We're Almost Free

Chapter 15

"Morning!" Belle breezed in with a tray of breakfast just then, causing Regina to close the book quickly.

"Shh! He's still asleep."

"Oh! Sorry!" She placed the tray gently on the dresser, laying the tea and toast by the fire to keep warm. "How did you sleep?"

"Very well, thank you. Yourself?"

"Oh, as usual. What's he doing on the floor?"

"He was born in the forest, used to sleeping rough. He couldn't sleep in bed and I thought it would help."

"Well, clearly it did. Listen, I'd love to stay and chat but there's a wedding service in the village to prepare for. You two don't have to go, Father's all right with that. Just keep quiet, and of course that room there's out of bounds."

"A wedding?"

"I know, it's an unusual time but who are we to argue with love? And when that's done there's the New Year ball to prepare for."

"Wow. Can I..." Belle immediately interrupted the start of her offer to help.

"Here's a cloak you can borrow, and all your clothes back clean for you."

"This dress isn't mine. There's no rip at the bottom, and the material is darker."

"Isn't it? It must have gotten mixed up with the servants'..."

"Belle."

"All right. Your dress was beyond saving so, I got you a new one. I hope you don't mind."

Regina stood up and fished around in her bag for the remnants of the money Robin had given her when she'd left the docks, holding out the meagre handful of coins. Belle shook her head.

"No. I can't take the only money you have left!"

"I owe you for the dress if nothing else."

"Mrs Mills, I can't. I don't care about the money."

"Please?"

"You need to provide for your family. Do you have anywhere to go when you leave here?"

"No," she admitted, cheeks hot with embarrassment.

"You'll need the money to find yourself somewhere to stay, buy food."

Regina was about to say she thought they might just stay in the woods as she sort of knew what she was doing there but bit it back just in time. The poster was still ingrained in her mind's eye.

"I know."

Belle closed Regina's fist around the coins with her hands.

"Then please, don't even think about paying me back, for any of this. We don't need it. You do. Consider it an act of unselfish kindness, as I gather from your persistence that you haven't had many of those directed your way."

Regina could only try and control her blush at how easy the girl read her as she put the money away, asking after John's wellbeing to try and distract her.

"Asleep, but fitfully. The doctor will be here soon, but I think it's best you don't see him yet. We don't want to distress him."

"I understand." Belle smiled and bustled out, book bouncing in the scarf at her hip. Regina was amazed at the girl's work ethic. When she was fourteen she spent all her time in the fields with Daniel, skiving on any work she could unless it involved running errands to town for the servants when Cora overworked them.

"Morning sleepyhead," she joked as Roland poked his head up from under the nest of blankets, hair tousled and mouth open in a wide yawn.

"Sleep alright?"

"Mmf." He plopped himself down on the floor in front of the tray, the very picture of not-a-morning-person, but she hoiked him to his feet.

"Come on. Can't have you looking like that, such a handsome young man as you!" She combed his hair and washed his hands and face before handing him a plate.

"Papa never washes his hands before meals," he pouted.

"Well, your Papa doesn't have to have table manners in the forest. We're in a castle now, we have to be polite."

"But there's no one here!"

"It does no harm to start now. You are going to be such a handsome, polite young gentleman that by the time we find him he'll be very proud of you."

"Really?"

"I know it. When you're done we can go for a walk if you like, explore the gardens?"

"Mm-hm..."

"Don't talk with your mouth full." He swallowed, then tried again.

"Yes, please. Is there a lake?"

"I don't know," she replied honestly. Most grand castles did have ornamental lakes but hers hadn't. Even if they did it would probably be frozen over.

When he was done, she stacked the plates neatly on the tray and placed it outside the door (she wasn't even going to try finding the servants' quarters without help, she didn't want to get lost or go anywhere she wasn't supposed to but she still felt bad for leaving it) before turning to help Roland on with his clothes. To her surprise he had managed to pull his trousers on and was trying to pull the overshirt over his head.

"I'm stuck!"

Regina smiled and helped him untangle his flailing arms and put them in the sleeves instead of through the neck hole, then fastened his cloak and bent to help him with his bootlaces. Doubling the knots so they wouldn't come undone she left a note saying where they'd gone before walking along the corridor their room was on, replaying the previous day's rush in her mind to try and find the way out. Negotiating the disorientating balcony and going down the grand stairs she heaved open the large oak door and they stepped out into the crisp, cool air, snow crunching beneath their feet as they left the gravel drive for the softer grass.

"Can I build a snowman?"

"We should probably get more out of the way of the house first." Regina headed past a frozen fountain, evergreen bushes topped with caps of snow and a walled garden before finding a large, empty patch of ground, not too far from the castle but still fairly out of sight. It was surrounded partly by the forest, partly a building and the rest by sturdy wooden fences.

"It should be ok here," she told Roland, who has bouncing up and down with excitement. He immediately ran off, rolling snow into a ball the size of his own small body. Regina leaned against the fence to watch him, trying to resist when he pulled her hand to join him but failing miserably as she fell forwards, completely losing her dignity as she tripped over the hem of her gown and tumbled into a drift.

She found herself lying in the snow an hour or two later, Roland pummelling her with soft snowballs while the snowmen they'd built together looked on, their twig mouths curved into smiles. Her sides hurt from laughing as she grabbed him and rolled over, tickling him mercilessly.

"Stop! Mama!!" He was crying with laughter, trying in vain to push her off him. His begging turned into more hysterics as she mock-growled and made to grab him, his hands coming up to squish her cheeks in an attempt to stop her tickling.

"Regina?" A strangely familiar voice broke through their mirth. Regina looked up, heart leaping into her throat as she recognised the man standing there, mouth agape, impossibly blue eyes locked on hers.

"Robin?"

A/N: I know Lucas is Granny's surname too but I tend to go with my gut when naming characters, and Lucas was the first surname to pop into my head.