Unbroken (Unarmed Trilogy #2) (31 page)

"Willem, Paul, and myself will cover the three corners from the tunnels and Rolf will command the archers from the perimeter. We will let my father think that only the Roth soldiers will be defending the area and on my count, arrows will cease and the sides will collide onto the battlefield. My father won't see it coming. Maybe you weren't so stupid after all," Will said as he looked to Garrett. "Can we safely bring horses up from the tunnels and into the woods?"

"The exits we have found slope up, so yes, that is possible," Paul nodded as he pointed to the exits they would be taking. It was mostly quiet in the study with only the soft murmurs of the men until Tamzin let out a loud groan, followed by a scream. Will turned from the table to see Tamzin sitting up on the lounge. Her legs were open, but her dress covered her modesty, but it didn't cover the wet stain forming on her dress and the fabric of lounge. Tamzin's mouth opened but she made no sound as she looked to him, with tears streaming down her face.

"Tamzin!" Will yelled as he ran to her and collapsed to his knees next to her. He stared at the stain between her legs, water mixed with a slight bit of blood, before she grimaced again. "Is this it?"

"Yes, this is it," Tamzin said as she felt Will lift her up from the lounge and cradled her in his arms.

"Find Jacque and Nicola!" Will yelled as he carried her out of the study and into the hallway. He shoved his way through the servants clearing out the rooms and brought her into their chambers. He laid her gently on the bed and watched as she strained through another contraction. Her fingers curled around the sheets as she let out a grunt of pain. It sounded almost inhuman to Will as he sat down on the bed next to her and uncurled her fingers. He took her hand in his and felt her clench.

"I'm so hot," Tamzin said as she pulled on her dress. Will watched, helplessly, as she pulled her dress down and tried to pull it down her torso and legs before another contraction racked her body. "Will," she cried again. "I feel like I'm going to die."

"You are not going to die. I will be right here, sweetness. When you bring our son into the world, I will be right next to you. We will get through this together," Will said as he gently pressed a kiss to her mouth. "You aren't going to die."

He heard the chamber door open and watched Jacque come in and then Nicola. They didn't say a word to him as they worked, in sync, to pull Tamzin's dress down. Stripped naked, Jacque and Nicola cleaned their hands and Will watched Jacque spread Tamzin's legs and set a grim look on his face.

"This isn't going to be easy," Jacque whispered to Nicola.

Will set his jaw and took a deep breath. He felt Tamzin's hand clench his again.

Will thought he understood suffering before. He endured his own injuries, physical and emotional, watched men he trained become injured or die in battle. Their screams would never leave him and Will was sure that nothing could top that pain. He had been wrong, so wrong.

Tamzin did not scream often, but when she did, it was deafening and consuming. Her skin was flushed red and sweat covered her brow and the skin between her breasts. He wanted to join in her screams, to roar at his mother and Jacque for literally sitting by as Tamzin suffered. This was normal, they said. Birth is the most difficult moment in a woman's life and the pain is to be expected. Will pressed a cool rag to her forehead and watched the droplets sink down her skin of her face. It mixed with her tears.

Before, she would have a few moments of peace, but now, her pain was constant. Will tried to continue to hold her hand until she pushed him away.

"Don't touch me. Everything hurts," she moaned in the worst way possible as she turned to her side, her back to him. Everything in Will told him to touch her, to comfort her, but he resisted as he watched her shake and listened to her teeth chatter.

"Are you cold?" He asked as he watched Jacque jump to his feet and pressed a hand to her forehead.

"This happens sometimes in birth. It is normal," Jacque said before he gently ordered Tamzin to lie on her back. She obeyed and Jacque and Nicola inspected her between her legs. "There is still time before the birth."

"How will I know it is time?" Tamzin croaked out before Will offered her some water.

"Your body will tell you. It may seem hard to believe, but when the time comes, you will know exactly what to do," Nicola said as she offered Will a new cloth for Tamzin's face. Will took it and dipped it into the water basin. He ran the cloth up her arms and across her chest.

