How family life all began

Silence. It had become a treat, a pleasure, an ambiance never expected but fully enjoyed in the bliss few moments a day that the house fell into it. Why? Gone are the days as a seamstress stuck in a loveless marriage. Widowed at a young age from a husband I came to despise. I did not wish him to die, but I cannot say for one moment I wish he were still alive. I should feel guilty that my happiness is built on his demise but I do not. Instead I am grateful I was given this second chance, a chance to marry the man who held my heart and have the family I could only dream of before.

I still remember the day I realised I was expecting @BelleDartagnan, our first and only girl. @Dartagnan_RP had always insisted he wanted 10 boys, so when she was born and the midwife informed me our first was a girl I did not know how he would take it. Of course he doted on her, any disappointment he may have felt he kept hidden from me.

His biggest challenge, and one of countless arguments, surrounded the changing of the baby. He refused, outright, to do the role of the mother. The one time he had no choice I came home to find the poor child dressed in a pillow case with a piece of rope around her waist. He ensured to never be asked again!

Now Belle is 7 but acts a ripe old age. Confident, assertive…. All the traits you expect from one with Gascony blood.  She adores her father and her God Father @CaptainTreville, planning one day to follow in their footsteps and become a Musketeer. She is still too young to understand this will never happen but for now I let her have her dreams, she will spend enough of her life having to be a woman in a man’s world, she may as well enjoy herself while she is young.

Our first and eldest boy has faced his own challenges. A sickly child, we nearly lost @middledartagnan as a baby. So many sleepless nights spent watching him keep a grasp on life, worried he would slip away at any moment. A time which also proved the first real test of my marriage, needing the support that only D’artagnan can give, but at the same time learning to understand he has a job to do and that certain challenges I might need to face alone.

Luckily Alexander, named after his grandfather, had made it to his 5th birthday but still I worry, every time he catches a common cold or sickness I am remembered of the time we nearly lost him. He is nothing like his siblings or his father but instead is quiet and studious. He is neither loud like Belle, nor cute like Charlie, the forgotten sibling sat happily with his book wanting to learn more about the world. He will go on to great things, of this I am sure. While the soldier’s life will never be one to suit him, he has the brains and the will to do well in this world.

Charlie… or chubby cheeks as I call him is the youngest. He is only a toddler, but his smile can already light up a room. An unexpected addition to the family, and a product of one too many glasses of wine on a rare night of freedom for D’artagnan and I, I still can’t look at that part of the Tavern wall without blushing. He is the only one to love me the most. Permanently attached to my hip, he enjoys the days watching as I go about my household tasks. His sister also dotes on him, woe betide anyone who upsets little Charlie.

Named after his father, I expect him to be the one to follow in D’artagnan footsteps even though I already dread the day. It is bad enough not to know when, or even if, D’artagnan will return home each day that the thought of double the worry could be too much to bear.

Poor @musketeercat, I do not know how he copes. He is the calmest of us all, letting the little ones pull his tail, carry him around like a baby and do with him as they please. No wonder he regularly disappears into the quiet solitude of the wardrobe, a hiding place yet to be found by Belle and the others.

How do I cope? That is a question I ask myself daily but then I give thanks that my life is now full of happiness. I am grateful that I can surround myself with the people I love and face any challenges thrown our way.

Now to make a start on @DArtagnan_RP dinner…. He sulks worse than the children at times.

Written by @_ConstanceD_