We walked in and sat down. I started feeding him a bottle. I noticed that he was eating better now than when we were first released from the hospital wing. I have been on maternity leave for a little over five weeks now and I was ready to get back to work. I made a mental note to see what Mary had done for the report.
"Already up Your Majesty?" Osten's new nanny had startled me from my thoughts. "If he woke up you could have rung me."
"It wasn't that early, and you have the whole day to care for him. Trust me, he is a handful. I said as I handed him to her. "Now be careful with my baby he's the last one Maxon's letting me have." I said with a little playfulness, but also being serious. The nanny, Ana seemed to pick up on it.
Maxon and I had agreed to stop after Kaden, so you can imagine Osten was a shock. Being King and seeing your precious wife go through horrible pregnancies makes you rethink the whole big family thing according to Maxon. So Maxon had decided that three children were enough.
"Of course, Your Majesty. Does Prince Osten have any medicine he is still taking from being early?" She had struck a bit of a nerve. Osten's early birth had been a touchy subject over the past weeks with Maxon and I. He thought I needed more time to recover from Osten's early and traumatic birth.
"No, he came off all medicine last week." Suddenly, I heard Maxon and Kaden having their morning squabble. "Excuse me, if you need anything today just track me down." I left kissing Osten on the head and made my way to Kaden's room.
"Kaden get dressed." Maxon commanded. "Son that is not getting dressed." I heard Maxon sigh through the door. Ever since I had Osten Kaden had done this with Maxon. Maxon would pick something out and Kaden would say that is not what mommy would pick out. Maxon would then come back to our room heated and worked up, so I would have to calm him down before going to dress Kaden.
I opened the door to a crying undressed three-year-old and a very agitated king. "What happened here?" I asked as I picked up Kaden.
"The same thing that has happened every day for the past five weeks America." Maxon sounded angry.
"Hey calm down." I put Kaden down to go hug Maxon. "Kaden why don't you wear what daddy picked out." I wrapped my arms around Maxon who in turn put his chin on top of mine.
"But I want to wear what you pick out Mommy." Kaden whined.
"I think that would be a good outfit baby. I would have picked it out myself." I told him in confidence. Kaden's maid took him to get him ready and Maxon and I left.
"I don't understand how you do that." Maxon sounded astonished.
"What can I say I have a way with my boys." I teased.
"No, we just had two mama's boys, but don't worry Osten will be on my team." He teased back.
"I wouldn't be so sure if I was you. I don't know if Eady will let anyone join the father-daughter duo."
"I think you mean the leader of the country duo." Maxon said with mock authority.
We parted at the doors to our room to get ready for the day. Mary helped into a relaxing bath. She also reminded me that I have a doctor's appointment before I join Maxon for his meeting. Doctor Hannan was concerned about how much blood I had lost during the labor and wanted to double check my iron levels. I was wearing a wonderful blue floor length gown tight through my waist and then it flared out a little. I was going to go to my appointment and breakfast, then going with Maxon to the meeting.
When I walked into the dining room Maxon was reading a paper with squinted eyes. That reminded me of his eye appointment coming up on Monday. He was seemingly waiting on his family to join him for breakfast.
"America, dear what did the doctor say?" Maxon peeked over the newspaper rubbing his temple. "Was anything wrong?"
"All she said was to keep eating healthy and that everything was good: the blood work, the ultrasound, and the iron levels.
"So, she did say that your iron levels were okay after all the blood you lost?" He asked checking as he looked up from the paper to grab my hand.
"Yes, she did, but she did say that my husband needed to stop worrying so much." I teased.
"I'm just making sure that you were okay." He rubbed his temples and leaned back in his chair with closed eyes. He sighed and went back to reading his paper.
"Now you already have a headache, and we haven't even eaten breakfast yet. Did you get much sleep last night? I know that ever since Osten you haven't. "
"America I'm fine I had a headache when I came to bed last night and no, I haven't been getting much sleep and neither have you, so you can't say anything." He ended that sentence sternly.
"So, you can constantly worry about me, but I can't check on you. Maxon I can see that you are tired and your head hurts, but you cannot take that out me or our kids."
"Darling I'm sorry I just don't want you to worry about me. I already took the medicine, and I am starting to feel better, so don't worry about me. I should also feel better by the time the meeting starts." He stated confidently.
Soon I was brought my own paper and read about how the citizens were handling the new caste changes. I knew this subject would come up today and I needed to touch up on the reactions and luckily for the most part everybody had a good reaction. The twins and Kaden ran into the room with their shared nanny, Bea was following telling them to walk.
Eady ran straight to Maxon and gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek which lifted his mood. The boys ran to me and gave me hugs and kisses. Ahren gave Maxon a hug and then took his seat next to me. I quietley encouraged Kaden to go hug his Dad and he finally did. I watched Maxon apologize for losing his cool this morning and gave Kaden a hug. As Kaden walked to sit I gave him a nod and a smile which seemed to lift his mood.
"So, how did everyone sleep last night." I asked to start a conversation.
I heard a chorus of goods from everyone.
"Eady." Maxon started. "What are you going to do today?"
"Me and Ahren are going to study geography." She said proudly.
"Ahren and I sweetie." Maxon corrected.
I laughed while Eadlyn seemed to find it quite upsetting that her dad had just corrected her, I found it funny.
"Daddy!" Eadlyn whined. "Why would you do that?"
"So that you become a better speaker and have an easier time in school later on." He said.
"Okay." It never took much for Eadlyn to forgive Maxon.
We all settled down to eat in a comfortable silence. I noticed the time and knew we only had a few minutes left before the meeting started. "Kids why don't you all go do your assignments for the day."
Maxon and I finished in silence as he mentally prepared for this meeting. He seemed worried about me going with him after what happened last time. The advisor before Sir Coddly tried to belittle my opinion in front of Maxon and was gone within the hour. Maxon got up and I followed suit and took his offered arm. We walked in silence until we reached the staircase.
"You okay over there?" I asked worriedly.
"Just a little worried about how Sir Coddly will act around you and how he will treat you." Maxon stated anger in his eyes from past experiences of advisors over the years. "I want him to respect you and see you as my equal and not just the lucky little five that won a competition of my heart. He needs to know that you aren't just here for looks."
"Maxon why are you so worried?"
"Dear I've heard him talk about women and he treats them as if they are lower than him. You've already had to experience that too much and I don't know what to do if he treats you like that." Maxon was anxious in the eyes. "He belittles his own wife from what I've heard from Aspen. Before you ask he asked Aspen and Lucy for dinner last week. Aspen felt like he was just trying to get information on me, so he could get on my good side.
"We will be fine. We always have been."
With that we met Aspen at a turn in the hallway and we walked together as a trio the rest of the way to the meeting room. Everyone bowed, but I saw how Maxon didn't take his eyes off Sir Coddly until I was seated next to him, and he started the meeting. Even then I noticed how Maxon would just look at him and I also noticed the smirk Sir Coddly wore when he looked at me. I was starting to get worried that I didn;t know the whole story.
Not me finally getting back on here making edits and updating. Missed and love you all.
UPDATES will be coming promise. Though I doubt any of you have been waiting on me.