But she hated the thought of letting the baby go hungry for so long. She looked at the mantel clock. She had only a half hour more before she should be on her way. She walked purposely to the cradle, spoon in hand. She looked down at the babe and was surprised to see the child’s eyes open, watching her.Charlotte’s eyes, she thought.
Daniel watched Lizette’s reflection in the dressing table mirror as she brushed the thick dark hair that fell past her shoulders.
“And how are you feeling tonight, my dear?”
“Do you ask as my husband or my physician?”
“Take your pick. Both are very happy to see you in such good health and spirits.”
“You seem happy as well, I would say. Happier than I have seen you in some time.”
He unfastened his collar, grinning. “Why should I not be? I have a beautiful wife I adore, a healthy daughter, a rent-free home by the sea ...” He leaned down and kissed her cheek.
“Do not forget the nurse.”
“Hmm?” he asked, wrinkling his brow.
“I mean that Annette is so well looked after ... all through the night.” She smiled, a suggestive lift to her eyebrows. Then she stood and leaned against him. She kissed his cheek, his chin, his mouth.
He kissed her back. He knew he should be thrilled. Physically, emotionally, he was thrilled. It had been so long. But his mind leapt to the potential consequences, the terrifying possibility of another pregnancy. Another nightmare.
He pulled gently away and cupped her exquisite face in his hands. He looked at her, relishing, delighting in her contented, loving expression. Before him was the woman he had fallen in love with.
“Come.” He sat on the bed and took her hand, slowly pulling her to lie next to him. He wrapped one arm around her, holding her tight to his side. With his free hand, he brushed the long dark hair from her face. When her hand began to caress his chest and then move lower, he clasped his hand over hers, stilling its path. He knew from painful experience that speaking of her condition directly would only stir up in his wife a cauldron of defensiveness, denial, and anger.
“I just want to hold you,” he murmured, bending his neck to kiss the top of her head.
The truth was much more complicated.
The practice of dosing young infants with proprietary
medicines, usually containing opiates,
increased during the nineteenth century... .
—VALERIEFILDES,WETNURSING: A HISTORY
FROMANTIQUITY TO THEPRESENT
CHAPTER24
Sally picked up little Edmund, his eyes now open, his drooling little mouth working, showing his pink gums, his soft fair cheeks plump with health. Going a few extra hours without a nursing wouldn’t harm a stout boy like him. She took him to the dressing table and changed him into a dry nappy. Back in her arms, his pleasant expression wrinkled in restlessness as he began rooting against her.Put a bit in his mouth,Mary had said, something like it anyway. Then follow with his feeding. He was definitely ready to nurse now.
Her thought should have been,finally the little biter’s awake. Now I can give him the stuff, nurse him, and be off for a night o’ fun with Davey.But it wasn’t. Instead she thought of her own Dickie. Had her sister ever done the likes to keep him quiet? She supposed it was possible, but she believed her sister had genuine feeling for the boy. They were relation after all. This boy was no relation to her, so why did she feel such a strong urge to protect him? She thought again of the embroidered blanket she’d stubbornly refused to toss on the rubbish heap. She knew why.
Sally sighed.
Still, she hated the thought of disappointing Davey. She longed to see him again. Perhaps if she hurried she could still catch Mary.
Sally ran down the lane as fast as she could, pressing her arm over her heavy bosom to protect herself from the jarring pace. Mary would be put out with her indeed, for she was a quarter hour late. Ahead, she saw her friend’s shape in the shadows of the moonlit hornbeam tree.
Mary must have heard her approaching and no wonder, she must sound like a big mule thundering down the hard packed road, eager to win some race.
“I’d about given up on you,” Mary called. “I was just now heading in without you.”
“Sorry, Mary.” Sally panted, hands on her knees to catch her breath.
“I thought I told you to wear the blue,” she said peevishly. “You’re still in that same soiled dress?”
