threesentenceficathon

From:

“I’ve been thinking about something ever since the coronation,” Frank said, turning to Helen as they lay on the soft grass beneath the twining boughs of the new-grown trees, the bower their people had given to them until their new home could be built.

Helen rolled over onto her side to listen to him, lifting up onto her elbow and propping her head in her hand; her fingers trailed over his new raiment, which he still felt was much too fine for the likes of him, even if he did feel more fit for his newly acquired station in it.

“You’ve always ’ad a ’ead for maths and geography and ’istory and the like, and you can negotiate a right good bargain at the shops, and when you speak, people listen,” he continued, lapsing into his old manner of speech now that it was just the two of them, alone beneath the trees, as they had been back in England in their youth, when they had spent long summer days together exploring the forests and fields of the country, away from the crowded streets of London. “I’m a plain man, always ’ave been and always will be, no matter ’ow many layers o’ finery I’m dressed in and no matter what the Lion said at the coronation, but I’ve always thought that you’re, well, a step above my station, as they say.”

Helen’s fingers stilled upon his chest as she listened, and her expression turned curious.

Frank wrapped his hand around hers as he said with deep earnestness, “I think that you’d make a fine ruler o’ this land, like the ol’ queens o’ England; you have all the wisdom and grace o’ a queen, and there’s no one I’d rather stand at the side o’ than you, Nellie. And the Lion crowned us both, didn’t he? You’ve as much a right to rule over this land as I do.”

Squeezing his hand with a smile, Helen said, “I think that’s a fine plan, and there’s no one I’d rather have at my side,” and she leaned forward and kissed his cheek.