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It had been a fairly straightforward job. Kidnapped nobility, large monetary compensation, idiot bandits, the whole routine deal. Nothing Adrian and Trevor hadn't handled before. Nothing he couldn't have handled alone, really, but Adrian hadn't really wanted to turn Trevor's help down; he was pretty sure he would have disappointed the ladies if he had.
But they were hitting day three of post-rescue, and the sixteen year old Princess Adelaide was starting to get on his nerves. Not only was the she helpless sort of princess, she was over-bearing, believing they were both traveling too slowly, and too fast. Nothing was ever good enough for her, and more than once he'd heard Trevor grousing under his breath about 'spoiled rich kids'... which never failed to be amusing because they were both technically spoiled rich children themselves, they just chose to live otherwise.
And more than once she had stated, in loud, strident words, that she would not be falling in love with either them.
Really, that was all to the better; Adrian's darling wife was well into her second pregnancy, and Trevor's lady had been contemplating a third child herself when the job had come up. That was why they'd agreed to take it; a rescued princess had a good payout, and could set them up well enough for several months while Anna was unable to heal other people in trade for goods or services around their small village. They didn't need half a kingdom or the princess's hand, they just needed money to live off of while the ladies of their family—terrors both of them, and also terrifyingly good with money, in Anna's case—were recovering from the complications of childbirth, and dealing with a newborn.
Adrian wasn't necessarily looking forward to that part; he remembered how difficult Nata had been as a baby. But at the same time, he rather did miss having a child that would fall asleep on him without much fuss. Nata liked to wiggle at naptime, and the only person who could make her stop was Anna, who... well, almost never took naps.
“I'm going to drop her in the next river, I swear,” Trevor muttered as he stomped over to where Adrian was picketing the horses and mule. “I'm not Fia, I can't make hot water magically appear!”
“Neither can Sofia,” Adrian replied calmly as he handed Trevor the grooming brush. “And you know she'd throw something at you for implying that she could. I'm guessing her royal highness is 'requesting' a hot bath again?”
“And a bathing guard, with strict admonishment to not look. Shit, Dri, I've dealt with spoiled brats before, but she's really pushing it.”
Adrian patted his friend and co-husband on the shoulder sympathetically, and continued to groom the horse; they still had, at best, another three days to deal with her ladyship before they could drop her at the feet of her royal father, get their reward, and get home. This whole mess had taken much longer than he'd wanted it to, honestly; Anna's pregnancy was advanced, and he wanted to get home to her, be with her, before the child arrived.
“Well, we should guard her if she chooses to bathe,” re plied after a moment. “But she'll have to make do with a chill river, since we've no way to heat the water except the small kettle, and no way to craft a bathing tub while we're still in the middle of the trees.”
The slow pace chafed at him. If the princess would stop being helpless for ten seconds, or at least stop complaining about everything, they could ride faster, get her home sooner to the comforts she so clearly wanted.
“Why on earth anyone would want to kidnap her, I have no damn idea,” Trevor muttered, brushing his gelding with a frustrated sigh. “You think those bandits would have paid us to take her back? Maybe we should have asked...”
That made Adrian chuckle a little, shaking his head slightly.
“You know better,” he chided. “Even a spoiled princess is a bargaining chip. I'm rather impressed they got their hands on her, considering how many people her father said were supposed to watch her.”
“You think they did it on purpose?”
He shrugged, putting the brush down and stretching absently.
“If they did, no one was talking at the castle,” he reminded Trevor dryly. “Though thinking back on it, no one except her father seemed like he was upset at her being gone.”
Trevor's snicker was comforting. As long as he could keep the other man in decent spirits, they could get this princess back to her home in a timely fashion.
Unfortunately, that did mean he needed to get back to the camp that Trevor had set up; if she vanished on them, so did their reward, and he wasn't quite willing to give that up.
Trevor had to admire Adrian's restraint, he really did. The little princess was all over demands for shit they couldn't provide, like hot water and gourmet foods, soft feather beds, and even a damned carriage to ride in. He snorted a little, wondering just what sort of rescue effort she'd expected on her behalf, even as he listen to her complain with half an ear about how the food was—as ever—not fit to be eaten.
