Chapter 35
Marie cursed her luck for what felt like the thousandth time that morning as she heaved what little food remained in her stomach into a tin bucket one of her maids had left at her bedside. The sickness came in waves, but by the time it was over, the Queen Mother barely had any strength left to move.
It took an inhuman effort on her part just to put the bucket down (all while making sure it didn't tip over or spill) and collapse against her pillows once again. It had to be food poisoning – otherwise, she simply couldn't explain why she'd been so bloody sick for the past three days or so!
It was just her luck, as it was, that she could barely stand when she was needed downstairs.
The news of C.C. having been found had reached the palace the previous day – Marie had been having a bath when one of her maids had rushed into the washing room and announced that England's new queen was safe and sound and had delivered two healthy babies – a prince and a crown princess. Two heirs that would carry on their dynasty…
Two precious grandchildren for Marie to spoil rotten.
She honestly couldn't wait to meet them, nor could she wait to give C.C. a big, tight hug. After having believed her dead (or about to be dead), having her back with them was nothing short of a miracle. Marie had prayed nightly for C.C.'s safe return (even if deep down she feared God had shunned her for what she'd done…) and the Lord had delivered. She had her daughter back.
Thus Marie's irritation at not being able to be downstairs to receive them, but she knew for a fact that, should she try to stand up, she'd probably fall face first on the floor.
"Merde…" Marie grumbled to herself, head throbbing and throat burning.
"My, I think that's the first time I've heard you curse, Maman!"
The voice of her son calling out to her drew her eyes to the door. And, despite her discomfort and all her pains, Marie found herself suddenly beaming at what she could see there.
Niles wasn't alone. Stood with him, grinning from ear to ear and carefully carrying two tiny, adorable bundles, was the woman she had been missing so much for what had felt like a dreadful eternity.
And the two little bundles, giving out little cries that signified to the world they were awake and ready for anything, seemed to get more precious the longer she looked at them...!
Her family was there. The one she had previously thought she'd lost, before it had even started. The one she'd been granted, when so many of her other children had gone ahead of her...
The one she'd killed for, and would do so again if it came down to it.
"You are going to 'ear a lot more of eet, eef you do not come and greet your mozher!" she cried out, trying not to laugh too much because it scratched at her throat right at that moment.
Neither king nor queen needed to be told twice. They may have been the most powerful people in the country, but if there was one person they would both obey in an instant, it was Marie. She was the glue that bonded their family together, and she was in need of more comfort than ever after Joseph's death.
Besides, she had been so ill that she had not been able to come down and see them arrive, or even meet the children! That had to be rectified at once!
And Niles did want to check on her up close, too. She'd been this way for three days, without any sign of what the cause could be. It was gnawing at him, not knowing, and he wanted to try every possible remedy to see if that cured whatever this mystery illness was (he didn't care what it actually was, as long as it went away and left his mother alone).
This latest attempt would be by surrounding her with even more love and attention than she would usually receive. It was no less than she deserved, anyway.
"Oh, my darlings, I'm so 'appy to see you all!" said the Queen Mother, reaching out and wrapping her arms around both Niles and C.C.
She pressed two sound kisses on each of their cheeks, tears running down her cheeks – happy tears, at that. Happy glorious tears, the kind her late husband had never brought on (save, perhaps, for each time she'd safely delivered a child). And speaking of delivered children, she had yet to meet the two youngest members of their clan – her grandchildren.
They were still being held safely in their mother's arms, both now awake and peering at the unknown world around them. Marie loved to see infant curiosity, it was extremely adorable. Babies were in awe of the simplest things, from the wide open sky above them, to a little worm wriggling about the place.
"So, are you going to introduce us?" the Queen Mother rasped, gesturing between herself and the babies. "I am not getting any younger, you know!"
Laughing, C.C. more than happily brought the two little ones forward to meet their grandmother for the first time.
"This is William," she said, beaming proudly as she held her boy out a little for Marie to see. And then she did the same with her little girl, too. "And this is Charlotte."
"Her full name is Charlotte Marie Beatrice," Niles said, a wide smile forming on his lips as he announced it. "Named after her two grandmothers."
The words were not lost on Marie, even though she had almost been lost in the captivating sight of her grandchildren.
They...they'd named the baby...for her?
It almost felt unreal, how much the knowledge enveloped her in a kind of warmth and comfort she had never experienced before. It felt like her illness had been cured, simply by knowing. It was happiness. It was love. It was the overwhelming honour of being important enough to those she loved so much that they wanted the next generation to share her name...!
She had nearly teared up from being sick so much only hours ago. But now, the tears came with a heart full to burst and a need to hug both adults present.
