Page 41 of His Wicked Secret
Horatia panted in open relief. “I can breathe…finally.”
“Jonathan has gone for the doctor. Lord Rochester is outside.”
“Bring him in!” Horatia gasped. “I don’t think I can face this without him.”
Audrey took Horatia’s hand, holding it. Lucien rushed in with Charles behind him. What was Charles doing here?
“James is fetching hot water, clean cloths, and a blade,” Gillian announced.
“I think I need to get up.” Horatia slowly slid off the bed, crouched, and groaned. Lucien gripped one of her hands and placed his other arm at her lower back. She panted and puffed before relaxing. Audrey hovered near her, wringing her hands. She wished she knew what to do to help.
“Does it hurt much?” Audrey asked. She knew it had to, but she was trying to get her sister talking and thinking on something other than the birth.
“Ah!” Horatia squeezed Lucien’s hand.
Lucien winced. “God’s teeth! Where does a woman find such strength?”
“I think it’s safe to say it hurts a great deal,” Charles said to Audrey. “Why don’t you see if we can’t get some chips of ice or cold cloths soaked in water?”
“Right.” Audrey looked to Gillian. “Did you hear that?”
“Yes, my lady, I can fetch them.” She hugged her friend—maid or not, Audrey didn’t know what she would do without Gillian by her side.
“Thank you.”
“I think I need to lie down,” Horatia gasped. “Catch my breath.”
Lucien helped her lie on her side. Then she groaned and rolled onto her back, her legs parting. A maid rushed to cover her legs with a blanket. Charles approached Horatia in the bed.
“Lucien, did you have a birthing chair prepared?” Charles asked.
“No, we weren’t ready.” Lucien’s pale face scared Audrey. What the devil was a birthing chair? It sounded like a medieval implement of torture.
“That’s all right.” Charles looked at Horatia. “You can lie on your side for the birth if you want to. If you feel the need to push, push,” he instructed. “If you need to get up again and move about, we’ll help you.” Audrey couldn’t help but be struck by Charles’s tenderness. He’d always been the most roguish of the League, the one with the darkest secrets, yet here he was, open and kind to Horatia, doing everything he could to keep her calm.
Lucien sat down beside his wife, stroked her hair back from her face, and held her hand. He murmured words of support to her, and Charles stood on Horatia’s other side, holding his pocket watch in one hand and Horatia’s wrist with his other.
Gillian returned and spoke to Charles. “James and some maids are having what we need brought up.”
Charles sighed wearily. “Good. Because the babe is coming fast. The doctor may not arrive in time, and we shall need to be ready to deliver the child without him.”
Audrey stared at Charles. “All of us?” There was no way she could help. She got faint at the sight of blood.
Be strong. You have to help Horatia through this.
“Audrey, youmuststay,” Horatia pleaded, then tensed with new pain.
“Of course I will,” she promised, and swallowed hard. Blood be damned, she was not going to faint.
Charles pocketed his watch and then looked at Gillian and Lucien. “There’s very little time between her pains.” He pressed upon Horatia’s face and forehead. “Horatia, have you been feeling pains all day?”
Horatia bit her lip and nodded. “Yes. I thought the babe was restless and kicking. I didn’t know what was coming, not until just after dinner.”
“That’s all right. Babies sometimes come without warning. How are you feeling?”
Horatia glanced at him. “Like I need to push…” She groaned, her body bowing forward slightly, then she relaxed and faced Lucien, panting. “The nursery, you finished the cradle? Do they have the clothes ready?”
“Yes,” Lucien promised and pressed kisses to her hand. “I should have known you were ready to have our child so soon. How did I not see it?”
