The Gisborne Chronicles

CHR3/CH1-Improvements, and a New Arrival

Though all at the farm were expecting disruption when the yard was dug up, none were prepared for the mud which was tramped hourly through the respective kitchens. With the loss of fresh water, it meant that buckets had to be carried from the river several times a day, and there were workers who needed to be fed each noon. Guy had planned, and now oversaw the work with Hywell his stockman, whilst struggling to manage the farm without running water, and tempers were running high.

"Madness!" said Aunt Gwyneth, " utter madness, a family of seven to feed, twelve diggers, a dog tied up in the parlour, barking and howling to be let free, and your wife five months along and vomiting all day, God give me strength, for only a man could plan such as I have to endure each day!"

"Guy paled as he heard of his wife's daily sickness, saying, "I know nothing of this, why would she keep it from me? She greets me with a smile whenever I come to the house as she always does."

"Pffft, her head is in a bucket as soon as your back is turned my lad, and begging me to say naught of it, but she is ailing, and nothing I give her seems to ease it. Glenys does what she can, but it is a struggle for a little thing like her to do her own washing, let alone ours, as she has been doing for over a week now. She is baking for this house as well as her own, and no damned water. God's blood, what were you thinking when you called down this hell upon us all?"

"Where is my girl?" he said, " and why was I not told of her sickening, tell me, where is she?"

"She is lying upon my bed with a cold cloth over her face," Aunt Gwyneth replied, " to ease the dizziness. The noise from the digging keeps her from resting in her own bed at the front, so she hides in mine, not wishing to add to your troubles."

Guy ran up the stairs and along the passage to the back bedroom, where he found his wife, her face covered, and a smell of vomit all around. He moved to remove the damp covering, and then rushed to her side as she bent over the wooden pail again, holding back her hair as the dreadful retching began, though there was now only bile to bring up.

"Oh my sweet girl, what is this?" he asked, "and why have you not spoken of it to me?"

Auriel fell back panting among the pillows, "it will pass," she said, "as it does every day in the late afternoon, generally just before the twins return from their lessons. It is merely the child, making its presence felt, I believe it is lying askance, but then it moves, and the vomiting ceases. Do not fret so my darling, I am not ill, I am with child, as women have always been."

Then she hung over the pail again, groaning with the pain as it tore through her chest.

"How long as it been?" said Guy, " why did I not see it?"

"You have been a little preoccupied my darling," she replied, " and I would not add to your worries, it generally begins at noon and ends at four of the clock, it is common in women who are with child, though rarely as severe as it has been for me. At supper I am sufficiently recovered to eat like a horse, as you remarked last evening. I believe this child to be a boy, for it feels different somehow, and I had no sickness whatsoever with our other babes."

She continued, " Aunt Gwyneth's foul brews add to my misery, my love, though she assures me that each one is a cure. Can you not persuade her to desist, for I feel a drink of sweet water would be of more good, yet she never offers it. Then she took his hand and placed it over her belly, "feel it," she said, " your son moves strongly in me, lower your head and speak, that he may know your voice when he comes." She smiled as she saw his expression, " It is a son, I am sure of it, a fine strong boy like his father, he has shifted and the sickness eases even now, thank the Lord!"

"And what are we to name this fine boy of mine?" said Guy, " for we have not yet spoken of it."

" It is my wish that we name him for you," she said," the one I love above all others, what more fitting name could there be for your son?"