She still ate it though, if only because Trevor had, very bluntly the first time she'd started this rant, told her that it was what they had, and she would eat it or starve, he didn't care which.
There was a reason he let Adrian handle nobles, most of the time. He didn't have tact, nor did he care to. That was what he had his lovers for, after all. Sofia, Anna, and Adrian were all much better at the 'playing nice' side of things than he was. It sometimes made him wonder what he'd done to get lucky enough to have all three of them...
“Hey! I said get me more water!”
Trevor glanced up lazily, then leaned back, absently taking a sip from his own waterskin. He saw Adrian's warning look, considered it, then smirked at her.
“No.”
Adelaide's eyes widened in fury.
“How dare-”
“See, where I'm from, we have a thing called manners,” Trevor said idly. “And sure, maybe I don't use them much, but even I remember how to ask politely for shit.”
“Trevor,” Adrian sighed a little. “Language.”
“Please, she's been with bandits for a month. She's heard worse.”
She was probably lucky she was so highly ranked, honestly. Any lesser nobility would have suffered a lot more than some terrible conditions for a few weeks, even if they were being held for ransom. He'd lost count of the times he'd rescued girls who had been tortured and raped, how spirits had been broken... or the worst, when he'd only been able to bring back a body.
So as annoying as she was, watching her splutter and sulk was admittedly better than the alternatives. And if he was being honest, he knew perfectly well what he was doing; he was ensuring that she didn't actually change her mind about him and decide she wanted to be in love with one of her rescuers. He'd dealt with that entirely too often in the past, and given his current familial status—one husband, one wife, and one sometimes-lover but mostly just a cuddly, and three rambunctious children—he didn't want to deal with it again.
Adrian was better with the graceful turn downs anyways. Properly refusing without offering insult had never been something Trevor had really cared about in the long run. He just wanted them to get off him. Not to say that he hadn't... well, made some mistakes in his past, but he'd been a lot better about that after Sofia had smacked him upside the head a time or two with her attention.
“Best turn in early,” Trevor added, as Adelaide started to look like she was about to begin another series of complaints. “Earlier we're off, the sooner you're home and all that.”
“Hmph. Not that any of this will do you any good,” she huffed. “I won't be falling for either of you!”
“And thank god for that,” Trevor muttered as she stomped away to the tent they'd set up for her. “Fia would eat her alive in ten minutes.”
Adrian snorted a little, and half-shrugged in clear agreement.
“Anna would take longer,” he continued thoughtfully. “But that's because she's too nice for her own good.”
“She is,” Adrian agreed. “And I will be glad to get back to her. Do you think we'll manage three days?”
Trevor scoffed a little, ignoring the audible complaints the princess made about the quality of the bedding again.
“We'll be lucky to manage a week with the way she's dragging her feet and trying to set up 'accidental encounters'. You know that she's trying to do that...”
“I know,” and Adrian shook his head a little. “And perhaps if her personality and age were more compatible, it wouldn't be as unappealing as it is. But truly, hers is a shallow beauty, and she will lose it soon enough to time. I almost feel sorry for her; she's much like Anna's mother was, driving everyone away and then confused about why she was alone.”
Trevor scoffed again; Anna's mother had tried to control what Anna could and couldn't do, had tried to force her to marry someone else, and had wailed and moaned about Anna running away to be with Adrian, a place where no one could reach without invitation... or a strong tie with someone who lived there.
“Well, we were all that stupid once. Maybe she'll grow out of it.”
From the way Adrian's lips quirked, he was perfectly aware that Trevor didn't actually believe what he'd said. Trevor knew girls like the princess; hell, his family had a couple, and they'd only figured things out after some well-deserved scares. He doubted a spoiled noble, her every whim catered to, would actually change unless she wanted to. And even then, there was a high chance that it would be heavily superficial.
“Half-watches again?” Trevor asked after a moment.
“Unfortunately so. Flip for first?”
“Nah. We both know you like the night better. I'll take first, you can have second.”
Adrian chuckled a little, stood, and stretched. Trevor made a teasing growl in the back of his throat, that devolved into snickering as Adrian shook his head and walked away towards his own bedroll, tucked in the shade of the nearest tall tree.
Then, with a sigh, Trevor turned his back on the fire, and let his eyes adjust; it was going to be a long wait until midnight.
