2.
~ It had to be just her imagination. Her worst fears giving her mind power over her body.
Ariadne looked at her naked form in the full length mirror that morning. Her convenient husband sleeping contentedly in the bed, another man's baby inside her as she wondered what to do.
She looked at her breasts. How much darker the nipples were, how swollen they had become.
'Arthur and I tried for months to get pregnant, now this?' she thought bitterly. 'Now I've got my husband back and I'm going to have Eames' baby?'
The irony of it wasn't lost on her. Cutting ties with Eames now would be impossible. Even if they never saw one another again, if he never knew about the child, she would have a reminder of her lover forever. A little person who looked like him and would force her to always remember what she had with him.
What would Arthur do once he found out? She had just started sleeping with her convenient husband again. The last time she was with Eames was almost a month ago. Arthur would know the baby wasn't his.
'What am I thinking? I would never lie to Arthur about a child not being his.' she told herself.
She fought back tears at the idea that she was, yet again, pregnant by a man she wasn't married to.
"Ariadne?" came a deep voice from the bedroom.
She turned to see Arthur awake and calling to her. "Come back to bed." he demanded gently.
She didn't know what else to do, so she went to him.
"You look so beautiful." he whispered as she didn't bother to put a robe on and arrived to him naked.
"Do I?" she asked nervously.
"Course you do." he laughed and kissed her.
She cleared her throat.
"Arthur, you know... you know that Fredrick and I... we... um..." she stuttered.
"We don't have to talk about Fredrick. He's gone and I'll be there for the boy." Arthur said.
"No, it's not that." she said feel her cheeks heat up.
"What is it?" he said and kissed her sweetly before rolling on top of her again. His manhood becoming hard again.
"We... we were married and... we... we were together." she said at last.
"I figured you would be." he said sadly. "I'm not mad about it."
Ariadne braced herself to tell another lie.
"We were together a few times before he died, and... I think I might..." she felt tears sting her eyes.
"You think you might have had good news for him, if he had lived." Arthur finished for him.
She choked back a sob and nodded.
'It's a lie, Arthur. But please believe the lie. Please believe it and never doubt it. You can forgive me for Fredrick's baby, but not Eames'.' she thought as he looked her over calmly.
"You're pregnant?" he asked.
"All the signs are there. I'm not sure, but all the signs are there." she said and let out another sob.
"Shh." he said and kissed her forehead.
"I'm sorry." she said. Developing the lie more quickly. "I left England because I wanted a new life for us."
"We can have a new life." he told her. "We wanted another child, remember?"
"We wanted your child." she reminded him.
"Well... life had other plans, didn't it?" he said. "Maybe I can't give you babies. We tried for a long time and nothing, remember? Maybe there is something wrong with me."
She wiped her tears away like a child would.
"You're not mad?" she whispered as their eyes met. "I'm carrying another man's baby again."
"I can't change the past, Ariadne." he told her. "We need to get you to a doctor and have him examine you. I don't want what happened to Mal to happen to you."
"I want to have it." she told him. "Even if Fredrick, the father is gone, I want the baby." she told him. The lie becoming more real.
"We will." he told her softly.
"Some women, they make themselves lose a baby." she whispered fearfully.
"That won't happen. I'll be there with you." he assured her and she started to sob in his arms.
~ "Did you mean what you told me before?" Ariadne asked as they sat in the doctor's neat little office.
Mal's tragic and sudden death had made Arthur almost drag his future bride to the doctor's office for a thorough examination.
"About what, Madam?" he asked irritatedly as he ran a finger over a cabinet to examine it for dust.
"About not being so cruel to your workers." she asked.
"I am hardly cruel to them." he told her as he sat down nervously beside her.
"The papers say otherwise." she said scathingly as they waited for the doctor to see them.
Arthur looked irritated.
"I'm not sure why I have to explain myself on this matter so often. I do not force those in my employ to work for me. I have a line around the block every week for new workers. I work them long hours because they want the money." he explained.
"Because you don't pay them enough." she snapped.
"I'm not going to argue with you while you're in a delicate condition, madam." he told her.
"So you're not going to be fair to your workers. That was just a trick to get me to fall in love with you again." she accused.
"It wasn't a trick, madam. I have every intention of relaxing some of the hours and conditions when the war is over. Until then, my factories bring too much money into the local economy and helps immigrants live." he explained.
"So, when the war ends, you'll pay them more? I doubt that, Arthur." she laughed.
"I don't care what you doubt, madam." he snorted.
"I can't help but feel Mr. Rockefeller would agree with me." she told him.
Her convenient husband gave her a hard look. She had stuck a nerve.
"So would Mr. Ford." she added as an after thought.
"Mr. Ford and I are no longer on speaking terms." he told her stiffly.
"Oh?" she asked. "Why not? You liked how he did business. He pays his workers very fair wages."
"He made some anti-semitic statements at a luncheon a year ago I didn't appreciate." he said.
"Oh." Ariadne said and felt a slight sadness for Arthur.
She was about to say something when the couple was interrupted by the expensive doctor Arthur had taken her to.
"Well, Mrs. Bradford." the doctor said looking pleased at the couple. "After an examination, and I can tell you that you will have a new edition at the end of the summer."
Ariadne couldn't help but smile as she felt Arthur's large hands take hers. He looked especially pleased as the doctor congratulated him and they shook hands.
"We had a friend die in child birth along with the baby, is there any chance that could happen?" Ariadne asked worriedly.
"Well, I don't know the circumstances around that. But you're very young and you've already had a child safely." he told them.
"She almost died having our daughter." Arthur said bitterly.
"Your wife tells me that was a home birth. I think you would both benefit from delivery in the hospital." the doctor said.
They looked at him curiously.
"Have the baby in the hospital?" Arthur questioned.
"A lot of mothers are doing it." the doctor offered. "Midwives are never as experienced as a doctor and team of nurses."
"People go to hospitals to die." Ariadne told him. Her eyes wide with shock at the idea.
"They go to the hospital to get better these days." the doctor told them. "Think about it. In the mean time, watch what you eat and get plenty of rest. Stay away from stress."
He looked at Arthur.
"You'll be in charge of keeping your wife content through the pregnancy. That way, there will be no complications." he said with a little smile.
~ "A baby born in a hospital." Arthur grumbled. "Welcome to the modern age."
"A doctor delivering a baby." Ariadne scoffed. "A man. Not a midwife. A man who's undoubtedly only seen his own wife... down there."
"Don't worry, we won't go to a hospital. Olivia was born at home with a midwife and so will this child." Arthur assured her.
"Arthur, are you sure about this?" she asked him as he drove down the busy street that still catered to horses and trolly cars.
"Sure about what?" he grumbled as he scowled at the traffic.
"About being a father to Harold and this new baby. You'll have three children. None of them will be yours." she said in a sad voice.
"Why do you keep insisting Olivia isn't mine?" he growled. "As if I wasn't around for her birth."
"Arthur, you know what I mean." she said.
"I'll have you. I'll have my wife back. You weren't unfaithful to conceive this child. You're not the type of woman to cheat on her husband." he reasoned. "We can work this all out." he promised.
He shouted at a heavily weighted down cart to moved off the street and never saw the look of worry in her eyes.