Chapter 25: The Most Honourable Anthony Carter

During January and February of 1830, the seven women in the family planned the events of the spring and early summer meticulously. Lucy and Harriet had hand-picked a midwife for Ellen, and an agency was tasked to look for a wet nurse come May, the likely time for the birth.

Accordingly, Eleanor’s wedding was planned for mid-June, to give Ellen a few weeks to recover. Like Richard and Ellen, Eleanor and Antonio would have their wedding in the church of Matcham Village. Meanwhile, on the former estate of Mr. Tremont but close to High Matcham, a new manor was being built, named for its proximity to a ford in the river, Oxford Manor. The construction was expected to be finished by May, having started almost two years ago, and Sir Anthony, with his future son in law, spent a sizeable amount of time supervising the final efforts.

Another big news was the promotion of Sir Anthony to Vice-Admiral of the Blue. The announcement was made in early March, together with an advisory by the First Sea Lord, Sir Thomas Hardy, that Sir Anthony should expect to be employed again. This set off alarm bells with Harriet Carter who, together with her mother, began to use her contacts to influence possible postings for her husband. Fortunately, seagoing commands for a Vice-Admiral were rare in those days and reserved for the most senior admirals. Sir Anthony played down the possibilities and pointed out that even with a sea command, he would spend most of his time in a home base. Harriet and her mother campaigned for a posting as governor for one of the smaller island colonies, but there were no openings. The other option would be the postings as port admiral or shipyard commands, neither of which were really tempting.

In the meantime, Richard had authored a review of the situation in India with some recommendations on how to improve the British rule there and how to curb the power of the East India Company. His views found support with the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and with other cabinet members, and he was appointed to head a commission charged with drafting a new Charter Act for the East India Company. This was a highly complex and contested piece of legislation, and it would take Richard almost two years’ work to draft the new Charter Act (which was eventually passed by Parliament in 1833). However, in the course of this work, the commission would have to visit India for a period of time, possibly over the next winter.

All this created no small excitement in the family. Ellen had been doing quite well in her pregnancy. She was a healthy young woman, and in contrast to many of her contemporaries, she had a loving husband who doted on her and showered her with his affection. Therefore the prospect of Richard travelling to India affected her strongly. She did not start any tirades, but she voiced her trepidation to Lucy and to Harriet, and the latter alerted Richard to his wife’s worries.

One evening after dinner, Richard led his wife to their living room where he let her sit in a chaise longue whilst he moved a low divan to sit close to her.

“Ellen, darling, Mother told me of your worries,” he began caressing her thigh with his hand.

Ellen made a face. “She shouldn’t have bothered you with my petty fears,” she said, but she was relieved to see the concern in his eyes.

“No, she shouldn’t have,” Richard answered with a smile. “You should have, Ellen. You must tell me when you are worried about something. It is about me going to India, isn’t it?”

Ellen nodded. “Yes, I’m sorry, Richard, but the thought of you going away frightens me more than you can imagine.”

“Oh, I can imagine. I feel the same. I would never leave you alone for so long. In fact, I had assumed that you would come with me.”

“To India?” Ellen gasped.

“Why not? Calcutta is a comfortable city to live in, and there are many English women living there. Lady Lambert would have quite a position in Calcutta, I’m sure.”

Ellen looked at her swollen belly and made a grimace.

“I guess, once I am back to a normal size and weight again, I could travel.”

“You’ll see, this is going to be a wonderful experience. Do you remember the show two years ago, where they had elephants and tigers?”

“You scare me, Richard! These terribly animals do not really roam there freely?”

“Not in the cities,” Richard laughed. “From what I hear, however, you can ride on elephants into the countryside, and there are all sorts of animals the likes of which we have never seen. You would have topics for conversations to last you a life time.”

He could see the sudden sparkle in Ellen’s eyes. The prospect of seeing new things was a powerful inducement for her.

“Perhaps we can consider the possibility,” she said reluctantly, not yet fully convinced.