Adrian had never been so happy to see a damned castle in his entire life. He'd been biting his tongue for half of the trip, using thoughts of Anna to help keep his temper restrained. Some of Nata, and Sofia, and her twins—though Simon and Leon were both troublemaking boys and probably would have egged him on—had helped as well, and he'd managed to avoid any instances of being alone that the princess might try to turn against him at a future date. She was better than they'd found her, what bruises she'd gained among the bandits having healed up so that they weren't as bad, the clothes she wore were clean, and they'd convinced her to eat the entire time so that she no longer looked as wasted as she had.
“When I get home, I want to hug Anna until she needs to relieve herself,” Adrian muttered to Trevor as they entered the bustling courtyard. “And not deal with people for a month.”
Trevor, the bastard, just snickered at him.
The courtyard traffic halted immediately as Adelaide stormed ahead of them, and Adrian couldn't help the sympathetic wince as he saw a number of faces go stony or pale at the sight of her. She definitely wouldn't have been an easy mistress, and as a princess, she must have made life miserable for everyone. He rather felt bad that he was returning her to a place where she could cause untold mayhem, but...
“I want a hot bath, and I want it now!” she demanded stridently. “And I want something good to eat, I want my own clothes, and-”
An older man approached them as a handful of servants peeled off to attend the princess, and he gave them both a rueful look.
“Well, the peace was nice while it lasted,” he said. “Come. We'll have rooms prepared so that His Majesty can reward you properly once Her Highness is recovered from her ordeal.”
“....we'd rather just get paid and go,” Trevor said as Adrian fumbled for a polite refusal. “His wife is pretty far along with child, and it took us longer than we thought. So... if you don't mind directing us to someone who'll give us the money, we can take it and leave.”
Adrian groaned and pressed a hand to his face, but the older man only chuckled.
“Direct, if not necessarily polite. I can see why it might be a bad idea to keep you around. We shall speak with the bursar, then, and see you on your way.”
Adrian was glad to see the sight of home. Gods was he glad to see the smoke that rose from the chimney, hear the sound of chickens as they wandered around the yard searching for bugs, and the distant, squealing laughter of the children. Anna's garden looked well-tended, and the faint smell of bread reached him from the half-open door.
“I'll take care of the horses,” Trevor volunteered as Adrian dismounted. “Fia's probably in the stable anyways, since Anna's not allowed to carry that much weight. You go say hi.”
Adrian wasn't about to pass up the offer, though he hesitated a moment anyways. He and Trevor both smelled of the road, he knew. Of dust and dirt, smoke from the fires, and just the barest hint of dried blood from the fight with the bandits. Would that really be welcome to Anna, whose sense of smell had heightened drastically in the weeks before he'd left.
Then again, could he really deny either of them the comfort of being held when that was all he wanted. He didn't really enjoy jobs without Anna there, and not just because she could heal their injuries...
After a moment he sighed a little, and made for the door, pushing it open carefully the rest of the way. For a moment he stopped, breathing in the smells of home. The scent of bread was stronger, and tasted of honey at the back of his throat; a stew bubbled gently over the hearth, while Anna sat close to it, humming absently as she worked the shuttle back and forth through the loom.
“Are you done already, Fia?” she asked, not turning around. “I though you were going to do a full muck?”
Adrian smiled at her, soothed immediately by her accented voice, then chuckled softly.
“Not the first time you've taken me for Sofia after I've been away,” he teased gently.
Anna's head popped up and she spun as quickly as her pregnant girth would allow. Seeing him, she clapped her hands to her mouth, and he knew without having to be close that her eyes were filling with happy tears. It made him feel even more warm as he crossed the space between them and wrapped her up in as tight a hug as was possible, pressing his face to her hair as her arms went around him just as strong.
“Hello love,” he murmured. “We're home.”
She laughed a little, and he took a moment to wipe some of the tears from her face. It was so lovely to know how much he was missed, to be greeted like this when he came back. True, he never liked making her cry, but he suspected this was more because of the pregnancy than anything else. Anna expressed herself more easily than he did, to be certain, but she didn't often cry just because he was home again.
“Welcome home,” and she nuzzled against him, shifting a bit so that she could press her head against his chest without it being awkward. “...you need a bath.”
