Lady in the Veil by Leah Fleming

Author:Leah Fleming [Fleming, Leah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781471141027
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

9

As the months fled past, it was getting harder for Mirabel to disguise her condition. Without the tight lacing, her condition would have soon been discovered. Eliza could pad up her waist and waddle but she hardly left the room. No one expected anything else from her. They had to be so careful now and it was her greatest worry that she might deliver at Yewbank under the scrutiny of all the maids and Matt’s old mother, Lucy Stockdale, would want to be at the birthing. They must make sure they were out of sight when the confinement came and that meant a long visit to Papa and the services of some discreet midwife from Skelsby who could be bribed into silence when the time came.

For all this Eliza needed to be rehearsed and prepared so that she might make that one effort to get out of the farmhouse without making too much fuss. She had taken to practising with her sister, walking to the door and pretending it was the outside porch, pretending to get into the steps of Papa’s chaise, rehearsing how they might achieve this one last feat.

‘I must take myself to Lawton one more time,’ Eliza announced at the dining table to everyone’s surprise. ‘Just in case I die in childbed. I must see my home one more time. I want the baby born in Lawton. It will please Papa so much.’ It was about the longest sentence she had spoke in public but everyone was agog with this decision.

‘It’ll make you ill again,’ said her husband. ‘Happen, we’ll get the doctor in here to be on the safe side.’

‘No, Mr Stockdale, I am decided in this matter. Bella will be at my side. That is sufficient.’ Matt was too dumbstruck to protest further.

It looked as if their plan was going to succeed. The return to Lawton was achieved even if the welcome was a little cool and the house stripped of many of the best pictures and furnishings, servants dismissed and owed money. The house was cold and unwelcoming after Yewbank, dark and damp. All that remained was to prepare the bedroom for the confinement and send word for the services of the best midwife in town, preferably one who liked her ale bottle. Everyone was fussing around Eliza, unaware that the real mother to be was already doubled up with cramp and backache, knowing her time was close.

Eliza managed to send for Papa and meet him on the stairs, saying that the labour was beginning and to send for Mistress Ackroyd straight away, clutching her stomach to great effect. No one else must be admitted through the door until the baby was born.

‘I’ll call for Doctor Brindle,’ he said, suddenly alert.

‘No, Papa, women are best left to their own devices,’ she ordered, clutching her belly again with a dramatic groan. ‘Leave us be. All is prepared in the upstairs chamber. Saddle a horse and send news to my husband in due course, that he must come and greet his child tomorrow.

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