Page 101 of Coronation

I consider this. “You know, I think I’ll actually have Harrold take care of it all tomorrow.”

My wife’s laughter dances on the breeze over the hedgesaround us, and I am struck, for perhaps the tenth time today alone, how much I owe this woman. To say she has changed my entire life would be a gross understatement, when it’s me that’s been changed so completely.

Before her, I was miserable and alone. I started every day feeling like more of a failure than the day before, and now… now everything is different. I wake beside a wife I truly love, and when I get up, the first thing I do is cross to the crib beside our bed to pick up the baby we made together. The baby who smiles and flaps her arms when she sees me, eager for me to pick her up and cuddle her, before bringing her to her mother for feeding.

Being king will never be something I’m naturally suited to, or even like, but I’ve found a purpose in my work, and in making this country a better place. Zelda, on the other hand, is thriving as queen. She might not have been born to her role, or to Stelland, but she has the love of our people for her tireless work and efforts to immerse herself in our nation’s history and culture. The fact that she does it all with the crown princess in a sling across her chest only earns her more admiration.

I can hardly blame my people. She’s remarkable, and I’m rather obsessed with her, too.

“You know, I was thinking…” Zelda trails off, with the air of a wife proposing a plan she’s not at all confident her husband will like. “That if we have another one, we should do it kind of soon.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Another one?”

Between us, Alice flops down on her stomach, gnawing on the toy she managed to retrieve.

Zelda lifts her shoulder, eyes on our daughter. “I’m not sayingnow. But maybe in a few months? You and Leo are close in age, and so are me and Syb. I’d love for her to have a little sister or brother to torture.” Her gaze moves to meet mine, and I can see the hope in it.

She’s asking me to give her another baby, and in doing so, healing a fear I hadn’t realized existed. I know my wife loves me, and our baby, and our life, but there may have been a small sliver of worry she’d felt the tiniest bit cornered.

Chest full to bursting, I reach over Alice to touch her mother’s face. “Just tell me when you’re ready, darling.”