They went to bed not long after that, with Ellen sleeping in her now customary position on her side. Ellen had an unruly sleep, dreaming of foreign lands and strange animals. She was almost relieved when she awoke shortly after sunrise. It took a few moments for her to realise that she had awoken because of contractions. She’d had contractions before, and they had always subsided within a few minutes. This morning however, the contractions did not go away, but rather increased in strength. Ellen felt a terrible pressure on her bladder, too, and she got up to waddle over to the cabinet where she sat on the potty stool to relieve herself. The contractions were coming regularly now and Ellen finally realised the implications. She sat on the bed on Richard’s side and woke him gently. He looked up, still sleepy and confused.

“Darling, we need to call the midwife. I think the time has come.”

Richard almost bolted from the bed and pulled the bell rope. The sleepy maidservant that appeared was treated with a barrage of orders, to send for the midwife and to send for Lady Carter and Lady Wilkes. In just a few minutes, the household was in an uproar whilst Richard had Ellen lie down on the bed again and comforted her through the contractions.

Old Lady Lambert appeared, a gown over her night shirt, and satisfied herself that Ellen was comfortable. She told Richard to dress whilst she comforted Ellen with encouraging words.

“Today is the day, my darling,” she said. “You will give birth to your first child. Are you comfortable this way? Good. Now just remember, this is not something new. Women do this all the time. So don’t be embarrassed about what your body will do. The midwife will be here in no time, and she will help you through.”

Indeed, Richard had barely dressed when the midwife arrived and took charge. Remembering the specific instructions by Sir Jonathan Wilkes, water was heated for the purpose of washing the hands of the women, and the midwife scrubbed her hands with soap and a brush. She had been amused over the instructions at first, but Sir Jonathan had been adamant. Out of curiosity, she had observed his rules in the past three months, and she had indeed noticed that fewer women under her care developed the dreaded childbed fever.

Now she examined her charge. She had examined her before, and she knew her to be in excellent health. She could feel the dilation of her opening already, and she knew that her water would break soon.

“You are already along the way quite far. Try to breath deeply to lessen the contractions. You are not ready to push yet, so don’t try,” she instructed the young woman who nodded with clenched teeth as just another spasm caused her pain. It was seven o’clock now, and the bedroom slowly filled with women. Of course, Lucy had come, and she promised Ellen that Sir Jonathan would come in an hour or two; just as a precaution, she added for the midwife’s benefit. Harriet was there as well, restricting herself to giving her daughter in law moral support. Harriet was a slender woman, and birth had not come easy to her. She wiped Ellen’s forehead with a cool cloth and distracted her by talking about Richard’s birth and his early days. After a brief consultation with the midwife, Lucy administered a strengthening tea to her daughter, to help her with the ordeal.

Richard had never felt as useless as during this morning. He could see the pain in Ellen’s face during the contractions, and he could do nothing to ease it. The women looked at him with admonishing glances. He knew that men were not present during child birth, that this was what women had to endure alone, but he did not have the heart to leave Ellen alone. He sat stubbornly at the head end of the bed and held his wife’s hand, kissing her from time to time, and joking with his mother whilst she told her stories about his first years.

Ellen, for her part, felt protected. She just knew that nothing would go wrong with so many people taking care of her. Richard’s presence meant a lot to her, too. Even his helpless babbling gave her comfort, and it felt good to have his arm to press during the contractions.

It was almost nine o’clock when Ellen’s water broke, and from then on, things accelerated. The midwife announced her to be fully dilated, and Ellen herself felt that her contractions increased to almost unbearable intensity. She could not breathe through them anymore, and her cries could be heard through the house.

Richard sat, helplessly listening to her cries of pain, his own face wet with perspiration and tears, and he prayed silently. Suddenly, the midwife looked up and squinted at him.

“Would milord care to help your wife?”

Richard nodded vigourously.

“Then, if you were to sit on the bed behind her and support her? Yes, like this, put your arms around her and help her sit upright. Wonderful! Now, Milady, when the next contractions hit, press with all your force. Breathe deeply now, collect your strength. Are you there yet? Now press!”

And Ellen pressed. Strangely, she felt something big moving inside her. But now the contractions subsided.

“I can see the head already!” the midwife smiled up at her.

