Margot found her lips curving into a smile, thinking about Willa’s news. She lifted her hand and counted on her fingers.
Good Heavens!
“You are certain she is about to deliver?”
Willa nearly bounced beside her. “Aye. You should see her—”
Margot counted again. It had to be. The time was right. Garrett’s piece of baggage was about to have his child. And Richard could have no say over Garrett’s whore or the child she carried even though she had sought shelter at the home of Pernith. The old woman could not protect her. Indeed, when the time came, no one would believe that Margot had taken the child.
She needed that child and there was some justice that it would be a child of Garrett’s that ruled Richard’s land. At least the child would carry some of her blood.
She started to laugh. Aye. She loved it. Garrett’s child would become his niece or his nephew. And he would never know. Oh, that the God above would give the slut a girl. Somehow that would make it better.
“Now, here is what you will do,” Margot instructed Willa.
~ * ~
“Push,” Pernith growled.
“It is too early,” Rhianna panted.
“But the babe has decided to come today. Now, get on with it, girl.”
“I am so tired.”
Pernith stroked her brow with cold water. “I know. Birthing is hard work. But, you can do it. Now, push. That’s a girl. Again.”
Rhianna struggled to expel her child. A babe Pernith said was not due yet for another several weeks. But, after her work in the small garden beside the cottage, Rhianna had complained of back pain. Pernith had warned her not to overdue, but she had.
She bit her bottom lip. This was her fault. She wanted this babe with everything that was in her. This was Garrett’s child, a part of the man she loved that no one could take from her. For an instant, after the urge to push, she thought about England and how she’d felt so long ago. Now, no matter what happened to her, her heart would be forever part of England, just as her child was part of the country. The drawing pain began again and all thoughts dissolved in her distress.
“Now, Rhianna, now.” Pernith’s voice came through a haze of agony.
She had been laboring now since the early hours of the night. Morn had come and gone and still the babe had not come. For how much longer would it continue?
“Garrett,” she screamed through the sudden torment. He was not there to answer her.
“A girl child,” Pernith cried as Rhianna collapsed against the straw mattress.
A tiny wail distracted Rhianna.
“A girl?”
“Aye.” Pernith’s voice was not as enthusiastic as it had been.
“Is she all right? Is something wrong?”
“She is tiny,” Pernith said. “That is all. We will pray that she makes it.”
“Oh, nay. The saints cannot do this to me. The child must live. Pernith, she must.”
“Aye, she lives. We will see that she continues to thrive.”
~ * ~
“Thank the saints,” Margot announced. “Finally, I can come out of hiding. I am beginning to hate this chamber.”
“But, my Lady,” Willa cried. “The babe may not live. I heard Pernith say it was too early. What will you do then?”
“The child must live. Do you hear me?” Margot frowned and began to pace the chamber. “We have to see the babe has every chance. We can’t send for the midwife. No one is to know it is not my child. Mayhap the babe will only live for a few years. But, it must live.”
Striding back and forth, she tried to think of a solution. She hated the idea but she would have to supply decent food to Pernith. There was nothing else she could do to promote the life of the child. At the moment, the mother had to feed the child so good food must be provided. But to do so how without raising suspicions?
At the moment, Pernith’s personal isolation from Fiston might be to Margot’s advantage. Lucky for her, most of the folk at Fiston considered the old woman a troublemaker, an outsider. There was Tom, but everyone ignored the child. He’d be no problem. Besides, Margot doubted any even knew of the visitor in Pernith’s house, or the babe who had just arrived.
She wondered if the mother could even feed the child. Mayhap she should plan to seize the child now. She had already arranged for a wet nurse. A real shame there were not more babes being born at Fiston this summer.
“What should I do,” Willa broke into her thoughts.
“We will wait and see. If the child dies we must think of something else, you’ll have to find another.”
“And if the child lives?”
“Our problems are over. You will not lose your home.” Margot knew her smile made Willa shudder.
