"I could not possibly begin to explain to you how joyful it makes me to see you walking properly, Lord M."
Victoria pulled her heavy woolen cape more tightly about herself and smiled at her husband. He was all done up, finally, in a warm black ensemble, a felt top hat sitting above his neatly combed hair. He smiled back at Victoria and seemed to only be using his cane for extra support.
"I must say, I'm surprised that Sir Robert Peel was amenable to the idea of my doing the boxes for you once your time comes, Ma'am. I thought, perhaps, that he would assume my incompetence."
Victoria cradled her belly in her hands. It had grown enormous now, and she was only seven weeks away from the date when the doctors said she was due. She could feel the child fluttering about inside, sometimes kicking violently at her ribs, and just now the baby seemed especially hell bent on cracking one. Victoria paused and bent a little, trying to find her breath as a few powerful kicks pummeled her.
"Victoria?" Melbourne's voice seemed concerned from beside her, but she just reached silently for his hand and clutched it, finally breathing in deeply and standing.
"I daresay I am to birth a great dancer," Victoria joked. "What mighty little legs the thing possesses."
Melbourne couldn't help but smirk at that, it seemed, though he seemed to be making some effort to stifle his smile. He reached over to boldly place his hand on the curve of Victoria's abdomen, and she paused to let him feel the fluttering kicks. Suddenly Melbourne's face illuminated, as though a candle had been lit beneath his skin. He grinned widely and whispered,
"What a marvelous thing it is."
She could see him now, laughing with a little child, and all of a sudden her fear of childbirth was somewhere else. Victoria kept walking down the gravel path, and it was a very good long while before she finally said,
"It is cold, and I am sore. Let us return, Lord M, for a good hot meal."
"So Parliament has agreed to name the prince as regent?" The Duchess of Kent nibbled at her little cake two weeks later, and Victoria threw her eyebrows up.
"Does that disappoint you, Mama?" She knew of her mother's boundless ambition, but the Duchess of Kent feigned horror and offence as she set down her napkin.
"Drina," she said firmly, "I only want your happiness. And the good function of this country, of course."
"Of course," Victoria said slyly. "You think Lord M is not yet well enough to serve as regent."
"That is not for me to decide, of course," the Duchess shrugged, "but people do talk."
"People always talk, Mama," Victoria huffed. She sipped at her own teacup and said, "He is walking and talking quite normally. Only very rarely does he have some physical weakness on one side. His mind is entirely sound. Besides, I intend on being entirely back in order a week or so after -"
"A week?" The Duchess scoffed and waved her hand dismissively. "Drina, after you were born, I was practically locked in my bedroom for two months."
"Well, that simply will not be possible," Victoria said. "I am the monarch of this country. I will be back to work in short order. I have also hired three nursery maids and a governess, and additionally will be using the services of a very kind wet nurse called Anne Fulbright.
"So you mean to just hand the child off, then?" The Duchess said. "Will you know the child's name, I wonder?"
"Mama!" Victoria felt rage go through her, and suddenly there was another swift kick to her ribs. She put her hand to the spot where she'd been kicked, and she assured her mother, "Lord M means to be very involved indeed. I'm sure I will be a fine mother, though your lack of faith in me is alarming."
The Duchess sighed lightly. "Who is to be in charge of the child's rearing, then? What is she called?"
"It is actually Lady Emma Portman," Victoria said. "Her husband is such a dear friend of Lord M's, you know, and she is an experienced mother."
"Hmph. And will I be allowed into the child's rooms?" The Duchess looked hurt all of a sudden, but Victoria gave her a little smile and nodded.
"Yes, Mama. Of course you will. The child is moving like mad just now; would you like to feel?"
"Oh, yes." The Duchess gasped and hurried from one divan to the other. She sat beside her daughter and put her hand on Victoria's abdomen, and she grinned widely when she felt the little fluttering kicks. Victoria covered her mother's hand with her own, and for the first time in a good long while, she felt genuinely happy.
"Lord M."
Victoria tried to sit up, clutching at her stomach as wrenching pains ripped her through. She gasped through clenched teeth and said more firmly,
"William! Wake up!"
He did, springing to sit up. He could tell at once that Victoria was in pain, and he moved as quickly as his ongoing condition would allow to get his legs off the bed.
"I shall… send for the doctors," he said rather weakly, but Victoria moaned,
"It could be nothing. It is not yet time. It is still too early…. ahhhhh!"
