Lady Day
Chapter 1
Lady Day, 25 March1883
Osney Abbey, Warborough, Oxfordshire
After years of living quietly and declining all social invitations from his neighbors, Erasmus Mangevileyn suddenly had a good number of people in his house.
It all began when he opened the cart doors of his threshing barn to check on the state of the thatch roof. It had been raining for three days, a good test for the workmanship of the latest team of thatchers to pass through the county.
It was only after he was well inside the barn that he heard what seemed to be a kitten. His daughter, Theodosia, had inquired about bringing a stray cat into the house, and the acquisition ofone on this day — the day his wife had died four years ago — would prove a fortunate distraction from their grief.
But when he crept nearer to the small cries, Erasmus drew up short. Those were not the cries of a kitten.
In a pile of hay, thankfully clean, lay a woman. He thought her dead or unconscious at first, based on the angle of her body and looseness of her limbs. But she stirred at his gasp, and her arms tightened around her midsection reflexively.
There, on her clothed belly, was a baby. A newborn, judging by his lack of dress and the cord still attaching him to his mother. The child rested his head against her bosom and made those plaintive little cries that twisted Erasmus’s heart.
The woman cried out in pain, and her swollen belly contracted.
“Oh no, there can’t be another one,” she whispered, her eyes terrified and going out of focus.
Without thinking, Erasmus rushed to her side and took her hand, giving her something to squeeze other than the newborn as she struggled to complete her labor.
“Likely just afterbirth,” he said soothingly. “It must pass completely or you’ll be in great danger. Bear down on my hand.”
In what could have been minutes or hours — he had no sense of time — the woman collapsed back as her body decided she was done.
“Is it all out?” she asked, tears clinging to her eyelashes. What had possessed a woman to labor and deliver her baby in his barn? It was a refuge only for those with no other options. Erasmus suspected some villainy was afoot.
“The…oh.” The afterbirth. God, how was he supposed to know? He was a London-born foreign-attaché-turned-farmer with only a theoretical understanding of biology. Save how to make babies.
But blustering and avoiding would do nothing to help this brave woman, looking so like the Madonnas he’d seen in cathedrals on his travels. If the Holy Mother had been realistically streaked with sweat, blood, and bits of hay.
“If you’ll permit me?” he asked as if requesting her hand for a waltz.
She nodded with quiet dignity before he gingerly lifted her skirts to assess the completeness of her birthing. He shuddered as he gazed upon the proof of how dangerous birth could be, assessing her ruined petticoats and trying not to descend into hysterical screams as he recalled his wife’s last day in much the same condition.
God help him, this woman would not slip from this earth on his watch, not without a battle.
“I believe it is complete,” he said, lowering the dress to preserve her modesty.
“I thank you. If you don’t mind, I’ll rest here and then be on my way.”
Erasmus was speechless at first. This young woman, little more than a girl, intended to sleep a bit and then walk off from his barn? It was so preposterous he couldn’t find words. Why, the baby was still attached to her, since they hadn’t cut his cord yet!
After a few deep breaths to calm himself so as not to scare her, he could speak. “I would very much like you to recover in the main house. We have warm fires, good food, and a doctor to confirm that all has gone well.”
She nodded but stopped when she looked into his eyes. He didn’t want to think of what she might see there: fear, concern, sadness. He wished he could pull on a mask so as not to alarm her, but his wounds were still raw years on.
“Just for a night,” she agreed.
“For as long as the doctor says,” he bargained.
Her brow gathered. She must have been conflicted, but she conceded with a sigh, and they began determining how to move her and the baby into the house.
***