Ellen nodded and waited for the next round. It came, and once again, she pressed consciously. The child definitely moved, and she felt being stretched to the limit. She pressed again with the next convulsions, and now the quality of the stretching changed somewhat.

“The head is through!” came Lucy’s triumphant shout. “Hold on, Ellen! You are almost there!”

The next contractions came, and Ellen pressed with what strength was left in her. She felt how the child moved further down, and now she felt it being pulled from her womb. There was total silence in the bedroom for a second or two. Looking through her bloodshot eyes, Ellen saw the midwife hold a small, blood-smeared something up by its little feet, and she heard a clap. And then she heard her child cry for the first time. Wracked by her emotions and her exhaustion, Ellen sobbed helplessly in Richard’s arms. Harriet shook her shoulder gently.

“Ellen, it’s a boy! You have a son!”

The midwife and Lucy were busy cutting the umbilical cord and then cleaning the tiny child. Then they wrapped the future Lord Lambert in a pre-warmed blanket and handed the bundle to an Ellen who could barely keep her eyes open anymore. Yet the sight of her newborn son temporarily revived Ellen. She marvelled at the tiny human being that had grown inside her and was now mewling softly whilst lying in her arm. She felt Richard’s grip from behind, felt his emotion, as he whispered into her ears.

“We have a wonderful child, Ellen. You were so brave, and I am so proud of you.”

In spite of herself, Ellen smiled.

“I screamed the house down.”

“Ellen, as long as I live, I will never forget this moment. I love you with all my heart.”

He did not care that all the people around them could hear him, and even the midwife gave them a teary smile.

The rest of the procedure, the afterbirth, the cleaning, the examination, all this was just a blurred memory for Ellen. She woke up some three hours later to look into the big, adoring eyes of Millicent Wade.

“You woke up, Milady? Let me offer you some tea! Lady Wilkes prepared it for you, and it is still hot.”

With the help of the girl, Ellen drank some tea and it felt good. Slowly the cobwebs cleared from her head.

“Where is my son?”

“He is sleeping over there, Milady.”

Indeed, a crib had been moved into the bedroom.

“May I inform his lordship that you are awake?”

Without waiting for an answer, Millicent slipped out of the room. A few seconds later, Richard rushed in and knelt before the bed. Behind him, Lucy and Harriet stood in the door smiling at her.

“How do you feel, Darling?” Richard asked softly, kissing the palm of her hand.

Making a grimace, Ellen tried to jest.

“Torn limb from limb to be honest. Tired. How is our son, Richard?”

“He is all right. The wet nurse had him already and it seems that he drank some milk.”

“But I want to suckle him,” Ellen protested.

“This is only as a backup, Darling. Of course you will suckle him,” Richard smiled. “Look at it this way, Ellen. The wet nurse is a young woman who has to support her own child with the pay we give her. Would you want her out on the street?”

Ellen looked contrite. “Of course not. But this is my child and I should feed him, at least in the beginning.”

“And you will, Darling. He is in our bedroom and you will hear when he is hungry.”

“And where is everybody else?”

“Gone home, but they will be back this afternoon. Father will come, too, and Eleanor and Antonio.”

“Oh, dear God! How do I look?”

“Honestly?” Richard asked with a grin.

Ellen nodded.

“Tired but beautiful. Millicent has already asked whether she should do your hair, whatever she means by that.”

“By all means, yes. I must look terrible.”

“Must I remind you that you looked like a drowned rat when I first met you? Didn’t I still fall in love with you? But I shall let Millicent ‘do your hair’.”

Richard kissed his wife tenderly before leaving the field to the young girl. Millicent was no longer scrawny and underfed. She had filled into a most desirable young woman. But most importantly, the girl idolised Ellen. She combed out Ellen’s matted hair with tender care and braided it into a single, thick queue that she draped over Ellen’s shoulder. Next she brought a wash basin and washed Ellen’s face, her neck and her shoulders. Asking for permission with a silent look, she lifted the covers and bunched up her night shirt. Using the wet cloth, she cleaned Ellen’s front and armpits and the traces of blood on her thighs. Then she helped Ellen into a fresh shirt and brought fresh bed covers too. All in all, Ellen felt much better after that service and she thanked the girl with a grateful smile.