"Oh...oh, my dear ones...! You 'ave no idea 'ow 'appy you 'ave made me!" she cried out, bringing her arms up to them as she still couldn't stand.
She was starting to feel dizzy again, and she knew what came when the dizziness did. She'd had three days of it so far; how much more could she take?
One thing was certain - she needed to say what she wanted to say next very quickly.
"I am honoured, zhat you would zhink of me when naming your own firstborn daughter! I am so very zhankfu––!"
Before she could finish what she was saying, she had to lean over and once more vomit into the tin bucket, causing both Niles and C.C. to jump back in surprise at first. But, as she continued to empty her stomach of whatever was left, Marie suddenly felt a hand on her back, rubbing it gently.
"Still not better?" Niles asked, sighing.
Marie shook her head.
"Eet'z just my luck," the Queen Mother grumbled. "Just when you two need me on my feet, I'm bedbound!"
"You don't have to worry about it, Maman," Niles said as he helped Marie lie back down. "We have plenty of help – so you just rest. I'll have Potts come and check on you."
"That sounds like a good idea – you go get the doctor and I'll stay here with your mother," C.C. interjected and perched on the side of Marie's bed, twins still safely held in her arms.
Niles nodded quickly in return, before squeezing his mother's shoulder reassuringly, kissing his wife on the cheek and stroking the twins' heads gently before dashing off. He had a doctor to find, and he looked every inch a man who would refuse to fail in his quest.
He probably wouldn't be long. Dr Potts would be working somewhere in the palace, in all likelihood, and then he could come and – God willing – find out what was wrong.
If she was really lucky, he'd have a cure on hand...
But, for the moment, she was sat in the company of the one woman she'd been anxious to see for days. And she was accompanied by the two tiny grandchildren Marie had had nightmares about never meeting.
It settled her heart and her head (even if it could do nothing for her stomach) to have them so close. She couldn't imagine the turmoil C.C. must have been through, or the terror of being taken away. To spend even a few days as a prisoner was, in Marie's mind, as frightening and awful as if the person were to be locked away for life. Not to mention how scared she must have been for the safety of the twins!
She herself already knew the crushing sense of heartbreak and failure at knowing she had outlived her child. Most of her children. She would never wish such a thing as losing a son or daughter on anyone.
It had been so close...
"'Ow are you feeling, chérie?"
She had to ask. Perhaps her daughter-in-law would release a few of her burdens? Maybe it would help her to relax in her own space again? But C.C., who looked up at Marie briefly when she was addressed, pursed her lips slightly and returned to looking at the twins.
"Better."
The soft, one-word reply marked the start of a long silence. A silence in which the younger woman never once looked up from her children. It was obvious to anybody with eyes that she clearly did not want to talk.
Marie felt her stomach sink, as though a ship she was on had just broken a particularly large wave. It had completely overtaken the previous feeling of happiness that she'd had, and she could entirely forget about whatever was causing her upset stomach.
Of course she didn't know the details, but Marie could sense that this was the work of the bastards who had taken her. Just what had gone on in that place, while she had been there?! What had they done, or threatened to do, that had made C.C. so quiet?
What had the woman who was more her daughter than daughter-in-law seen? What had been done to her? Had she had to give birth under duress? Had Niles been there to support her? Had Dr Potts been there to assist her?
Marie had countless questions, all of them pressing and all of them worrying. Still, she couldn't and wouldn't ask. C.C. would speak on her terms, and Marie was determined to respect her daughter-in-law's wishes. She'd do everything in her power to ensure that C.C. was comfortable and safe.
Just as that thought crossed her mind, little Charlotte started fussing in her mother's arms, mewing and wriggling, clearly hungry and in urgent need of a feed. William had soon followed in his sister's footsteps, and was crying for his mother's milk.
"Ah, zhey are 'ungry, no?" Marie said, smiling softly.
"It looks like it," replied the Queen, trying to shush her children and gently bouncing them in her arms. "Although I did feed them two hours ago!"
"Zhey are taking after zheir fazher," said Marie. "'e was always 'ungry. So much so zhat I eventually 'ad to accept zhe 'elp of a wet nurse. I didn't want one at first, but zhat's just–"
"I don't want one either," replied C.C.. "But I will probably need one, seeing as I have two. I can't feed them both at once…"
Marie saw the look of disappointment, worry and shame on C.C.'s face, and remembered her own feelings when she found out that what she was giving wasn't enough to keep her baby fed and happy.
It had made her feel terrible, watching as a nurse had to do what she should have been doing. It had felt like she was failing as a mother. She didn't want to see that happen to C.C.. It had made Marie question too much, where her daughter-in-law deserved only peace. Especially after her ordeal.
