Madlenka sat up with a start suddenly very awake, her eyes wide. Something was wrong.

“Oof”, she gasped as a throbbing pain shot through her abdomen, pushing the air from her lungs.

She pushed back the blankets which were now weighing heavily on her tender stomach and tried to adjust herself to a more comfortable position. The baby was always most active during the night and would often choose the moment just as she was drifting off to sleep to kick out hard with its tiny little legs.

She had to admit she was getting a bit sick of this pregnancy thing. She felt swollen and irritable, her feet were sore, her back ached, and she was unbearably hot despite the frigid temperatures outside. And Eallair kept snuggling up to her in his sleep so she had to stick her feet out the edge of the bed to find some sort of equilibrium.

She carefully sat up. Perhaps she would take a walk around the room, that often calmed the baby so they could both sleep again.

Eallair was of course sleeping soundly, snoring gently the covers pulled up to his chin. That man could sleep through an invasion, she thought to herself and then wished she hadn’t. The thought of his entire family murdered and a large percentage of their people, was still raw in her mind. She could only pray to God that Faldorn had not managed to cross the mountain range that lay between Branwhuld and her home country of Lomorrad.

“Oof”, she cried out louder sitting bolt upright, a grimace of pain flitting across her face, “Oh dear. OOOF!”.

Her last cry had been quite loud and surprisingly, Eallair began to stir next to her, his breathing growing shallow.

He sat up, pushing back the covers, blinking drowsily.

“Did you say Oof my love?”, he asked, his voice groggy with sleep, “What do you mean oof?”.

She could breath again now that the pain had subsided but she was quite certain that it was time. She was surprised by how calm she felt. She had been half-afraid throughout the whole pregnancy, worried that her mother’s problems would become her own. But she had made it this far and now the end was in site. She would not think about her mother.

“It means that your going to be a father soon dear heart”, she said softly, swinging her legs to the edge of the bed. She had heard that walking around could sometimes help the pain.

Eallair stared at her uncomprehendingly his mouth falling open.

Then suddenly it clicked, “What?!”.

He leapt to his feet and ran around to her side of the bed clutching his head, his hands pulling at his hair.

“What?!”, he was almost hopping from foot to foot and she thought if he tore at his hair any harder it was going to start coming out in big brown clumps.

She stared at him, somewhat surprised by his reaction. But she had heard that men were exceedingly silly when it came to this and the best thing she could do was send for the women.

She felt a laugh rolling up from her belly and there was nothing she could do to contain it. She couldn’t help it, he looked so foolish, the King, standing there in his underwear, his eyes wide as saucers and his hair sticking out in all directions.

“Why are you laughing? What’s so funny? I don’t see anything funny about this situation!”, he exclaimed, “What are we going to do?”.

She tried to answer but she was hit with another wave of pain, this time so intense she almost screamed, gritting her teeth and waiting for it to pass.

“Oh my God!”, Eallair cried extending his arms out towards her, “Oh my God! Are you alright?”.

She breathed deeply as the pain dulled to a throbbing ache and then turned her attention to her panicking husband. It was clear to her that he needed something useful to do.

“Eallair dear”, she began gently, “Do you think you could light a candle for me? It’s awfully dark in here”.

He nodded his head eagerly, glad to be able to help in some way and trotted off to find a flint.

He bounded back when it was done, almost tripping over the bedspread that lay tangled on the floor.

“What are we going to do now?”, he asked scratching his head.

She could see she was going to have to be gentle with him, he was obviously so terrified his mind had completely shut down.

“Well… do you think… OOOF!!!”, she was interrupted by a clenching pain in her lower abdomen, so intense that she clutched at her belly, breathing rapidly.

“Oh my God! That oof was bigger than the others! What are we going to do?!!”.

When she could speak again she turned her little face up to his.

“Eallair… do you think that perhaps now would be a good time to send for Goodwife Cade and the other women?”, she asked delicately.

“Why yes of course”, he said excitedly, “Why didn’t I think of that myself… they should definitely be here. I’m sure they will know what to do”.

“Yes… I think they probably will”, she replied with a weary sigh.

It was one thing trying to deal with the pain, but trying to deal with the husband was almost worse.

He turned to leave, almost tripping on the folds of the heavy quilt again.

“Eallair”, she called out softly, “Do you think I could have a kiss before you go?”

He turned back to face her, and she could see from his expression how very frightened he was. Her heart gave a painful throb as he looked at her with sad grey eyes, the dark of clouds before the rain.

“Yes of course my darling”, he leaned forward and gave her a soft kiss on the mouth.

He stood back still staring at her and then kissed her again solemnly.

Then he pulled her into his arms, “Three for luck”, he choked and kissed her passionately, his arms clutching at her, his fingers tangling in her hair.

He turned to leave, rushing out the door.

“Don’t forget to put some clothes on”, she called after him.

Then she carefully lowered herself onto the bed and tried to make herself comfortable until the women came.