He laughed softly, and kissed her forehead.
“I do indeed, but I wanted to see you. I've missed you very much. Will you sit with me?”
He felt her look at the stew, then sigh a little.
“Well, it's not like I'll be seeing much of Trevor or Sofia til tomorrow,” she said after a moment. “It'll keep...”
“Here, I'll-”
“I can do it. It's not that heavy.”
Adrian didn't argue with her, only kissed her and stole the protective cloth from her fingers as she kissed back. He grinned a little as she huffed, pleased by the flush of her face, and the warmth in her eyes that put truth to the lack of irritation she really felt. He lifted the pot with care, and placed it on the small stand near, but not over, the fire.
“We'll have guests once the boys realize their father is back,” he said with wry amusement. “But I doubt that will be for a bit yet, as the sun is still high. We'll have more than enough time to catch up, as well as let that cook properly. What were you making?”
“The food or the weaving?”
“Yes.”
Anna giggled and pushed him gently towards their room.
“Get clothes, you silly,” she mock-ordered. “I'll get things started for a bath.”
Anna settled on the low stool with a small grunt for the weight of the child within; she was close to her time, and was more than grateful for Adrian's return. The idea of being without him had lent her many a sleepless night and anxious day, days which had crawled by like molasses without him there.
Not that she didn't love Sofia. She did! But Sofia wasn't Adrian, and she had loved Adrian before she really understood what it meant. Being apart from him always made her feel like she was missing part of herself.
The water was heated courtesy of Sofia working with the village runemaker, putting magical warmth into water pumped up from below. Working the pump was easy enough—they all enjoyed baths, even the children, though Anna knew most of their love was in the displacement of the water—and soon the tub was half-filled.
She eyed it thoughtfully, then nodded a little; she'd feel more comfortable if she could snuggle up to him, make sure for herself that he wasn't hurt... and frankly, being in the water made her feel less weighty than being out of it. She was looking forward to the day this child decided they were ready to be born, even knowing it would hurt, and that recovery would be exhausting.
Adrian stepped into the bathhouse, fresh clothes tucked under one arm, and Anna couldn't keep herself from smiling at him. He smiled softly back, set his clothes aside, and began to strip.
Anna flushed and averted her eyes; even after all this time, it still made her feel shy for the first few moments of nudity. She wasn't Sofia who could watch and admire, tease, and even help without embarrassment.
“Bloody... tie come undone,” Adrian growled, then sighed. “Love, could you help?”
Invited to help, however, that she could do, and she moved from the pump over to her husband, finding the tie that had knotted itself together, and slowly working it loose while he managed to divest of everything else.
“How did it go?” she asked as she patiently undid stiff leather.
“Well enough. We tracked them to an old fort, and had to removed about a dozen. Their leader didn't put up much of a fight, and now I know why...” Adrian sighed a little as she managed to get the first tie done, and worked on the second. “I have seldom met a more spoiled, functionally useless young lady. And I met plenty of nobles before the plague hit.”
Anna couldn't help but giggle, even as she winced. There were no good memories surrounding the plague; everyone had lost someone, and that had been the reason they'd decided to relocate to the small village they were now it.
“Was she that bad?”
“Darling, Sofia would have thrown her into a river in under ten minutes,” he said dryly. “I do believe even your formidable patience would have been tried before the end of an hour. As it was, I had to manage Trevor quite a lot, and it was an arduous task indeed. I was half-tempted to gag her more than a few times. She was adamant that nothing we could do would make her fall in love with either of us.”
Anna's heart jumped into her throat, and she fumbled the tie; true, it wouldn't have been the first time such an event happened—Anna had eyes, she knew exactly how lovely her husband was—but it always made her anxious. Adrian turned and caught her hands gently, bringing her fingers to his mouth to be kissed.
“It's all right, my heart,” and he leaned down a bit to kiss her forehead. “I've no interest in a spoiled teenager, no matter how wealthy she is. All right?”
She nodded, and he kissed her temple this time, nuzzling at her gently.
“We spoke to the bursar instead of waiting around for her father to give Royal Thanks, so we've been well paid for our retrieval,” he continued, shucking the chainmail then the shirt beneath. Familiar scars met her eyes, and she flushed a little, then relaxed as he pulled her close to him, letting her head rest against his bare, scarred chest. “I expect Trevor and Sofia will get it added to the coffers at some point tomorrow.”
