Reggie’s Renaissance

Reggie and William Windsor can’t have any more children, which is fine because they have fifteen of them already.  On their one weekend away together each year, just the two of them, they tended to come home pregnant year after year.  After year.  After year.  But six years ago she almost died in a delivery gone wrong, and so they’ve taken measures not to add any new members to the family. 

Reggie spends her days sewing fantasy clothing to sell at Renaissance Faires.  William is busy teaching all his boys how to craft metal weapons on a forge, and wield them in battle as well.  Every weekend they either prepare goods for, drive to, sell and demonstrate at, or drive home from regional fairs.  The entire family pitches in, and take turns dressing up to work their booths and entertain customers, month by month.  William and the older children get to eat, live, and breathe historical hobbies, having wonderful adventures together, while Reggie holds the fort down at home with the younger ones.

But when she suffers another health scare, she regrets not having spent more time teaching her children to cook and clean and provide for themselves in the modern here and now.  Now laid up for an extended period of time again, she realizes that with no more pregnancies on the horizon, she never took the time to teach the older children how to run the household in her absence.  They are thrust into on-the-job training when the unthinkable happens and no one is prepared for what comes next.