“I’ll have to wait a day or two before I let Richard know I have delivered. Mayhap a little longer, until we know if the child will survive. I want you back at the cottage later today. Oh, and we must arrange for food to be distributed to all the cottages.” She paused and glanced toward Fiston’s chapel.
Willa had opened her mouth to offer a question, but Margot silenced her. “What saint’s feast day is coming?”
Margot began to pace, then she paused. “It matter’s not. I want food parceled out to each cottage in honor of the saint’s feast day.”
“Which saint, my Lady?”
“I don’t know. Make one up. Just see the servants take food to all the cottages. It will cost me, but I know no other way. You, yourself can deliver the food to Pernith’s cottage. And, make certain she receives twice as much as the others. I want that babe to live.”
~ * ~
Over the next two weeks, the child flourished. Rhianna and Pernith exclaimed over the improvements.
“That extra food made a difference,” Pernith, her concerned face wrinkled in a frown. “If Tom had not mentioned the giving of food baskets to each cottage, I’d worry.”
“But Tom did say each cottage got the same in honor of Fiston’s special saint.”
“Aye, but ‘tis the first time in all the time I’ve lived on this land.” Pernith gazed toward the castle wall. “There must be another reason for the gift.”
“Mayhap it’s to honor the new Prince of Wales,” Rhianna suggested.
Pernith gave a soft urmph. “Prince of Wales.” She spat into the fire. “What has my country come to?”
Rhianna smiled and cuddled the child in her arms. Gwendolyn, a Welsh name Pernith had selected when they were certain the child would live, yawned and stretched.
“She is such a beautiful babe.”
“In the eyes of the mother,” Pernith muttered.
“She
is
beautiful,” Rhianna insisted.
“She’s a babe. Someday mayhap she will be beautiful. Now, let us talk about your return to Wales.”
~ * ~
Early in the morn, Rhianna stood outside the cottage staring at the cottages around Fiston. She watched people moving from one cottage to another. Something was going on, but since Tom had yet to return from the castle, she could only guess.
Tom had told Pernith that Margot was about to have a babe. Pernith had hissed her disapproval, but Rhianna had confirmed that Margot claimed to have been with child.
“ ‘Tis not possible,” Pernith insisted, but Rhianna only shook her head. This time Pernith was wrong. After all, hadn’t Garrett sent her to Fiston to help when knowledge of Margot’s condition and the trouble she had was made known to Garrett. At first she herself had doubted, but she could have been mistaken.
Rhianna stepped back into the cottage to check on the sleeping babe, her heart swelling with a mother’s love. She could only wish Margot the joy of a child, even though she did not like the woman. Nor would she ever understand why Margot had sent her to the forest instead of allowing her to travel to Knockin or home to Wales.
However, it mattered no longer. She had Garrett’s child, and soon she would follow Pernith’s advice. Soon, the four of them, Pernith, Tom, the babe and Rhianna would travel to Wales where she would insist her brothers offer Pernith and Tom a home.
According to gossip faithfully repeated by Tom a certain peace had come to Wales. That information was the only reason Pernith was willing to travel to Rhianna’s home.
She chuckled at the comments the old woman had made about Edward’s care of Wales. Still, it would be wonderful if peace reigned.
“I got news,” Tom yelled, rushing into the cottage.
“Pernith has gone into the forest to gather herbs. She should be returning soon. Then you can tell us both.”
“You don’t want to know now?” He sounded so disappointed.
Rhianna smiled at him. The child was blessed with an enthusiasm for life that she found uplifting. And if not for his love of music and the food he supplied, Rhianna wasn’t certain she would have survived.
“Nay, Tom. We await Pernith’s return. Then you can tell us both. Would you like to hold the babe while we wait?”
Tom nodded, and Rhianna laughed at his eagerness. He was good with Gwendolyn. She placed the babe in his arms, then she slipped from the cottage. While she watched, trails of dust from a number of horses swirled over the roads from Fiston.
