Queen Hereafter by Susan Fraser King

Author:Susan Fraser King [King, Susan Fraser]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, historical, Adult
ISBN: 9780307452801
Publisher: Broadway
Published: 2010-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

ON THE EVE of the Epiphany, at the end of Christmastide, her labor began. Margaret felt heavy, dull aches of such pressure that she could not always catch her breath. Pacing the room, she anticipated the birth, relishing it as one of the real tests of courage and power she could face as a woman. She knew the great risks, yet felt strangely unafraid, even excited. Heaven and hell would both challenge her that day, and she wanted to triumph, wanted to tap the stronger spirit that she knew resided within her.

So she welcomed the struggle, endured it in silence but for murmured prayers. She obeyed Annot’s advice, translated deftly by Eva, who remained calm and by her side throughout. Margaret fell to her hands and knees on the bed as an unyielding power ripped through her body like a gale through a glen. When Annot and Kata pulled her upward to sit, squatting and striving, she pushed until she felt the child slip slick from her, and gasped. Annot caught it, wiped the squalling and red-faced little thing quickly, and held it up as Kata held out the swaddling.

“A son, a fine little son,” Kata said in German, then English. “Listen to his strong cry!”

Margaret sat up, exhausted and exhilarated, while her mother wiped her face, smoothed back her damp hair. Kata held a cup to her lips, filled with a cool, sweet drink of herbs and water that Annot had prepared for her. “Your labor was very quick, only a few hours. It was easy!”

Margaret laughed; the storm in her body had more than tested her, and had not seemed so easy. She reached for the child, then cradled him close. Eva was there, speaking quietly in Gaelic with Annot, Mirren, and Finola, whose eyes had been wide and frightened through the labor. After a moment, Eva came forward to admire the child.

“Mother Annot says you may have many babes,” Eva said. “She says it was indeed easy for you, and each labor may be quicker than the last. Remember that for your next one.”

“Next one!” Margaret said. Eva turned as the midwife spoke again.

“Aye, she says you and the king make strong, beautiful children together. There will be more,” Eva said. While the other women in the room laughed, Margaret held her little son close, carefully, the fragile, warm bundle suddenly dearer to her than anything on earth or in heaven.

“Malcolm,” she said then. “Is he here?”

“Returning soon,” Eva said. “Two housecarls rode out to fetch him from the hunt. He has been gone two days, but promised he would cut it short for this occasion.”

Margaret leaned back against a slope of pillows and gazed at her son in candlelight. The hour was late, not yet dawn on the day of the Epiphany, and here he was like a miracle, her firstborn, quickly born and healthy. He quavered a thin cry, stretched, and opened his little mouth like a bird, and she fell completely in love in that instant.

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