Alliance

Chapter 33- Semper Ad Meliora

Semper Ad Meliora

Latin

Always Towards Better Things

-

(for I am not safe-

I lie like a curling vine

flung in the fire of girls)

before you send

my ashes under earth

-

"Daddy?"

"Yes, Jem?" Edmund asked, Selene suckling away at a milk bottle in his arms, turning towards his son.

He had been left alone with the children that afternoon, and needless to say, his anxiety was at an all-time high. And his wife, drat her, had left for the meeting with Peter and King Lune chuckling.

"I've left a few bottles for her, they should la- what's wrong?" Sanya asked, looking up at her husband, his face uncharacteristically panicked.

"I- you don't really expect me to be with them alone, do you?" He asked, eyes wide.

She frowned, "Well, I was under the impression you're their father, so yes, actually, I do."

"But- but I can't- I won't be able to look after them properly-"

"Edmund, you're a wonderful father." She cut him off, placing one last bottle of milk on the nursery table and striding towards him. "You'll do fine- honestly, if I can manage them almost every day, you definitely can for a few hours."

Ignoring a momentary pang of guilt he felt at leaving her with two children to take care of all the time- he ignored the fact that nursemaids were there most of the time- he spoke, "But what if- something happens with Selene and I need to leave Jem behind, or- or-"

She kissed him, and he shut up.

“You’ll do fine, husband.” She repeated, pulling away rather unwillingly a solid few minutes later. "Keep both the children in the nursery- and you know you can call for the nursemaids any time, I would not be able to handle our children for even two minutes without them.”
She adored them, yes, and she could give her life for them- but, frankly, she would rather kill people to protect them than change their soiled diapers.
“Jem'll amuse himself with toys or his drawings, and Selene should fall asleep after a bottle or two-"

"What if she doesn't? Oh, what if she chokes on her milk? Or if Jemmy-"

But she didn't stop to listen to any more of his gruesome scenarios, and left the room, chuckling at his still-panicked expression.

Jem took a deep breath and steeled himself before asking, "When we getting the puppy?"

Oh, seriously drat his wife.

--

Sanya did feel bad, of course, at leaving a very obviously stressed Edmund behind with Selene and Jem, but she couldn't help it, could she? She'd hardly been attending any meetings at all, what with her pregnancy and then the baby and everything, and this was an important one.

Besides, she thought with a slight raise of her chin, she stayed back with them every day. Her husband could jolly well look after them for one afternoon, it wasn't explicitly stated ANYWHERE that only the mother had to stay back and look after children- the father had to take an active role in the caretaking as well! She was the High Queen, for heaven's sake, she had quite important duties and responsibilities.