Will's wellington boots had clearly grown a little tighter since the last time he'd worn them. He kept them safely tucked away in the closet of their room at Bucklebury Manor, but even if they visited Kate's parents often it had still been almost a year since he'd had a reason to wear his favourite pair of boots.
He loved his tough old wellington boots, a Christmas gift from his daughters who knew how much he loved being in the countryside. Wearing them made him feel closer to home than he ever did in tailored suits and polished black shoes. He could step in a puddle of mud and laugh at the squirty-farting sound that the ground made instead of worrying about the mess it made of his trousers.
He could relax.
This was the families first holiday since before their South America tour, and since then they had either been staying in overwhelmingly humid hotels or cooped up in the Palace in the middle of London. The past few weeks had been bursting with meetings, stately dinners, public events and appearances in which he had to be perfect in every possible way.
However, he was now wearing an old pair of blue jeans, a loose fitting shirt, a green waterproof coat and his trusty old boots, but he could finally say it was good enough. Kate would probably get him to wear a cleaner shirt or make him comb his hair, but even she would have to say his outfit was perfectly appropriate for today's activity.
"C'mon Will! You keep going like this and you'll take up just as much time as the girls do when they're getting ready!" Mark shouted up the stairs, pulling Will's focus away from the handsome image in the mirror.
"Even Mark is ready, and he had two kids to get dressed!" Michael added, followed by a loud chuckle that echoed up the stairs.
"I'm coming" Will shouted as he closed his bedroom door and made his way downstairs, passing a family picture of himself, Kate, Ellie and Alex on the way. "Jeez, you guys hassle me more than the girls do at home!"
Mark and Michael were busy strapping the babies into the double stroller as Will planted his feet on the ground floor. Each of them were dressed casually in jeans and waterproof coats, excluding Jenny and Charlie whose blue and pink coats made them look like they were wrapped in bubble wrap.
"The girls only hassle you because they don't want you looking as good as them!" Mark joked, his voice quieter now that Will was downstairs with them. "We're hassling you because we're tired of waiting"
"Nope, they actually get tired of waiting too" Will corrected him. "Just a few days ago I came down the stairs expecting to be ready to leave first, but the girls were waiting there in the foyer, tapping their feet and staring at me"
"That must have been embarrassing for you" Mark teased.
"It was" Will admitted.
"Don't worry Will, it was the same for me until James was born" Michael said as he reassuringly patted him on the back. "I love my girls but for my sanity I needed someone to do guy things with"
"Yeah, just wait 'till you've got a son of your own Will" Mark added in his laid back L.A accent.
"I'm hoping we do have a little boy by next year" Will confessed. He and Kate had always been happy with their two daughters, but that didn't mean they had had enough of baby making. He had to admit that he had always pictured having three kids, while Kate always wanted two boys and two girls. Both of them had a dream that they wanted to fulfil, a framed picture in their minds of what they imagined their perfect family to look like.
We weren't ready to give up on those dreams, we tried again for a few more years after Alex but then we gave up. Who would have thought that on the one night we decide to finally try again, it would actually work!
He remembered the following celebration sex very very well.
When Will realised he probably shouldn't think back to that night right in front of Kate's dad, he continued. "Kate just always wanted a little boy. A William Junior."
"A Mini-Willy to play footy with out in the mud?" Michael asked.
"Yeah, a little sports superstar" Will nodded approvingly.
"I thought Elle and Alex were pretty sporty girls?" Mark asked,
"Well I wish they'd play a little bit more football with me, but Kate's just captured their imagination with the tennis"
He'd always enjoyed playing footy with his brother Harry, and the guys on base during his time in Anglesey always had little tournaments in the yard as they waited for their next emergency call, but Ellie and Alex were always a different breed. He couldn't persuade them to kick a ball around with him unless it was his birthday, and even then he didn't think they took it too seriously. Maybe they would try to understand his love for the game when they got a bit older, but for now their mother's love of what he felt were the finer and gentler sports was heavily influencing the girl's own interests.
Thankfully they love Polo as much as me. If they won't try the footy, I'll have to get them down to the stables far more often!
"Well we better get out there before we turn into a bunch of gossiping girls, right?" Mark pulled him out of his thoughts.
"Yeah, we're manly men" Will agreed, grinning cheekily.
Their manly image was a bit blurred as they left the house, with Mark hanging a diaper bag over his shoulder whilst a dozen more baby supplies were stuffed into the back of the double stroller. Jenny and Charlie slept peacefully in their seats as they made their way across the gravel and past the cars, but any moment they could wake up and bring the whole journey to an abrupt halt. Will could easily picture himself in Mark's shoes from twelve years ago, when it was a one year old Eleanor and her new-born sister sleeping in the stroller.
Michael had orchestrated that little hike across the grounds just as he had orchestrated this one today. It was his way of testing his son-in-laws merits as fathers, and as his daughter's husbands too. Even if Mark and Pippa were already married and had passed all of Michael's tests, he still liked to keep him on his toes.
Mark had asked Will about 'The Michael Trials' years ago when he and Pippa were just starting to get serious, eager to know what to expect in the years ahead. He and Mark had become friends pretty easily after that as they both worked their way further and further into Michael's good books, and eventually secured their place in the family.
