Regal [h.s]

Chapter Seventy Seven

"My hearts been borrowed and yours has been blue, all's well that ends well to end up with you"

♔ ♔ ♔

Amalia

I woke up from a dream this morning, one where I was quite possibly the happiest I had ever been. We were in Africa, Ghana to be specific. The one place where Harry and I could be ourselves back in the early days when I was forcefully tied together with James.

It was supposed to be a royal tour but it was more like a holiday. But I had a dream that we were there. All five of us and it was so bright. The sun was shining, the girls were a year or two older than they are now, both of them skipping around the plains.

Frankie was off admiring the views, taking pictures to capture this moment forever. Harry and I were hand in hand as we sat on a picnic blanket watching Cosy roll around in the dirt and jumping around like there was no tomorrow, whilst Ottie was slowly stumbling, trying to catch up with her big sister as she takes wobbly steps.

In that moment everything was just right. Harry was beside me rubbing circles into my hand, whispering sweet nothings into my ear as we seemed to be celebrating some kind of arrangement.

It was so simple yet it felt so significant to me for some reason, and when I woke up, I could've sworn I was still basking in the African heat, but instead I seemed to be suffocating in the sheets with Cosy in between Harry and I and Ottie fast asleep on my chest. It wasn't the African heat, and it wasn't even the sun, it was the body heat of sharing a bed with three other people, something that no one had prepared me for as I entered motherhood. I had been prepared for the limited sleep, but I hadn't been prepared for two little monkeys jumping in the bed at a god awful time, taking the covers and kicking their cold little feet into me.

"Cose" I groan, trying to shift her off of my arm that's getting more and more numb as the minutes tick by. "Cose- Jesus Christ. Have kids they said, it'll be fun they said" I grumble to myself, pulling my arms from out underneath her and shaking it as a dead weight.

Not only did children wreck your body as they grew and came into the world, they continued to wreck your body as they grew up too. I don't think my back would ever be the same after lifting children onto my hip like some kind of strongman in a travelling circus. I had mastered the technique of having both of them on my hips at the same time, that was sure to do permanent damage, but it was convenient to keep them both quiet.

"Who are you talking to?" Harry lifts his head up, his hair a mess as he seems to be untouched by the children lumbered all over me rather than him. "When did the kids get in here?" He rubs his eyes as he comes too.