But the Crown Prince had had enough.
With the death of his stepfather still fresh in his memory, and recognizing that his mother was now of an advanced age herself, Prince Sebastian was determined to gather his remaining family members for the holidays. And yes, that included his wayward sister, Francisca. As the de facto head of the family, he had to do something.
He invited his twin half-sisters, Alexandra and Anastasia, for a pre-holiday pow-wow over bagels and ham, and Prince Renauld's daughters arrived with bells on.
"We're having the family get together here this year," the next king of Hidden Springs had decided, "And you're old enough now to take your places in the family. Let's just say you won't be sitting at the kiddie table anymore. I want the two of you to help get it together."
"Spill," Anastasia said, "what do you want us to do?"
"You know, do what you guys did for dad's funeral. I know you can do it, because you did it before."
Alexandra smiled. "We're on it. C'mon, let's go." She and Anastasia purposefully left the table.
Detail-oriented Anastasia had already developed a reputation for being a good party planner, even if she wasn't much for attending the parties themselves. She seemed to have a knack for knowing what worked and what didn't at these functions. She'd already hung up the stockings that she'd knitted herself, so now she and Lucian hung up the room trimmings.
Alexandra set the meal table and Patrick moved the gift pile from the garage to the living room. In addition, they oversaw Aldo, their butler, and Bonehilda preparing the holiday feast.
Queen Catarina forced herself to smile. The holidays were here, and this was when she missed her husband, Prince Renauld, the most. She'd missed his companionship, his larger-than-life smile, and his attentive bear-hugs, and now, for the first time since his death, all four of her now grown children were going to be under the same roof.
Her only son, Crown Prince Sebastian, who had arranged this gathering, was heir to the throne, and, given her now advanced age, was going to ascend the throne very, very soon. After a youth spent as a partying playboy, the prince had reformed his ways, and had now buckled down to the very real responsibility of not only becoming the crown prince of the commonwealth, but, for all intents and purposes, head of the family as well.
Her oldest daughter, Princess Francisca, seemed to revel in her status as the 'black sheep' of the family. She'd decided that no one, least of all her mother, was to decide what she was going to do with her life, and she hadn't, choosing to live alone in the woods, writing an anonymous blog on the internet commenting on society's ills, and independently publishing several racy adult novels under various pen names. For it was her disappearance that caused an irrevocable chain reaction of events, which led to the birth of the twins and everything else that had happened in the family over the last twenty or so simyears.
Finally, there were the young twins, Princesses Alexandra and Anastasia. Conceived in large part due to their older sister's disappearance, they were nevertheless forming their own identities and taking their places both in the family and in the world at large. As different on the surface as they appeared to be, Alexandra a sporty tomboy and Anastasia an artistic fashionista, deep down they were very much alike, sharing a desire to make a mark on society and to do it on their terms, not their mother's. Queen Catarina had been deeply distressed by her youngest daughters' choices, from joining the military to attending architecture school, not to mention, their reality television show and their decision to hire their own staff. So, in a last ditch effort to corral them, she gave them an ultimatum: Marry within two simweeks or forfeit their inheritance. Well, that went over like a lead brick. Alexandra and Anastasia had made clear that they were in no hurry to marry, and, because they were now in charge of the narrative, they didn't have to EVER marry.
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