Chapter 7: Temporary Idyll

Learning to talk in the Tudor household can be a traumatizing experience. 

"Guess what, James?  Daddy is getting a new cell phone! Not only will I have better service, but I can use the camera to take photos of you to put online. I can use them as blackmail when you become a teenager! Doesn't that sound great, James?"

"I've heard lots of stories about my mother's ghost, but I never got to see her. I don't know if I'd like to meet her now or not. I did meet my stepmother's ghost. Her name was Catherine Howard. Unlike most ghosts, she doesn't talk. She just runs up and down this hallway in one of your grandfather's houses, screaming bloody murder. I tell you, sweetie, the night I met her was the WORST slumber party I ever had..."

Right. That's the last time Elizabeth tells a ghost story to a toddler.

Luckily, Daddy knows how to make Jane forget all about screaming ghosts.

Jane loves to play with the peg box, but James takes after his mother. He loves the xylophone.

Like her older sister, Jane enjoys playing inside the toy box with the horse.

James prefers chewing the heads off of the dolls from the doll house.

Robert cuddles his children as often as he can. He knows that they won't stay this small and cuddly forever.

The more he grows, the more James resembles his father. The only exception is his nose; his nose is all Elizabeth, passed on through generations of Tudor children.

Jane has the same nose. She also has Elizabeth's lips and the trademark Tudor red hair.

James and Jane are very close and do lots of activities together, despite having very different personalities.

James is laid back, artsy and outdoorsy. He loves to go fishing and to paint.

Jane is, for lack of a better word, serious. She always does her homework on time and prefers to spend her free time reading or playing chess.

Despite having different ideas of what is fun, James and Jane agree that it's always better to do it together. Their favorite place to go is the park, because there are both chess tables and plenty of places to fish. They spend hours at the park, happily bickering the entire time.

"So, James...is this supposed to be fun?"

"Um, yeah."

"Care to explain how?"

"Just shut up, will you? I'm trying to focus."

"Focus on what? There's nothing to focus on! You don't need to use your brain at all!"

"JANE!"

"Jane, this is so boring."

"Is not! It's all about strategy. Chess requires brainpower, unlike fishing. Fishing is more boring than chess."

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"You don't like fishing because you can't catch anything."

"Yeah, well, you don't like chess because you always lose. Checkmate, loser!"

Not long after the twins grow up, Philippa grows into a toddler. She, too, has the Tudor red locks.

She is a very mannerly child, always tasting her food delicately. Robert swore he saw her sticking out her little pinkie once while eating.

Like her siblings before her, Phillipa goes with Daddy to the library. Robert has started a fantasy novel, The Enchanted Orchestra, and he finds it much easier to work in the library.

Philippa loves the xylophone. Elizabeth is thrilled that so many of her children love music as much as she does.

Playing with the doll house is the only thing that James refuses to do with his twin sister. While he globs paint on a canvas, Jane plays with Philippa, who enjoys the doll house as much as Jane does.

Elizabeth really couldn't ask for much more in life. Her children are happy and healthy, her marriage is solid, and while her career is stagnant, it's stable. Life is good for Elizabeth Tudor.

Too good to last.

It is a quiet afternoon when the call comes. She is excited when she sees who it is. The only old friend that she was pleased to find had come to Sunset Valley.

"It's about time you called, S-"

"Elizabeth...Edward is dead."

Elizabeth is dumbfounded. "I - I don't understand," she stammers. "What happened?"

"I can't explain on the phone. Meet me at the bistro? We need to talk."
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Adding drama into the story has been difficult. I don't want it to be cheesy, I don't want to accidentally rip off of anybody else's stories, and most of all I just want my Sims to be happy. Sadly, endless updates about how happy everybody is are not interesting. Therefore, there must be drama. The big reveal of our mystery caller is coming up in the next chapter.

As mentioned last chapter, Elizabeth is still lingering on level four of journalism. I'm totally failing the job hopper part of this roll. I may start looking into mods regarding maternity leave so the next rolls go more smoothly. As for Robert, his sci-fi trilogy didn't go so well, so I'm hoping the fantasy novel he is working on goes over better. He doesn't have much time to write, but the finances are okay. Elizabeth's check is decent and they have a garden for food. The only bad thing is the three older children all share a bedroom. Poor kids. Privacy? What's that?

Sorry for the poor picture of Jane when she aged up. She's the heir, but I'm really having a crisis about that, as her brother, James, is one fine specimen of a Sim. They are teens in the game, and DANG, he's a good-looking Sim. Jane is pretty, but James...I love him. If only I had rolled single with help. *sighs wistfully*

The real Elizabeth's brother, Edward VI, did die young. He was always sickly and died at the age of sixteen after a six year reign. Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife is supposed to haunt the Long Gallery at Hampton Court Palace. She had been placed under house arrest once her infidelity had been discovered, and when she found out Henry was attending services in his chapel, she broke free from her guards and ran screaming through the Long Gallery towards the chapel to beg forgiveness. He never heard her, as the guards caught up with her. I can never decide whether or not I pity Catherine; she was only twenty-one when she was beheaded, so her youth makes her pitiable, as well as the fact that I'm sure she wasn't thrilled about having a now aging and corpulent Henry for a husband (He was actually very athletic and good-looking in his youth, but after Jane Seymour, he kind of went to seed), but on the other hand, she was a dolt to think she could get away with infidelity. Anne Boleyn was Catherine's cousin, and had been executed six years prior on similar, trumped up charges (the scholars I've read generally assert Anne was innocent - she had worked too hard to get her place as queen to risk it by having an affair). So, she was stupid to assume she could get away with it. Henry was a jealous man and the law decreed infidelity against the king as being a form of treason. Anyway, she was executed in 1542 at Tower Green in the Tower of London, as was her lover, Thomas Culpepper. Her ghost is also supposed to haunt the Tower, where she is buried along with Anne in the chapel on the grounds, St. Peter ad-Vincula (St. Peter in Chains).

...I get the feeling my notes are as long as the actual story. Sorry about that. Feel free to skim. I just ramble. I've spent four years writing history papers and old habits die really hard...