She shrieked then, pounding the mattress with her fist as Melbourne hurried off the bed and out into her drawing room. She could hear him calling out for Lehzen, demanding that the doctors be sent for at once. Then he hobbled back into the bedroom and stood beside Victoria, letting her squeeze his hand as her head tipped back in agony. For hours, she'd been in bed with dull pains coming and going, irregularly at first and then in steady pulls that had made tears stream down her cheeks.
Now, hours into the ordeal, it felt like someone was tearing her muscles apart by hand, like someone was punching her roughly without stopping. Victoria sobbed and tried to get air, and a gentle voice from beside her murmured,
"Breathe in, Victoria… breathe out. Breathe in… breathe out."
She tried desperately to do as he said, but the pain only got worse. There was a rush of fluid between her legs, as though she'd wet herself, and Victoria cried out. Suddenly she felt as though she were going to have a bowel movement, and she shouted,
"No, Lord M; it's happening now. Now! Ahhh!"
"Now? What?" Melbourne climbed up onto the bed, shoving her nightgown up around her waist and staring between her legs. He started to roll up the sleeves of his own nightshirt, and he said quietly, "It does indeed seem as though it is happening now. Lehzen! Where are the doctors?"
There was no reply to that, and Victoria writhed desperately as the squeezing pain became overwhelming. There was a searing, burning sensation around the edges of her womanhood, and Victoria screamed. Someone was holding a hot poker to her brain. That was how it felt.
"Victoria, push as though you're… as though you're on the chamber pot. You understand?" Melbourne's voice was distant and faint, and Victoria's ears were ringing loudly. His hands were between her legs, and he nodded up at her. She stared at him through the blurry dim light of the room, and she threw her head back as she pushed. She held it for as long as she could, and then she heard Melbourne say,
"Again. You are strong; you can do this, Ma'am."
"Your Royal Highness!"
Someone else was there. The doctors. Victoria pushed again, as hard as she could, and the doctor's voice murmured something about fetching water and rags.
"Send Lehzen. I will stay with Her Majesty," said Melbourne firmly. He was beside her then, holding her hand and kissing her dewy forehead, and he whispered, "You are doing so well, Victoria. Look how quickly it happened. So quickly, and it will be over soon. Keep pushing… now, Victoria, push now."
She did, and this time she felt an emptying sort of relief when she did. She sobbed from the pain and the effort, but then, all of a sudden, she heard it.
The cry of a little child.
"Lord M," Victoria whispered, feeling dizzy, and he put his lips beside her ear.
"William Edward Henry, Your Majesty. It is little William."
He repeated the name for the doctors, and then poor Lehzen was sent off again. The crying did not cease, and Melbourne called for the wet nurse to be summoned as quickly as possible. Victoria felt an awful squish as her body pushed something else out, and then she watched as a large red lump that looked like an organ was put into a metal pan. Everyone was cleaning her up then, using wet rags on her face and between her legs.
Then she turned her face and saw her husband, standing in his nightshirt with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, cradling a carefully swaddled little thing, smiling down at it with peace in his green eyes.
"The birth was early, Your Highness, and the child is very small," said the doctor. "We must perform an examination straight away."
"Just one more moment," Melbourne whispered. He walked over to Victoria's side, bending down so that she could see the little creature. William Edward Henry. His features were in miniature, of course, but even at his tiny size, Victoria could see her Lord M in the child's face. She kissed the baby's forehead and whispered,
"Mama and Papa love you very dearly, little one."
"That we do." Melbourne wrapped the child back up into his arms, pressing his lips to the child's cheek for a long moment. Then he sounded quite worried as he agreed with the doctor, "He is so very small. And he came so quickly, so early…"
"If Your Highness will please allow us to examine the little prince," said the doctor, and Melbourne reluctantly handed the bundle in his arms over. He was back at Victoria's side then, and her eyes seared as he helped her drink some water.
"He's going to be all right, isn't he?" Victoria asked nervously, and Melbourne nodded, though he looked very uncertain.
"I'm sure he will be just fine, our little William," he said. "Now, Victoria, shut your eyes, if only for a few moments. You did marvelously."
"I love you, Lord M," she said, and he leaned over to touch his lips to hers as he nodded.
"And I love you, Ma'am."
Author's Note: Oh, my. So, the baby came early but not TOO early… and after a speedy, urgent birth like that (which I envy, having had 36 hrs of labor and an emergency c-section), the people will wake up surprised to learn that there is a new prince! I promise not to crush anyone's heart too terribly with upcoming chapters!