The birth of the twins – Suzette and Nicholas – made Primrose start to think more about her motherhood. She felt that, where her own mother had been a bit too proper and “grown up”, she herself was a bit on the childish side still. They had always been opposites, but now she thought that maybe she should try to aim to be a bit more like her mother after all. So as much as she loved her long hair and girly, bright pink outfits, she decided to get a make-over to look more like the mother of three that she was. Deric was reading to the twins when she came home from the hair salon. She snuck through the door to the nursery and stood around the corner for a couple of minutes, listening to him read. The twins were already fast asleep, she could hear as much from their deep breathing.
“What do you think?” She asked as she stepped in front of Deric who was sitting in the nursery armchair. She struck a pose and giggled a little.
Deric slowly put the book on the table next to him and stood up. At first Primrose thought that he was unhappy with the make-over. But he soon shot her a playful smirk.
“Well, I think you look…” Suddenly he pounced her, kissing her neck playfully so that she started laughing; she was quite ticklish and her husband knew this of course.
“Sshh, sshh” He cautioned, putting a hand gently over her mouth, and proceeded to lead her to the bedroom.
Even though they hadn’t consciously been planning for another child just yet, Primrose was soon expecting again.
“Delly, do you know mommy has a baby in her belly?” Primrose asked her daughter a few weeks later when she, Deric and Vendela were playing out in the garden, the sun starting to set over the ocean that you could just barely glimpse from their top-of-the-hill-house.
“Yeah,” Deric chimed in. “won’t it be fun to have a little baby brother or sister?” Vendela gave something that looked like a rather poor attempt at a shrug.
“I awedi have a bwothei and sistei.” She said with a smile as she continued jumping up and down on her spring horse, acting like she had just finalized the decision that there would not be another baby in the family after all. Primrose and Deric looked at each other, each wearing a faint smile to hide their worries. As she cheered her daughter on, Primrose thought about the fact that within a few months, and she knew from experience how fast they would pass, she would have four children. Four.
Would she be able to handle it? Or rather, she corrected herself quickly, would they be able to handle it? She glanced at Deric who was still sitting in the sand. He seemed to be lost in thought too. He sat silently for a few more minutes before he stood up, brushed the sand off of his clothes, and declared that he would go check on the twins, who were supposed to be sleeping.
Primrose let her daughter play around in the sandbox for a few more minutes before she resolutely leaned down to pick her daughter up. Suddenly those chubby little arms reached for her face.
“Mommy pwetty.” Vendela mumbled as she caressed her mother’s cheeks as softly as if she had been petting a newborn kitten. She buried her face against her mother and hugged her as hard as she could, not being able to reach around her of course, but doing her best nonetheless. Primrose was dumbstruck for a moment. Then silent tears started streaming down her face.
As she went inside to change Vendela into her pajamas, she thought that maybe they could handle four kids, after all. A little while later when Vendela was fast asleep and Primrose was about to go to bed, the emotions from before, hit her again. She realized how heavily weighed her heart had been from the thought of not being enough for Vendela. Certainly this could be a onetime thing, but she felt like it was actually the beginning of a change in their relationship. She went into the nursery to kiss the twins goodnight, and found that Deric was standing there, looking down at the sleeping babies. His serene face turned into one of alarm when he saw Primrose’s tears.
“Oh, honey, what’s wrong? Was she fussy?” He was talking about Vendela of course, who was going through a period of not wanting to go to bed at night. But Primrose shook her head and laughed.
“No, no, everything is great. I am such a baby. I’m crying because, well, I think me and Delly are going to be okay.” Deric, who had listened to hours of Primrose going over her worries, knew right away what she was talking about, and he pulled her into a tight hug.
He didn’t really know what the proper thing to say might be, so he settled for the obvious:
“Well… I told you so…”
SEVERAL YEARS LATER…
“Oh my goodness, I can’t for the life of me understand how you get any time at all to write!” Tilly exclaimed with a twinkle in her eye at Primrose. They were seated out on the patio, Primrose enjoying her steaming cup of coffee and Tilly focusing on the toddler on her lap.
All of the Sterling family was outside, enjoying the next to perfect weather.
“Well, the big ones are at school during the days, of course. And the little ones… Well, there’s a very good thing about siblings. They are really good at entertaining each other. But yeah, I sometimes have to force myself to stay up and write for a couple of hours at night when everyone’s asleep. It’s okay though, it’s worth it.” Primrose looked at her half-sister again and realized, as she had done every time they had met during the last few years, how old she looked.
She was truly an example of how looks could be deceiving. Despite the pronounced wrinkles in her face and hands, and the grey streaks in her hair, Tilly was as alert and on the go as ever. She had even brought training equipment with her on the train to Starkhaven.