Luckily, Marie had fast learned one little trick that she'd employed when she was in no position to feed Niles, and that she thought might come in useful here.
"Give William to me," she said, holding out her arms for him.
C.C. wasn't entirely sure where this could be going, but she slowly and carefully slipped her son into Marie's arms. She trusted her more than enough to know nothing bad would happen.
She watched as Marie gently placed her little finger in the baby's mouth, quietening his cries for food when he began to suckle.
And her jaw nearly entirely dropped.
"Eet eez somezhing I learned, after some time," Marie explained, noticing the look of awe on her features. "Eet keeps a baby calm until zhey can be fed."
"That's...that's brilliant!" replied the queen. "I'd have never thought of it."
"Well, now you know," Marie said, smiling at her daughter-in-law. "But per'aps you should start feeding Lottie – my finger can only do so much before William gets fussy."
C.C. nodded and got down to business, loosening her corset and then gently guiding Lottie to her breast, which her daughter took to like a duck to water. It wasn't long before she'd filled herself up with C.C.'s milk, so Marie and C.C. switched the babies so C.C. could feed Will and Marie could burp Lottie.
A pleasant silence grew between the two women as they attended to the youngest Brightmore children. They both needed the quiet, given their fragile state – physical, in Marie's case, and emotional, in C.C.'s. There would be time for them to discuss what had happened, but it wasn't then.
"I can't believe Niles and I made them..." C.C. mumbled, breaking the silence that had settled around them. "It's...surreal. I carried them inside me for so long, and yet their very existence feels like a miracle."
"Oh, I know 'ow you feel," Marie said, caressing little Lottie's cheek. "I felt zhe same way when each of my children were born – zhe magic was always zhere, eeven eef my deliveries where always deefficult."
C.C. nodded. She understood what Marie meant, even if the difficulties they'd faced during their labours hadn't been the same.
For Marie, it had been the task of the births themselves that had nearly been too much to bear. God only knew how much pain that had to have brought her, but she'd pushed through it anyway, to feel the love for all her children, those who had made it...and those who were now in Heaven, waiting for her.
And as for her own difficulty...well, if was nothing like her mother-in-law has been through. The birth was easy, in comparison to the things Marie had told her. C.C.'s own difficulty had come in believing – knowing, at the time – that her life would be ended as soon as it was over.
She hadn't wanted to be away from her babies. The thought of them being snatched, after she'd carried and protected and loved them for months on end, had been too much to bear.
"Yes," she said quietly, eventually. "I know what you mean. Of course, mine did become easier once Niles had arrived and the Carlisles were arrested, but my love for our babies wasn't any less strong than it is now..."
Marie felt her heart break all over again at the very mention of what her daughter-in-law had gone through. It had been torn open already in that moment, just from thinking of all the children she'd had that she'd never been able to hold, love or nurse, but the pain became doubly worse when she was reminded that she'd nearly lost another whole part of her family.
A daughter-in-law who was like a daughter, and her first grandchildren.
The first time she'd heard, and been made to think they were already dead, she'd been driven to murder. She could scarcely think what she would have done, had she found out that C.C. had been kept alive for a little longer, and she and the babies could've been rescued...
It was an horrific thought – one she shook out of her head, before it could take hold.
"You 'ave been...very brave indeed, chérie..."
C.C. definitely didn't feel like she'd been particularly brave. She'd just...done what any other woman would have done, in her position. Just kept her babies inside for as long as she could possibly manage it...
She hadn't had the strength to fight back like she'd wanted to - to shove away her captors and send them flying. To knock them unconscious in one go, and bolt for the exit as quickly as a woman pregnant with twins could...
It was all fantasy to imagine, but she wished she'd been a little bit more like that. Not just sat and waited for the miracle of help to arrive.
Not that she was ungrateful to her husband, of course! He and his men had found them when it had looked like they'd never be found, and that awarded them respect and gratitude for the rest of her days.
She just wished that, in some ways, she could be more like them. Charging into the fray, turning the tide, saving the day...
She sighed, the corner of her mouth pulling at the right frown the very idea was making her wear.
"I know you mean it, so I appreciate the sentiment. But I do not think I have been as brave as you are suggesting."
"Nonsense!" Marie said, waving a dismissive hand. "You pulled zhrough eet and managed to safely deliver two heirs to zhe zhrone. Zhat alone makes you ten times braver zhan most."
C.C. shrugged and gave Marie a small smile – she still didn't believe herself to be particularly brave, but the last thing she wanted was to argue with her mother-in-law. She just wanted some peace and quiet.
