---- BIRTH OF THE TWIN PRINCESSES -----
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"Ahh!, Ahh!" Queen Maria's voice lowered as she felt a forced pulled at her lower belly like her babies were coming out.
"Honey..!" She managed to call to her husband's attention and King Richard immediately rushed up to her side, seeing she already calmed but her face looked distorted in pains and confusion.
"Honey!" She call to him again and scream in a much lower voice, "My baby, is coming out."
"Guards!" King Richard called the guards, as they had previously excused them, to give the king and his wife some privacy.
He threw his car keys to the guards and the guards immediately went to bring his car not asking too much questions.
Queen Maria was rushed to the hospital and luckily for her, her both babies were safe and alive, She gave birth to twin safely but after everything she had a few complication from their birth and the doctors told her and her husband that if she gets pregnant again, It could be more dangerous to both the mother and child as they might be in danger and she might not be able to birth the child again except thru Caesarean section, and Queen Maria went stiff and shocked.
She want to have more beautiful babies with her husband now she couldn't except she was ready to go under the knife and she didn't want that. She cried her eyes out, crying hysterically as she feared maybe her husband will end up taking another wife to bear him children, and she wasn't ready to die yet as she was afraid of CS.
The doctors advised her not to cry that the C-section wasn't a death sentence that most women unable to give birth thru their vagina passage, had to do a C-section to save both mother and child in their hospital and they also had top professional surgeon whom handle the procedure with care, without the mother even knowing she was been operated on.
Queen Maria continued to cry her hers out and the doctors advised King Richard to talk to his wife so she wouldn't go into a state of shock again.
Queen Maria hadn't seen her twin babies yet as the nurses had taken them to dress them, before handling them to their parent but she was crying like her whole world has ended.
King Richard sighed and walk to sit beside her whom laid on the bed crying, He held her hands in his not saying any word to her and she cried the more.
He took out his handkerchief and wipe the corner of her eyes and said to her, "I told you to calm, but you refused to listen."
"Am sorry honey" She said in between sobs and King Richard nod. "It okay all hope isn't lost yet, we can still have more babies okay" he tried to calm her and she nodded in response.
Just then the nurses came in pushing the baby trolley and carefully brought them out as they handed the first baby to Queen Maria.
The first baby was a beautiful blonde baby with adorable dimple on her cheek and Queen Maria face calmed as she stares at her cute little daughter in her arms. She gush over her daughter cuteness as she had exact blonde hair like hers and the nurse carried out the second baby and gave to King Richard carefully whom sat beside his wife on the chair, and they both stares at the second twin, though they were both identical, same dimple on the cheek, same nose, same eyes shape, and same smile but the other baby was a brunette.
Queen Maria eyes subtly narrowed at her second baby. Looking from the baby in her husband arms to the one in her arm and she look at her husband hair which was brown colored, she assumed her second baby choosed to resemble her father instead of her and just then the brunette baby screamed out and started crying like sieve noticing her mother was glaring at her and King Richard panicked and carefully stood up, and placed her gently on her mother's second arm and thigh while Queen Maria stares at her both babies in her arms.
The nurse on duty called to her attention as she was ticking some card and advised her on the importance of breastfeeding her twin daughters on time, so they wouldn't be malnourished or sick and also advised her to feed well so she wouldn't get sick in nurturing them either, and the nurse left, while Queen Maria went on breastfeeding her brunette baby that was crying loudly for food while the other baby stare awake not crying either.
The doctor had told them the blonde baby came out first before her sister, but Queen Maria couldn't help but admire them both as they both look alike except for their hair color. They were both fair as white as her, and she smile contently. Later she was discharged from the hospital, having spend few weeks there, She went back home to the royal mansion.
She named her blonde baby Mary after her and named the other baby with brunette hair Miranda, as she was Maria.
They organise a little feast in honor of the two new addition to the royal family. Only families and close relative were invited and Queen Maria's both parent came, even the former queen of Ubi who was King Richard's mother and had travelled out and was living with her daughter in Emam kingdom where her daughter had married into also came back to the palace to celebrate with her son and to see her new grandchildren.
She had previously left the palace as she couldn't withstand Queen Maria's constant nagging and screaming in the palace. if it weren't for the fact that the new addition were also her blood, she wouldn't have honoured their invitation as she doesn't want to stay under the same roof as Queen Maria.
The little feast and celebration went smooth, but then the unforgiving maid named Martha who Queen Maria had asked to be flogged mercilessly over breaking of two plates in the kitchen, kept a close eyes on the queen.
She hadn't forgive Queen Maria yet as her body was still sore and hurting because of the visibly cane mark that hadn't removed.
She continued doing her job in the palace, while monitoring the queen, without the queen's knowledge.
She had previously wanted to forgive the queen, but the queen hasn't change as she was still hurling insult at the other maids and those whom she found to be of lower status before her.
Martha also observed that Queen Maria was more fond of her blonde baby more than the other one which was a brunette. Her eyes subtly narrowed at the queen a day she steps into the Queen's chamber and saw the queen breastfeeding and playing with her blonde baby, while the other baby was abandoned and left crying, She stopped and wanted to go and pet the crying baby but the queen cursed her and asked her to get out before she went to carry her brunette baby herself and breastfeed her.
Martha thought of it as an opportunity to do something to the queen so she would calm down from her high horses and be thought a life long lesson. The queen was too proud and she hated it.
She never told any other maid in the palace her plans as most of them also disliked the young queen attitude who they saw as wicked, rude and discriminative.
She plots to kidnap the blonde princess as that would hurt the queen the more and shattered her high egos. But kidnapping the little princess wouldn't be easy as the baby had a different colored hair from any other baby she has ever seen.
She couldn't harm the child and knowing she was a maid and wouldn't get married as her job was to serve the palace for the rest of her life except she quit and goes out to.look for a husband, She thought of raising the child as her own, far away from the queen or the king's reach as she knew if she was caught then she would be dead.
"Hmm, I don't wouldn't die yet," She said to herself as she thought to find a smoother plans to pass all the guards and maids stationed in the palace.
She knew she was a special maid unlike some maids that the guards wasn't familiar with, as most times she was the on running in-out errands, Like going out of the palace to buy some things that had finished in the palace, but now she had to think of how would she smuggle out the baby, she wonders.
"You! what are you standing there doing, Didn't you heard when I called you Martha?!" Queen Maria thundered as she came out to call the maid, startling her out of her thoughts.
"And you are still standing there, would you get back into the mansion before I ask the guards to discipline you this minute or throw you out of this palace. Go now!, No wait come back here!, You go to my chamber first and clean up the mess there" Queen Maria commanded and Martha who stood with her head bent lower, nodded and immediately rushed back into the mansion, going upstairs to the second floor to clean the Queen's room as she feared of been punished again, Not now that she has a plan of hers to teach the queen an unforgettable lesson, so she quickly went up the stairs, going to Queen Maria personal chambers that she had to herself apart from the one she shares with her husband, as man and wife.