Anna had to giggle, even as she blushed. Trevor and Sofia would probably be well into their tumble by now, which embarrassed her a little even as it made her happy. She liked knowing her other loves were being loved too, though she rarely thought about the actual details of it. Instead, after a moment, she nudged him towards the washing area.
“I'll do your hair,” she offered.
“Will you also sit with me to soak?” he teased gently.
“...if you want me to?”
“I always want you to.”
“Then I will.”
Adrian smiled and let the chatter of two noisy boys wash over him as they spoke between bites of their stew; his own child, Nata, spoke only a few words, and then only if she really felt it was necessary, but she had actively thrown herself at him when she'd seen him waiting in the doorway, and while she was sitting in her spot at the table now, he knew she'd be perched on him soon enough. Which was good. He'd missed his daughter, he'd missed his wife, he'd missed home, and he was glad to return to it.
He cast Anna a fond glance as she listened to the boys with every appearance of rapt attention. They were talking about the same things they did every day, turning them into grand adventures, and he knew how much she enjoyed that. He hoped, for her sake, that their next child would talk so much more than Nata did. He loved his daughter, he truly did, but he also wished she spoke more than just a handful of words at a time.
Anna flinched imperceptibly, and Adrian's attention sharpened. She'd been doing that regularly throughout the slow afternoon, after the long and snuggly bath, during the time where she'd continued to weave Luna's new shawl while he'd watched their dinner, making additions to the stew before the children had returned. She hadn't deflected when he'd asked—something they still had trouble with every now and again, despite their long years together—only admitting to being unsure.
“I believe, unless you are both planning to eat until you burst, that it's time to wash the dishes,” he said calmly. “If you managed it fast and well, then you both can accompany me into town for a small errand.”
Anna huffed an amused noise as the boys looked torn between protesting—they both hated doing dishes—and insisting only one of them go with him. The ultimate response, as he'd hoped, was them both jumping up and grabbing as many dishes as possible to cart over to the sink.
Nata looked at him for a long moment, then went over to her mother and carefully patted Anna's round stomach. Anna winced a little, then ruffled Nata's short curls.
“Soon, yes. Your father has good timing.”
“I'll let the midwife know,” he murmured, getting to his feet so that he could kiss her cheek. “It wouldn't do for us to be as caught off guard as we were by Nata.”
Nata grinned, making Anna giggle and kiss their daughter, then reach up for him. Adrian obligingly leaned down so that Anna could give him a kiss as well, and nuzzled at her fondly.
“I'll go see if Trevor and Sofia are at an... interruptable moment,” he said, unable to keep the humor out of his voice, and chuckling softly as Anna flushed, then nodded. “Nata, can you manage tonight's sweeping?”
He tried very hard to not smother Anna with his affections, but she needed it tonight especially. Just by the fact that she didn't protest, that she allowed Nata to scamper off for the child-sized broom that would get most of the day's leavings out the door, was telling. Adrian wrapped an arm around her shoulders and nuzzled at her softly.
“Good timing indeed,” he said softly. “I'll return shortly, darling. All right?”
Anna nodded, and he helped her to move over to her favorite chair by the fire. She made amused noises when he got her favorite book, and tucked a blanket around her as well, making shooing motions at him as the boys continued to splash away at washing and rinsing the dishes. Adrian laughed softly, kissed her forehead, and went to go see if the other two were—at the very least—able to talk for a few minutes.
Trevor was inclined to ignore the knocking on the door; he was happily sated, entangled with his lovely Sofia, and not really willing to move.
“I know you're both in there,” Adrian said, his dry tone muffled by the wood. “The barn is empty, and the tack is strewn everywhere.”
Trevor ignored his husband, preferring to burrow into his wife's chest.
“You may have to not be busy. I think the baby is preparing to come.”
Suddenly, Sofia's soft chest moved. Trevor yipped in complaint as she scrambled out of the bed, yanked on a robe and headed for the door. Trevor grumbled a little, found his pants, and followed after a moment.
“Hello Sofia.”
“Yes yes, welcome home, what do you mean you think the baby is getting ready to come?!” she demanded as Trevor padded into the main room.
