“It has to be. The Widow Haskell has predicted it,” he said lightly.
She made an impatient sound. “She said the last two would be girls and she was wrong!” She smiled up at her husband, struck by a sudden thought. “She isn’t really much of a sorceress, is she?”
His eyes softened. “Eden, she brought you to me and that is all the sorcery I ever wanted from her.”
“I love you, Pierce.”
“I love you, Eden.”
Life had never been so rich and fulfilling. Cornish King had been retired as a stud and put to pasture this last year, but his offspring filled the Penhollow stables. Lady Penhollow still lived with them and loved being a grandmother, doting on everything her high-spirited grandsons did—even when they climbed on the table and cracked one of the merhorses on the silver centerpiece. She confided to Eden that she felt she was making up for the time she had missed during Pierce’s childhood.
Pierce stood up and offered his hand. “Come, let me take you upstairs and I’ll rub your back.”
“That sounds delightful,” she said, letting him pull her to her swollen feet. She knew all these symptoms were temporary. As soon as the baby was born, the aches and pains would disappear and she would have her figure back again.
“I shouldn’t complain,” she said as they walked toward the house. “You know I love my babies.”
He chuckled. “If I was the one who had to bear the children, people would be heartily tired of my moaning and groaning.”
Eden laughed because it would be true. “If you could get pregnant, my lord, we would have had only one child!”
“I’m not certain about that,” he countered with mock seriousness. “After all, I enjoy the activity that brings about that state too much to abandon it.”
“And I enjoy it too,” she said softly. “Besides, the birthing isn’t the hard part. It’s the waiting that makes me half mad with anxiety.”
At that moment, as if her words had been a signal, Eden’s water broke. She stopped, at first confused, and then surprised as she always was when the moment arrived. “Oh. Pierce.”
His eyes were bright with anticipation. “Is it time, Eden?”
Eden took a moment to evaluate the different sensations inside herself and slowly nodded her head.
The whole house went into an uproar. The midwife was sent for and arrived just in time.
The baby came quickly. After an easy three hours of labor, Eden gave birth to a lovely baby girl whom they named Annabelle after her grandmother. She was perfect in every way, and already loved before she’d drawn her first breath.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Hobbles Moor, in her cottage by the edge of the moors, the Widow Haskell woke from her light nap with a start. She paused, sensing something momentous had just happened… and then she knew what it was.
“The countess has had her baby, Gorgeous,” she whispered to her pet. The rooster eyed her with interest.
Reaching beneath her, under the cushion of her rocking chair, she pulled out the charm bag that Lady Penhollow had asked her to make for her daughter-in-law’s fifth pregnancy. The small muslin full of herbs and secret scents had done its job.
She threw the bag into the fire where it sparked and flamed. “And it was a girl,” she added to Gorgeous before tilting back her head and laughing.
WHEN DREAMS COME TRUE Page 28