Chapter 10: Fruition

March came, and the snow melted. Anne’s delivery was expected quite soon, and all arrangements were made. A midwife was engaged. A potential wet nurse was found. She was a former chambermaid for a family of the lesser nobility who had been seduced by a son of the house nearly two years before and had born the fruit of that seduction more than a year ago. She was keeping that child on the breast until she would be needed. Anne figured that she could be useful as a chambermaid after that. The nursery was refurbished to the point that a fire was laid, although not lit. All they need do now was to wait.

Waiting was not Anne’s strong suit. She could have her meals in bed if she wanted, but she was too anxious to do that. On the other hand, she was no longer dressing to receive company. Even Sylvia had decreased her visits. She spent what time she could playing the harpsichord, even past the point when it lost tune. Her body was hot, and her fingers and toes were cold.

Lionel sent for the midwife when the contractions started one night when they were downstairs talking after dinner. He helped Anne up the stairs himself. She had felt too tired before, but he should have insisted. The midwife, when she appeared, dismissed him.

“You may have started this, milord, but you have no part in finishing it. Go get drunk.”

Lionel set up one footman, David, outside Anne’s door and another, Adam at the foot of the stairs to bring him news. There was no news for hours, every minute of which felt like a full week. He paced the music room which was the farthest room on the ground floor from where Anne was. Nevertheless, when she started to moan, he heard her. He heard her and gritted his teeth.

Why had he done this to Anne? He was a second son; he didn’t need an heir. Now, Anne was suffering for his sake. The women who had taught him had ways to avoid pregnancy. They were not particularly nice ways; nor were they always effective. Still, he could have taught them to Anne and help her avoid this torture. (He was totally forgetting how eager and happy Anne had been when she told him of her pregnancy.) Now she was suffering, and there was nothing he could do about it. At a particularly loud moan, he stormed out of the music room. Adam, who had been sitting on one of the lower steps of the staircase, jumped to his feet.

“I am sorry, milord.”

“Never mind,” said Lionel. “Just bring me news when it comes.” He went back into the room and closed the door. That didn’t prevent his hearing the moans. Later, after he’d been walking for hours, he heard a shriek. He went to the door, and paused with his hand on the knob. There were three more shrieks, each louder. He knew there was nothing he could do, but he couldn’t leave the door.

Adam heard David call, “It’s a boy.”

Immediately, he called “Milord.” He struggled to his feet. His job was to enter the music room and make the announcement formally. Somehow, he didn’t think Milord would thank him for the delay. “It’s a boy, Milord,” he said as Milord went tearing past.

Lionel ran up the stairs faster than he had done the last time he’d run up them, when he was twelve. Joyce was walking towards him down the hallway carrying a bundle.

“It’s a boy,” she said. She opened the bundle to show the child with his genitals exposed to prove her point. Lionel didn’t even pause to look.

“No, Milord,” a chambermaid said to him at the doorway, but a line of redcoats couldn’t have stopped him just then, let alone a servant. He walked in the room, and there was Anne lying on the bed and looking desperately pale. The midwife was doing something to her stomach.

“Now, dear,” the midwife said. “Just one more hard push. That’s it.” Then something bloody came out of Anne, and the midwife pulled it all the way out. He gasped.

“And you, milord,” she said, “have no business in here at all.” She walked towards him, and he fled. He fled less from the woman than from the mess he had seen and the incredible wan look of Anne.

When he went down to the kitchen for more tea he found that Cook was there. The awful process had taken the entire night. He went out and wrote to Dorwich, to Sylvia, and to Stroud. He left the last two as formal and passionless as the first versions. He went back to write another letter to Dorwich.

James,
Anne has delivered. I don’t know what
went wrong.
She still lives, but she looks pale
as a ghost.
Can you bring Lenora here?
I am certain that she is whom Anne
would want by her side now.
Lionel.

He sent a footman for the coachman and handed him the letters.

“Me, Milord? Run with a letter?”

“I thought you would take the curricle. The matter is urgent. Dorwich House first, although it’s not closest.”

Reginald said, “Yes, Milord.” He went to fetch two lads from the stable to bring out the horses and harness them to the curricle. Soon, he was knocking hard at the door to Dorwich House.

“Milord and Milady are not receiving at this hour,” the footman who finally answered told him.

“It is an urgent letter. It involves Lord James’s sister and his nephew. If he gets it late, he will learn why.” The footman turned the note over to George, who brought it with the tea to Lord James’s dressing room. Milord came in soon after. He saw the letter and opened it after a half cup of tea.

“Clothes worthy of a visit, George, and then a cloak to protect me from the cold. Could you send for the coachman? No the stables. Lady Lenora and I will be needing saddled horses very soon.”

“And breakfast Milord?”

“That will probably have to wait.”

James took the letter down the hall to Lenora’s room. Roseanne looked askance at him, but Lenora stopped in her dressing.

“It might be riding garb, Roseanne,” James said. “Read this m’love.” He handed Lenora the letter.

Lenora read:

James,
Anne has delivered. I don’t know what
went wrong.
She still lives, but she looks pale
as a ghost.
Can you bring Lenora here?
I am certain that she is whom Anne
would want by her side now.
Lionel.

“It does not sound good, love,” she said. “Yes, Roseanne, a riding habit. I’d say before breakfast.”

“I would shoot myself if I got there too late because I fed my belly instead of coming.”

“Well, you should actually go and take care of your preparations instead of staying here and embarrassing Roseanne. Roseanne, dear, he has seen me in less.”

So James went back to his own dressing room and had George pull on his riding boots. He met Lenora downstairs and helped her mount. London was at business as soon as the sun rose, but there was not yet so much traffic as would seriously impede them. They got to Fenhurst House in less than a quarter of an hour. Their knock was answered by Lionel himself.