The carriage arrived back in the castle and the king and Queen stepped down from it. The Queen, who was holding the baby she had found in the bush with utmost care as if she were a fragile piece of cloth, stepped down the carriage with the support of her husband.
They kept on walking into the different parts of the palace until they got into the main parlour and heard three tiny voices...
"Mama!" A little boy shouted and behind him followed his younger twin sisters, Alice and Amy who were as excited to see their parents. They ran to their parents and hugged them. Though the boy was just four years old, he was smarter than those older than him. He noticed the baby his mother was carrying in her hand. The baby's red hair ruffled as though it had just dried its hair but didn't comb it.
"Mama, who is this?" The little boy asked. Even though he was well aware it wasn't his mother's baby, he still knew that this baby wasn't related to them as he had never seen her before.
"Oh...my dear, this baby...." She trailed and looked at her husband before continuing "This is your new baby sister and..." She stopped when the King started coughing as if he just heard something his ears didn't want to hear. She turned to him with a questioning gaze and before she could speak, he immediately left the scene.
She sighed and stared at her kids. "Leon, Amy and Alice, you three go to your room now, okay?" She urged and they left unwillingly with slight grumblings with a maid accompanying them.
When they left, she hurried up the stairs to her room with the little girl in her arms. Immediately she entered the room, she gently dropped the baby on the soft bed, now seeing the baby's injuries more clearly and summoned another maid to tend to the child. While the maid was doing so, she left for the King's quarter where very few people were allowed to enter. She came to a door which was supposedly the King's bedroom and knocked gently but loud enough for whoever was in the room to hear.
"Come in" the King answered casually, knowing it was his wife. She opened the room door and walked into it, following the direction where the king sat.
"What did you think you were doing?" He asked his wife. "You are not simply going to make a child whose mother or father you knew nothing about, ours, are you?"
"And what if we didn't?" His wife uttered back. "You don't want to tell me you think that she is a witch or something....." She questioned him.
"It doesn't matter." The king spoke, this time looking angry at her.
"I don't want to know whether she is a witch or not, all I am saying is that you will not add an unknown man's child to my lineage. My children are my children. Royal blood is royal blood. Don't cause unnecessary chaos in the kingdom because of your abnormally soft heart." He blurted.
He was right anyway. A royal was a royal and if he chose to adopt this child, he would cause confusion and rifts between the people. Let the royal blood remain pure without any tainting.
The Queen stared at him for a short while before she breathed out a loud sigh. She didn't have a say anyway. The King's decision was always final.
"So what do you want us to do with the child now?" She asked while standing up from where she sat.
"The usual. She's not more special than the rest, is she?" he scoffed.
"Tell the maids to take care of her till she's up to age to work as a maid and when she's ready, she can leave to care for herself. Is that not enough? Better than taking her to the streets right?" He concluded.
"Okay." His wife just answered and was about to leave the room to carry out his orders when a hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer to him.
"Sonny" he called by the nickname he gave her.
"I know you want more children which you can barely have now. But you can't take a common man-child into the royal bloodline. I have already changed more than the usual rules Kings changed in the kingdom. We don't want the people rioting over adding a common man's child to my bloodline... We'll have more if fate agrees. We should be glad we even managed to have three." He let her understand.
King William had always been an understanding and gentle husband. Though his father didn't treat his mother the same way he did him and society didn't value women that much, William wanted to change that mindset as the king because of the unfailing love his mother showed for him despite being mistreated and now, he was even blessed with a caring wife betrothed to him to continue his mother's role. What more did he want to disrespect her? he thought in his mind as he stared at her while cupping her face.
Queen Sonia just stared at him for a moment. He was always ever calm with her, not even her father gave her this much attention or cared to explain why he told her to do certain things. He just gave orders expecting her to follow them and if she didn't, then she would be punished. She had thought her husband would be the same but was proved wrong by him. It always warmed her heart whenever he displayed such affection because it made her know that she was loved and cared for by someone.
She felt her cheeks turn red and pulled herself into his embrace before saying those three words she'd never get tired of saying.
"I love you...." In a low but audible tone.
"And I love you too..." He replied with his hand soothing her back...