“Gotta keep my body fit for fight!” She had exclaimed at their confused faces when she arrived, and then she had made a high kick in the air, that showed how incredibly nimble she was compared to Primrose.
Returning back to the present, Primrose drew a deep breath and looked at Tilly.
“So anyway… Have you thought about it, really? Are you sure you can do it? Because we can still cancel the plane tickets, but only for a few more hours, so…”
She trailed off, but to her relief wasn’t left with the awkward silence she had anticipated.
“Oh, no, of course I’ll do it!” Tilly piped up, almost indignantly. “I said I would, did you really think I would back out now? No, no, you deserve a vacation.” She peered out into the stark sunshine, shielding her eyes with her hand.
“So Vendela will come with you…” She searched for the eldest child and soon found her vividly dressed form high up in the air on the other side of the fence. She was jumping on the trampoline.
“And Nicholas of course.” She went on as she saw that Vendela had been joined by her younger brother. His bright blonde hair gleamed in the sunlight as he seemed to be trying the most daring tricks he could think of.
Primrose turned her head away quickly. She still hadn’t learned to accept that her children were going to try new things and that they were indeed going to get a little hurt every now and then. Deric always told her it was part of growing up, and she was really struggling to agree with him.
“Mm, yes.” She said as she turned her head back, forcing her eyes to stay locked on Tilly.
“Suzy is coming too. Couldn’t leave her behind when Nick gets to come, and I think she’s really gonna enjoy it.” Suzette was perched up on a hammock, reading. She seemed to be enveloped in her own little world.
“Oh! Yes, of course!” Tilly let out, a little too loudly, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks. “She’s so quiet, I… almost forgot about her.” She chuckled awkwardly.
“Well, yeah, the three of them are coming with us.” Primrose said, not wanting to embarrass her sister further. She knew exactly what it felt like to forget about Suzette. Even her teachers said that she was a master at becoming “invisible”. It was incredible how different she was from her twin brother. Tilly now turned her attention to the little boy on her lap, who was playing with his favorite plushy toy. She tried to peer under his hat to look into his eyes.
“And the small ones are staying here with me. Hey, Tato, you’re staying here with aunt Tilly, right?” Tato gave her an indignant look.
“I not schmall. I much biggei den Lassy!” He pointed at his blonde brother, who was sitting on the grass, playing with the family dog Pookee.
“Oh, Tato!” Primrose scolded a little impatiently. “You know that’s not his name. It’s Silas. Sigh-lass.” She said it slowly a couple more times until Tato, with a grudging look, pronounced it correctly.
“Well anyway” she went on, a little ruffled. “Tato and Silas are staying here, and the triplets too, obviously.” She glanced at the now worn and well used makeshift crib standing in the shade over by the wall.
“I don’t think they would appreciate the plane ride. And we probably wouldn’t have much of a vacation either, if we brought them along. Deric has always wanted to travel but well… Things got in the way.” Deric, who up until now had been standing in silence, focusing on the feeding of baby Caleb, let out a little laugh.
“Yeah. “Things”.” He said teasingly. “And why are you blaming me? You know you’ve been wanting to go to France for years!” He gently took the bottle from the mouth of the baby he was holding, and set it down on the table. “Besides, it will be good for the kids to have some quality time with us.” He added as he went over to the crib to tuck the sleeping baby in with the other two; Arya and Brock.
Primrose took a deep sip of her coffee.
“Yeah, that’s something I’ve been trying to do more and more recently. I want each of them to have time with us that isn’t shared with everyone else, you know? I don’t want them to feel neglected.”
Tilly pondered for a moment before replying.
“Yes, I understand. I know that Amelia wasn’t the most loving. I mean, she loved you!” She added hastily. “But she didn’t always have a great way of showing it, I noticed that too.” Primrose stared down into her coffee.
She could tell that Tilly wanted to talk more about this, but as she herself needed to do some packing, she promptly stood up and called to the kids to go inside.
“Delly, Suzy, Nick, you go to your rooms and start packing!”
Vendela ran up to her mother, her face full of anticipation and glee.
“Does that mean we’re really going!?”
“Yes!” Her mother answered with a big smile. Then she turned to Tilly, who had just picked up baby Arya. “Oh, and Till. Uhm, the dogs will have to stay here too. Pookee is pregnant again and I don’t want to move her, is that okay..?”
Although Tilly certainly didn’t consider herself very good with animals, she agreed when Deric assured her that all she needed to do was give the dogs food and let them out in the garden a few times a day.
Three days later Primrose, Deric and their three oldest children arrived at a quaint little hotel in Champs Les Sims.
“Wow, it all looks so… Old.” Nicholas let out as he looked around.
