The crunch of footsteps sounded on the gravel drive, heralding servants coming out to see to us and the luggage. It was my moment!
I doubled over, clutching at my stomach with a gasp. ‘Harry, I think the baby is coming!’
He stared at me blankly. ‘Pardon?’
‘Go along with it! Get me Elizabeth,’ I hissed at him and then made a loud moaning noise.
Harry nodded, cottoning on at last. He scrambled out of the carriage, and I heard him shouting to a maid, ‘Fetch Mrs Austen! Mrs Fitzroy is in labour!’
There was a hushed discussion outside the carriage, and Harry said impatiently, ‘Yes, it is definitely happening this time. Go quickly, girl!’ So I gathered there had been someelement of disbelief from the maid after my last performance had turned out to be a false alarm.
Harry poked his head in and looked at me, making a show of huffing and panting. He grinned. ‘Keep it up, Fliss. Only another twelve or fourteen hours to go at least. First births are never usually quick.’
I groaned for real at hearing that, but it was too late—I was committed now!
***
Mrs Busby dipped the cloth in the basin of lavender water, wrung it out, and pressed it to my forehead and cheeks while I lay on the bed, exhausted after a frenzied bout of yelling. She was faring admirably well as my co-conspirator and had demanded so many buckets of hot water and towels from the servants that there could be no doubt that a birth was definitely taking place this time.
It was late afternoon by the time Elizabeth left me, declaring to the hovering servants outside my door that she needed ‘a respite from the trials of birth’. But in actuality, she had scurried to the cottage to see what was happening.
On tenterhooks, I gnawed at a ragged fingernail. It had beenhours.Surely Lucinda had had the child by now?
But Elizabeth returned shortly, reporting, ‘There is nosign of it yet, Felicity. But Tilly assures me that everything is progressing nicely.’
‘How is she?’
‘Faring well. I brought her some bread, cheese, and preserves to keep her strength up. A lovely woman.’
‘Not Tilly! Lucy!’
‘Oh! Yes, of course. Well, I did not see her as she was in the bedroom with Jane, but I could hear her. She was yelling as much as you are.’ Elizabeth huffed a laugh and patted my hand. ‘She is all right. But you need to keep acting for a while longer yet.’
I sighed and readied myself for another bout of shrieking.
As evening fell, I was at my wits’ end. Acting like you were having a baby was hard work! And Mrs Busby continually poking and prodding my stomach was annoying. She did not have to. It wasn’t like I was giving birth to a real baby!
In the end, I decided that I would remove my padded corset for a bit of relief as I was sick of the thing weighing me down. But Mrs Busby said I could not. ‘What if a curious servant happens to look in?’
‘Elizabeth shooed them back to work. It’s perfectly safe to do so.’
I sat up and began undoing the laces at the front of my dress. Annie had designed it to expand so more and morepadding could be fitted in. But my girth was so rotund now that the lacing was stretched to full capacity.
‘Let me,’ said Mrs Busby with a sigh, taking hold of one of the laces. ‘I can see you are quite determined.’
She yanked on it and, in doing so, somehow managed to concertina my lungs. I gasped for breath. She was supposed to be untying it, not tying it tighter!
I pushed her hands away. ‘Let me do it!’
‘I will help!’
‘I insist on doing it myself!’
‘No!’
By this stage, I was bordering on hysteria. And there ensued a short sharp fight as Mrs Busby continually tried to grasp my laces, and I immediately slapped her hands away.
If anyone had happened to see us, it would have been supremely funny, and I supposed I would laugh about it later. But I was exhausted from hours ofactingand close to tears.
