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“Good,” I say.
“Hey, you made it,” my uncle calls out as he comes into the hall. We hug. I’ve spent a fair amount of time getting to know them both over the past few months. They are starting to feel like family to me.
I turn and Pete enters the great hall, pushing a wheelchair, a wheelchair containing Lara. Hendrick walks in behind him. I glance at him briefly as he scans the room. And then I let him do his job as I focus back on Lara. It’s her first time going anywhere. She’s still gaining her strength every day. Her speech is back, but she struggles for words on occasion. The doctors now believe she will be able to make a full recovery, but she still has several months of rehabilitation ahead of her. She’s struggled with the news of Hans’s involvement in the plot against our families. Sten stayed with her much of that time, reminiscing on their childhoods. It was at Anna’s insistence that Lara agreed to come with us.
“Lara?” Sten says, a smile forming on his lips.
“These two made me come,” she grumbles, but a smile threatens to break out on her face.
“Oh, did they?” he says with a laugh. “I’ve got her from here, Pete,” he says as he goes and takes over her wheelchair. “I’m going to show her to the guest quarters.”
Anna waves to her aunt who waves back and blows us a kiss. Somehow, I think my sneaky fiancée is playing matchmaker, but she and I will chat about that later.
“I have something to show you,” my father says to me. He seems excited, like a kid opening birthday gifts.
We follow him upstairs and down a hallway. We reach large oak double doors, with carvings of deer on them. He pushes them open, and I’m greeted by a nursery. I look at him puzzled.
“We aren’t…I mean…Anna’s not…” I flounder for the right words.
He chuckles. “No, I don’t think that. I wanted to show you your room,” he says as he waves a hand around. I walk in and look around. But it’s the photo on a shelf that draws my attention. It’s a photograph of my father, my mother, and me as a baby. I walk up to it and pick it up, studying it.
“That’s the only one of all of us,” he says sadly as he comes to stand next to me.
I look up at him. “We have a lot to catch up on, don’t we?” I ponder.
“We do, son, we do. But we have the rest of our lives to do it,” he says.
I turn back to Anna who’s watching us.
“Come here, Anna. I want to show you a photograph of my family,” I say to her. She walks over to me, and I wrap my arm around her. Standing between my father and my future bride, I suddenly feel overwhelmed by love. And I know whatever challenges we face in the future, we will face head-on because together we are fierce and valiant.