The Crown (Prince Harry fanfic #5)

Chapter Forty-One

December 2024

There was a light snow in London before leaving for Christmas. The countryside, with the rest of the family, was dusted in snow. Lucy over the past few years had finally gotten used to the idea of Christmas without a lot of snow. In her home state of Minnesota in the U.S., there was snow every Christmas, lots of it, where there would be piles and piles. Snow started to begin to November and usually lasted until May at the latest. The lack of snow was a good thing for Lucy sometimes, but for Christmases, it was sad.

While Christmas Eve was spent with extended family, Christmas day was just Harry and Lucy in the morning with the children after a church service and then a private Christmas with William's family and Charles and Camilla. After the church service, the children with their parents returned to their private rooms at the castle in the countryside.

Freddie had the small understanding of what Christmas was, because he reached for the presents and was ready to rip them open. Henry, on the other hand, preferred just to rip the paper. He found that to be most interesting. Like all Christmases, a lot of presents weren't given to the boys, because they were young and didn't know any better. As well as they got most things free. Presents would've came from their grandparents and uncle and aunt. Other presents would've shown up.

On top of everything, Freddie and Henry had enough. There certainly wasn't a lack of clothes or toys. The son's parents had enough money to go around. For the money not spent on their sons, the money went to other children who received toys for Christmas. If the boys had a problem with it later in their lives, then they hadn't been raised right.

After the early morning church service and presents to the boys, the sons were put down for naps. Henry fell asleep, quickly, like always. That was never a problem for him, like he enjoyed sleeping above anything else. Then there was Freddie, who wished to stay awake but his eyelids were heavy. They drooped down, and they closed. He tried so hard but failed in the end. Freddie and Henry shared a room, and then both of them off in sleep.

Harry and Lucy slipped from the boys' bedroom and came into the common room in the small cottage. Immediately, Lucy sat on the couch and kicked up her feet. If she didn't have to be royal, she wasn't. Harry smiled and sat on the coffee table, across from her, and he started massaging her feet.

"Luce?"

"Yes, Ginger?"

He smirked at the nickname. Ginger was one of the three, but it wasn't the most popular one, obviously. "I have something to tell you."

Lucy's green eyes slid down to him, with her lips pursed. She studied him. Under Lucy's scrutiny, Harry grew uncomfortable. He glanced down at himself, but he didn't see a hair out of place. Harry continued to massage to her feet. "Are you pregnant?" she asked.

That made Harry's hands stop working on his feet. His blue eyes snapped up to Lucy, bright and blazing. Perhaps there was happiness in his eyes, and there was definitely some mystery. "No," he said slowly. "Luce, are you pregnant?"

She laughed out right. "No. Thank God, no!" Her harsh and low laughs filled the small cottage that Harry thought his sons might awake. She shook the whole couch and she shook the coffee table. Her stomach started to feel the ache of the muscles being used. "Oh, God, that was a good one." Her eyes met his. "Two kids are enough, especially boys. Freddie is walking, and his terrible twos are not going to be bad when he hits three. That is when all hell breaks loose. And Henry can now crawl. I mean, he likes sleeping, but he can crawl. At least he's not fast like his older brother. Could you imagine how much running we would have to do?" She corrected to herself, "Do you know how much running you would have to do? I don't run."

Harry laughed too.

"Henry can sleep through the night. He's got that going for him, and he can sleep all the rest of the times too. Goodness knows he's going to try walking soon, and then we'll have little human beings running around. And Freddie isn't yet potty trained, as much as we try, so we'll have two sons running around with poop everywhere."

His chuckles filled the space. Harry could only keep his maturity so high, especially when Lucy said poop everywhere. But then Harry imagined what poop everywhere would actually look like, and the thought actually made him scared. He really needed to get Freddie potty trained.

Sighing, Lucy leaned back into the couch. Harry worked on her feet again. Slowly he lifted his head. He felt her gaze. A lazy smile covered her face, with her head rolled off to the side. She just watched him work.

"Hmm?" Harry moaned.

"Nothing," she said softly.

"You look tired."

"That's nice for you to say." She huffed

"You look beautiful."

"Ha ha."

Harry put Lucy's foot down gently and climbed onto the couch beside her. Slowly, she leaned back on him. Her head rested on his shoulder. His arms curled around her body. There was peace. Yet, Harry knew something about Lucy well: she wasn't a person to be content. He remembered her saying once that "Contentment kills." Whatever that meant, Harry waited for the other shoe to drop. And Harry knew Lucy waited for that too.

Lucy couldn't do calm, when her mind wandered. Harry felt it, the more they laid there, the more her body was pressed against his. The more she thought about it, the more the panic grew in her. She was still, so still. Harry ran his fingertips over a few of her scars. Their lives had never been calm, and this was calm. Though the two boys ran around and were crazy sometimes, this was calm. To Lucy, there weren't calm moments in her life. There was always something coming. Harry tried to get Lucy to feel differently, and sometimes she did. But it was like Harry could feel it too.

There was a rumbling up ahead.