The Problematic Prince - Side Story 19 - Till the Candy Melts

Erna slowly opened her eyes to the inky darkness of her room. She closed her eyes, then opened them again. Each time she closed her eyes and then opened them again, the room became clearer. It was not a dream.

Once she was convinced of that, she let out a long breath. She was afraid that history would repeat itself, but as she opened her eyes properly, he was still sat there.

“Hello mummy Dniester.” In the clear, candle lit illumination of the room, a friendly voice reached out and welcomed her to the world of the living.

Erna smiled as she gently touched her belly, which showed no signs of the new life that was starting to grow there. She rolled over to face the voice that had greeted her and her heart almost leapt out of her chest when, instead of Bjorn, she came face to face with a doll.

“What’s this?” Erna said with a burst of nervous laughter. There were two, soft teddy bears on her pillow.

As Erna took in the details of the two bears, Bjorn turned on the lamp. The room became filled with a soft amber glow.

“Hello daddy Dniester.”

“Hmm.” A warm smile spread across Bjorn’s face.

“I was thinking all day how I would tell you, but I guess you had the doctor tell you as soon as he was sure.” Erna’s face was turning red and puffy.

Erna hugged the dolls close to her and despite her best efforts to hold back the tears, they came anyway. Bjorn sat on the edge of the bed and waited patiently for Erna to calm.

“Is this gift for baby Dniester?”

“Well, I couldn’t help myself, I just had to buy them.” Bjorn laughed. “Those two are the most popular, but I didn’t know which one you would prefer.”

There was a brown bear and a white bear.

“Can’t I have both?” Erna said, unable to choose between the two.

Bjorn excepted his wife’s greed with a nod. “You can have what ever you want.”

Remorse for the past deepened as much as Erna’s joy for the future. Even so, Bjorn’s silence deepened as he did not know how to explain, or express the joy he was filling in that moment. Erna smiled as if to say that she understood.

“Thank you for the gift, I’m sure the baby would love them both.” Erna gave a sweet smile. “The baby says there are so many more gifts it would like.”

“Tell me.”

“Will you listen?”

“I will.”

“No matter what?”

“Anything.”

He held his wife’s hands, now that she was done hugging the imagined life from the teddies. Erna couldn’t help but feel worried as she blinked away the water from her eyes.

“I will tell you everything I want to eat, so you better make sure you buy it all.”

Bjorn laughed at the unexpected first wish, but Erna was stern and serious. She was planning on eating a worlds worth of delicious food. Fruits, like peaches, in particular.

“I want to pick out baby things together and decorate the nursery, together.”

Bjorn didn’t laugh at the second wish, it was more along the lines of what he was expecting. He squeezed Erna’s hand. Erna let go of the sad memories that kept trying to prise their way into her mind, she wanted to get all the things Bjorn had collected, one by one and destroyed one by one.

Erna continued with her ever growing list of wishes. Even she was surprised by the greed she was demonstrating.

“Above all, the first thing I want is…a hug.” Erna smiled the brightest smile ever and almost seemed to glow as she sat on the bed. “I’m so happy, but…a little scared.”

Before meeting the doctor and getting confirmation, Erna was afraid that she might be pregnant again, and when it was confirmed, that fear billowed in her heart.

“Are you okay?” Bjorn asked, the smile was softer now. He opened his arms wide and scooped her in close to his chest. “Everything will be okay,” Bjorn said and Erna believed him.

*.·:·.✧.·:·.*

“Tell me if you change your mind and we will go back,” Bjorn said as he looked out of the carriage window. They were coming to the centre of Schuber.

“No, I want to go,” Erna said with a weak smile. She was a little nervous, but not to the point of it being unbearable.

They had decided to pick up the baby things together that day. It was Erna who had asked Bjorn to go to the department store, rather than call a representative to come to the palace. She felt like it was pointless pampering, she wanted to do things like a normal couple, enjoying ordinary happiness and she wanted the people of Lechen to think of them as a normal couple.

“Well, I don’t know, I thought you quite enjoyed the attention,” Bjorn said with a mischievous laugh.

“That maybe true,” Erna acknowledged her vanity. She couldn’t lie when the baby in her tummy could hear her. She was a little embarrassed, but decided to take it for granted.

“Is your body okay?” Erna simply nodded to Bjorn’s question as she saw the department store come into view.

It was a bit unrealistic, but Bjorn watched on for now. The morning sickness had been quite severe for awhile, but subsided after a week, and thanks to that, her complexion got a lot better. He had asked the doctor so many times if this outing would be too much, and the doctor said several times that Erna would be fine.

Bjorn looked at his wife, despite all the affirmations, it still felt like it might be too much. Erna was wearing a newly tailored dress made for her new, pregnant body, accommodating her swelling bosom and took into consideration how big her belly was going to get. There was still no visible change, other than her hips getting a little wider.

“Tell me if it gets difficult at all,” Bjorn said. Erna nodded.

The carriage gracefully arrived on Main Street, halting in front of the bustling department store. The crowd, akin to a billowing cluster of clouds, had gathered in anticipation of the much-awaited visit from the Grand Duke of Schuber and his wife.

*.·:·.✧.·:·.*

It was a day that rained blessings on baby Dniester.

People greeted the Grand Duchess with warm curiosity as she appeared outside Schuber Palace for he first time after the news of her pregnancy. They all wanted to know the same thing, was it a son or a daughter? Or even twins! The over eagerness of the population swelled and startled the Grand Duchess.

“I think it was a good idea to come to the department store,” Erna said with a big smile on her face, as she was recalling the manic day.

Bjorn watched over his excited wife, out to the setting sun. It wasn’t that there was anything special, they just strolled through the department store and looked at the baby stuff together. They even had a serious discussion over certain toys.

Bjorn simply wanted to buy up everything and get rid of what ever the baby didn’t play with, but Erna said that was wasteful. The prince loves his wife, just like last Autumn, when Schuber came to prove that one fact, he offered himself as a spectacle to the people, just so they could see how close the Ducal couple really were.

Words of congratulations and gifts rained down on them where ever they went. They couldn’t seem to get free of it. They bought so many unnecessary things, but Bjorn was happy to pay the price for Erna’s exuberance, despite her desire to maintain a level of tact.

It was on their way home, when they crossed over the Abit River, that the beaming smile Erna had worn all day, suddenly vanished and she burst into tears.

“The people…Bjorn…the people don’t hate us.” She blubbed as she buried er face into her chest.

Knowing full well that there was no way he was going to be able to intervene in her sobbing, he let the emotions flare up and patiently waited. Gently comforting her, holding her close, she trembled in his arms. He hoped that her tears would stop, but in the meantime, he watched out the window as the carriage trundled over the bridge.

In the rosy light of the setting sun, Erna, who had stopped crying before long, lifted her head, looked up at Bjorn with a tear drenched face and smiled at him like she hadn’t just been crying. Bjorn smiled back at her without saying a word. He took out a piece of candy from his pocket and put it in her mouth. She ate it as she sniffed and that made him laugh.

Erna also held out a piece of candy and Bjorn took it into his mouth with a smile. They were sweets to alleviate her morning sickness, but they made good lemon drops also.

As the Autumn sun cast burnt orange and ambers across the sky, the two looked into each others eyes until the sweets melted on their tongues.