both, I think I'd best be going home to my husband and children. He always manages well enough with them, but he won't be able to manage Bell and Robbie during dinner and bath time." Edith said with a grin.
"Goodbye darling!" Sybil chirped, and Edith rose to embrace both of her heavily pregnant sisters.
"I'll see you both tomorrow." Edith called over her shoulder as she exited the sitting room. Sybil leaned her head back against the sofa and squeezed Mary's hand.
"Who'd have thought we'd see the day when the three of us would get along- more than get along, actually enjoy each other's company!" Sybil laughed.
"Not three. Six." Mary corrected, and put a gentle hand on her own belly.
"Oh, of course. How silly of me."
AN:So sorry for the delay in the updates! You readers are the best!