The Innocent

you would not know that having been away so long. I have delivered every child born here for the past twenty years, and before me, my mother did likewise. I delivered you, my lady.'

'You did?' Elf’s gray eyes grew wide with the knowledge. It was, she realized, extremely comforting to know this fact. Orva had brought her into the world, and Orva would bring her baby into it.

'Aye, I did,' Orva said. 'You are much like your mother, you know, but far prettier. She had an easy time with her confinements and her births. She looked delicate, but she was strong.'

'Yet she had but two children, and Dickon and I were separated by ten years,' Elf noted.

'Nay, lady,' Orva corrected her. 'Your mother bore six children, with you, the youngest. The first was Robert, named for your father. He died of a chill within the year of his birth. Then came the lord Richard. He was followed by two wee laddies, stillbirths both, born in the years your father was at war. How his going frightened your mother. She was not a wife who could send her man off bravely. Your sister, Adela, was born two years before you were. She was just beginning to walk when she was struck down by a spring epidemic of spotting sickness. Your mother was heartbroken, but by autumn that same year she was with child again, and that child was you!'

'I never knew Mama bore all those babies,' Elf said thoughtfully. And what else had she missed? 'How sad she lost them.'

' 'Tis the way of the world, lady,' Orva said pragmatically. 'She wept as we all weep when we lose a child. It happens.'

'It frightens me to think I might lose my child.'

'You must not be frightened, lady,' Orva advised. 'Your mother had bad luck, that is all. Look at me. I have birthed five, and all five are grown and healthy, praise God! You do what I tell you, lady, and you will have a strong babe come next summer.'

'Shall I tell my husband, or shall I wait until I have passed my next moon cycle?'

'That is your decision, lady. Sometimes with the first a woman likes to hoard the wonderful secret to herself for a time and not share it,' Orva told her.

'One thing,' Elf ventured, and she blushed. 'Must we cease lovemaking until after the babe is born?'

'He is a big man, the lord, and you are a dainty lady; but if he is very careful, and you are not uncomfortable, I see no reason why you cannot continue on together. Tell the lord to come to me, and I will instruct him in certain ways that are safe as your belly grows larger and more unwieldy,' Orva said.

Elf arose, smiling at the older woman. 'I thank you, Orva. I was frightened, but now I am not.'

'You should not be, lady. Bearing a child is the most wonderful and the most natural thing in the world for a woman to do. You are a wholesome and healthy girl. You will be fine. Do not, however, and I mean no disrespect, listen to my husband’s mother. Old Ida means well, but her knowledge is not always sound.'

Elf laughed. 'She is very dour, filled with dire predictions, even if she doesn't utter most of them.'

'How is Willa doing?' Orva asked. 'She is my daughter, you know. Just a year younger than Arthur.'

'Nay, I did not realize she was your daughter,' Elf answered the older woman. 'She is a good girl, and serves me well.'

'I am glad of it, lady,' Orva said, escorting her mistress outside again. 'Oh, dear,' she exclaimed, for about her cottage were a crowd of women, all anxiously looking toward them. 'I should not have asked you inside, lady. We should have walked together in private. All these busybodies will have divined why you have come to see me. The manor will be rife with gossip by tonight, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. I think if you wish to tell your husband of his good fortune, you had best do it today. Do not be angry, lady, for these women mean well. They will rejoice with you that Ashlin is to have an heir of your body, that the line of Harold Strongbow, Rowena Strongbowsdatter, and her de Montfort lord continues through you.'

Elf looked at all the anxious faces. They were kind faces, faces she knew. She began to laugh. 'In June,' she said, 'but for sweet Mary’s sake, do not gossip until I have had the opportunity to tell my husband.'

'But when will you tell him?' the miller’s wife asked boldly.

'I think it must be soon,' Orva answered for Elf, 'for here is the lord now, coming on the run. Someone has told him you were with me.'

'Petite, are you all right?' Ranulf ran up to his wife, breathless.

'I am fine, my lord,' Elf said calmly.

'But I was told you had come to see John’s wife,' he said nervously.

'Who else would I come to see but the midwife when I am expecting our child,' Elf replied sweetly. 'And just who told you I was here? As if I don't already know!' She feigned outrage.

'You are having a baby? You are having a baby!' he shouted, a wide grin splitting his face. Then he picked her up in his arms. 'You must put no strain upon yourself, petite.'

The women about them burst out into unrestrained laughter.

'Put me down, Ranulf,' Elf said, laughing herself. 'I am having a baby, the most natural of female talents. I am not ill, nor am I injured. Put me down this instant!'

Reluctantly he complied. 'But should you not rest, Eleanore?'

'When she is tired, my lord, absolutely,' Orva said with a reassuring smile. 'She may live her life as normally as if she were not with child. At least for now. And as you are here, my lord, will you come into my cottage, for I would speak with you privately.'

Elf grinned, and the women about them hooted with laughter again, for their men had all received Orva’s lectures and instructions when they were first with child.

Still chuckling-and feeling infinitely better-Elf walked back to the house whistling happily. She was not barren stock. She was not like her brother’s wife. At the thought of Isleen de Warenne, a shiver ran down her spine. Elf shook it off quickly. Nothing could spoil her happiness. She was going to have a baby!

Chapter 10

Clud, the whoremonger, raised his hand and hit the woman a third blow. 'You will do as you are told, you English bitch!' he snarled.

Isleen de Warenne struggled to her feet, and hit her attacker so hard with both fists that the lame man staggered. 'I am no common whore,' she screamed at him.

'Perhaps not a common whore,' Clud said, grabbing the woman by her long blond braid, 'but a whore nonetheless. I bought you fairly, and now I will have a return on my investment.'

'I am the daughter of Baron Hugh de Warenne! I am the widow of the lord of Ashlin,' Isleen shrieked furiously. 'I was only traveling with that peddler for protection. He had no right to sell me to you!'

'But he did, and now I will have my own, plus a goodly interest back