Philippe looked at their smiling faces and knew that he couldn't say anything. His sisters were overjoyed, but he was quiet. Another baby? Their mother was older now and he was worried about this. He was eighteen! And his youngest sister was already almost eight! They should have been more careful. Not to mention that there would be a crying baby to add to their already chaotic family.

As time passed he began to soften though. He saw how happy his mother was. She spoke lovingly of the little life inside her and she asked the family for names. She took the girls shopping to find new baby clothes, a crib, a rocking chair, all the things they'd gotten rid of after Josephine grew older.

But as she became larger, she started to spend more time lying down. She claimed it was normal, but he knew better. The doctor visited often enough to scare both Philippe and his father

One day, as he walked through the hallway to his bedroom, he heard his parents arguing and despite himself, he paused to listen.

"We never should have allowed this! This thing is sucking the life out of you and I cannot bear it!" His father cried.

"Don't you dare call our child a 'thing'!" She said fiercely.

"Darling, this isn't normal. You never had any such problems with the other three." He said seriously. "I'm worried."

"I'm worried too, Philbert. But this child is ours, and I will never be able to wish it ill, or that it hadn't come to us." She said softly. "I stand by God's will, even if it costs me my last breath."

Philippe left before he could hear more. She couldn't die. She kept their family together and they needed her.

Finally the day arrived. For better or for worse, their new sibling was on its way into the world. They heard their mother's yells and it seemed to go on for hours. She was in labor for a full day. Philippe waited nervously in the next room with his sisters and father. After an eternity they heard their mother cry out one more time, followed by a baby crying. "The baby is here!" Genevieve said happily.

"Is it a brother or a sister?!" Josephine asked eagerly.

Their father smiled and stood to greet the doctor and his assistant, who was carrying the baby. The doctor said a few quiet words and Philbert rushed past him into the room without a glance at the baby.

The assistant approached Philippe and the girls and said with a smile, "You have a new younger brother. He's very healthy." He handed the baby- who looked very squashed and confused- over to Philippe.

He took him but asked, "And our mother?"

His smile fell. "We don't know yet. I must go back." He turned and went back into the room, closing the door behind him.

"I want to see!" The girls insisted. Philippe showed them the baby and let them hold him for equal turns each.

Genevieve was holding him when they all jumped as from the room came a howl of agony from their father. Philippe's heart dropped. No!

A few minutes later a sad doctor emerged from the room. "I'm so sorry." The doctor said to them. "But your mother is dead. There were complications."

"Dead?" Philippe asked weakly. "Surely not..."

"I'm so sorry." He replied, shaking his head as he went back to the room. "I did warn her..."

None of them wasted any time running after him to see for themselves. Their father was weeping as he held their mother's limp body in his arms. The sheets were bloody. Philippe knew he would never forget the details of that scene. Nor could he forget how his sisters climbed onto the bed with tears in their eyes, begging their mama to wake up.

It was nearly a half an hour later before anyone remembered that the baby had been abandoned on Genevieve's chair. Philippe went to get him. He was still covered in the muck of birth, but it had dried now. And he was making distressed noises. Philippe picked him up and rewrapped him to make him warmer. Then he took him back into the room. The doctor stepped forward and said gently, "Your mother named him Raoul Philbert before she died."

Philippe nodded and then said, "Papa... Do you want to hold your son?"

His father looked up from his wife and stared at the baby for a long moment. "Little demon stole her from me!" He finally cried. "I want nothing to do with him!"

"He did? He really did that, Papa? Is he a demon?" Genevieve asked. "I hate him too!"

"Me too!" Josephine added. "I want Mama to wake up!"

"It's not his fault!" Philippe cried over the noise. "He didn't do anything!"

But his father wouldn't listen. He just held his wife.

And so it was Philippe who gave his brother his first bath to clean him off. And it was Philippe who dressed the baby for the first time. And it was Philippe who gave him his first meal from a bottle. And he cried the entire time.