Prince of the Seven Seas - l.s

Epilogue

Life was short, honestly.

A realization like that wasn't really able to fully impact someone unless he was faced with a position that left him with a more eye opening perspective about life.

A month was only four weeks... a week was seven days... a day was only twenty-four hours and for about half of those hours a person never truly experienced due to sleep.

Without even knowing, a person's life could slip by him so quickly and uselessly.

How could life that once passed by incredibly sluggishly now begin zoom right in front of a person's eyes?

It was almost scary how a month that once felt like an entire lifetime now only seems like a dream.

His time on One Direction felt like a distant memory that was questionably real even though he'd only left a week ago.

Louis's eyes glanced out to left where the large and clear window left a wide view of the palace's rose garden in view from his spot on the second floor of the building. The day was a typical light grey one and Louis could see the gardeners tending to the many bushes and flowers as they always did.

Just watching left him with a bit of emptiness in his stomach.

Work for them was exactly as it had been when he had been gone.

They had still worked out in the gardens, tending to the roses, clipping the plants, and making sure everything remained neat while he was away, they had done it before he left, and now that he was back, they were still doing it.

He knew that that hadn't been entirely the case.

When he first showed up on the port in one of One Direction's smaller boats, he'd immediately received assistance and he was brought back to the palace where he shared a reunion with everyone he'd missed.

He and his sisters cried while they all hugged and then he and his mother cried while they embraced on another for what seemed to be the longest time ever.

News of his whereabouts in Whitehaven had met with London apparently, and they'd been searching for him in the Irish Sea, but Louis reassured them that the ship had only been stuck in a storm and he'd been the only survivor.

To keep things consistent, he also lied and claimed that a group of sailors found him and after making their rounds in the Dutch Republic and France, they set him back to London.

They all bought into his story and although he kind of suffered from some guilt from his lies, he knew it was better they hear it that way than what truly happened.

His father had gone touring Europe while he was gone and was expected to return soon, a fact Louis felt secure with. He'd begun doing more research on the laws in place that were intolerant to the practice of Catholic religions.

He knew he'd more than likely be ignored with his suggestions to his father on the policies, but it was worth a shot.

All week he'd been keeping his head in his books, trying to look at every aspect of bias and unequal laws that could be overturned, though it was difficult because his resources all appeared to be written in a rather unjust way.

Other than that, it was as if everything had become normal once more.

His mother allowed him as much time off from his actual studies until he was comfortable again, and considering how much Louis loathed his tutor, he knew it'd be a long time before he was 'comfortable' again.

Louis licked his lips as he rose up from his seat, the chair leaving a rather loud squeak against the tiled floor of the vast study room, and moved to place his book back on the shelf with the others.