Daniel had also asked her something from the other side of the room and, looking over at him, her eyes collided with pale gold, the humour in them so at odds with the complete embarrassment in her own.
‘I’m sorry...?’
Lord Wylde repeated his words.
‘I was thinking that married life appears to agree with you, Adelaide, and with Gabriel.’
He was teasing, she knew, but a wash of red covered her face before she could stop it and for one moment she even thought she might burst into tears. My God, what was happening to her? She had always been able to cope with conversations and challenges and yet here she was after one wondrous night unable to find her equilibrium.
Gabriel saved her by standing and drawing attention back to himself. ‘Daniel is here to look at a horse at Colton House. I’d heard about the stud, but I have not been up there.’
‘Come with us, then. I would value your opinion of the animal, Gabe. We need not be long.’
‘Would you like that, Adelaide?’ Her husband’s full glance was upon her now but it was gentle, giving her the choice of whether they went or not.
‘I would. Is Colton far?’
‘No. Only forty or so minutes away. There is a tavern nearby, too, that has an excellent luncheon.’
Amethyst looked more than pleased. ‘We’ll have a short walk together whilst the men look over the livestock. The day is beautiful after all and I have a need for exercise after the carriage ride for my back is hurting me.’
Daniel looked a little concerned. ‘The doctor said you were not to overdo things, Amethyst...’
Lady Montcliffe laughed. ‘Wait until you are pregnant, Adelaide. My husband has turned into a fussy mother hen who would like to wrap me in cotton wool and keep me from doing anything. Do not worry, my dearest. This child is at least a month away yet. We women know these things.’ Her hands lay on the bulge beneath her skirts and her voice was warm—a beautiful Madonna who understood the power of her imminent motherhood very well.
Adelaide chanced a glance at Gabriel and was astonished at the look that lay so visibly in his eyes. Regret. Longing. Or just plain uncertainty. She could not quite decide.
Chapter Sixteen
The stud farm was large but well laid out and as the men went to the stables with the lord of the house, the two women struck out down a pathway overshadowed by weeping willow trees, the lime-green colour of their leaves in the light astonishing.
‘I’d heard the gardens here were beautiful, but I did not expect them to be so marvellous,’ Amethyst said. ‘Lord Herbert has no wife so it must be he who professes an interest in plantings as well as horseflesh.’ She laughed. ‘He seemed a good man. Perhaps Christine Howard might come with us next time.’
‘If you are matchmaking, it seldom works, I hear.’ Adelaide gave this advice with a smile.
‘Well, do not be certain about that. Papa was the one who chose Daniel for me and that has been most satisfactory. My father was ill, you see, and thought he had not long to live.’
* * *
The next quarter of an hour was spent on the story behind such a statement and Adelaide was delighted by Amethyst’s honesty. She had heard a little of it whilst in London, but the truth of what had transpired was both funny and poignant.
‘So your father is still managing with his heart complaint?’
‘Brilliantly. He seldom is in bed and his new wife, bless her, is the sort who refuses to believe he is sick anyway. As his desire is to have as many grandchildren as he has the luck to meet I am doing my best to make his wishes come true.’
‘Your other child is only young, isn’t she?’
‘Sapphire is almost ten months old. She is a beautiful little girl who—’
Amethyst suddenly clutched her side and paled considerably, breathing out with quiet deliberation as she bent over. A stab of worry had Adelaide taking her hand; the pulse at her wrist was racing and she felt clammy though the fingers wrapped tightly about her own.
‘Are you all right?’ Adelaide knew that she wasn’t even as she asked the question.
‘I need to...sit...down.’ Her voice was breathless and shallow, a gust of wind making her teeth chatter as she collapsed against a small bank.
There was only grass and dirt to sit on and Amethyst Wylde had begun to shake quite badly. From fear and shock, Adelaide thought, her own mind turning over possibilities as to what was wrong and what might happen next.
The gush of water gave her that answer and Amethyst began to cry. ‘I can’t have the baby now... I need Daniel...’ She stopped speaking as the first contraction came, concentrating on the new pains that racked her.
