The Fae Locket

Chapter Thirty-Five

When Rose felt recovered a week later, she had left the baby with Easton and the nanny. Aine had persuaded her to go out and collect her wand from the repair shop. Rose was nervous about being outside of the house for the first time since everything had happened. At first, it felt like everyone was staring at her, the paparazzi took a few pictures of her by the palace gates and then they disappeared off. "I feel so strange, anxious that something bad will happen. Can we do this another day?" Rose confessed when she felt her palms sweating with nerves.

her mother linked arms with her, you've got me with you. You'll be fine soon enough. We will go to the repair shop and after that, we will go straight back to the palace and that sweet baby of yours. I really want you to meet the man who has spent hours slaving over your wand to make sure it is perfect. It would be an honour to him to meet the Queen to be!" Her mother said.

Rose really didn't feel like it, but she knew that there was never going to be the right time to venture out for the first time. she was constantly aware of the birds in the trees and every noise made her jumpy. This walk seemed to be going on forever, the paths through the Holt were long but this was seemingly endless to her.

"I bet you are nervous about leaving baby Edwin with Easton" Aine suggested but Rose shook her head, she knew that he could cope, he was an amazing father and the way that Edwin reacted to him proved it. Thinking about them stopped her mind from buzzing, I wish I had my wand with me - just in case trouble starts, that would stop some of my nerves, Rose thought. When they got closer to the wand cleaning shop, nervously she went inside, the bell above the door rang and a gentleman appeared behind the counter with a huge smile at her.

"you're the new Queen to be!" he said happily.

Rose blushed. "yes" she replied, "it is lovely to meet you... my mother brought my wand in for cleaning. I can safely say I have missed it. You don't realise how much you rely on something until it is gone..."

The old man looked underneath the counter and retrieved a box? "Yes, it was a tricky job, but I think we did a great job," he said, removing the wand and placing it on the countertop.

There was a visible difference, she thought back to when she first got given it and remembered that it wasn't as clean as it currently was. The man showed how clean they had got the wand by showing her a before picture that they had taken, Rose held the picture up, side by side with her wand and admired it in the sunlight.

"you're right she said you've done a fantastic job...it is cleaner than when I got it!" Rose complimented the man.

"thank you, ma'am, we've been in this business for decades. make sure your little baby comes and gets his wand created here"

"how would I go about creating a wand for a little baby?"

"Well, ma'am you can get wands created at any age, but I recommend you bring the child in so that we can get a sense of their personality that way we can tailor the gems and materials used especially for him"

"Thank you, sir," Rose said, shaking the man's hand. She looked over to her mother who was looking inside a cabinet of wands, "how did you create my mother?" She asked.

Aine looked up and said, "I designed it with the same wand smith here by describing how you were and looked in those few precious minutes we had together". Rose looked over at her mother and could picture her heartbroken trying to describe a baby she'd only met so briefly.

The shopkeeper came out from behind the counter and told Rose to do a magical skill test with her wand to see if it was correctly cleaned and calibrated.

Rose examined her wand. she'd only had it in her life a few months, but it felt like an old friend now. the first thing that Rose did was change her shoes, a simple spell but she'd missed having a wardrobe that was accessible so quickly. Her shoes had gone from black boots to black sandals and she wiggles them in delight that she had managed to do her first piece of magic in ages. For the last week or so she had relied on Easton knowing her style of dress but now she had her wand back she knew that the first thing she'd do is not wear such small knickers all the time.

The pair left the wand shop, walking around Rose realised she wasn't so afraid to go outside now, perhaps I treat my wand like a crutch? I feel so exposed by not having a wand in my pocket with all the nasty people out there, Rose thought.

Walking back through the Holt with her mother next to her and her wand safe in her pocket, she felt much happier. Rose still wasn't used to the Holt being this buzzing with activity, but it was great proof to her that Easton had done the right thing. He seemed very proud of himself that he had managed to merge the kingdoms so beautifully. Easton and Alfred had decided to make sure that their friendship was really pushed to the newspapers. They both ploughed their efforts into making the wedding the biggest event that the Kingdom seen in years. so, they had all the Fae helping hanging banners and putting out posters to celebrate. there was a week to go until the wedding and so much effort had been done all around the Holt to ensure that it looked as stunning as it could possibly be. Flowers were magically planted along the route, out of season daffodils and bluebells were in full bloom awaiting the big day. the route that they would take was also lined with silver ribbons on sticks to hold the crowds back. Rose thought it was great to finally see it all coming together, it had been all she had thought about for ages and now it was becoming a reality. Rose knew the route like the back of her hand now like her, Easton and their staff had taken the same route several times from the Palace to the faerie church, but it had been undecorated in all the times she'd seen it. It was great for her to see the decorations up and to walk the route herself since when rose was still in recovery and not able to stand, the staff had taken her there in a chair. They had practised their vows and rehearsed through the ceremony several times.

Easton was just as nervous as Rose was, especially when they thought about the hordes of crowds, they would be stood in front of declaring their love for one another. They were also stressing to make sure they made the best choice for a nanny for Edwin before the big day. The lady that Easton and Rose chose, in the end, was a kindly old woman who used to be Easton's nanny called Mary. Rose wasn't sure about leaving the baby with her, but Aine reminded her that it was the "way of royalty".

When she arrived back at the palace, she was so relieved to have done the first outing and the moment she saw Easton she ran over to him.

"I did it! I actually did it!" Rose shouted excitedly.

"I knew you could!" Easton told her with a huge hug.

Mary heard Rose had come back and carried Edwin through, she had missed her son terribly so held him as soon as she could. Edwin looked more like Easton every day. I never knew it was possible to love another person as much, Rose thought.

The final preparations were being done to the palace too, whilst Rose had been out, the palace had been decorated with thousands of small white flowers. A wall of flowers was behind the new statue of the late King Edwin. Rose walked over and picked a flower out of one of the many vases dotted around the room and placed one in the statue's hand. Baby Edwin cooed loudly, and Rose couldn't help but smile at his timing. She carried Edwin around looking at all the beautiful flower arrangements around her, Rose couldn't believe how simple but stunning the arrangements looked but she knew something was missing. With a wave of her wand, she magically placed diamanté gems inside each one of the flowers in the room. Some of the staff gasped, especially as the wall of flowers now sparkled. Rose figured it was because the Fae world hadn't been introduced to the human world of a trend where some people want everything to sparkle with bling and glitter. So, with another wave of her wand, Rose made the other decorations in the room become diamante embellished too. Several of the staff picked up the decorations she'd done and admire them, "It's the fashion in the human world to do that sort of a thing. It's called blinging things up!" Rose said with a chuckle.

Easton looked around and laughed at his wife introducing the fae world to human practices, they caught each other's eye contact and he winked at her, proud that she was conquering her demons, she'd come back happy and he couldn't wait to marry her.