AN: This is my contribution to the Andith Feast 2015. I started writing it after posting my new chapter of A Sudden Interest in Pigs about four hours ago, so I'm sorry if it isn't really up to standard. I didn't have any idea what to write about when I started, I just wanted to give the Andith fans who don't read my pig-story something to read on a day like this. Then I surprised myself by thinking out this little story.
AU from 3:3. No jilting.
The first birth. 1874. In a grand house.
Sir Jonathan Strallan was 57 years old. His wife, Lady Elizabeth, who was just about to give birth to their second child, was 46.
Sir Jonathan was sitting in the hall outside the room where Elizabeth was giving birth. He very much wished that he could be in the room with her to support her, but he couldn't leave his ten-year-old daughter Emilia alone. And he couldn't bring her with him in there, it might scare her out of having children for life.
Right now Sir Jonathan thought that would be a good thing. But that was only because he was so worried for his wife and he knew he would be just as worried for his daughter if she would ever get pregnant. Probably even more worried.
"Mummy will be alright", he told his daughter for the hundredth time, even though he was very far from sure of it himself. Perhaps his reassurance only managed to make the girl worried.
Jonathan knew the girl needed something to do. Normally Emilia would have her lessons at this time of the day. But her mother was also her teacher, and she had other things to do right now. They didn't have a nanny nor a governess, Elizabeth preferred to take care of and teach her children herself. That was mostly fine, but at a time like this...
Jonathan could of course leave Emilia alone to read a book or to play, but he wanted someone to be with the girl until the little one was born. Jonathan wondered what to do, but then he got the obvious idea. Mrs Blackburn, of course! Locksley's cook. Emilia loved to be down in the kitchen. So he brought his daughter down there and told the cook that he would come for Emilia as soon at the new child was born. When he left them Emilia was busy mixing batter for a cake under Mrs Blackburn's supervision.
So, at last, Sir Jonathan was able to go in to his wife.
"We are almost there", said the midwife at her side. "Everything is going just fine."
Elizabeth herself was too concentrated to say anything at all, but she gave him a quick smile as he stroke her arm.
Ten minutes later little Anthony was born. Jonathan's relief that all had gone well was almost bigger than his happiness over his new little son.
After a while Jonathan fetched Emilia. He told her that she had got a little brother, and then they went up to Elizabeth together.
Emilia was stunned when she saw the baby in her mother's arms. He was so small!
The baby had blue eyes and white fluff on his head. Emilia looked at him with admiration.
"Oh, how sweet he is!" she exclaimed. "Just like a little doll!"
...
The second birth. 1894. In an even grander house.
Lord Robert Crawley was in the nursery with his three-and-a-half year old daughter Mary. His wife Cora was giving birth in another part of the house. Robert was eagerly awaiting news of the birth of his son, but he definitely didn't want to be present when it happened. Giving birth was both scary and somewhat disgusting, he thought. So much blood.
He and Cora had done everything right this time. When Cora was expecting Mary, they had called her 'the baby' and 'our son or daughter.' But the new baby had been nothing but HIM from the beginning. Their son. Mary's little brother.
All the signs were right. The baby had strong legs. Robert had felt him kicking in Cora's tummy. His legs seemed so much stronger than Mary's had, Robert was sure of that. And Cora's tummy was the right shape for a boy. She had also been feeling less nausea this time - a well-known sign of expecting a boy, according to Robert's mother who had given birth to one of each.
Charles Carson, the new footman, entered the nursery.
"All is well with mother and child", he announced. "Lady Grantham has asked to see you both."
Cora was sitting in bed with the new baby at her breast when Robert and Mary entered the room.
"Come and see your new little sister", Cora called out to her firstborn.
"Where is my little brother?" Mary wondered.
"Well, you got a little sister instead", Cora said with a smile.
"Tell them to take her back! I want my brother! They have sent us the wrong baby." Mary climbed into Cora's bed and tried to push the baby away. The baby dropped the nipple and started to cry. Mary put her hands on her ears and didn't object to her mother putting her nipple back into the baby's mouth.
"She doesn't look like a girl!" Mary said then. "She is so red and ugly. She looks like a monkey."
Mary was just a little girl, Cora told herself. Soon enough the two sisters would be the best of friends. Cora herself had longed for a sister during her whole childhood.
Besides, Mary's reaction wasn't the worst that happened. Her husband's was.
"Another girl, then?" he said, barely giving the baby a look or the mother a smile.
No, he wasn't happy, even though he tried to conceal it.
But she had better get used to it, Cora thought. Later in the day Robert's mother, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, was expected to come for a visit to see her new grandchild. She would be even more disappointed than Robert was. And she would certainly not try to hide it, Cora knew. No, Violet would want to make some cynical remarks about Americans' inability to get anything right.
So Cora was the only one in the family who was genuinely happy about the birth of the new little girl.
...
The third birth. 1925. Back in the first rather-grand-but-not-as-grand-as-the-second house. This is a birth that couldn't have happened if the first two hadn't.
Sir Anthony was 51 years old when this happened, but Lady Edith was only 30 so he told himself that she was young and that all would go well.
But really, when they got Elizabeth four years earlier and everything was fine, he had thought that it would perhaps be enough with one child. Because he had been so worried, mostly because his first wife, Maud, had died in childbirth.
Birth-control was easy to find now, at least if you were married. They had been using condoms after Elizabeth was born, even if it was an interruption to the love-making. They managed to make it a part of the fun, though - her helping him to put them on - so he rather enjoyed it. But of course she had to help him anyhow, it was rather tricky to put them on with only one hand.
But that single time about nine months ago they had both got carried away...
He knew exactly when it had happened, because it had only happened once. They had both been a little tipsy, but only a little, after a grand dinner at her parents' house. There Anthony had had to endure some biting comments from Lady Violet about not being able to give Edith any more children. He suspected Edith had heard that too, and that it had something to do with them both forgetting the condoms. Perhaps they had both thought that they had something to prove.
They had only forgot it that single time, but that had been enough. A month later Edith had told him she was pregnant. She had looked a little embarrassed but also very happy about it.
"I'm sure you know when it happened", she said. "That night after the dinner. When we made love on the library sofa."
It had been a wonderful night. But that was then, and he regretted it now, even if it had been lovely when it happened.
He was holding Edith's hand now as she was getting to the last stage. She wasn't screaming, only sighing deeply now and then, very concentrated on what she did. The midwife told her to push, and before long the baby's head could be seen. Then it was out, and Anthony saw immediately that it was a boy.
When mother and baby had been tidied up and the little boy was enjoying his first meal from his mother's breast, Anthony sent for little Elizabeth.
The little girl was brought by her nanny, who took care of the girl when Edith was writing for the newspapers. Or giving birth.
"Come and see your new little brother", Edith said to her daughter.
Elizabeth went over to her mother and looked at the tiny baby in her arms. The little boy had golden curls and deep brown eyes, and the tiniest little mouth.
"Oh, how sweet he is!" Elizabeth exclaimed. "Just like a little doll."
AU: Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!
And Happy Andith Fest!