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britto08, I mentioned some nobility from your kingdom and I thought you would like to see it!

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UN: glassmidnight
King: Kieran Robert Constantine Laurence, His Royal Highness King Kieran (31)
Queen Consort: Elisabeth Gloria Rose, Her Royal Highness Queen Elisabeth (26)
-DPrincess: Helena Margaret Caitriona Rose, Her Royal Highness Princess Helena (5)
-DPrincess: Eleanor Gloria Theodora Maeve, Her Royal Highness Princess Eleanor (3)
-DPrincess: Juliana Catherine Elisabeth Niamh, Her Royal Highness Princess Juliana (1)
-DPrincess/DPrince: Cecilia Penelope Sarah Jane / Robert Constantine Julian Augustus, Her Royal Highness Princess Cecilia and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Robert

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Of the Royal House of Covedale, of the kingdom of Bellemar

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Queen Elisabeth had barely given Juliana over to her wet nurse when she became pregnant again. As in her past three pregnancies, Elisabeth was very happy to be with child, but this pregnancy felt different from the beginning. She quietly hoped that it was because she was finally carrying a boy, and that a boy would calm her husband's anxieties. The relationship between Kieran and Elisabeth is now one of duty and respect. Kieran appreciates Elisabeth's personality more now that she is an attentive mother rather than an outdoorsy social butterfly. She still enjoys toiling in the garden and had begun to teach Helena how to plant bulbs and pull up weeds, but she has calmed considerably and grown up into a calm and lovely young mother. Elisabeth, for her part, has begun to understand Kieran's quiet and deep thinking nature. When he is not clouded by grief, he is a loving and gentle father to their daughters (though perhaps he does favor Juliana a little too much for her taste) and he is without fail a wise and honest king. But there is no love between them, only the twinge of affection for a partner in something bigger than the two of them.

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About six months her pregnancy, Elisabeth was huge and the growing season was looking extremely prosperous. After the starvation disaster, Kieran had ordered all farmers to plant half their fields with foodstuffs, rather than only with flax, to help support some meaningful agriculture in the kingdom and to remove some of their dependence on Rewan grain. The farmers, like the queen, were tired in their toil of growing things, but they looked anxiously forward to the culmination of both growing seasons. Whispers began among the women that the queen was carrying twins, and the kingdom exploded with the gossip of another set of royal twins. The story of Kieran and Julian's birth was told in earnest, put into song or dramas, and the whole kingdom dared to hope that these twins would be as dear to them as their father and uncle had been, and Kieran himself was hopeful for a son again.

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In the midst of all of this, Kieran's dearest friends from childhood returned to the kingdom after living abroad for nearly two decades. These friends were a noble family. The father had been close to King Julian, and the mother close to Queen Catherine, and so the children had spent quite a bit of time with the royal children. The oldest had been a boy, Cassian, who had studied with the royal twins and rough-housed with them after the books were all put away. Also close to Julian and Kieran was the next oldest, a daughter named Rosemary. Their father had recently died, and their mother was ill, and so the family returned to the mother's family home in Bellemar for her to live out her final days in comfort and and the company of her family. Cassian's wife, Adelaide Grace, is a tiny woman from a noble family in Tayel, where the family had lived for so many years. Cassian is happy with her, and she seems happy with him, and Kieran was glad to greet his old friend and welcome him back to Court. Rosemary, however, was a surprise to him. With a female ruler in her own right, Tayel is known for being more generous with its women than other kingdoms, and Rosemary received a very good education while living there. She has grown into a beautiful and intelligent young lady, with dark blonde hair and clear blue eyes. She is witty and graceful, with a quiet elegance and a pensive nature. She is not at all the little girl that Kieran remembers playing with in the gardens and he has spent many hours catching up with his childhood playmate. Rosemary, whom her brother calls Romy and her mother calls Rose, is 28 years old. She was married to older Tayelan noble at age 17 and widowed at 23. The couple had no children, and she is currently betrothed to a distant cousin on her mother's side, another noble at the Bellemarian Court. Elisabeth is very fond of Adelaide Grace and was very excited to learn that her new friend was also pregnant, though not as far as long as herself. She is delighted that there will be more children in the palace nursery.

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When the twins were born on a gray fall morning, Kieran was nervous, aware of the Bellemarian superstitions about weather and time of day for births. The first child was born, and with a hearty cry, Kieran was father to his fourth daughter. They named the girl Cecilia Penelope Sarah Jane, after two of her great-grandmothers and using two names popular among the common people. The whole palace waited with bated breath as Elisabeth screamed and brought forth her second babe -- the glorious, long-awaited son of the king. Kieran wept in joy and the entire kingdom celebrated the little one on whom their hopes of the future now rest. Crown Prince Robert Constantine Julian Augustus is a healthy and gorgeous little lad. Named Robert in tribute to the common people, his other names are testaments to popular kings of Bellemarian history. Among their family, the baby twins are called Cissie and Robbie. Kieran was so happy at the birth of his firstborn son that he showered everyone around him with affection and gifts. He was positively glowing, showering love on all of his daughters in addition to his blessed son, and even Elisabeth received the benefits of his happiness. In the face of his beautiful boy, Elisabeth was suddenly the perfect wife, and even his burgeoning attraction to Rosemary could not dampen the affection he felt for the mother of his children.

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Elisabeth is exhausted, but extremely happy. Five children five and under would wear her absolutely down after the difficult birth, but the palace women have stepped in with vigor and enthusiasm to care for the princesses and prince. The children are all lovely and well-behaved and the kingdom can barely contain its joy.

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