He wondered if she felt awkward about her nakedness in front of Jacque and Nicola, but realized the pain blinded her from every emotion except agony. He helped her sit up and brought the cup of water to her lips, where she drank greedily. He prepped the pillows and kept her elevated as she gritted her teeth through another contraction.

She rarely made a sound, but when she did, it made Will's heart ache more with each passing breath. He should have been consumed with battle plans, but he couldn't tear his attention away from her. Will would have given anything, his crown included, to have her pain abate but the longer her labor went on, the more she cried.

It was the worst when the screaming began.

Any self-control Tamzin had literally went out the window as she grabbed her water goblet and threw it against the window. She sat up and her body seemed to freeze as Jacque and Nicola jumped to their feet. Will had watched them discuss something in the corner of the room and Will was angry that they didn't find it necessary to share it.

Tamzin's fingers curled around his shirt as a contraction passed and another one started in its wake. It was like the pain was crawling on top of each other and Will closed his eyes to hold back his tears. This was retribution for something; a bad past act Will had committed was being passed onto Tamzin. There was no way that birth could be this painful. Something had to be wrong.

Jacque returned to his place between Tamzin's legs and she screeched as he checked to see how far along she was. His lips was set into a grim line as he turned to look at Nicola and nodded.

"What are these secret messages you keep sending to one another?" Will asked as Tamzin pressed her face into his shoulder. All he felt was her warmth and sweat.

"I had suspected before, but now I know," Jacque began as he wiped his sweat from his brow, his eyes downcast. "The baby is breech."

"What does that mean?" Will asked, his voice rising to a frantic tone. "Is the baby fine?"

"When a baby comes out of the womb, it is supposed to come out head first. The mother will push the head and shoulders out and after that, the baby slips out. A breech baby means the baby will come out feet first. It is much more difficult birth, but some women do survive it and go on to have more children..." Jacque's voice trailed off.

"I was a breeched baby and my mother died," Tamzin whimpered as her body locked up from the pain. "Jacque, if it comes to it, save the baby over me."

"Are you crazy?" Will nearly yelled at her. "We can make another baby. This baby is lost without you as its mother."

Tamzin reached out and slapped Will clear across the face.

"How can you say that? How can you say that we can just make another baby after having felt him? It's a boy! I know it is. I have had dreams about him and he is going to look just like you. I can't just make another baby. If I live and he doesn't, I will follow him in death. I can't live knowing my baby died. Jacque, if it comes to it, save him, please," Tamzin said as the tears slipped down her cheeks. Will felt the red mark forming on his face as his hand took hers and laced them together. He realized that this may be the last times he held her hand.

Tamzin settled back into the pillows and stared up at the ceiling before she cried out again. Her hands rested on her belly, like she willed the baby to finally be born. Anything for this pain to be over.

"You still have a few more hours of this, Your Grace," Jacque said sadly. "You are not quite ready to push."

"Is there anything she can take for the pain?" Will asked as he ran his free hand up and down her arm.

"No, she has to suffer through it," Nicola said as she gently pushed Tamzin's hair out of her face. "Obviously, we would prefer the baby not be breech, but since it is, the baby is in the best position for a breech. The baby's bottom will come out first and while it means that you will have extended healing time after the birth, we expect you and the baby to survive."

"Expect? I need more than just expect!" Will yelled and Tamzin jumped from his volume.

"There is no better word in birth. You both knew that if you wanted a child, there is a chance she will die. The only thing more unnatural than a woman dying in birth is her child following her. If you have never prayed before, today may be a good day to start," Nicola scolded before she took a cloth and began to wash Tamzin's skin down.

Will watched as Tamzin's head lulled to the side, her desire to sleep outweighing everything else. She seemed to receive a few minutes of sleep before the pain awoke her and that is how she spent her hours.

"Will, can you hand me a quill and parchment?" Tamzin asked as her voice strained while she extended her hand out to him. For a brief moment, Will walked to their desk where he pulled the drawer out of its hinges and grabbed an inkwell, a quill, and a few pieces of parchment. He returned to her as quickly as he left and watched as Tamzin took the quill and parchment and placed it on the bed.

