Carole bathed her while another midwife took care of the afterbirth and smiled when she told me I was lucky as I didn’t need any stitches. I didn’t care at that point. They could’ve done whatever they wanted to me as long as I could still see my baby.
Our baby.
“We need a name for her.” Gully sat on the bed next to me, holding our daughter to his bare chest, his expression that of aman who would be in love with this little girl for the rest of his life.
“Aurora.” It was a name we’d thrown about. “Rory for short. It suits her.”
He nodded. “Agreed. I think Ivy for a middle name. We should do that.”
“Will Mavis be okay with that?” She’d been angling for the baby to be named after her, maybe not seriously so, but I liked Mavis. I wanted to be her when I was ninety-two.
“Three names then?” He looked at me. “Aurora Ivy Mavis Holland?”
“Sounds good.” I held her hand with my finger, obsessed with how tiny her nails were. “We have a name.”
“And a baby.”
The first visitors were Ruby and Freya, who’d apparently done some deal with their husbands so that they could come and see Rory first and Finn and Roe could go and wet the baby’s head with Gully tomorrow.
“Did you work out who was going to hold her first?” I eyed both of my pregnant friends.
Ruby nodded. “Me. Freya gets first dibs with your next one.”
I handed Rory to her, more concerned with the fact she’d just mentioned a second child when I was only just not pregnant with my first than that I was letting someone else hold my daughter.
“Second?”
Ruby nodded. “Second. Hey, little Rory, I’m your Auntie Rubes and in here’s your cousin. You get to meet him in four months. She looks like Gully, Iris. I’m sorry about that.”
I laughed, which hurt a little. I wasn’t sure if my insides would ever be the same. “She’ll look like all her cousins then. Those Holland genes are strong.”
Ruby shrugged, giving Rory a good sniff. “You and Ivy look very similar though, so there’ll be strong genes there too. She’s a lucky girl, getting to grow up here with everyone, aren’t you?”
Eventually, Freya got a turn, cuddling her close to her belly and murmuring witchy words to her, which was Freya all over.
“I’m allowed to tell you that I’m having a girl too. Roe wanted to keep it quiet, but I overruled him. So you’ll have another half-sister, technically.” She lifted Rory close to give her a quick kiss and then carefully passed her back to me. “Our kids are going to have fun explaining their family tree when they’re older.”
I laughed, snuggling with Aurora, happy to have her back next to me, happy to have Freya and Ruby there too. I missed my sister right now so very much, but I wasn’t alone.
I wouldn’t be alone again.
Gully
The day of Ivy’s funeral had been full of the promise of rain. Today was entirely the opposite. We had weak sunshine, the sky matching that of dawn on a fine day, and there was zero chance of rain according to the forecast, but no one really paid much attention to that, not if you were from the island.
I was in the Puffin Inn, even though it wasn’t open yet and it was before noon. My brothers, both dressed in suits, sat at a table with me, glasses of whisky in hand, both surprisingly free from the stains of baby sick and the smell of stale milk.
The children – there were six between us now – were being looked after by our mam, Grayson, Aunt Marie and Clover for the day, because today was the day when Iris and I were getting married.
“I can’t believe we’ve managed to get someone to agree to marry you without having to pay them.” Finn sat back, almost toppling his stool over, which would’ve been hilarious had it happened. “And she’s sane.”
“Relatively sane. More sane since Rory’s slept for more than three hours at a time. That was hard.” We’d ended up takingshifts so we both got some sleep. I was currently in awe of how Finn and Ruby had managed to get pregnant when Elias was only two months old. I had no idea how that’d happened.
“Plain sailing from now then.” Roe had already confessed he hadn’t slept at all, which was nothing new for him to pull an all-nighter. “Emmy’s much better at sleeping that Calla though, last night was a one off.”
Finn shook his head. “Look at us. Discussing the sleeping patterns of our offspring. What happened?”
I sipped my whisky. “Life. Not sure I’d change it.”
