"Brave as a woman is brave." Her Mother had said it, and now Caterina thought she genuinely understood.
"I feel like a dairy cow," Cat had complained. "All I do is sleep and feed babies and then eat and feed babies."
"Well, you could use your nurses more," said Lady von Velsen. "I understand that every woman in milk around has offered to share with you. It's wonderful you're so loved."
"I don't mean to grumble, Mama. It's just queer to be so confined."
"New babies are like nestlings, my love. You feed and feed and feed, and suddenly, before you realize what's happened, they've grown wings and flown away." Lady von Velsen studied her tall daughter and sighed.
"I really don't think nurses should have them more than I do. Taking an animal away from its mother is the surest way I know to kill it, and I don't see why people should be any different." Caterina was resigned. "A nurse may help, but Mina and Rupert shall drink my milk as much as possible."
* * *
The night following the christening, propped up in bed, the downy head of Mina Brigitte warmly resting for the umpteenth time against her mother's full breast, Caterina's eye was caught by a red flicker coming through the north window. Sliding out of bed, she hoped not to wake her husband, whose muscular form stretched, like a sleeping panther, on the far side. Neither of them was getting much rest these days.
As she passed the wide cradle the twins shared, she saw Rupert Wilhelm Goran—a grunting, wriggling lump—who was well on his way to soiling his napkin and thereby waking himself up. From the other side of the door where the wet nurse and her infant were, for the moment, sleeping, there came no sound. Privacy, like a night without many, many interruptions, was a thing of the barely remembered past.
Hugging sweet-smelling Mina close, Cat went to the window. There was a huge fire blazing, high up on the shoulder of Heldenberg. All those secret worshipers, Cat knew with sudden certainty, were celebrating with their lord and lady, celebrating the christening of Graf and Grafin von Hagen's miraculous twins.
The End
About The Author
“Not all who wander are lost.” Juliette Waldron earned a B. A. in English, but has worked at jobs ranging from artist’s model to brokerage. Twenty years ago, after raising her children, she dropped out of 9-5 and began to researching her way into The Past. Three of the resulting thirteen historical novels are now published. Mozart’s Wife won the 1st Independent e-Book Award. Genesee won the 2003 Epic Award for Best Historical. She enjoys putting what she has learned about people, places, and relationships into her stories.
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