Author's Note: This one is longer than the other ones will be mainly because I wanted to explore the idea of Odette and Derek moving to Odette's kingdom after they marry instead of living in Swan Lake. I never understood why she chose to live in a place that held such awful memories for her, especially when her kingdom was without a ruler while she was gone. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my idea! Feel free to leave a review.

Queen Odette leaned back in her father's old reading chair and put her feet up on the blue stool underneath the writing desk. She broke the seal of a freshly delivered letter, the first of the day. She wondered how long it would take her that summer morning to get through them all.

Odette dear, it was such a pleasure to receive your letter. Thank you for the birthday wishes! It was a most enjoyable affair. Such a shame you and Derek couldn't make it. I feel as if I am missing so much with the children. Won't you consider the castle I mentioned in my last letter? It would be the perfect place to raise a little family.

Do rethink the offer, dear. It would be such a shame for them to grow up without knowing their family.

Love always,

Queen Uberta

The younger queen calmly folded the letter up then let the flames from her candle lick at the words. Yes, and what a fine family Derek had. Uberta's passive aggressiveness always did strike Odette as endearing, if not frightening. She decided not to tell Derek about the letter.

Outside her chamber window, the courtyard was busy with horse snorting, butchers cutting meat, maids hanging the sheets, knights cursing at each other – the sounds of her childhood. It made her smile brighter. For the seventh time that week, the same thought occurred to her: I am home.

This was her kingdom, and whatever protests Derek came up with their wedding night were forgotten the next morning when he booked them a ship. Uberta may not understand why Odette needed to live in her father's kingdom, but she didn't expect the older woman to. She hadn't witnessed her father's murder, been turned into a swan multiple times, and died. Odette wouldn't wish that on anyone.

The chamber door creaked open. "Mama?" her daughter Katherine, just barely four years old, stuck her blonde head inside the room. "Can I come in?" Odette could tell by her daughter's feeble question the boys had been mean to her again.

Katherine remembered to shut the door behind her before she ran over and crawled up onto her mother's lap. Odette wrapped one arm around the little girl as the other wrote a reply to the Duke of Windsor's wife. She felt Odette's lack of invitation to a recent ball was a snub, and was trying to make up for it with gifts and flattery. It wasn't a snub, of course, but Odette smirked. The girls had been friends as children, and apparently nothing had changed between them.

"What did they say, Kat?" Odette asked quietly as her blue-eyed daughter tightly gripped her blanket.

The crown princess sniffed. "Donald pushed me in the mud and William wouldn't share his toys. He said girls can't play with wooden swords."

Odette hid her grin. Her sons were just like Derek when he was little. They looked a great deal like him too. "Well, you just tell William that Mama used to play with swords all the time. She even beat Daddy more than once. As for Donald, I'll see to him later. You didn't happen to push him back, did you?"

Katherine hesitated. "Maybe. But he did it first!"

The queen chuckled. "It wouldn't be fair to punish just him, then. This afternoon, I'd like you to read the book of Matthew from your bible. Perhaps that will help you keep calm."

The princess pouted. "I am calm. I just want them to play with me! Why won't they, Mama?"

Odette raised the letter, squinted then gave a nod. She sealed it with one hand then placed it to the side to be mailed later. She opened the next. "Well Kat, boys are strange. Some of them never want to play with girls because they think we're weak and can't keep up. They're wrong of course, especially about you. You're just like me." She kissed her daughter's head. A little too much, almost.

Katherine sighed, resting her head on her mother's shoulder. "Can the next one be a girl? I'd like a sister."

Odette chuckled. "I'll see what I can do." She hadn't planned on a fourth child. Then again, she and Derek hadn't planned on a third, either. The two didn't plan much. From what the queen could tell, she was only a few months along, meaning people noticed but refrained from comment, lest they curse the pregnancy.

Katherine slid off her mother's lap, pulling on her violet skirts. "Can I play with Daddy's stuffed animals?"

"You know how he feels about that, Kat. How about you bother Martha? She could use some help carrying the laundry."

"Okay!" Odette caught the princess' curtsey before she slammed the door on her way out. The queen smiled then focused on the next letter. A duke from Uberta's kingdom demanded a new agreement for trading his wool to Odette. Apparently, it wasn't a fair agreement. With the quality he gave, he should be grateful for a deal at all. She could smell her mother-in-law's fingerprints all over this letter. Odette wondered if she dictated it word for word over the poor fool's shoulder.

She just wants to control me, control my kingdom. She thinks because Derek is my husband he controls me. Ha. It was understood that, since the people loved their princess more than a foreign king, Odette would be a very hands-on queen. It was only fair, after all. Derek had his own kingdom. His mother's to be precise, but that would change once the old woman died. Then Derek could have his fun with his own kingdom, and Odette would keep the place she loved most, next to her husband.

Her stomach fluttered. Odette placed a hand over where the kick had come from and sighed. Don't worry, my daughter. This will be our place. Always.

The iron gates to the castle opened and Odette heard the neighing of over-worked horses enter. Men shouted and the smell of fresh blood filled the air. She craned her neck to see out the window. Her bearded husband leapt off his horse. She smiled, wondering what he caught that morning.

The queen glanced at her desk then the clock. Even if she took a little break, she could have the rest of these done by lunchtime. Odette tossed one last glance over her shoulder then headed for the courtyard. Perhaps she would tell Derek about his mother's letter. After he gave the boys a lecture on the treatment of women, of course.