April 29, 1170
Holladrin watched the door with a grimace. It had been a few minutes since Nora had dashed out, and surely she would be returning soon--not soon enough, however, for the inevitable speculation. "That's the second time in half an hour."
Smiling, Valira rolled her eyes. She couldn't say that Nora's behavior had surprised her; when one was married to Lord Severin, it was never all that long before one had something to show for it. "You should have seen her on the ride over. She kept stopping to puke in the bushes, and then whenever I suggested that we just turn around and go home, she'd gallop off. Either she really wanted to see you, or she's in denial.""Or perhaps both," Holladrin mused with a wink.
Valira laughed. "Can't argue with you there, Aunt Holladrin. Still, I hope she's all right."
"Oh." A thoughtful sort of seriousness glazed over the baroness's face. "Yes, given how Lady Alina died..." She trailed off; neither of them wanted to think about that. The memory of that day was still only too clear--the crash of the sudden fall, all the blood, everything. Valira had not even been in the room and she could still recall and picture every detail.No--neither of them wanted to think about that.
Fidgeting in her seat, Valira made up her mind to look toward a more positive outcome--the most likely outcome. After all, Nora had already birthed two single babies and set of twins. Lady Alina had birthed seven before that fatal day, Holladrin had birthed three, and Valira herself had had one with no complications. If every pregnancy merited a fatality, the only women alive past their late teens or early twenties would have been nuns. "I bet it's a boy."
Holladrin smirked--she must have been giving herself a similar lecture. "I'll take that bet."
"What bet?"
Nora had returned. "Sorry. What did I miss?" She collapsed onto the empty seat next to Valira and grinned weakly, though she did still look a little green."Just us making a wager about the sex of your unborn child, dear," Holladrin informed her with an impish grin. "I think it'll be a girl."
Valira shook her head. "I'm telling you, it's going to be a boy."
"My unborn child?" Her mouth obscured as she gnawed the inside of her cheek, Nora sent Valira a quizzical glance. "I don't recall mentioning anything of the sort.""You didn't have to." Valira tugged at her sleeve and reclined backward. "The nausea did the talking for you."
Nora's lip quivered in desperate protest. "Perhaps I'm simply ill."
"Riddle me this, then," pried Holladrin from the other couch, running a hand over her own seven months' worth of swell. "How long has it been since your last course?"
Resigned, she glanced down at her lap and began to spin her wedding ring about her finger. "A while...""Ah yes--a while." Holladrin sighed. "Do you think Severin knows?"
Nora shrugged. "I doubt it; I imagine he has more important concerns than my laundry."
"Men can be rather unobservant," mused Valira, shaking her head as she recalled all those none-too-subtle hints that Searle had so thoroughly failed to notice. "When do you plan on telling him?"
"I don't know." She sighed, the wedding band still twirling about. "He won't be happy about this. He already has seven children, and add my four... and then with what happened to Lady Alina..." She didn't finish. She didn't have to.The silence was brief, but overwhelming; it would have been against every urge in Valira's nature not to break it. "It's so easy for them to forget to pull out."
"On the off-chance that even works," Holladrin laughed in reply. "There's only one way to prevent the occasional accident from happening, you know--abstinence."Valira stuck out her tongue at her aunt-by-marriage. "As if you've ever tried that."
Holladrin giggled again, and even Nora snickered. A smile curled on Valira's lips as she played with a lock of her hair; the room's gravity had not been fully vanquished, but at least they had this moment of relief. Predictably, however, it didn't last long.
"When do you think I should tell him?"
Valira sighed. She was younger than Nora, but still plenty old enough to know that such harsh questions typically merited answers of equal or greater difficulty. "Ideally, never; realistically, soon."NEXT CHAPTER:
15 comments:
Poor Valira inherited her father's chin in all its glory :( I hope most of her kids get Searle's.
Another one?!?! Between Lonriad's many illegitmate kids, and Severin's many legitimate ones, I wouldn't be surprised if the one-day gene pool of France and Spain was entirely dominated by those two!!
Still, I hope that nothing bad happens to Nora -- that would be the last thing ANYBODY needed.
And to think, it's quite possible that Severin also has some illegitimate ones somewhere out there, either from his horny teenage years or his post-Alina pre-Nora womanizing spree :S
If it makes things any better... Nora's due in December, and I did say that 1170 would be a lighter year ;)
Hate to tell you this, Van, but no it doesn't ... you said there wouldn't be any major tragedies until November and if Nora is due in December ... there's still time for a major tragedy.
But you still wouldn't do that to Severin, Nora and all those munchkins, right? ... Right?
Point taken, but "until November" does sort of imply that said tragedy will occur in November as opposed to shortly after.
And I promise you that the baby will not be born a month early, though if I told you the reason why, you'd probably think me quite insane :P
I'm not at all surprised she's pregnant, or that it frightens her. Childbirth is still difficult, I cannot imagine how horrible it was then. It's interesting that they avoided all emotional subjects and stuck simply to the pregnancy....
and I'm also hoping nothing bad happens to Nora!
blogger is either eating my comments or posting them twice....
Blogger can be so strange sometimes :S
Nora's had four kids already, two being a set of twins, but she still has cause to be worried, for sure. Death in child birth was awfully common back in the day, and even if a woman lucked out time after time and delivered consistently healthy babies with relatively little difficulty, there was always the fact that each labor was an independent event and anything could go wrong :S
You would think that Severin would be mindful of getting Nora pregnant with the brood they already have running about but as Valira said, they do tend to forget to pull out.
I hope that he and Nora are happy. And that nothing bad happens any time soon.
Yeah, it can be a little tough to think rationally in the heat of amount, probably even moreso for guys :P
I think they're happier than they were individually. I doubt they're in the newlywed phase anymore (if they even had one in the first place, considering how they got together), but they're certainly not unhappy.
Severin better watch out before he ends up with so many descendants both known and known that the entire population of Naroni ends up in-bred. Not to mention the number of siblings that he has running about. Holy crap.
That aside, I am glad that Nora is not being socially shunned by the other ladies, considering. I would have thought that there were pretty vicious rumors about that poor woman going around. (That Semiramis! Getting Lord Severin drunk and tricking him into marriage on the eve of his selecting a more fitting bride!)
It's only a matter of time before half the people in that area are direct descendants of Lonriad :S
Heh... that sounds like the sort of thing Laralita might be saying to anyone who will listen :P The only other ladies around at this point, though, are Valira, Holladrin, and Celina, and they just want someone to talk to and they liked Nora before, so they don't really care all that much.
Hurray a Norverin baby! I can't wait to see what it looks like. I bet these guys make super cute babies.
Poor Severin though, with his out of control growing brood. That man has the goods it seems :)
SMALL SPOILER: Like most of Alina's kids, the Norverin baby looks very much like Severin--Nora's brown hair, though.
Severin is the sort of man for which the vasectomy was invented :S
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