His fingers were itching to get to try all the doors and see if any were unlocked. Maybe he could find some secret hideout where he and Suzette could store a stash of pirated goods. He loved pirates, and their whole code of living. He knew he wanted to be a pirate when he grew up, and he also knew that you had to practice to be good at something. This was the perfect place to find new victims to practice on. Deric chuckled at his remark.
“Haha, well yeah, that’s ‘cause it is old. This whole town has been here for centuries.” He glanced at a part of the building that had begun to crumble apart. “I sure hope they’ve secured all that rock and stuff.” With his luck though, he thought to himself, it would probably be a good idea to avoid going through the passage underneath, just in case.
As soon as they had settled into their rooms in the incredibly small but very cozy hotel, the family scattered. Primrose immediately began venturing to the different historical and renowned locations of the city with her easel; trying to paint as much of the beauty as she had time for.
This kept her busy as long as there was daylight. In the evenings she spent as much time as she possibly could with her children, playing games, watching TV or just talking into the small hours of the night. She couldn’t help but notice, and feel a bit saddened, that Vendela was often absent from these family gatherings.
Deric spent his time mostly around the hotel, making sure the kids were okay, but letting them roam and explore almost as much as they wanted to. In comparison to Primrose, he didn’t worry too much about the children and thought that it was good for them to get a break from their mother’s usually tight leashes. She wouldn’t have had to worry much about Suzette though, who preferred playing chess with her father or sitting in her room reading.
She had quickly acquired a few books in French that she was trying to teach herself how to read. Nicholas, who was already adept at keeping his bad behavior from his parents, made a promise to himself to wreak as much havoc around town as he could, without his mom or dad noticing. On their second day in Champs Les Sims he passed a fruit stand outside a grocery store near the hotel and thought to himself: “What would a pirate do?”. He promptly managed to turn the table over, scattering fruit all over the street and grabbed a few apples in his flight.
A few days later he saw a girl around his age bending over to pick some flowers, and he again thought: “What would a pirate do?”. He proceeded to push the girl into the grass after painfully (for her) having pulled a sparkly ribbon out of her hair. In short, Nicholas was enjoying himself immensely. He wasn’t really an evil kid but… Well yeah, he kinda was.
Vendela, the oldest of the Sterling children and therefore the one left with the most freedom, had an adventure of her own in France. She had actually been the one to suggest Champs Les Sims as their trip destination, and although it was true that she had made a special project about the town as a school assignment, this wasn’t the true reason why she wanted to go there. The real reason, was Pascal. They had met at an online community a few months earlier, where they had soon realized that they had a lot in common, such as ballet, and that they actually really enjoyed talking to each other. After unpacking and having lunch with her family, Vendela rushed to the address that Pascal had texted her. As she stepped out of the cab, she recognized him immediately, where he sat on the doorstep. He looked just like his picture, only cuter. At first they hugged awkwardly, their hands barely touching each other.
But Vendela, who was the opposite of her shy little sister, went for a kiss, and Pascal gladly answered it.
The next night, as soon as she had gotten away from her mother’s infuriating “family time”, Vendela ran across town to a restaurant slash café where Pascal had asked her to meet him.
A late night dinner awaited them, displaying the best of French cuisine. As Vendela looked into Pascal’s eyes, she realized that this must be what it felt like to find “the one”. She had never felt anything like it before. This was it.
Suddenly Pascal started talking, which startled Vendela a little as they had both been quiet for several minutes, and the room was empty apart from them.
“Do you want to go to a party with me tomorrow?” He asked in a thick French accent that Vendela had loved from the moment they had met. She didn’t really like his proposition, however. She pursed her lips a little. She wasn’t the type to hide her emotions.
“Well, actually, I was hoping we could just spend time together, just you and me… Maybe… Maybe in my room at the hotel…” Even though she had ventured to sound coy, the obvious look of flirt, love and lust that she gave him, couldn’t be misinterpreted. Pascal stopped mid-motion and seemed to almost drop his fork before he steadied himself.
He stared down at his plate for a long moment before looking back up at her with a bit of a clouded look in his eyes.
“If you like to, Delly…” The hairs on her neck stood up. She loved the way he pronounced her name. Dell-eee. She gave him a determinative nod in response and immediately, she had the feeling that butterflies had moved into her tummy.
Did you guys remember Tilly? She was Mort’s daughter from his first marriage. She actually turned into a young adult just before Mort and Amelia’s wedding, and had a child (Donnel, who is helping her take care of the Sterling youngens) not long after Primrose was born. It’s nice to have her back in my game for a bit. And I thought she fit perfectly into the storyline here.
And then there’s this whole France trip, and Vendela’s “decision”, I suppose you could say. What are your thoughts about that? Do you think Pascal will turn out to be a good guy or a not so good one? And what will Primrose say if she finds out?
/Alexandra
PS: Since such a long time has passed during this chapter, there are LOTS of pics in the Outtakes section above. :) Enjoy!
