Sage rolled lazily out of bed. She blinked sleep from her eyes. Today would be the day the Queen was returning home, and people outside were already in the partying spirit. She sighed. The noise was too much to sleep through.
She patted the rear of the young woman in her bed. She didn't even know her name. "Time to get up," she said gently.
She at least fed her breakfast and brewed her a mug of tea before kicking her out of the house. After that, Sage set to cleaning. She wanted the home to be presentable for her wife. Lonnie deserved to return to a cozy, tidy nest. And Sage was excited to see her. It had been too long, and she wanted badly to bed her wife in her own home without the Crown invading their space.
Maybe the Queen would find herself a girl and settle down. Sage could only hope. She didn't want to share her wife, but the Queen and Lonnie's relationship preceded theirs, and she understood totally the expectations of Lonnie's job. And Lonnie understood Sage wanting pleasure when she was absent (which Lonnie adorably called "mousing around")
Still, Sage wanted her wife to herself for once. The Queen could have any woman in the kingdom she wanted, after all!
The home was tidied and she even hung up a few pieces of art she had found in Lonnie's absence that she thought she would enjoy. Sometimes she crawled the markets for little treasures like these, to make her wife happy. She scented their home with lilac incense, cleaned the stained glass windows, and opened them to let in the fresh air. Soon, she'd be cooking something delicious.
The way to Lonnie's heart, Sage well knew, was through her stomach. She made duck fat potatoes and lamb shanks with orzo, fluffy flatbread, a salad of fresh seasonal greens drizzled with a homemade dressing, an array of smaller dishes (such as candied ginger slices and rice balls), and then desserts.
Sage was going to welcome her wife home with open arms, an open heart, and an open kitchen, and the eternal prayer that she have time to spend with her.
It was more important to her to make that meal than it was to decorate their home, but a neighbor saw that they looked rather plain and helped spruce the place up a bit. They brought over lovely floral arrangements and wrapped their front porch in colorful bunting. Sage thanked them by giving them a hot meat pie and a bag of handmade honey candy.
Sage's heart skipped a beat every time she heard the growing crowd outside rise in pitch. Was it the Queen? No, no, not yet. She would be along presently.
Sage was just impatient.