One crazy duchess.

Chapter Nineteen.

Rose.

Leila's and Noah's children are adorable. They have this flawless brown skin and they are just beautiful. "Be careful Lola." I tell the five year old girl who goes to hold a rose's stem. She smiles, showing her cute little teeth, hands behind her.
"I want children like yours." I tell Leila who is busy basking as I hold her youngest. Her three year old son decided he did not want to be among the ladies and went inside to his father. He has attitude at such a young age.

"Oh! Do not get me started." Leila groans but does not open her eyes. I pull the cover up to prevent sunlight from reaching the sleeping babe in my arms.

"What? Is it that bad to have children? I want seven." I grin brightly and she opens one eye before she nods.

"Knowing you, you can probably handle it. I also wanted many children and everytime I see my husband I want to have a baby. But then, there is everything that comes with it. All townfolk knows what you are doing behind closed doors," I interrupt her.

"But you are married." I argue.

"Yes, but now they are sure of the activity going on behind closed doors and they gossip." She opens her eyes suddenly and fixes her posture." And I conceived Lola before Noah's and I did the whole wedding ceremony and God forbid anyone found out. I was so afraid, taking in my race, and the fact that the man was betrothed to someone else. I did not even tell him until our wedding night and even though there were questions when I gave birth, Noah took responsibility for them." I gasp and then sigh. This woman's life has been adventurous.

"I would have panicked if I were in your shoes." I tell her and she nods, taking her cup of tea and sipping.

"Am sure of it." she nods to herself and I chuckle." But you know, your body will change, a lot. Your boobs grow and become sensitive and depending on your pregnancy, you can either eat much or not eat anything. You get stretch marks everywhere and your needs, sexual needs, the be one intense." I do not know what to say.

"Wow!" I master up because I do not know what to say to that.

"And those are only the normal things during pregnancy Rose. There are the extreme which come with this journey my love and those are the ones I do not know if you can handle."And suddenly the mood grows sour and even the babe feels it and starts to fidget. I pat her softly I til she is back to peaceful sleep and I look at Leila. She has a sad look in her eyes. I bring my free hand up to hers and squeeze it gently.

"It is alright. You do not have to talk about it." I tell her but she shakes her head and inhales deeply.

"It is alright. As your friend I should be the one to tell you this." she smiles and flips our hands that now, she is the one holding mine in hers. I nod." Well, am sorry if I scare you but am only telling you this because I care and I want you to be prepared for anything on this journey." I nod, smiling softly."Now, you know that not every woman is blessed by God to sire children right?" I furrow my brows," I know you are going to argue that you have your time of the month but that can happen and a woman would still not be able to conceive." I inhale shakily and she tightens her hold on me.
"There can also be a possibility that you could conceive but never give birth." at this, I chuckle nervously.

"But how, a baby cannot last forever in a mother's womb." I tell her. But then it hits me. My mother and her unborn child. And now I want to cry.

"I will be honest with you. I got married when I was quite young right? We are almost the same age after all. My body had not fully grown by the time I had Lola but I was so excited to be a mother. And as I said, my husband is irresistible so I got pregnant soon after that. With my second child and we were excited but one night, I woke up in pain. I was only three moons pregnant and I never knew of anything like miscarriage. I was bleeding. Noah panicked and thought he injured me but when the midwife arrived, she told us that I had..." she swallows closing her eyes and I see tears rolling down her cheeks. I may not understand her completely but I intertwine our hands and rub my thumb over hers. It must be painful.

"Am sorry." I tell her and I do not realize when I start crying to.

"I lost my second pregnancy and it broke Noah and I. We were lost and when my mother in law came to visit and found us in that space, she literally slapped some sense in us and reminded us that we had another baby that was strong and healthy and we were hurting her by not being there for her." she smiles through the tears." But even when we had our boy, it happened again but this time, we knew God had a bigger plan for us." She breaths in and out.

"Am just being your big sister and I want you to be prepared. Remember, no matter what happens now, you two have us and we are just some meters away. This journey of motherhood is good and fun and some time infuriating," we chuckle," Lola, move away from the flowers!" she exclaims and I laugh even more.

"But they are cute mama." she responds as she walks over to us and sits on the chair next to me. Leila picks one flower from the pot I had put aside and hands it to her. She grins excitedly and I feel warmth in my heart.

"See what I mean? They sometimes could make you loose your mind but it is wonderful. It is good and where there is good, there is also bad." I nod understanding and just then the back door opens and out walks the woman I had long forgotten about. "Speak of the bad." I release her hand and wipe away my now drained tears.

"Well, no one informed me there was a tea party going on in my absence." Marion says walking towards us. "Hello ladies, mind if I join?"