Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 365: How Many Children

Chapter 365: How Many Children

After the short trip / outing to A- Country, Talia and Arthur returned to Esteria. Rebecca was unwilling to let Talia leave, but let her go anyways.

Talia asked Joe if he had any preferences for his girl’s name, but he said he had none. He said that from his side, he had none he could honour by naming his firstborn after them.

Talia, who was under the impression that he might want to name his child after his late sister, understood he didn’t want that. She then decided to find a name from Rebecca’s side. Through the stories she heard from Rebecca, there were a handful of people Rebecca respected.

"Four? Really Iris? Four?" Arthur held Talia’s hand as she was seriously contemplating, looking through the window. She didn’t even respond to the stewardess who offered her a drink. There was a slight turbulence as there were thick clouds and thinking that she might be scared, he decided to change her mood.

Well, not only that, he was blindsided when that repugnant woman snickered as she asked him about Iris’ plan to have four kids. They have always wanted to marry and having kids is part of the plan but they never discussed about that topic deeply.

She really wants to have four kids? That is four years gone just for pregnancy! Isn’t two enough?

"Why not?" Talia looked at Arthur with a smile. His face looked a bit restless and that made Talia chuckle. "It’s not like we can’t raise four children. We have lots of money and we can get all the help we need if necessary. And four is the minimum amount. I don’t mind seven or eight even. Grandpa said twins run in my grandma’s family, so I might have eight kids in four pregnancies. Wouldn’t that be-"

"Horrific!" Arthur went pale imagining eight children calling him ’dad’. "Which century do you belong to anyway, Iris?" he held her shoulders and shook her gently. "You are a Princess; not a brood mare!"

"Wait... since when did wanting to have more children considered regressive? And broodmare? I am not going to just shut myself in giving birth to children. I will work too. It’s not like my brain cells will disappear with pregnancy." Talia knitted her brows as she was offended. She didn’t know when her heart changed, but now she wanted a lot of children around her. She knew eight is a lot but his words made her feel like she was asking for something so abhorrent.

Horrific? How is having a lot of kids horrific?

"But eight Iris? Even four is a lot and you’re casually saying eight? Think of your health, Iris. Can you handle four pregnancies? You’re weak as it is. I can only agree for two and no more." Arthur said firmly and covering his eyes with the sleep eye covering and leaned comfortably at the seat.

Imagining her going through pregnancy after seeing what Rebecca is going through, made Arthur shudder. He didn’t want her to suffer.

His dismissive tone made Talia angry. She opened the covering from his eyes and held his arm. "What do you mean by ’can only agree’? How can you disagree? It should be my decision since it would be I, who will be going through the pregnancy. What say do you have?" she shouted.

At that time, the jet shook a bit and Talia was a little scared and gripped his arm a little tighter.

"I have no say?" Arthur got his arm out of her grip, gritting his teeth. He got raging mad. "What would you do if I do the snip after two kids? How will you get pregnant then?" he turned his face not willing to look at her anymore.

"You... How dare you say that?" Talia got madder. How can he decide on such things himself? And why is he getting this mad? He is not even looking at me.

"Why can’t I? Just like you decide on how many children you carry, I can decide on when I can do the snip." Arthur’s tone was indifferent and he didn’t even bother to turn to look at her.

"I dare you to do the snip, Fred." Talia shook his arm to make him look at her.

"Enough, Iris." Arthur turned to look at her and her angry face made him angrier. "I will do the snip if I want to."

"Then I will find a man who can give me as many children I want," Talia said it out loud, in the spur of the moment. She regretted it immediately and was about to apologise, but Arthur’s cold snort made her stop.

Did she say she’ll go to another man?

Arthur snorted. "Yeah, why not? You can go find someone even now. It’s not like you lack suitors." He said without thinking twice.

"Fine then! Since you don’t care, I’ll do what I want!" Talia’s eyes clouded thinking how easily he could give up on her. He still is saying that she has many suitors after everything that happened previously.

She stood up, walked past him and locked herself in the bedroom of their private jet and fell asleep on the bed not minding him knocking at the door.

Even when they arrived at Esteria, she didn’t speak to him and upon reaching their home, she locked herself in her bedroom.

Arthur had stopped pestering her to speak with him as they got down from the jet and when she locked herself in another bedroom without even having dinner, he lost it.

"You want eight kids and you won’t even eat properly? Are you mad?" he shouted from outside her tightly shut door. "Come on out, Iris!"

He kept on knocking the door. He thought by being a nuisance, she’d come out and scream at him. But she didn’t open the door and he got more impatient.

"I, the future Lord of this Castle, command you to come out!"

He barked out an order having no other way. He noticed Mrs. Grey in the hallways holding a tray, pause her steps and she had a weird expression on her face.

Arthur thought she’d say something in the lines of ’Even though you will be our future Lord, she will forever be our little lady and you have no right to command her to do anything.’ In fact, during the recent debacle of Iris wanting a separate bedroom, the staff took her side and kept him away from sneaking in her room. They refused to give him the master key to open that room without her permission and these days he felt like all the staff has been staying away from him and serving Iris with much enthusiasm.

It’s not like he is faulting them for it. She is the true heir and he has no right to demand more respect than her, but he felt lonely. Till then he was always treated fairly by the staff and in the past month, since his Iris was with him always he didn’t feel neglected. With their quarrel, she is not with him and he felt lonelier. He couldn’t even eat and his head hurt.

"I won’t disturb your Lady anymore. Just make sure she eats something before falling asleep," Arthur spoke in a low voice and walked to his bedroom, with his head bowed.

"That’s not necessary," Mrs. Grey sighed. In fact she was wondering how to retreat since she happened upon the couple’s fight.

But why is Arthur having such dejected look? And the way he spoke... How serious is their fight? The way he said ’your lady’... Is he thinking that we are ignoring him now that our little Lady is here? But we were trying to keep the investiture a secret and that’s why we were avoiding him in case we accidentally ruined the surprise. How can we neglect him? Our Master will kill us in case someone offends Arthur. Does he not know that?

Mrs. Grey opened the door and oddly the door was opened immediately. As she was serving the dinner, Mrs. Grey said that Arthur is looking so sad.

"I don’t care." Talia pouted and went to bed.

Mrs. Grey could only sigh. These two were always attached at the hips the past month and that made them all happy. But now it seems like they had a fight.

But she didn’t want to meddle and see where it leads. Both love each other so much and they can resolve it themselves.

Talia lied on the bed and she couldn’t sleep. She rehashed the fight they had and she started crying remembering how indifferent Arthur acted towards her.

But... If I had ignored him when he said ’horrific’, things would have turned differently. He probably would have hugged me and apologised, and we probably would have had a proper talk about this subject.

Ah! I stupidly said only I have a say and he, the hot-head, one-upped me and we ended up fighting.

Talia felt bad remembering how Arthur begged her to speak to him and to have dinner with him.

She rolled on the big bed and she felt lonely.

What should I do? Since I locked this room, he would have locked that room. Should I knock on the door and beg him to open?

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