Stolen Moments

[Cecily Rambolt]

Cecily paused along the path and turned her face up to the sun. It felt exceptionally good as she rest her hands on her rounded belly, the soft wind ruffling her peasant top. She counted today as a blessing, to be out of the drafty castle for a few minutes and actually had been able to check on Hamneda. Of course Kalif had been his usual dour self, she grinned, shielding her eyes with one hand. She hadn't seen her cheerful brother in law for a while. Not that she'd seen most of anyone as she'd been busy trying to wrap up things before she went on maternity leave. She'd been taking her time making a decision that would affect not only her life for a year, but also that of her husband's and those at the school. She would tell Nicolas when it was time to and she was positive she would be leaving.

She put those heavy thoughts from her mind and walked leisurely back toward the school. Cecily was not in a hurry to return to the closed in space of her office anytime soon but knew she would have to. Elisaveta chose that moment to start up moving excitedly around and Cecily had to stop again, laughing softly as she pressed her hands to her belly. Becoming a mother was something she had always wanted and she savored every single moment. She stood there with her eyes closed, a soft smile on her face, the distant buzz of students rushing about in the background.

 

[Nicolas King]

After talking to Martine, Nicolas had decided it best to inform Cecily of his plans to leave the castle for a week. It wasn't a giant deal to him, he'd always been confident in Cecily's ability to run the school on her own, or mostly on her own with the support of professors, but he figured she would want more warning of his temporary departure than the night before, especially as she'd asked him there specifically. King hadn't done much this school year, he'd only covered for Cecily a lot as she did other things or was ill or whatever - but in the grander scheme of things it was still Cecily who was running the school for the most part. With this in mind, he trusted that his own taking a week off would not be problematic - particularly being that Cecily had gifted Nicolas with the ability to do so via her tickets.
First Nicolas went to her office, figuring she would be holed up in there as he had been in his for the past several weeks, but after a series of knocks he was confident that she was not within. He asked a few people if they'd seen the headmistress, not bothering to use magic on this occasion (which was, in fact, very out of character for King), and quickly learned that she was out on the lawn enjoying the afternoon sun. Nicolas smirked at this revelation, 'of course she's out on the lawn'. It wasn't very much like Cecily to be holed up doing anything for too long, in fact he'd been quite surprised when she was so willing to run the castle on her own. She was a fun-loving person, and not very apt to pay attention to formalities and details which the position she currently held required. The lawn and areas outside of the castle should have definitely been his first place to look for her.
Exiting the castle, Nicolas spotted Cecily quickly enough and walked toward her, unsure of how he would approach the situation and finding it altogether strange. Donning an air of joviality Nicolas came up alongside Cecily, "Good afternoon, Cecily"

 

[Cecily Rambolt]

Cecily turned her head as she heard approaching footsteps and lazily opened her eyes. The sun was just wonderful today. "Oh hullo Nicolas." She smiled at her friend and wondered what he had been up to lately. Shamelessly she knew she had been a bit more absent than naught at the castle and didn't know how everyone would take it once she came to her decision to leave for a while. "How have you been?" Her hands continued to rest on her stomach and she jumped slightly as a good solid kick was delivered to her ribs. "Ow." She murmured, rubbing the spot. She turned her attention back to the Auror and grinned at him. "You look like you have something on your mind."