Besides, her husband had promised he had a surprise waiting for her – their official private chambers as king and queen.
Traditionally, the king and queen slept in separate chambers, save for the times the King visited the queen's chambers to spend the night together. However, and as it had become rather obvious, Niles wasn't a traditionalist. He'd wanted them to have joint chambers, and his word was law.
That way Marie had been able to keep her chambers, too. Otherwise, she would have had to be moved to the Queen Mother's rooms. It hadn't made sense to uproot everybody purely for the sake of a tradition that would never have applied anywhere else, or impacted upon anyone else's lives. So, they had simply decided to step right over it.
Step over it, and move forward. And if anybody in the court didn't like that fact – anybody at all – then they could go not like it somewhere else.
Times like this were the only occasions where C.C. felt the right amount of brave. But it only lasted as long as her mood, or as the situation needed. She was also starting to hope that Niles would return with the doctor soon. She really wanted for them to be able to see – and to potentially work out – the state that recent events had left Marie in. As soon as they had a doctor's prognoses, they could see about getting her fully well again!
It was Marie who was being brave now, really. She had to have still felt at least a little bit awful, after throwing up so much, but she was putting a gentle smile and a dismissive wave on, all for the sake of her family.
"I was merely following my predecessors and carrying on a noble tradition," C.C. said, shifting the baby in her arms to be more comfortable. She looked over towards the door, too. "But Niles and Dr Potts should hopefully be here, at any moment..."
She didn't have to ask to know that Marie could tell she was being subtly dismissive. Trying to shift the conversation on from the praise C.C. didn't feel was merited, without arguing about it. But, before the Queen Mother could open her mouth to protest (and possibly gently scold her for not accepting her own "heroism"), the door opened at the far end of the room.
It was almost as though C.C.'s words had become prophecy - and as though her prayers had been answered, in equal measure. Niles had returned with Dr Potts. The Royal Physician hurried along behind the king as best an older man could, when confronted with the possibility of having to keep up with someone decades his junior.
"You're back...!"
The sound of his wife's relief drew the king to the bedside immediately. At first, as he'd come close, he'd feared that maybe his mother had taken another turn, but when he saw the two women there, each cradling a baby in their arms, the rising crushing feeling in his stomach subsided, like a heavy wave at sea that fell back into the tides when they dropped.
They were fine. He hadn't been gone as long as it had felt, and now that he had brought the proper person with him to see to his mother, he could rest more easily.
"Yes, and now we can get this mystery solved once and for all," he said, seating himself on the bed with the rest of his family. He then turned to Potts, who was waiting a respectful distance away. "You know your trade, Doctor. What do you think is happening here?"
"I will need to examine your lady mother, Your Majesty," Potts said.
"Zhat's alright, Dr Potts," Marie replied before turning to her son. "You go a'ead and show your wife your new joint chambers. I'll be alright."
Niles looked uncomfortable – he was unsure about how he should proceed. He wanted to be there for his mother, but at the same time he knew C.C. needed her rest after her ordeal.
And, as though she had read his mind, C.C. gently rested her baby in one arm, while taking his hand with the other.
"It will all be fine, my love," she said. "Your mother is in more than capable hands, and we can come back later."
"Nozhing in zhe world would delight me more. Apart, per'aps, from zhis sickness going away...!" Marie agreed with a smile and a light laugh. Then, she turned serious again, addressing Niles. "But, for now, C.C. needs to rest, mon petit bonbon. You 'ave done everyzhing you need to 'ere. See to your wife, and to your children. Zhe doctor will call you eef you are needed furzher."
Niles felt himself wanting to protest more, but between the loving look on his wife's face and the encouraging look on his mother's, he caved.
"Alright. We will go, for now."
They were right, he knew that deep down; it was just difficult when he wanted to look after every single member of his family, all at once...!
He supposed that was what his mother had done for all those years. That realisation actually made him feel worse, because he and his father had never earned such love or care.
But he also knew that now wasn't the right time to argue over such things. His mother was with the one other person in the kingdom he'd fully trust with the well-being of his family, and he had to get his wife to their new chambers.
So, he helped C.C. to her feet, careful not to disturb the baby, and took the other twin from Marie's arms, before kissing her on both cheeks, promising to be back if she needed anything.
He then helped his wife out of the room, as best he could while carrying one twin as she held the other. Luckily, C.C. seemed to find his attempts at helping amusing, rather than too much.
At least it made her happy. Just as he wanted all of his family to be.
He wanted them all to be safe, too. And they'd only find that out when Potts was finished with his examination.
Niles could only hope it wouldn't take long.