I smiled a little more genuinely now, "It is so good to see you, Your Majesty."
"Oh, yes, I have missed you dearly, my sweet princess," she replied as a tear came to her eye. She was never one to hide her feelings. "I am so glad you have come back home." She embraced me once again and I felt a rush of love for the woman who had always welcomed me into her home and called it mine.
Augusta then went on to welcome father and I was released to do as I might wish for the remaining hours before dinner with the queen.
Our journey to Chambry had been uneventful but strangely nerve-wracking for me. The thought of being back in Chambry filled me with a multitude of memories from the past, as well as some anxieties about the future. I did my best to hide them from father but I'm certain he noticed something was amiss because his smile grew as we neared the shore. He must have thought I was thinking of Derek, which I wasn't. Not entirely.
Fortunately, the majority of the butterflies inside of me quickly flew away when we were informed that Derek was traveling in the east and was not expected home for another two days. I was being given time to settle into the familiar surroundings before having to deal with Derek. For that I was grateful.
Upon leaving the throne room, I quickly made my way towards The Cottage, eager to see what remained of my animal friends or even if any of them had survived my absence and the long war.
The Cottage was standing whimsically on the edge of the garden, under the ccontinually growing tree where once our treehouse had stood and I felt my heart give a leap of joy inside of me. So many good memories came crowding back that I didn't have time to enjoy them before I took my first step inside The Cottage door and looked around the small room fondly.
Everything was just as it should have been. Clean, bright, cheery and full of alll sorts of animals.
JeanBob's descendents were the first to greet me and I let out an involuntary laugh of glee as they hopped around my skirts and a few crossed in front of me. Speed was the next one I searched for and I found him nestled cozily in a spot of sun by the window. There is not much expression in the face of a turtle but I fancied he was glad to see me.
The next few moments were spent enjoying the occupants of the room that were unfamiliar to me and I was soon so distracted with my findings that I didn't spare a thought to wonder what the noise was from outside The Cottage before it burst in upon me, startling me from my perch on top a chair where I had been reaching to look inside the nest above the beam holding up the roof.
I stumbled but quickly caught myself and turned to see who or what the intruder was.
I suppose it should not have surprised me, but nevertheless it did, to see Derek standing there, looking for all the world as though he were a mighty war hero, which in fact he was.
We stared at one another in silence for a long while before I shook myself out of the shock and started to get down from the chair. That brought Derek out of his open-jawed amazement and he rushed forward to help me.
"Megs?" he questioned as he easily swung me down from the chair with his hands on my waist. He was so shocked that he just left them there and I left my own on his shoulders. "Megs?" he repeated doubtfully. "My little Squirt?"
I laughed a little nervously and nodded as my heart pounded out a storm in my chest. This was not how I imagined our meeting going and I was having a hard time gathering my wits and thinking of something to say.
"In the flesh," I replied with a shaky laugh. He finally took his hands away from my waist and took a step back.
"Holy horses," he breathed, his eyes going up and down me just as his mother's had. But they finally settled back onto my face and he broke out laughing before that teasing smile of his settled in on his face, crinkling up his bright blue eyes and giving his matured face a boyish look. "Come here, little girl!" he crowed out, pulling me into a bear hug and lifting me off the ground. "Oh, I've missed you."
All of the air whoosed out of me as he squeezed me closer but I was smiling and laughing silently. All of my uneasiness disappeared in an instant and I felt giddy with the joy of seeing Derek again and feeling like we were right back where we had left each other so long ago.
"Don't break me," I finally managed to choke out, berating Derek for hugging me so tightly. He chuckled but set me down and pulled away, still smiling as he did so. "I thought you were still traveling," I said when I had sufficient breath to do anything more than wheeze.
He shrugged in reply as he gestured towards the chair I had been standing on, meaning for me to take a seat as he made his own chair out of the table beside it.
"I came home early to surprise mother." He grinned and stuck his thumbs in his belt loop. "She can't last many days without me before she goes into the mopes."
"I can imagine," I said with an understanding nod. "A mother doesn't easily let go of the son she lost to war for so many years."
Derek sobered at that and nodded slowly. "There are a lot of things that the war changed about mother," he said softly. We mourned together in silence for a few moments before he visibly shook himself out of it and smiled ruefully at me. "But we'll talk about the war later, my little Squirt. Right now I want to hear about you."
I laughed. That was Derek, always turning the conversation to someone else. It was something we all loved about him and yet something that made him so hard to get to know. I think I was one of the few people that ever got him to open up and spend some time talking about himself. That's why we had always been so close.
"I am as you see me," I replied, spreading my hands out in a showy gesture and giving him a light smile.
"Indeed you are," he said, adding a whistle to the end that made my face flame in a blush. He suddenly looked very awkward and his eyes widened. "I am so sorry," he mumbled, obviously referring to the whistle. I had gotten afer him many times over the years for whistling at a female he thought to be attractive. Now to have it directed to me... I didn't know how to react or what might have prompted it and I remained silent.
"Your father came with you?" he said after a moment of awkward silence. I was grateful for it and I smiled alll the wider to show it.
"Yes. He is catching up with your mother while I came to check on my little friends here." I motioned to the animals around me and Derek smiled fondly.
We spent the next few minutes discussing my little patients and Derek filled me in on all of the updates and details I could have wanted. It was a comfortable and easy conversation for us to have and I went back to feeling like it was old times agan.
From there we turned into other topics and soon the minutes turned to hours and we were lost in reminiscing as we walked around the gardens and the outside of The Cottage. We laughed and teased and caught each other up on the years we had missed.
When the sun finally sunk below the garden walls and we noticed the chill in the air we reluctantly agreed that it was time to go in and join Augusta and Father for dinner.
We entered the dining hall together and, after Augusta's initial squeal of delight on seeing Derek and the giggling hug that ensued, she and Father shared an obvious look of joy before settling down again at the table.
I sighed inwardly but brushed it off without another thought. After all, if they had seen Derek and I together this afternoon they would know beyond the shadow of a doubt that we were nothing more than brother and sister.
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