“Turn the child slowly as he comes forth, Geoffrey. Be very careful not to drop him for he’ll be slippery with the birthing blood. Ahhhh, Jesus! Mary!” Another pain racked her.
Quickly he rolled up the sleeves of his silk shirt, his bejeweled doublet having been left behind at Greenwich. Skye groaned again, and her convulsion pushed the child’s shoulders forth. Leaning forward, Geoffrey wiped the beads of perspiration from her forehead with his handkerchief. “You are magnificent, madam, and I love you,” he said admiringly. Then he gently turned the child, and saw the baby’s tight little face, wiping the blood from it with the same handkerchief that had wiped its mother’s face. The baby’s eyes opened, looked dispassionately at its father, a disturbing, strangely familiar look, and then slipped forth fully born into the Earl’s waiting hands with a howl of pure outrage. One swift look told the Earl what he wanted to know. “Ason!” he exulted. “You’ve given me a son, Skye!”
“Of course I have,” she said weakly. “Did I not promise you one?”
“The cord? We’ve nothing to cut it with.”
“It’ll wait,” she said, and then fainted.
The Earl’s bargemen, hearing the newly born infant’s cry, and his lordship’s shout, grinned at each other and put their backs into their work. Shortly afterward they reached their dock at Lynmouth House and, to their surprise, found Daisy, Dame Cecily, and the midwife waiting for them.
“Lord Burke rode in with Daisy but a few minutes ago to tell us you were coming,” said Dame Cecily. “Is Skye all right? Is she in labor?”
“The child is born!” exulted Geoffrey, when he heard their voices. “I have a son!”
Entering the barge, the midwife finished the job by cutting the cord and wiping the newborn free of birthing blood. She wrapped him in a clean swaddling cloth, and handed him up to Daisy. Skye had regained consciousness, and she groaned as another, weaker pain cut through her.
“You’ve not yet borne the afterbirth, my lady. Let me help you.” The midwife pressed down hard on Skye’s belly, and with one quick pain the afterbirth slipped out onto a linen towel spread by the efficient midwife. Quickly the woman cleansed her patient free of all evidence of her recent travail, then signaled to the litterbearers. The Earl carefully lifted his wife from the barge, and tenderly placed her on pillows in the litter. Skye held out her arms. “Give me my son.”
Geoffrey took the baby from Daisy, and placed him in his mother’s arms. Alert, but quiet now, the child returned his mother’s scrutiny. His small round head was covered with soft, damp blond curls, his eyes were a deep sapphire blue, and his features were his father’s. Skye smiled happily. “Oh, Geoffrey, I have indeed given you a son! He’s you in miniature. I’ll wager his eyes turn green within the year.”
Mother and child were escorted to the house and tucked carefully into bed. The midwife handed Skye a goblet of wine into which she’d mixed herbs. “This will help you sleep, madam, and will also help rebuild the blood you’ve lost.” Skye obediently drank it down and Geoffrey, sitting down next to the bed, took his wife’s hand. Her beautiful blue eyes were heavy with weariness, but the warmth of his strong grasp communicated to her all the love that he felt for her. She sighed, contented. Geoffrey Southwood smiled tenderly at her. “Go to sleep, my love,” he said, and when her eyelids finally closed he left her sleeping under the watchful eyes of Daisy, their slumbering son in his cradle by his mother’s bed.
The Earl of Lynmouth walked next door to his own apartment. Wordlessly he stripped his bloodstained clothing off and climbed into the steaming tub his body servant had prepared. He scrubbed himself down and then, climbing out, dried himself off. His valet then wrapped him in a long, warm gown and, murmuring congratulations, left his master alone.
Geoffrey Southwood poured himself a goblet of pale golden wine and sat before the blazing fire. The child was safely born. He had a healthy, lusty son, an heir. But did he still have a loving wife? She had refused to discuss Niall Burke with him, which led Geoffrey to believe that she had once loved him. Now that her memory had returned, would she love Burke again? “When I am finished with this business of birthing our son I will tell you of Niall Burke,” she had said. “I am yours because I choose to be,” she had also said. Damn her proud and independent Irish spirit! Then he chuckled ruefully. It was this very independence that made her different from other women, that made her Skye.
Draining his goblet, Geoffrey climbed into his chilly, empty bed, then lay tossing restlessly. He dozed, then awoke with a start. This was the first night since their marriage that he’d been without her, for even in these last weeks of her pregnancy he’d slept with her, in her bedchamber, snoring contentedly against her warmth.I must be getting old, he thought with a touch of humor. These sheets were cold and musty with lack of use, and there were lumps in his fine mattress.
“God’s blood!” he said, suddenly leaping up. “I will not sleep here a minute longer!” And padding barefoot across the cold floor to the door that connected his room with hers, he stomped in. Poor Daisy was horrified, having never seen her master in his nightshirt.
Skye, sitting propped up with pillows behind her, the child at her breast, bit her lip with suppressed mirth. “My lord, have you come to see our wee Robin?” The baby made a murmur of distinct annoyance as his mother’s voice disturbed his concentration.
“I’m cold,” announced the Earl pettishly.
Skye’s eyes twinkled. “I have never seen the sense,” she said, “in a man sleeping apart from his wife simply because she has just borne a child.” With her free hand she flung the bedcovers back in invitation. “Climb in, Geoffrey. I am cold too without you.”
Scandalized, Daisy pursed her lips together, but the Earl and Countess of Lynmouth simply giggled like two naughty children, and snuggled close. Then Geoffrey turned his attention to the tiny golden-haired infant who rooted noisily at his mother’s breast, his tiny fingers kneading her.
“He’s working hard enough at it,” observed the Earl.
“My milk won’t be in for a day or two. All he’s getting now is a watery liquid,” said Skye.
“Is that natural?” He was instantly concerned. “Should we have a wet nurse for him?”
She laughed. “With all the children you had, you should know more, my love. My present condition is quite natural. I shall get a wet nurse for Robin in about a month, but during the time it takes me to recover from this birth I shall have the pleasure of giving my child suck.”
“So you already decided upon his name, have you? All by yourself?”
“I have,” she replied, unconcerned. “He is Robert Geoffrey James Henry Southwood. Robert for my dearest Robbie, Geoffrey for you, James for my uncle Seamus, and Henry in honor of both the late king, and Robin’s dead half-brother. His godparents will be the Queen and Lord Dudley. He will be vain enough to believe I have named the child for him in order to please the Queen. He should therefore prove an excellent godfather to Robin in an effort to impress the Queen.”
Geoffrey Southwood chuckled admiringly. “By God you’re a wickedly clever minx, my dear. The Queen and Lord Dudley! I don’t believe anyone has yet given them a godchild, not both of them together. What a stroke of genius! I most assuredly approve.” Warmed by her ripe body, he was beginning to feel expansive.
Noting it, Skye smiled. “Daisy, put Robin back to bed. Then you may watch over him the rest of the night please.”
“Aye, madam.” Daisy took the child. Her flush went unnoticed as her mistress drew the bed draperies, thus making a private little world for herself and the Earl.
Geoffrey Southwood’s eyes were bright with love and admiration. “I was so damned lonely for you,” he said.