“When she was about to give birth to Nata, she had those... false contractions, I think she called them? I remember how she looked when they hit, and she's been wincing like that all afternoon.”
Trevor shook his head a little; of course Adrian would remember what Anna had looked like when nearing birth with their first. He'd hovered so much in those last few days prior that Anna's rare temper had actually been directed at him for some space. She'd regretted it almost immediately after, he remembered that, but Trevor hadn't actually recalled that thing about fake labor pains or whatever they were.
Really, the most he remembered about that time was how much it had plainly hurt. It was the same thing he'd thought when Sofia had given birth to Simon and Leon a year later, though Anna had recovered by then and her magic had made the labor easier. It was still weird to him how she hadn't been able to make her own labor easier, but-
“So I think it will be soon,” Adrian finished. “I know you were... enjoying yourself, and I was fully prepared to take on the twins and Nata tonight, but...”
“If it happens tonight, you send the children right over to us,” Sofia said firmly. “We-”
“Papa! Something's wrong with Mama!”
Trevor straightened at Simon's panicked yell.
“I'll go get the midwife,” he said, turning to get a shirt from his bedroom. “You go back and make Anna comfortable.”
He didn't hear Adrian leave, but he did hear Sofia telling Simon it would be all right, and that he needed to get his brother and Nata now. He paused briefly to give her a kiss full of promise—they were going to have a sleepless night after this—then shoved his feet into his boots and ran out the door towards the village.
Adrian hummed quietly as he rocked the small cradle their newest daughter laid in; Anna was getting some well-earned rest, recovering from the birth of the little one, and he was more than willing to keep watch as the tiniest baby slept in her cradle. He peered at her, knowing full well that he was in awe, that he was, as Trevor would put it, being incredibly sappy.
Not that he was alone. Noisy though little Rosa was when she wanted for attention, they were all gushing and cooing over her. Simon and Leon had almost had a proper fistfight over who would get to hold her first, and only a threat of a cold bucket of wter had made them both agree to a different way of deciding.
Naturally by the time they'd come back in, Nata had been holding her baby sister for about an hour, and the boys had decided that crowding on either side of her was probably safer than trying to hold the baby themselves.
He smiled fondly as Anna padded sleepily into the room and reached for her quite happily; she shuffled over to him and settled in his hold, tucking herself up on his lap without the usual shyness that accompanied the casual intimacy. He snuggled her close, resting his chin on her head and let out a softly pleased sigh as she pressed her forehead against his neck and relaxed against him.
It had been a somewhat fraught week, all things considered; Anna's labor had been longer than with Nata, more difficult—the midwife suspected that it had been her anxiety at him being away, nearly missing the event, that had made it harder, and he saw no reason to dispute it. And of course the children hadn't been nearly far enough away to avoid hearing Anna's pain; Nata had quite literally climbed the walls, and it had been a job for Trevor and Sofia to keep her in the house.
And of course, then there was the general exhaustion that was a newborn making demands at all hours. With the four adults it wasn't too rough; what was harder was the children who wanted to help but didn't quite know how.
Still, they'd made it through the first week with only a few hurt feelings, easily smoothed over by apologies and explanations, and now Adrian felt like he truly could relax. He had his wife in his arms, their newest little in her cradle, and-
The knocking on the door was sharp, imperious and entirely unwelcome; the villagers knew full well that Anna had given birth and wouldn't be healing anyone, no matter the emergency, for at least another three months. Any visitors or well-wishers knew to go to the other little house on the shared land, or to find Trevor or Sofia as they were about in the market, buying daily necessities.
The knock repeated, rapid and irritating. Adrian huffed an annoyed sigh, and moved slowly, nudging Anna gently awake.
“The door, darling,” he murmured, as though she couldn't hear the continued knocking herself. “I'm sorry, but would you keep rocking little Rosa? I can handle visitors.”
Anna blinked at him a few times, green eyes dark with fatigue, then nodded. He kissed her gently, and reluctantly unwound her from his embrace. It had been a disruption of their usual routine, Rosa's birth; normally she would have had a few days where she followed him around like a duckling, which helped both of them, before she returned to the normal routine. But there had been precious little that was normal around this particular return... honestly, he was lucky she wasn't being more clingy.
