Chapter 10: 26 weeks
A/N: Pretty much just slice of life and fluff in my world at the moment
Richard looked down at the piles of wood that would, the instructions promised, assemble into cots and made a realisation. "We aren't going to move before the babies are born, are we?" He said to Camille, who was carefully applying tiny stickers with letters on them to the various parts of the cots so they would know what they were.
"We might do," She replied.
"Camille we haven't even looked at any houses since I moved in," He pointed out. "We might as well accept this is where we will be bringing up the babies for a while."
She sighed. "I guess you are right," she admitted. "But that probably isn't a bad thing. I have always loved this place."
"Well this room might have been big enough to hold one child until they were a toddler but two, I'm not so sure…" In fact, if he stretched out both arms, Richard could touch both walls. Fine for a nursery for the moment, but it looked like a move with two small children was definitely in their future. It was not a thought he relished.
"Oh Richard half the island will turn up to help us move when it comes to it," Camille said, as if she had read his mind. "I wouldn't worry too much. And by the way we are helping my friend Lisa move next weekend."
"We?" Richard said, pointedly staring at her bump.
"Hey! I can still help, I'll just be in more of an organisational role," She gave him such a cheeky grin that he couldn't help but return it with a smile of his own. It was hardly the first time he had found himself volunteered to do something by Camille, he doubted it would be the last either.
"You know what else we haven't talked about yet?" She said next, pausing from her task and staring at a screw contemplatively. It appeared not to look like any of the pictures in the instructions. "Names."
She was right – somehow it hadn't come up at all. "Well we better start soon, some couples take ages and they aren't expecting twins. We need twice the number of names!"
"Speaking of number of names…" Camille said, sounding a little nervous. "Um, will they have to have quite as many names as you do?" Richard could understand her concern – his five names were actually over the average of 4 for most aristocratic babies.
"Well, that might be the advantage of the twins," Richard said thoughtfully. "We can sort of split the names we have to use between them."
"What do you mean, names we have to use?" Camille asked, looking at him sharply. Perhaps Richard should have been more delicate in his phrasing – now Camille would feel like the traditional names he was referring to were being forced upon her. That wasn't the case, though he suspected his Father might be disappointed if certain boys names weren't utilised.
"Of course I don't mean we have to use them, but there are certain names that run in my family that I would like to be used if possible," he explained.
"Like what?" Camille said – she looked and sounded like she didn't quite believe him. Richard reckoned he had the perfect example to calm her down though.
"Well, for example, I would appreciate if Peter was used as either a first or middle name. You know, after my Uncle Peter – Dad's older brother who died," Richard said. "I spent many a summer in Euston Hall with Uncle Peter and it would be nice to honour his memory that way." No need to mention that every single Duke of Grafton (with the exception of his Father, since he had inherited from his older brother) had 'Peter' in their name somewhere.
The story had the desired effect, and Camille immediately softened. "Well of course we can use the name Peter. In fact I quite like it as a name, though I prefer the French Pierre," She added. Richard swallowed hard, trying to imagine his Father's reaction if he was presented with a grandson called Pierre. But then to his relief Camille continued, "But that wasn't actually your Uncle's name so I suppose it wouldn't be the same, so we won't use that. So Peter as a first name then?"
"Um, well, if you like it as a first name that would be great!" He said brightly. "You didn't have anything else in mind?"
"Well, truth be told, my first choices were Casper or…"
She didn't get to mention her other choice, because Richard interrupted her with a disbelieving, "Casper?" She nodded, not really understanding his shock. "As in, Casper the friendly ghost?"
"No, as in Casper, one of the three Magi," she corrected him. "Who the hell is Casper the friendly ghost?"
"You can't be seriously suggesting you've never heard of Casper the friendly ghost?" Richard asked her. "It seems highly unlikely any cultural reference could exist that I have heard of and you haven't."
"Well this must be some sort of exception to prove the rule, because I don't know what you are talking about," Camille told him firmly. "Though I am rather assuming it means you are saying no to Casper," she added, a little grumpily.
"It was a cartoon – but it is quite an old one now I guess," Richard explained. "There is a chance people don't associate the name with that anymore. Perhaps we should test awareness amongst young people. It might be an idea with all the names actually, in case there is anything we've missed."
"Are you seriously suggesting we conduct a survey amongst teenagers to assess any negative associations the names we pick might have?"
"You don't want our children to be teased, do you?" Richard asked.
Camille gave him a sympathetic look. She knew how much he had suffered in school – his intelligence always making him very much the odd one out, but it was clear she thought his suggestion was an overreaction. "Richard, we might find names that are fine at the moment, but it doesn't mean some cultural phenomenon won't occur whilst the babies are still young. I was friends with a Sabrina in high school and she suffered terribly."
Richard frowned, "Why?"
Camille gave a small sigh, "Sabrina the teenage witch?"
"No clue," he admitted. "See what I mean about the unlikeliness of me knowing about Casper the friendly ghost and you not?"
"Well, for reasons unknown it passed me buy. So is Casper in or out as a name?"
Richard mulled it over for a moment, "I'm fine with it as a middle name…"
"So Peter Casper?" Camille suggested. "The other name I like but you didn't give me the chance to suggest is Julian."
"Oh I like Julian!" said Richard brightly, though he did not explain that this was because he was addicted to The Famous Five as a child. "Julian would be fine for a first name."
"So we'd have Peter Casper and Julian something?"
"Well I'd like to get George in as well if I could, for my Father. So how about Peter George and Julian Casper?"
"But then what if we only have one boy, which of the names would we use then?"
"Um, well we could have Peter George Casper?" Richard suggested, scratching his head.
"I want Richard in there somewhere!" Camille suddenly demanded. "A boy should have his father's name as well." Actually, that was tradition in their family with the first born, but one Richard was willing to let go of.
"Ok well it could be Peter George Richard and Julian Casper, um, some other name – possibly Arthur, that's another big name in the family, if there are two boys. And then if it is one we'll go back to Peter George Casper…"
Camille held a hand up to cut him off. "I think we might need to write this down," she suggested sensibly. Accepting the project to construct the cribs was essentially abandoned for the day, Richard rose to fetch his favourite notebook.
It took them a good 2 hours to hash out what combination of names would be used in the event of one boy or two. The use of Richard's own name proved to be a bit of a sticking point as he wasn't particularly bothered but Camille had become insistent that it be included in their somewhere. As a consequence, if they only had the one boy he was going to end up with as many names as Richard, despite Camille's initial hints that she would prefer that not to be the case. He sort of hoped they ended up with two boys or two girls to avoid that situation.
Camille looked exhausted by the whole conversation. They were sitting on the floor, with Camille now sprawled against a wall and looking like she might not ever be able to move again. Various bits of paper had been torn off and spread on the floor around with different name combinations written on them, initials underneath just to make sure they weren't inadvertently spelling out a word with all those initials.
Camille yawned and Richard shot her a sympathetic look, "Want me to help you up so you can have a lie down?"
"No, no," she said, waving him off. "We still have the girls' names to discuss."
"Oh we don't have to do that now, we can discuss it another time," he reassured her.
Camille just shook her head and said, "No, go on, tell me what girls' names are traditional in your family!"
Oh well that was an easy question to answer. "Oh we don't have any traditional female names," he said honestly.
It seemed to take a moment for this to sink in. Then Camille looked up at him with narrowed eyes and asked slowly and carefully, "Why not?"
Uh oh. This was going to take some explaining.