Elizabeth nodded, and then she said, “I am so tired, Mama.”
“Aye, you would be,” Rosamund agreed. “Your labor was a long one. Not the longest I have known, but long enough. You need to rest now, daughter. When Baen comes back he will carry you to your bed.” She removed the infant from his mother’s charge. “Where is the cradle rocker?” she wanted to know.
A girl of twelve stepped forward. “Here I am, my lady,” she said.
“You must rock him most gently,” Rosamund instructed the girl as she set Thomas Hay into his cradle.
“Yes, my lady,” the girl replied.
“She’s Alfred’s niece,” Maybel informed Rosamund. “Her name is Sadie.”
“Take good care of my grandson, Sadie,” Rosamund told the girl, who nodded vigorously.
The two women, with Nancy’s aid, began the business of cleaning all evidence of the birth from Elizabeth. By the time they had finished Baen returned to the hall, and he carried his wife up to her bed for a well-deserved rest. When he returned to the hall he found Rosamund and Maybel seated together at the high board, breaking their fast. Father Mata had just entered the hall, and congratulated Baen on his son’s arrival.
“When will he be baptized?” the priest wanted to know.
“Will your father come down from the north?” Rosamund asked Baen.
Baen shook his head in the negative. “He’ll not leave his lands. But perhaps I can get my youngest brother to come. I should like him to stand as my son’s godfather, along with Lord Cambridge,” Baen answered her. Then he turned to the priest. “The lad appears to be strong and healthy, Father. I believe we can wait a few weeks, can we not?”
The priest nodded. “I am here should there be an emergency, Baen,” he said.
“Then we will set the baptism for Lammastide. That will give a messenger time to ride north and bring Gilbert back with him,” Baen decided.
“And I shall go home tomorrow,” Rosamund said. “But we should send someone to Otterly today to inform my cousin of his namesake’s safe arrival on this earth. Now, someone find the master chamber’s cradle, for when my daughter awakens it will be time to put her son to her breast. She is too weak to come into the hall each time young Tom needs to be fed. The baby and its rocker must be with her. Has she chosen a nursemaid for the child?”
“As if I should allow anyone else to look after that precious bairn!” Maybel declared indignantly. “I am not so ancient that I cannot care for him.”
“But Elizabeth will need your counsel to chose another, for you must be in your own home each evening with Edmund,” Rosamund said. “What if you grew ill, and there was no one to look after the lad?”
“Well,” Maybel allowed, “there is Grizel. She is Sadie’s mam, and widowed. Sadie is her youngest. She would serve quite well.”
“Will you speak with her then, dear Maybel?” Rosamund asked.
Maybel laughed, shaking a finger at Rosamund. “Do not think to cozen me, my lady.” She chuckled. “Remember, I raised you, and I know all your tricks. I am not so foolish that I do not realize I could use the aid of a younger woman.”
Rosamund leaned over and kissed the old woman on her cheek. “Thank you.” Then she beckoned to Baen and the priest to sit down. “Come and break your fast,” she said. “It has been a long night for us all. Baen, you must get some rest when you have eaten. And Mata, why are you looking so worn?”
“I spent the night praying for Elizabeth’s safety, and that of the bairn,” the priest said quietly. “Surely you do not believe that you were the only ones helping the lady of Friarsgate along,” he teased them.
“Then you are both entitled to some rest,” Rosamund declared.
“There is work to be done,” Baen protested. “The hay is ready to cut.”
“Edmund can oversee it today,” Rosamund told her son-in-law.
He did not argue. He was more tired now than he could ever remember being in all of his life. It was as if he had given birth to his son, he thought, a faint grin breaking forth on his handsome face. He ate quickly, and then excused himself. Upstairs he went into the chamber where he had been sleeping, and then, anxious for Elizabeth, he opened the door connecting their two rooms for the first time and stepped inside.
Elizabeth lay on her back, not yet asleep, but her eyes were closed as she tried to gain that state. She was exhausted, but still excited by the birth of her son. Hearing the door she opened her eyes to see Baen. “Have you eaten?” she asked him, and she smiled.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and, taking her hand, kissed it. “Aye. Your mother says I must get some sleep, and Edmund will see to the haying,” Baen told her.
“You should,” she agreed. “You were with me all the night long. Is he not the most beautiful bairn?” She was glowing with her happiness. Happiness she had never thought to experience.
“Aye, he’s a fine lad,” Baen said. “And you were so braw, my sweet wife.”
“You saved us, Baen,” Elizabeth said suddenly serious. “I could not have birthed our son without your help. I had grown so weak, and if you had not helped him forth from my body I know we would have both died. And I did not want to die. Not before I told you that I do love you.”
