The Royals and The Baby

football match (published after completing)

I take my five year old daughter's hand as I follow William out of the plane. A line of officials wait for us on the runway. The Russian Prime Minister walks over to meet us.

"Thank you for joining us for this Fifa world cup!" He says, shaking William's hand.

"The pleasure is all ours. Thank you for having the Australian team over." My husband smiles at the minister.

We are ushered into waiting cars and driven off to our hotel. The Russian government provided us with ample security but we still have our own personal guards in the car behind us according to royal protocol.

Rose enjoys the ride along the sea, quietly pointing out things to me at intervals. At the hotel, more officials welcome us. We are shown to our suite where we change into more formal clothes before heading to lunch with the President's family.

We all enjoy the lunch and return to our hotel exhausted after four hours. It's almost evening so we retire to our suite and decide to spend the rest of the day by ourselves. I let my stylist undo my hair and help me remove my makeup and jewelry. Once I've changed into a warm cardigan and jeans, I pay Rose a visit in her room.

She's sitting on the floor, flipping through a Russian encyclopedia that one of the army families we met today gifted her. I smile at my daughter whose leaning over the large book.

"Hey!" I announce myself.

"Hi mommy." She smiles at me.

"Did you enjoy yourself?" I ask her.

She nods and smiles broadly. "A lot."

She runs to me and gives me a tight hug. I smile into her hair and kiss her forehead.

"Aww!" Someone screams loudly from the doorway which makes us both scream too. William smirks at us from the door.

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" I throw a cushion at him but he catches it instead and throws it at Rose who squeals before dodging it.

"I hate you so much." I tell him, punching his arm.

"No you don't." Rose whispers loudly before hauling the encyclopedia into her arms and carrying it out of the room.

I shake my head after her but a smile spreads across my face nevertheless.

"She is right, you know." William smiles at me as I wrap my arms about his neck and pull him in for a kiss.

"I love you." I sigh into the kiss.

"Love you." He mumbles into my cheek.

"I came to tell you something before I give Hazel her gift." He says, taking my hand and leading me over to the couch in the room to sit down.

"Tell me what?" I frown at him.

"The Australian Football Federation sent an official shirt for Rose to wear to the match tomorrow." He tells me and then pauses.

"That's great but there's more isn't it?" I ask, confused.

He nods at me. "They asked for permission to lay a shirt on Fredrick's grave."

Tears prick my eyes and I feel my heart beat faster but I feel myself smile lightly. "He would have been five now. Maybe even shared Rose's interest for football..." I pause and then add, "...and encyclopedias."

This makes us both laugh. "Do you think he would have liked football?" I ask William.

"Who knows? Maybe he got tickets in heaven?" William smiles at me. I laugh with him but tears start to slide down my cheeks. No matter how many years pass and how strong I try to be about my dead son, my heart still aches for him sometimes.

"I think they should. It'll make Rose happy as well." I tell him.

"Okay then." He puts an arm around my shoulders and kisses my head before leaving the room.

I sit alone for a few minutes before taking a deep breath, wiping away my tears and leaving the room too. Rose is sitting at the coffee table now still looking at the pictures in the encyclopedia. William walks out of our bedroom and sits down next to me.

"Rose, I have a gift for you." He tells her, handing her a box.

She takes it from him and opens it to find the yellow shirt. She takes it out of the box and holds it up to her neck to see how it looks. Then she turns it around to look at the back which makes her mouth hang open.

She starts to scream. "What is it?" I ask William.

"It has my name on it!" Rose screams in reply.

I laugh at her excitement and after I promise her that she can wear the shirt instead of a dress, she agrees to go to bed.

The stadium is loud as the two teams walk out. Rose claps and cheers for her team too. She wears her yellow shirt and has the Australian flag painted on her right cheek. I scroll through the pictures on my phone and the ones at the top are from an hour ago.

The Australian team asked to meet the three of us before the match and to help boost their confidence we agreed. Rose, of course, went wild in the room. She squealed and took lots of pictures with all the players. William thanked them for representing their country and I wished them all good luck before we were lead to our seats in one of the premium boxes.

Towards the end of the first half Rose starts to get cranky and I know that she's hungry so I ask her what she wants and she asks for a hotdog. I ask William if he wants anything and we decide to share a hotdog as well. The attendant returns with our food and another follows with a tray laden with drinks.

"What do you want?" I ask Rose. She chooses a juice box while William surveys the collection of drinks placed before us. As I hand Rose her juice box, William picks us a bottle of diet Coke.

"Do you remember the flight back from our honeymoon?" I smirk at him, an eyebrow raised.

"Don't remind me!" He groans, making me laugh.

Rose stands at the railing, holding onto it for dear life as she watches the teams play. I feel William slide an arm around my shoulders so I snuggle into him.

"She's going to be heartbroken if her team doesn't win." I sigh.

"It's life." William replies and I nod my head, content with having my little family with me.

It's been three years since I finished writing The Royal & The Housemaid! Today, it has over 870K reads and more than 28K votes! I love you all!! You are the reason I am who I am today as a writer.

My first ever story turns 3 today and I turn 18. It's my eighteenth birthday! I was 14 when I made this account, unbelievable, how fast these four years have flown!

Rose is obsessed with encyclopedias ;) Fun Fact: I was too! :) My parents gave an Enid Blyton short stories book and a space encyclopedia for my first birthday. Cool, right?

I don't know how many of you guys still have these stories in your libraries/ reading lists and whether you'll be excited for this or not but here is a new chapter!

Read, Vote, leave lots of comments! And always ship Cassiam! :)

-Tehreem

P.S. the pictures above are of Cassy, Rose and Cassy, William! :)