June 15, 1202
"Well... I suppose now I'll always be able to pester her about how I managed not to vomit while she was the one giving birth," Honora drawled, in some effort to sound exhausted but rather on the well side for a woman mere hours past labor. "In all seriousness, though, I hope she isn't ill. She's been green at the gills all week."
"Hmm." Nanalie eased her grandson's hiccups with a pat to his back, and eased herself into the thought of speaking of one of her twin daughters with the other. Honora and Nearina had an odd sort of relationship, too different to be often drawn to each other's company but quite aware of each other's deficits, each seeing themselves as the other's protector. In terms of anything that required any caution--in action or emotion--Honora was the expert of the two. But, she was not so in tune to her twin that she didn't need the occasional hint. "Nearina might be hoping she is."Honora stood, lashes pried apart as the eyes beneath them bulged. Preoccupied with her own timely, convenient, healthy pregnancy, the early detection of someone else's less desirable one couldn't have been a priority. "You think she might be with child?"
"I think it's a possibility," Nanalie affirmed as she handed little Garrett back to his mother. Her second grandchild, her first grandson. It may not have been long before she had a third grandchild, possibly a second grandson. A shame, though, that such a grandchild--if there was one--would never know their father. "Oswald hasn't been gone so long that she'd necessarily know if she wasn't.""I suppose you're right. Poor Nearina." Honora shifted her son into what he seemed to find a comfortable cradling hold and sighed. "If the thought's crossed her mind, I don't know if either possibility could comfort her. Either Oswald will have a posthumous child he'll never see, or she'll know for certain that he'll never have another child."
"Indeed. Maybe don't mention it for her; if it somehow hasn't crossed her mind, then there's no sense in us pushing it in front of her, especially if she's not sure how she'd feel about it." And she wouldn't. Who did, in times like these? For someone dealing with Nearina's loss, there were both too many feelings and too few to predict them all.
"Right. For now, let's just do like poor Asalaye's doing and... hold her hair back if we catch her face in the bucket."NEXT CHAPTER:
3 comments:
The Naronian reproductive rate is probably closer to that of a bacterial species than that of any other group of humans...
Well, I hope for Celina that, if this is indeed a pregancy, it is Oswald's. Because her having sex with Nearina while she was so vunerable (sp?) was enough of a all-time low as it gets.
Not much of a fan of Celina in general, though, so my opinion is probably biased. ^^'
The paternity test hasn't been invented yet, so officially and socially, any baby Nearina happens to have within the right time frame would be considered as Oswald's (and at this point, no one but Celina, Nearina, and Dani would have any reason to think otherwise). Nearina will probably be telling herself it's bound to be Oswald's too--and given the mess that is the noble family tree, that probably won't be too much of a problem even if the kid does look weirdly like Celina.
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