“No, it doesn’t.”
“King Edward told us it needed to stay under wraps for now. That means not visiting home, for either of us, until things are straightened out, whenever that is. It’s a little less of an issue for us to visit San Majoria as long as we’re careful not to be seen for now.”
“And when the baby’s born? Will you make a public announcement then?”
Darius shook his head. “I have no idea. I hate the impact this is going to have on my family’s already shaky relationship with the public at home. They missed seeing the wedding, and now likely won’t know about the babies until long after they’re here.”
“Babies?” Jordan asked with a raised brow.
Darius winced. “Don’t say anything. That announcement comes tomorrow. We just found out a couple days ago.”
“No one will hear it from me.”
“Thanks.”
“I know I don’t have a ton of royal experience, or even years of marriage behind me, but if you ever need to talk about anything, you know where to find me.”
Darius nodded and stood. “I think I’ll see if there’s anyone who wants to put up a tree down here. It could be fun.” It had been when he and Esther had done it, though he doubted there would be as much kissing. He really didn’t think it would be left with just lights, like the one in their room, save a single ornament. “Our First Christmas” with the date. She insisted the tree in their room would be filled with one more ornament per family member each year. Next year, obviously, would be two “Baby’s First Christmas” ones.
Maybe he’d talk to Louis and see if they could procure a tree and ornaments at this late date. Staff members could take it down before vacating the premises the day after Christmas.
“I wouldn’t recommend doing that while the little girls have to choose between making cookies and putting up the tree.” Jordan settled back in to watch his game. “You don’t want to see the kind of fits they can throw over being slighted at Christmas. Sofia threw a huge one because she didn’t get to help with the official palace trees. All of them. In the Cabo Juan-Eduardo palace. She helped with at least a dozen on San Minoria, where we actually live, but she wanted to help with all of them.”
Darius chuckled. “Duly noted. Save the tree decorating for tomorrow.” He headed for the stairs to see who else he might find to do something with. If no one else was around, maybe he’d just watch the cookie making and try to sneak a little dough.
Far more people waited in the kitchen than Esther expected. Every member of Darius’s family, except Darius and Benjamin, were there. Harrison sat next to his new best friend in Josiah. The little girls in her family also waited, along with their mothers/guardians. Had Kensington and Anabelle officially adopted Gracie yet?
“Oh my,” she whispered to Vesta who stood off to the side. “Do we have enough dough?”
“Not for sugar cookies, but I have a plan.”
“Do share.”
“We’ll start the little girls and maybe a few others, on sugar cookies. The little ones will take forever. You start on some Snickerdoodles with the rest of the group. I’ll have Louis run down to the other kitchen and mix up more sugar cookie dough. By the time the rest of the group is ready to make them, it should be cooled enough for them to work with.”
Esther breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s perfect. Thank you.”
Vesta tilted her head toward the kitchen. “Go on. This is your moment. I’ll help either with sugar cookies or Snickerdoodles, whichever one you’d rather not do, but it’s your show.”
She took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen. “I didn’t think so many of you would be here!” Probably not the best way to start. Oh well. “But we’ve got plenty for everyone. We’re going to make sugar cookies and Snickerdoodles and maybe one other kind of candy cane cookie.” She glanced at Vesta, who nodded. Louis could make that dough, too. He may have already.
“So, first, we’re going to split into two groups. The little girls and their mamas are going to do sugar cookies first. Who else wants to?”
Queen Eliana spoke up. “The queens are going to. We’ll help the girls and let the mamas have a seat and watch,” she declared.
Esther’s mother and grandmother gave her a look she knew not to mess with. They’d discussed it beforehand.
“All right. Mother, Grandmother, and Queen Eliana are going to help the little girls at the table in the nook over there, because you don’t argue with three queens when they tell you they’re going to do something.” She grinned at them as they moved toward the breakfast nook. The table already held rolling pins and cookie cutters. Dough would be taken out of the fridge in a minute. “Vesta is going to help you get started or with anything else you need over there. How many more do you have room for over there right now, Vesta?”
She looked at the table then the fridge and seemed to be doing some mental calculations. “We could do five or six more right now, I think. Then we’ll trade for candy cane cookies.”
The boys all decided they wanted to do sugar cookies, practically tripping over each other on their way to the table. Esther almost breathed a sigh of relief. Vesta and the queens could handle five rowdy teen and pre-teen boys.
That left Esther with the Eyjanian princesses. Darius had tried to tell her how to tell Genevieve and Evangeline apart, but she hadn’t figured it out for herself yet.
“You didn’t expect all of us, did you?” One of them leaned against the counter, trying to hide a smile. Probably Genevieve based on the personality.
“No,” Esther admitted. “But it’s under control. There’s more dough being made downstairs, because I’m told it’s not an American Christmas without making sugar cookies, so you’ll get a chance, too. The Snickerdoodles are more of a spur of the moment addition, but there are like two dozen of us here, plus staff and security. Someone will eat all of it. Plus, they’re really good.”
“Oh!” She was definitely Genevieve. “What about oatmeal raisin? Can we make some of those?”