She sat up and struggled against the girth of her stomach as she dipped the quill into the inkwell and took care not to stain the sheets, which made Will laugh as her blood had already done that.

"What are you writing?" Will asked as he ran his fingers up and down her spine, scratching her skin lightly. It was something he loved, when she would run her nails through his scalp, and everything would just float away.

"I am making sure you name our son what I want him to be named, even if I am not here to do it myself," Tamzin laughed bitterly as she began to write. "His name will be William Turner Thurston, named after the two most important men in my life."

"What if he is a girl?" Will asked as he watched her lovely penmanship mar the parchment.

"Willa?" Tamzin laughed again before a contraction wracked her body. "If it is a girl, I want her to be named after Kendall."

"Then she will be. That is what we will name our daughter when we have her in the future," Will said as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "After all, you said you are very certain that this baby is a boy."

"He is. I know he is," Tamzin said as she gently touched her stomach. "And he's going to look exactly like you."

"I will give him my condolences," Will tried to laugh but found his tongue too thick to accommodate the sound.

"Nonsense, my love. You are a very handsome man, indeed. How else do you think you got me in bed enough times to get this child on me?" She capped the inkwell and let the quill rest against her signature. She reached for him and cupped his cheek and watched the tears begin to shine in his bright blue eyes. "Just know that I will never regret this. Even if I die, being with you has been the best time of my life."

Will's resolve cracked, as did his voice, as he reached forward and embraced her. He smelled her hair, which had the scent of wildflowers, and the salt from her sweat, and the feeling of her skin beneath his fingertips. He would remember her laughing and the days when she could shoot an arrow. He would remember her running in the fields, surrounded by an entire gaggle of children. As Will pulled away, he realized that these memories hadn't happened, at least not completely, and it gave him hope that this was just a bump in the road. It was a road he would always take to ride home to her. To her and their son.

"I just wish I could hear the waves in the ocean," Tamzin whispered in his ear as she ran her fingers through his curls.

"You never taught me how to swim properly in the ocean. I imagine it is different than in a lake," Will breathed in her scent and placed a kiss on the pulse point on her neck.

"There are many things I have not done yet," Tamzin replied before she winced through another contraction.

"That means we have so many years left together," Will said as he pulled away and framed her face in his calloused hands. "You must try to survive and to live. I can’t live without you.”

"Don't think like that, my love. Right now, we are safe and we are happy. Prepare for the worst but hope for the best, yes?" She said as she laid back against the pillows. She had deep circles under her eyes that resembled bruises and her skin had taken on a pale pallor; gone was the sun tanned skin that he spent long mornings kissing.

The blood between her legs had increased and Jacque and Nicola had sprung to attention. Tamzin tried to sit up from the pillows but she was too weak. Jacque inspected her for a brief moment before he nodded to Nicola.

"It's time," Jacque said as Nicola brought a chair up for him to sit on. Will watched as Nicola and Jacque both pulled Tamzin's legs down so that her bottom was sitting at the very edge of the bed. The sickening sound of her blood dripping onto the floor could be heard and Will felt his heart begin to race. He was unaware of his surroundings until he felt Nicola place her hand on his shoulder.

"I think you should leave," Nicola whispered to him as she pulled away from Tamzin's bedside.

"Are you crazy? I'm not leaving her now. I haven't stayed for all these hours just to leave her now," Will said as he looked out the window to see the sky was dark and not even the moon was illuminated.

"You have seen very many things, but nothing like this. You need to understand that Tamzin may not make it through this and you want your last memory to be of her like this?" Nicola nearly pleaded with his as she placed her hands on his arms.

"This won't be my last memory of her," Will told Nicola and himself. "She is going to be an old woman when she dies. It is my duty as a father to see my child being born and I dare you to try and physically remove me from this room." His voice was a warning before he returned to his place by Tamzin's side.