Living Royal

Chapter Thirty Nine

Living Royal

Chapter Thirty Nine

Seven Months Later: Edward and Bella's cottage

Bella slowly got out of her new car after parking it in their driveway. Getting out of the car had become a challenge for her lately, what with her protruding stomach. She was nine months pregnant and although she had breezed through the pregnancy with minimal problems, moving around was her only dilemma. She waddled her way to the front door and unlocked it, got in and threw her bag on the floor next to the door.

She was finally done.

She'd finally taken her very last exam and now she could simply relax. She'd talked her professors into letting her take them early so she'd have enough time to prepare for the birth and she was very thankful that they had agreed to let her do that.

They had both started their new year at college six months ago and what a year it had been. On their first day, they were bombarded with congratulations from their fellow classmates. They'd all watched the wedding on TV, of course, who hadn't?

The stares and whispering had gotten worse than before when they were just dating. Now she was the Princess, next in line to become Queen, someone infinitely more interesting all of a sudden. It had annoyed Bella to no end, so much that Edward suggesting transferring schools, but she'd refused, saying it would probably be the same no matter where they went.

To alleviate some of the stress she'd been going through, her friends decided to throw her a baby shower. Her friends, meaning Alice, who had organized the whole thing down to the very last detail.

They'd surprised her one day as she came back from a full day of classes. Edward had been there as well, protesting when they tried to kick him out saying that he didn't want to miss anything from the whole experience, even of it meant sitting in a room full of squealing women discussing the best methods of breast feeding.

The gifts that her friends brought varied from cribs and baby carriers to clothes and toys. The clothes, of course, had to be in neutral colors since they still didn't know the sex of the baby. Bella and Edward had decided to wait until the baby was born to find out, although it was extremely difficult to wait, they still wanted to keep it a surprise.

Another reason for not wanting to know was that they didn't want any pressure from the public or too much talk about the baby before it was even born. They wanted to keep a small part of all of it to themselves.

They had announced the happy news when Bella was three months along. People in England and a lot of people around the world, for that matter, rejoiced in the joyful news and the happy couple were flooded with well wishes from royals, officials and dignitaries from all over the globe. Those well wishes also included gifts that cost more money than Bella could possibly imagine, like a pacifier made of pure gold. Now, what on earth would a baby need a gold pacifier for?

At least, the well wishes were a step up from the hiding and lying they had had to do before they announced the pregnancy. Secret visits to the hospital in the middle of the night to check on the baby were not her idea of fun.

On the other hand, Esme had been a godsend. She helped Bella through everything starting from morning sickness to Braxton-hicks, since Renee was not right there to do it, not that she didn't want to be. Renee had called Bella more than once crying about how she was missing her baby having a baby. Bella had had to calm her down more than once, telling her she knew that she would be there if she could.

Edward had been dealing very well with the pregnancy so far; he pampered Bella to no end. Things got really intense, though, when one day Bella thought she was having a miscarriage. It was almost four months into the pregnancy when Bella woke up to find some spotting in her undies. She started screaming frantically for Edward to wake up. He was startled awake and immediately ran to the bathroom, his heart in his throat. They drove to the hospital in a mad dash and were ushered into an examine room quickly. Thankfully, the spotting turned out to be a regular period. The doctor explained that it happens to some women during the pregnancy, she also told them not to worry about having a miscarriage unless the blood is accompanied by abdominal pain.