Page 39 of Miss Gardiner
“Why do we need so much hot water?” Elizabeth asked her aunt.
“The water will cool and be mixed with more hot water later to bathe Jane and babe after he is born,” Aunt Gardiner explained. When the midwife moved Jane into the bed, Elizabeth made certain to lay out the swaddling clothes and towels to wash the babe.
“Name him Charles,” Jane said as she struggled through another spasm. “My babe’s name is Charles.”
“Yes, dear,” Aunt Gardiner agreed as she watched Jane struggling with the pains. “His name is Charles.”
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As another hour passed, Elizabeth remained at Jane’s side, holding her hands and wiping her brow as the muscle spasms worsened and Jane cried with the pain, occasionally calling for ‘Charles’ to come to her side.
Finally, Jane asked, “Lizzy, can I have something to drink? I find that I am thirsty.”
“Clean water, give her some of the cool water,” the midwife said shortly as she used a towel to wipe away blood from Jane. “The babe will be here soon.”
Elizabeth used a cup to give Jane a drink of the water before another spasm came, making Jane strain again, her lips twisting in pain.
“Push miss, push,” the midwife encouraged Jane who moaned and twisted on the bed.
“Elizabeth, go to the kitchen and bring up a tea tray,” Aunt Gardiner requested gently.
Hesitating to leave Jane’s side, Elizabeth refused to move, and Madeline stepped closer, her hand reaching out to grasp the hands of both her nieces.
“I see the head,” the midwife announced. “Push miss, push.”
“Charles…I love you,” Jane moaned once before her body twisted about. Suddenly, she fell silent, and her hand was limp in Lizzy’s grasp.
The midwife looked up, and then back down before she reached in and pulled the babe from his mother. Elizabeth stared as the midwife lifted the baby boy and rubbed his chest and smacking his bottom lightly to make him cry.
The thin cry filled the bedroom as the midwife directed, “Miss Elizabeth, if you will come and cut the cord.”
“Yes of course,” she said, releasing Jane’s hand and getting the scissors previously washed and cleaned to perform this necessary task.
Still holding Jane’s hand, and crying freely, Aunt Gardiner managed to ask, “How is the babe?”
“He has healthy lungs and all his limbs,” the midwife replied, glancing at the still form on the bed.
Elizabeth cut through the cord with one movement, then glanced at her sister and said, “Jane, he is so small. He is crying…”
But Jane did not answer and finally tearing her eyes from the form of the wiggling baby as the midwife tied the cord with a bit of string and then began to bath him, Elizabeth turned back to her sister who lay silent and unmoving on the bed. Aunt Gardiner continued holding Jane’s hand as tears fell down her face.
“Jane…” Elizabeth called. “Wake and see your baby.”
The midwife wrapped the baby in the swaddling clothes and handed him to Aunt Gardiner.
“Why will Jane not wake up?” Elizabeth asked, not willing to see her sister’s face so still.
“Lizzy, come help me with Charles. The midwife will see to Jane now,” she said.
“But…Jane…”
The baby began crying again as Lizzy sat in a chair and Aunt Gardiner slipped the newborn into her niece’s arms.
“Hold him, protect him,” Aunt Gardiner commanded, and Elizabeth nodded her agreement. She refused to look at the bed where the midwife pulled the sheet over the beautiful face that would never smile again.
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It was the appropriate time for morning calls when the Darcy carriage, bearing Fitzwilliam and Georgiana Darcy arrived at Gracechurch Street. Just as Darcy stepped from the carriage, a hearse pulled to a stop in front of the Gardiner home also and a man dressed in the black outfit of an undertaker with threeworkmen appeared. There were a few neighbours watching from their doors, but no one approached the Gardiner household.