Esther glanced at Vesta, who mouthed tomorrow. “We can tomorrow. I don’t think we have everything on hand to make them, but we can get it. So first, we’re going to mix up a couple batches of Snickerdoodles.”
“What about chocolate chip cookies?” One of the younger sisters asked that. “I saw a commercial for them. They looked really good.”
This time Vesta nodded.
“Sure. We can do that. I’ll have to find a recipe in a minute. Why don’t you guys start finding the things for Snickerdoodles? It’s in the cabinets over there.” She looked at the recipe saved on her phone and scribbled a few things onto a piece of paper before pointing to the cabinet beside the stove. “We’ll need a couple of mixing bowls and spoons and such as well. Those should all be in the cabinets under the island.”
As the princesses began looking for their ingredients, Esther whispered with Vesta who told her to use the recipe on the Nestle chocolate chip bag.
She sent the recipe for Snickerdoodles to Genevieve’s phone. She and one of the younger sisters decided to make those. Evangeline and the sister who asked for them were going to work on chocolate chip cookies.
As she suspected, the queens and Vesta were well able to handle the three little girls and five older boys.
The double oven in the kitchen wasn’t nearly big enough for everything they needed to bake. Louis and an assistant hired just for the weekend took a number of the pans to the kitchen downstairs. What amazed Esther more than anything was how many cookie sheets they actually had available.
By the time the first round of sugar cookies was being baked, Louis had brought up the dough for candy cane cookies. The little girls would like making those. When they finished, it would be time to frost the sugar cookies. All three of them were doing exceptionally well. They cooperated for far longer than Esther expected, but this was a new thing for all of them. Surely that helped.
When the boys finished cutting out their cookies, they insisted they wer
e done. Vesta stared them down until they went back to work cleaning up. She then told them how to make frosting. Esther should have made them wear aprons. All five of them were covered in flour and powdered sugar and bits of dough. It surprised her that Vesta hadn’t thought of it.
One oven in the kitchen baked the Snickerdoodles while the other baked the chocolate chip cookies.
“You know, Vesta and Louis look familiar.” Genevieve was talking to Evangeline, but Esther was supervising the younger sister as she scooped cookie dough onto a tray.
“They worked for your family for a long time,” she told them. “Louis worked for your father and for Benjamin. I’m not certain what Vesta did.”
“What are they doing for you now? Is Louis Darius’s valet and Vesta your ladies’ maid?”
Esther shook her head. “No. Much more important than that.” She looked up to see Darius walk in. She smiled at him, and he smiled back. “They’re teaching us how to be grown-ups.”
28
Four hundred.
That’s how many cookies they’d made. One of Darius’s younger brothers counted, but Darius knew it had taken a toll on his wife. Vesta made certain everyone, queens included, helped clean up, though he suspected she went a little easier on them. After all, they’d helped three little girls through the entire cookie making process.
But the minute Vesta excused her, he took Esther by the hand and led her up one of the side staircases to their room.
“What’s going on?” she asked as he closed the door behind them.
“You need to sit down and put your feet up, don’t you?”
“That sounds good,” she admitted, staring at the bed. “But I think a soak in Epsom salts would be nice, too.”
“Why don’t you do that?” Darius started for the bathroom. He knew how she liked her bath water by now. “I’ll get this started if you want to get ready.”
A minute later, the tub was filling and she stood next to him dressed in his t-shirt. Darius turned her toward him and wrapped his arms around her. She leaned against him, letting him hold her entire weight.
“And after this, you’re going to bed.”
“I might fall asleep in the tub if you don’t sit here and talk with me. But we don’t want to be rude to our guests. You should go back downstairs.”
“They’ll be fine. I’ll text my mother. She’ll make sure word gets around that you’re resting, and I’m taking care of you.” He let go of her and used pressure on her waist to turn her around. With his thumbs, he gently kneaded her shoulder muscles.
“That feels amazing,” she murmured, her head falling forward until her chin touched her chest. “Thank you.”
The water had risen to a level where she could climb in without being cold too long, so she did. Darius noticed something this bathroom had that theirs didn’t. He flipped a switch and a gas fireplace next to the tub roared to life.
“That’s even nicer. I wish we had one like that.” Esther leaned her head back against the tub as he turned the water off for her.
“It does look kind of nice.” He’d have to ask if it was possible to put one in their bathroom. Maybe at the end of the tub so it could also be used in the bedroom. They’d have to rearrange the furniture but that could be done easily. After a quick text to his mother, Darius sat on the floor next to Esther and kept her awake until it was time to drain the tub.
“I don’t know why I’m so worn out.” Esther held onto him as he helped her get dressed. “I don’t feel like I was this bad after the accident.”
“You were,” he told her, “but you were sick at the time, too. I think you’ve been so tense over how these few days were going to go that it’s just stress release, an endorphin crash now that everything is going well. My brother and yours are new best friends. Everyone loves your nieces. Except for Benjamin, everyone is having a wonderful time. My sisters haven’t had as much fun as they did tonight in years.”
“Really?” She might not have made many cookies before, but she had fun.