Or he wasn't. Sometimes it was hard to tell which one of them it was...
He growled a little as the knocking continued, but still took a few moments to make sure that Anna was comfortably settled, her weary attention on their daughter, before he left the small bedroom—they would make it a bigger room like they had with Nata, as Rosa grew older—and marched to their front door.
“We are not receiving visitors at this time,” he snapped as he yanked the door open. “And I am not pleased t-”
His words ground to a halt as he saw the fancy carriage essentially in the middle of the yard. It had missed Anna's garden by mere inches, and he knew it was going to be a trial to get out without damaging the plants. A tiny part of him whispered that they damned well better be careful, or he'd be sending His Royal Majesty a hefty bill for the damages.
Princess Adelaide, bejeweled and gowned as though she was in her father's hall, stood on his doorstep, every inch the arrogant child he'd surmised her to be.
“Why did you leave?!” she demanded.
“I completed my job, which was to return you safely to your father,” Adrian replied, restraining his temper at the sight of the knights that had accompanied her. One of them gave him a sympathetic grimace, and he bit back an angry sigh. “I have no hospitality to offer you, Highness. My wife gave birth recently, and her exhaustion means I cannot leave her alone with our newborn. Is there something I can do for you before I return to her?”
“Y... what?!” Adelaide's shriek made him flinch. “You're not allowed to be married!”
“Highness, I have been with my wife since we were both very young,” he replied, temper fraying at the edges. “My parents were in favor of the union, and she chose my home over her own when the time came. This child is our second, and I do not have the time to spare right now.”
“...I don't care,” she snapped, stomping her foot. “You rescued me, and you were the polite one, so you're supposed to marry me, whether I want it or not!”
“No thank you,” he replied tartly. “The money we were paid was more than enough, and there are currently four children in this household. I have no desire to add another.”
“I'm not a child!”
Adrian winced again, and heard an answering wail from inside. He scowled openly at the princess, and decided enough was enough.
“You're sixteen. I'm thirty-two. You were born the year my father and mother gave me the heirloom I used to propose to my wife. You are most certainly a child, and one I do not have time for. Now, if you'll excuse me Princess, the loud tone this conversation has woken my daughter, and I should tend to her, not your odd ideas of what it means to be rescued. And please, do not damage the garden on your way out. Some of those plants are valuable for trade purposes, and I am not above sending your father a notice of repayment.”
It was satisfying to watch her splutter, see the false tears gathering in her eyes; it would have been more so to throw her back into her carriage and send her on her way, but he wasn't Trevor, and also wasn't that angry. Yet. Instead he offered her a short, courtly bow, then thrust the door shut in her face. She started wailing almost as loud as Rosa as he latched it, and started beating her fists on the wood even as he walked quickly back to the room where his wife had soothed their daughter.
Anna looked up, eyes ringed with dark circles, and Adrian felt his heart twist a little in guilt.
“Just a spoiled child,” he said softly, picking her up so that he could cradle her in his lap as she cradled Rosa, “looking for something she couldn't have.”
Anna hummed in acknowledgment and closed her eyes; her protective grip on their daughter didn't change, and he knew she wasn't entirely relaxed, but to be fair, neither was he. He was waiting for one of two things; either the princess would be taken away by her own people, or she would convince them to break in his door, and force him to come with her. She would regret the second; he would not be parted from Anna easily, if ever, and he'd seen how Anna responded when someone she loved was in danger. His wife was a fierce healer; she fought to save lives, to ease hurts, and she knew more about the human body than most people.
He'd seen her use that knowledge to do things that were anathema, just because someone had tried to hurt Sofia. She had reacted faster than himself, faster than Trevor, and he honestly had no desire to know how far she would go to protect him.
So he waited until the knocking stopped, and the shrieking, wailing rage grew more distant. Then silenced entirely.
“...for someone so convinced that she wouldn't fall in love,” Anna mumbled, yawning, “she sure seemed to think you would...”
Adrian chuckled softly, and kissed her forehead.
“Well, everyone has to be wrong sometimes. And she was most certainly wrong about this.” He nuzzled her gently, smoothing some of her wild hair. “Rest now, love. Just rest. I'll be here. Always.”