“Hurry back to us, Pernith” she whispered, turning toward the forest, her curiosity eating at her.
She had just taken the babe from Tom’s arms when Pernith walked into the cottage.
“I have news,” Tom jumped from his chair before the fire.
“All right, Boy, spit it out,” Pernith said as she laid her basket on the hearth.
“The babe has come. A little girl, like Gwendolyn.”
“Margot had a babe?”
“Aye.”
“Nay, ‘tis not possible. ‘Tis a lie.”
Tom looked crushed.
She patted his arm. “Tom, I don’t mean you lie. ‘Tis Margot who is deceiving all.”
Rhianna looked at her. Pernith’s words puzzled her. Twice now, Pernith had said Margot could not have a child.
“Pernith, why do you say she deceives? I told you I came here because she had conceived. Now, you say nay.”
“Child, as my word is my bond, I tell you Margot cannot bear a child.” She turned back to Tom. “Tell us the rest.”
“She sent word to Knockin and to Richard this morn.
Everyone at the castle says Richard will come home now. Because of the babe.” Tom paused as if trying to figure something out. “Who is at Knockin?”
Rhianna shivered. She knew, but she preferred not to say, nor was she going to explain. Now was probably a good time to leave for Wales. She did not want to be here at Fiston, even in this lowly cottage, when Colvin came to visit for he would have inherited Knockin.
“Pernith, I think we should leave soon for Wales. I know my brothers will welcome you into our home. It’s nothing like Fiston, but the keep is comfortable and you and Tom will be happy there. I know you will.”
“Aye, ‘tis for the best. We’ll begin our preparations now. We should be ready to go in a day or two. Best for the babe if we travel before the cold settles in. Tom.” She turned back to the boy. “How would you like to travel with Rhianna and the babe?”
His eyes glowed with pleasure and Rhianna knew the thought of going anywhere with the babe pleased him.
For the first time in months as Rhianna crawled into her cot that night beside the babe, her thoughts of something other than Garrett’s arms and his loving. Tonight, she thought about Wales, about Lily, and wondered how her little half sister had fared this last year. Not for the first time she wondered who had taken over Lily’s care. Had Arthur found his way home? And did her other brothers live?
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. Arthur had a better sense of direction than she had. He would have made it back to the keep. And Edward held Wales, so her brothers would no longer be sought as the enemy. If they’d managed to return to the keep.
She cuddled Gwendolyn, in her swaddling clothes. At least she had Garrett’s child. Mayhap there would have been no babe if she had gone with Arthur.
A new day dawned. Living rather than just surviving had taken on new meaning for Rhianna. As they broke their fast, she and Pernith planned the day. The old woman’s concern was food for their trip.
“I can hunt,” Rhianna said.
“With what?”
“A bow and arrows. Or a knife. I’m really good.”
“No doubt,” Pernith said. “We will have to find a way to get a weapon of some kind.”
“I can trade for one,” Tom said.
“Aye, but with what?” Pernith asked. “And with whom?”
“‘Tis easy. I know how.”
“Tom, think you they will let you trade for such a thing? I don’t think so.”
“Aye, they will. Come, I’ll show you. But we have to go to the forest.”
Rhianna smiled at them. “It’s all right, Pernith. If he wants to show you something, go with him. Gwendolyn and I will be fine by ourselves.”
Pernith frowned. “Sometimes he doesn’t make sense. But you are right. I’ll have to go see.” A wistful expression crossed her face. “It was the same with you. I had to go see. When he finally told me about you, he said you were an angel who made music.”
After they finished their meal, Rhianna cleaned the table, then stood at the door as Pernith and Tom started for the forest. Tom was as enthusiastic about this as he had been about everything. Had he been like that when he told Pernith about her? She had no time to waste on those kinds of thoughts. Her daughter needed her care. There was also much to prepare for their trip.