Ok, so i just finished Ch. 5 - and was going to upload it, when i realised i hadn't uploaded 4 yet! It's been done for weeks! to be fair, it is a baby chapter - just a little one, because Brigan and Fire are not perfect, and they do argue, and they do make up, and Fire is hormonal and pregnant and liable to mood swings. For the full apology about my radio-silence, see next chapter's intro. . .
The weeks passed peacefully, and Fire began to grow. Brigan returned from his short mission to the coast to find his wife waiting for him in the courtyard, holding a bouncing Hanna's hand, and with a small, hardly recognisable bump between her hips. At first, Brigan didn't see it – but later, in private, Fire had taken his hand and guided it down to her stomach, and his eyes had widened and glowed with joy. Fire was around three months along, the healers said, judging by her swelling and symptoms. It showed – for Fire had never been more beautiful. Her hair was thick and silky, falling heavily over her shoulders and down her back in a furious cascade of red. Her skin seemed to glow from the inside out, and she was constantly smiling and laughing. But in truth, Fire hurt; her ankles were swollen, her breasts ached, and her mood swings exhausted her and those around her.
"I imagine this means the end of my freedom." Fire sighed once when she was alone with Brigan "And I was so enjoying my walks outside." Fire was lying on her back wearing a pair of riding hose and one of Brigan's shirts, pulled up to her ribs so that they could both see the gentle upwards curve of her belly, only just there but there none the less. Brigan was tracing tiny circles over her sensitive skin with the tip of his finger absently.
"It's for your safety, Love." Brigan replied "I wish I could stay more often to protect you myself. Rocks willing, I'll have a few weeks in the City before Nash ships me off again."
Fire hummed in agreement "How are plans for the Autumn celebrations coming?" Fire had heard Garan's rants about the cost of the Autumn celebrations, and for once Fire agreed. If this was a time of parties for the royals, it was also a time of expense; first was the Autumn celebrations, then the Winter solstice ball and Christmas celebrations. Every one of them were extravagant affairs – traditionally, the Autumn celebrations were held outside in the dead of night, with the whole area lit by candles and fire pits to create an aura of stark contrast – heat from the flames mixed with cold from the season, the brightness of the fallen leaves with the darkness of the night. The celebrations were due in three months, in September, when Fire would be far too pregnant to attend.
"Slowly," Brigan sighed "Mila is new to this, but she is doing well. Of course, she has her womanly advisers." Brigan smiled crookedly at Fire, and Fire smiled back and pecked him on the lips cheekily.
"Mila needs none of my advice, to be sure. She's charging ahead with more determination than one of your Captains."
"And with more style too, I'd wager." Brigan smiled, working his fingers down to Fire's feet, which he proceeded to massage, bringing moans of relief from Fire.
"She's planning on having autumn leaf wreaths," Fire sighed, closing her eyes of savour the feeling of Brigan's warm hands on her cold toes "and a mix of traditional and modern dishes. I'm sure the Ladies will like that."
"Garan's having a coronary over the cost." Brigan informed her lightly, as he always did when he spoke of his brother's accounting antics "I think his wedding was the most cost-effective event I've ever been to."
"Oh, Brigan, don't talk so!" Fire's eyes had snapped open and she kicked Brigan's hands away from her feet "You know how ill Garan gets – rocks knows he has enough on his plate, with cleaning up after our kingdom's messes, half of which you make!"
"I make the messes?" Brigan repeated incredulously "I'm helping the clean-up team Garan's got going – it's Nash who makes the messes."
"Here we go, always blaming Nash for everything." Fire fumed, standing up and moving a few metres away from Brigan – but making sure her voice wasn't swallowed up by the distance "Maybe you should be King, if you're so much better!" her words seemed to thicken and widen in the air between them. Brigan made a hissing noise between his clenched teeth.
"I think you're tired," he finally said dangerously – shivers went up Fire's spine at his words "this baby is taking a lot out of you; you're not in your right mind–"
"You weren't so worried about the baby when you first found out," Fire snapped "as I recall, you sat there in silence while your family talked about killing it!" Fire's voice rose to a yell, but in the face of Brigan's calmness she felt like a child having a tantrum.
"My concern was for you!" he exclaimed "It will always be for you. It makes me so angry to see that you still don't realise how much danger you're in – instead, you go swanning about on public excursions and presentations, risking discovery, and worse, risking yours and our baby's life! Don't think I didn't hear about what happened at the girls' school – you could have died. You ride Small every morning, regardless of what that might do to the baby. Rocks, Fire, you're being so careless!"
"Me?" Fire screamed, making her voice break with the volume and pitch of her screech "How dare you! I love my baby – I love my baby!" Fire's chest heaved, and her throat was thick – tears rolled down her cheeks, and her head was pounding. She fell to her knees and, forehead pressed to the floor, started to cry, the violence of her emotion making her whole body shake and shudder.
"Fire," Brigan crossed the room in two strides and crouched down beside her, his rough hands on her shoulders, pulling her powerless body into his arms "Fire, listen to me. Oh, please, Fire, don't cry. Stop crying." But Fire just wrapped her arms around him and cried harder, trusting him to keep her still and safe. Brigan shushed her and rubbed her back and whispered words into her ear, but only when she had started to cry herself out did she start to hear them.
"I'm not hurting him, am I?" she begged, stroking Brigan's worried face and looking into his eyes imploringly "I'm not being a bad mother already? Am I failing him?"
"No, love. I was angry. You just. . . need to take a little more care now that the baby's growing, that's all."
"Oh, Brigan, I'm so sorry." Fire gulped "I know you don't want to be King, and you don't make messes – it's all those dratted Lords vying for power!" Brigan hummed in agreement.
"But then half of them are so foolish I could beat them back from the throne with half a rotten potato." Brigan said dryly. The image he created was so silly that Fire started to laugh – and then she couldn't stop. . .
We're on the build up. . . the climb. . . stuff is going to start happening. . . stay tuuuuunnnnneeeee for more!