Oh, my God, Adelaide thought. She will have the baby here and I am the only one around to help in the delivery. Her mind could not quite believe what was happening, but she had enough sense not to panic. One of them had to remain calm if this was going to turn out as she hoped and they were too far away from the house for anyone to hear her even if she did cry for help.
No, it was up to her. She was all there was. Without hesitation she stripped off her wide skirt and tucked it about Amethyst’s shoulders as both a blanket and a cushion. Amethyst Wylde needed warmth and she needed reassurance and she, Adelaide Ashfield, was damned well going to give it to her. Adelaide Wesley, she amended as she removed her petticoats. She would need cloth to wipe down the baby and to wrap it. The soft, clean lawn was exactly right.
Unexpectedly Amethyst smiled as she saw what was happening.
‘I...am...sorry...Adelaide.’ Her teeth clattered together as she spoke. ‘If you want to leave me and get someone else...’
‘There is no time and besides I am more than capable of delivering this baby. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.’
Fright warred with strength inside her but, even though she had never attended a birth, her aunts had always had much to say on the subject. Lifting up Amethyst’s skirts, she placed her hands on the taut belly.
‘This is Nature working at its most efficient, you see, and babies that come quickly are usually delivered with ease. Was your first birth quick, too?’
‘Yes. It was f-f-fast and furious.’ Cold hands tightened across her own. ‘Please stay with me, Adelaide. I could not do it alone and I am scared.’
‘Of course I am going nowhere. And look, the sun is out. Your baby will be born into a grotto of green and yellow. I think that is a sign of well-being and harmony and just think of the story you will be able to tell your papa.’
Things happened both quickly and slowly after that. Adelaide had no true sense of time as the contractions came closer together and then suddenly the child was in her hands, his eyes opening, a breath and then a lusty cry.
‘A little boy,’ she told Amethyst, who was trying to raise herself on her elbows to see. ‘And he is perfect.’
After checking his mouth and nose and wrapping the baby in the lawn she placed him on Amethyst’s chest, making sure the cord was not ruptured and then beginning to massage her stomach.
Five moments later the placenta was delivered and the bleeding stopped completely. For the first time in over an hour Adelaide took a breath that was normal and looked over at her charges.
Both looked peaceful now, the dappled light across them, the tiny hands of the infant pummelling against its mother’s flesh as he suckled, dark hair at his nape still wet from birth.
My God, she had done it. She had brought a child into the world and helped his mother. A joy she had not felt before rushed through her as she wiped her hands against the fabric in her bodice and pushed back her loosened hair.
* * *
Gabriel found his wife with her hair down, her skirts missing and blood across her face and hands. But it was Daniel’s cry that truly alerted him to what had happened as he crouched near his wife and lifted her up to him.
A baby. A birth.
‘Adelaide helped me. She did...everything.’ Amethyst Wylde had burst straight into tears and was now clinging to her husband. The servant behind was dispatched to the house to bring a dray and quickly.
‘I am certain they will both be fine.’ Adelaide stood up from where she had sat and Gabriel’s arm went to steady her. ‘The baby cried immediately and then began to feed, so although it is early I do not think there will be a problem.’
Taking his jacket off, Gabriel laid it around his wife’s shoulders, buttoning the garment to the neck. A thin undershift was all that she had on from her waist down and she was shaking violently.
When he had first come into the clearing he thought Adelaide had been hurt badly with the amount of blood around her and the position she sat in, strains of Henrietta Clements coming back and all the death and blood of the Service. He had felt his heart simply stop, the frozen waste of clogging breath. And then the baby had cried.
If he should ever lose Adelaide... If she should die...
His arms tightened across her shoulders as he held her to him.
‘I’d never done it before, though I told Amethyst that I had.’ She whispered this so that the others would not hear and the earnestness of her confession was heartbreaking.
His wife had not thought to run for help or gone to pieces. No, she had stripped off her own clothes and coped with it all. Even in terror and inexperience, even without the absolute rudiments of anything to help her.
‘If one...panics it always...goes wrong, Aunt... Jean said. She said one has to keep...a composure and a peacefulness for the event otherwise a child might be...difficult to deliver...’ The trembling had worsened and without thought he lifted her up to him and took her over to a tree where he sat down with it at his back and with her in his lap, trying to give her the warmth and reassurance she needed.