“That might be a bit of a stretch, but as a family, this is the first thing like this we’ve done in a very long time.”
“Then I’m glad we could help make it happen.”
Before she could try to walk to the bedroom on her own, Darius scooped her into his arms and carried her in. After setting her gently on the turned down bed, he found a couple of pillows and used them to prop her feet up. He’d noticed the swelling while helping her dress.
“What did I do to deserve you?” She was already almost asleep.
Darius pulled the covers up over her and kissed her forehead. “I don’t know, Star. I’m not sure what I did to deserve you, but I’m glad God decided we needed each other.”
She didn’t respond, and he knew she’d already drifted off. He turned the lights down then went back to the kitchen. Genevieve sat on one of the bar stools with a cookie in her hand.
“Is that one you made?” he asked, sitting next to her.
“I’m not sure. Probably. Snickers-something. I helped with them anyway.”
“Snickerdoodles. One of Esther’s friends from University showed her how to make them last month.”
He took one and broke off a bite. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before his sister spoke again.
“What did Esther mean when she said Vesta and Louis are teaching you how to be a grown-up?”
Darius shrugged. “Just that. All the things most people already know by the time they move out on their own. How to cook dinner, bake cookies, vacuum, clean the bathroom, fold laundry, and pretty much anything else you can think of that we’ve always had staff do for us.”
“Why?” She broke off another bite of her own cookie, but didn’t eat it.
“There are a lot of reasons behind it. When we first moved here, a woman lived with us and did all of it, but she moved back to San Majoria to be closer to her first grandchild, I think it was. Edward is technically the one financing all of this and he decided, rightfully so, that we should probably know how to take care of ourselves. I make a mean enchilada now, and can even fold a fitted sheet kind of right.”
“Do you think Mother should have made sure we all knew how to do those things?”
Darius shrugged. “I don’t know that any of us will ever actually need to, but it’s probably good to have the skills and to appreciate it more when you have someone else to clean the bathroom for you.”
“Maybe.” She stuck the last bit of cookie in her mouth. “Do you think things would have been different if Papa had lived?”
That was a loaded question. “I’m sure they would have. Benjamin wouldn’t have had to grow up so fast. He’d still be our brother rather than the king we share DNA with. Once Papa died, Benjamin was isolated from the rest of us as he learned his new job. I don’t know that it could have been any other way at the time. Mama would have had an easier time the last decade or so. We all would have, but I’ll tell you this much. If Papa hadn’t died, I don’t know that I’d be married to Esther and having a baby with her.”
The revelation he was about to share stunned him more than it likely did his sister. “As much as I miss him, as much as I wish he were still here, I don’t know that I’d wish him back, only to lose what I have with my wife.”
The next day, after making oatmeal raisin cookies, decorating a tree in the basement, and sending the rest of the San Majorians out to play in the inch or so of snow, Esther sat on a chair in the great room.
“They’re having fun.” Queen Mother Eliana sat on the sofa across from Esther.
“We don’t get snow back home.” Esther sipped her cup of tea. “I don’t think Sofia has ever seen any. I’m not sure about Kiara. Gracie is young enough she may not remember much from last winter.”
“Gracie reminds me of someone, though I’m not sure who.” The queen sipped on her own cup of tea.
Esther covered her shock by doing the same. With a tea cup in front of her face, it would be more difficult for her m
other-in-law to tell.
“Is everything ready for this evening? For the... gender thing?”
“Gender reveal party.” Esther smiled as Queen Eliana shrugged. “We’ve got some games planned and then Vesta has come up with some way for us to find out the gender. I’m not sure what, but we did some looking online. Some people cut a cake and the inside is pink or blue. Some people have water balloons with colored water in them. Balloons in a box. Popper things that have bits of paper come out of them. A dozen others. I’m not sure what she decided on.”
“Who was with you at the ultrasound?”
“Just Ian.”
She glanced up.
“Our main security detail.”
Eliana nodded and stared out the window at the San Majorians. “Maybe we can spend Christmas together in Eyjania.”
“I would like that.” But her father wouldn’t let them until something happened with Isaiah.
“Perhaps someday.” Maybe she understood more than Esther thought.
“We won’t have Christmas morning with everyone, but we are having a Christmas morning-type celebration tomorrow.”
Queen Eliana’s brows pulled together. “None of us brought gifts, as far as I know.”
“You weren’t supposed to. We just decided to get something for each of you. That’s all.” Esther gave her mother-in-law another smile. “You can’t have Christmas without a few presents, but can you imagine all of us opening presents on Christmas morning? It would take two days.”
“Most likely.”
Esther drank the last bit of her tea. “I do need to go check on a few things for later.”
The other woman waved a hand in the air. “Go on. You don’t need to entertain me.”
It took more effort than it probably should have, but Esther levered herself out of the chair and started for the ballroom where the dinner/gender reveal party would be held. She slipped through the door to find the room decorated with streamers and balloons, both pink and blue, as well as other baby decorations. Near the doors stood a chalkboard complete with chalk pens.
A Royally Beautiful Mess Page 22