No one is ever good enough for your little girl, until someone is. That's what Michael told me the day I asked for his permission to marry Kate.
There was a tiny part of him that was incredibly excited to say something like that to his daughter's suitors in the future, and watch as their cheeks burnt red and sweat started dripping down their necks, but the rest of Will was hoping it would still be a few years yet before his little girls started bringing boys home.
The very very VERY distant future, he reassured himself, not until they are old enough.
It wasn't long before Will was able to put his old boots to the test once again, as the overnight rain that was ever present in the British summer had left the grounds nice and damp. They found that the early morning mist was still floating around in the denser parts of the woods and the air was still reasonably cold, making you think that it was still spring or even winter time, but the sun was slowly making its way through the trees.
"Should be warmer by the time we get back to the house" Michael assured them as Bucklebury Manor vanished into the woods behind them.
The sunlight was reflecting off of the many flowers and tree leaves that surrounded them, still dripping rainwater from the night before and making the whole scene look shiny and sparklingly fresh. It was always the best place to relax, to have deep and meaningful conversations or to resolve the issues that felt so overbearing and impossible when they were staying in London.
The trail had been where he and Kate had decided to break up years and years ago, but the scenery and the sounds of the wild had made it feel like it was all a terrible dream. It was only when he got home that the cold harsh reality of their break up finally hit him.
Weirdly enough, the place in which they broke up was also the place where they got back together. When he decided to win her back, he brought her here and convinced her that he was her man, that they were ready for a relationship with a real future. Will had always imagined his romantic skills and charm were what had won back the love of his life, but being surrounded by the glistening flowers, the bright starry night and all the animals of the forest was probably what convinced Kate in the end.
It was a special place. The whole grounds were. All part of his deep connection with the Middleton family that started with his love for Kate.
"So Will, how's work treating you down in London?" Michael asked as they trudged on through the woods.
"Stuff at the Ministry of Defence is pretty chaotic" he admitted. "The Karawi situation is causing a lot of grief and paperwork. My royal obligations are actually more fun to think about"
"Been following that on the news" Mark added "Terrible what's going on over there. Are the government going to do anything?"
"Well all we can do is wait for things to get worse, or hope the Karawian people sort it out internally. But for now the government sees Karawi as a small nation with small problems, and I can't do anything about it" Will replied, his voice filled with guilt.
"I guess that's the cold hard truth isn't it?" Mark asked, more a rhetorical question than anything else.
"Shouldn't we at least be sending aid supplies?" Michael pondered, then answered himself "We probably already are aren't we?"
"Yeah, but there's no telling whether it's reaching the refugees or not. Getting accurate reports out of Karawi these days is pretty rare"
"Can we talk about something else? This isn't the sort of stuff I want Jen and Charlie to be hearing right now." Mark announced abruptly.
"Well you guys asked about work, so I obliged" Will grinned playfully at him.
"I was hoping to hear more about your work as the mighty Duke of Cambridge" Michael stated mockingly.
"Well, we've been pretty busy ever since we got back from our tour" Will answered, struggling to remember a day since they'd got back that hadn't included at least three meetings. "The girls have been great, sticking with us each day, making sure there's always some excitement. They love the adventures"
"I hope you're not working them too hard. With Marlborough coming up Eleanor is going to need more time to study and prepare" Michael advised him.
Will loved his father-in-law, but sometimes the downsides of the Michael Trials were all too clear. Even after fourteen years of being married to his daughter, there were still a few trust issues that he and Michael needed to sort out.
"Of course Mike, we're keeping a close eye on her. We don't force her to join us, we just ask. She decides if she wants to go or not." Will explained.
The home schooling was the reason they worried so much about getting their daughters out of the house. If they were going to school each day it'd be fine, but now the only times they would leave the palace were for his and Kate's engagements and the family meet ups that came about every few days. No matter what he and Kate tried they always felt like the girls were either being too sheltered or were too exposed to the media. It was a mess that they hoped Marlborough would solve, a completely secluded private school where they could make their own friends and not be followed by the world.
"I hope you are planning to slow down as Catherine's pregnancy progresses?" Michael's words felt more like a warning than a question, but Will smiled contently and nodded.
"She'll cut down on the solo engagements for a few months. We were thinking about doing a few with my brother Harry and Emma to share the workload"
"Surely your brother and his wife can just do the engagements themselves?" Michael asked, worried.
"You know that Kate will want to stay active as much as she can" Will answered, accidently letting a little irritation show in his voice, "We always slow down the engagements before she gives birth, we'll do it just as we 've done it before with Ellie and Alex"
"You're sure?"
"Yes, trust me Mike." Will gently patted his father-in-law's back "We were prepared for Ellie and even better prepared for Alex. We'll be ready for anything this time, you don't have to worry so much"
"I can't help it Will. My daughter's pregnant again and I'm going to worry about her more than I should for the next nine months. I thought you two were finished making grandchildren?"
"Well, we gave it one more go and things finally went our way"
How satisfying it is to be able to say that.