Her own way

Epilogue

"And so one day, the Princess was walking through the apple trees. Everything was so pretty with the beautiful blossom all over the place, she couldn't help looking around and staring in wonder at the different colours. What colours do you think there were?" Kate paused in her storytelling and looked at the two children sitting on either side of her.

"Green!" said the boy.

"Pink!" called the girl.

"Noooo not pink, thats too girly. Blue!" the little boy jumped out of his seat and glared at the girl. Kate just laughed at the antics of her children, sometimes it felt impossible to get the two of them to agree on anything - they had too much of their parents in them.

"Now, now. Calm down you two. Oliver stop tormenting your sister and Abigail, stop sticking your tongue out - it'll get stuck like that one of these days!" Kate smiled as she spoke so the two knew they weren't really in trouble. "Yes there was green leaves, and pink blossom, and yes the sky was such a clear blue with no clouds to be seen."

"What happened next mamma?" Oliver jumped in, eager to hear the rest of the story.

"Well if you wait a moment I can tell you what happened." Kate teased him and he sat back in the seat with crossed arms and a grumpy frown on his small face. "So the Princess was walking in the gardens under the apple trees. She likes to have some time to herself with no one around so being all the way out in the gardens she never knew that anyone arrived to visit the castle. Not until she heard a voice calling to her from the big steps, just like the ones at Great Uncle Tommy's castle."

"Oh mamma! There's apple trees there too!" Abigail piped up.

"That's right sweetie, there's lots of trees there and you know what? Those apples make some really yummy pies." Kate whispered as if she was sharing such a great secret with her children. It was delightful for her to see their eyes widen in wonder that there may be such delicious food that they haven't tried yet but at the ages of 7 and 5, they hadn't really been given much chance to explore too many different foods. "Maybe next time we go you can convince cook to make one, what do you think of that?"

The two children nodded their heads, eager to try this tasty treat. Kate looked from one child to the other before continuing on with the story.

"Now the Princess didn't listen to the voice calling for her and just carried on walking around, just like you two try to do when your father and I are calling for you! All of a sudden someone grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. She was so surprised at having her arm tugged, she nearly fell over! It was lucky that the person had hold of her arm or she would have fallen over and we all know that's not any fun." She paused for a moment to adjust herself on the settee and gently pulled Abigail onto her lap when she noticed the youngster beginning to yawn. "The Princess tried to pull her arm back but she couldn't get free. It wasn't until a voice spoke from above her that she stopped struggling."

"What'd it say mamma?" Abigail mumbled into her mother's hair.

"Well, the voice said -"

"It said 'my Princess is it really you? It has been far too long since I held you in my arms.'"

"Daddy!" the children squealed and Oliver ran to his father's legs while Abigail squirmed trying to get out of her mother's arms. Kate could only smile at the appearance of her husband. It had been nearly fifteen years since she had been reunited with her family and was given the opportunity to discover more about her past and who she really was so that she could become more confident within herself and allow herself to open up to new beginnings.

Joshua picked up Oliver and made his way over to Kate and dropped a kiss on her lips before ruffling his daughters hair. "Is mamma telling you a bedtime story?" Oliver nodded against his neck, "I came home just in time then didn't I. Okay mamma, lets carry on." Kate rolled her eyes. Ten years of marriage and ruling a kingdom hadn't changed some of his childish ways.

"As I was saying. The Princess span around and saw that it was the handsome Prince that had saved her from the evil troll King. She was so happy to see him that she jumped into his arms giving him a big hug. He told her, honey what did he tell her?" Kate looked at Josh, a twinkle in her eyes.

"He told her that now he has her he was never letting go, and you know what? He still has her and he loves her ever so much." The two shared a loving look over the heads of their children.

"The beautiful Princess and the handsome Prince got married and they had two adorable child. They moved into a big castle and they all lived happily ever after. The end. Now my little sweetlings, it's time for you to go to bed."

"But mamma..." they both whined at the same time, not wanting to give in to sleep just yet.

"No 'buts'." Josh told them as he stood while still holding on to Oliver. "Mamma said it's bedtime so up the stairs we go. Bet we'll get up there first, right Oliver?" With that Josh took off carrying a very giggly, sleepy boy up the stairs. Kate watched her husband with amusement before glancing down at her very tired daughter.

"Looks like it's just you and me Abigail." Kate smoothly rose from the settee and made her way upstairs. By the time she reached the top, Josh had just finished putting Oliver in his bed and was closing the door to his bedroom. He pushed open the door to Abigail's bedroom and followed Kate inside. She gently laid her down in her bed and pulled up the covers. After placing a kiss on her forehead, Kate took hold of Josh's hand and pulled him out of the bedroom and back down the stairs.

"The end?" Josh asked as he took the lead, pulling Kate back down onto the settee.

"Well, to them it's the end. To us, it's only the beginning." 

"That's true."

"Besides, one day they will learn the true story and see that their daddy really was a knight in shining armor, well prince in shining armor. My hero."

"They will also learn just how strong their mamma is, how special she is, and how much she knows how to get her own way with daddy." Josh teased, nuzzling Kate's neck.

"You wouldn't have it any other way, my love."

"As long as we're together, we can do anything we dream." Kate looked up into Josh's eyes as he spoke before a mischievous grin crossed her face. Getting up off the settee, she made her way to the door heading towards the kitchens. She paused in the doorway and looked back over her shoulder before speaking.

"I suppose this might be a good time to tell you that you're going to need to practice looking after very small children again?" She quickly took off leaving a stunned Josh behind.Her cheeky personality had never changed since it came to life and Josh loved her all the more for it. Gone was the shy, terrified girl he met all those years ago chained in the city leaving behind the amazing strong woman who loved to do things her own way.

Who knows what would be coming next, but one thing was certain. As long as they were together they could face anything.

THE END

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~~~~~**A/N**~~~~~

My birthday present to me: finishing this story... that's gonna take a while to sink in!! Soon will come editing so if anyone who reads this story and would like to make suggestions please do, feedback is most useful because then I know where I need to make some changes(!)

Thanks to anyone who reads this, really appreciate it :-)