Performing for a Wicked Lord – Extended Epilogue

The floral scent of the bouquets that had been placed all about the room did nothing to disguise the smell of blood that still lingered around her. A nurse still milled about the bed, the doctor likely off somewhere in the hall with her husband. 

She must have dozed off for a moment because she felt as though she were pulling herself up out of deep water. It was only the sudden shrieking of an infant that caused her to try to sit up. 

“Do not move, my lady.” The nurse—or perhaps she was a midwife, Anna couldn’t be sure she knew the difference—hurried toward her to lay a hand on her shoulder. “You have had quite the ordeal.” 

“The baby is crying,” Anna pointed out feebly. There was no way she could have gotten up to tend to it. Other than the soreness between her legs, the rest of her body felt practically numb, whether with relief or exhaustion, she couldn’t be sure. 

“I shall fetch the baby for you,” the nurse assured her, and she disappeared from view for only a moment before reappearing with a cotton blanket-wrapped bundle in her arms. 

“Steady now,” the nurse advised as Anna pushed herself up into a sitting position against the mountain of featherdown pillows. “Here we are.” 

The moment the child was placed in Anna’s arms, it was as if all her aches and pains simply disappeared. 

“Do you require some help, my lady?” the nurse asked, but Anna shook her head. Even in her weakened state, she was determined to feed her own child without help. Her children would not have a wet nurse as many other noble children did. Her children would have a mother and father who loved and cared for them enough to raise them with as little help as possible. 

It will be much easier without Lady Copperfield in the picture, Anna thought, caressing her child’s head as she guided it to her breast. The previous Lady Copperfield had not been seen nor heard from since they had announced their engagement. I am Lady Copperfield now, Anna reminded herself. 

A gentle knocking at the door made Anna look up just in time to see the nurse cross the room to open it. 

Anna did not need to see who was on the other side. The moment that the nurse dropped into a curtsey, she knew who stood in the hallway. 

“Let him in!” Anna called. 

“My lady?” The nurse looked questioningly over her shoulder, no doubt worried that a lady would not wish for her husband to see her suckling their child. 

“Let him in,” Anna insisted more sternly, and the nurse curtseyed to her before stepping out of the way and gesturing the lord inside. 

“Please wait outside,” Anna instructed the nurse. She had had quite enough of the woman flitting about bothering her. 

“But my lady, I am to remain to fetch Doctor Harper should the need arise,” the nurse protested, and Anna could see from the look on her face that it was taking everything in her for her to argue with a ‘noblewoman’. Being young, as the nurse appeared to be, she likely had no idea that the woman she spoke to was as lowborn if not lower than she was. 

“Then wait in the hall,” Henrik instructed her. When the nurse gave him a pleading look, he added, “I shall call for you if the need arises.” 

Seemingly satisfied with the compromise, the nurse nodded, curtseyed, and removed herself from the room. 

The door was barely closed when Henrik reached the side of the bed. 

“Doctor Harper expressed your wish for me not to know the gender until I arrived in the room,” he explained, looking down on her with a raised eyebrow. “Do you honestly believe that I am as vain as all of that?” 

Anna knew what he meant by ‘all of that’. She had often heard tales of men refusing to visit their wives in the birthing room once they learned that they had given birth to mere female children. 

“I am not upset that we have a daughter,” he added with a scowl, and Anna couldn’t help but chuckle at how silly he was being. 

“Oh, Henry, do sit and meet your son,” Anna insisted, cradling and nursing her child in one hand while reaching for her husband’s fingers with the other. 

“My…my son?” Henrik repeated, shock plain on his face. 

“Our son,” Anna corrected and guided him down onto the bed, hiding a cringe of shock at the pain the movement of the bed caused her when he sat. Then she reached down and pulled back the blanket to fully reveal the tiny face beneath. 

Their son remained suckling, appearing oblivious to his father sitting beside them. Yet Henrik did not appear bothered by being ignored. Instead, he tentatively reached out to stroke the mass of already glossy black hair at the back of their son’s head. 

“I never imagined that an infant could be so beautiful,” he breathed. 

“Henrik Copperfield, are you crying?” Anna gasped even though tears were rolling down her own cheeks. She watched, smiling uncontrollably as her husband quickly wiped tears from his eyes. 

“Anna,” he whispered so as to not to disturb the baby, reaching for her free hand. “You have made me the happiest man.”

“And you have made the happiest woman,” Anna assured him, squeezing his fingers in return. 

They remained there like that until their son finally relaxed on the breast, and then Anna turned to her husband and asked, “Please would you take him from me? I fear my strength is not enough to go on holding him.” 

It was only partly an excuse, knowing that her husband was likely fearful of holding his son for the first time. 

“Of course.” Henry leaned down, only hesitating for a moment before he slipped his hands under the infant. Anna breathed a sigh of relief as the weight was lifted from her chest. Though he was a mere wisp of a thing, he felt like a stone weight after a while of holding him. 

Anna smiled, watching Henry sitting on the edge of the bed as he cradled their son. 

“He is going to need a name,” she pointed out, stifling a yawn. 

“There will be time for that later,” Henry insisted, glancing at her. “You need your rest.”

“I would like to know our son’s name before going to sleep.” Anna yawned again. Though she was struggling to keep her eyes open, she would not rest until this last task was done. 

“I had been thinking,” Henrik told her. He glanced down at their son before looking at her again. “Henry George.” 

Anna’s heart swelled at the mention of her father’s name. She had only ever told her husband of her parents’ names once, and yet it appeared be had remembered them. 

“In honour of his father and both of his grandfathers,” Anna breathed, shuffling down into the pillows to rest. “It is perfect.” 

“I thought that you might say so.” Henrik smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead, careful not to squash their son. “Now, rest, my love. I shall take good care of Henry George while you sleep.” 

***

Anna sat upon the window seat of her bedroom gazing down into the front garden where she could see Henry and Henry George racing about, throwing a ball which Anna had insisted was much too hard for a boy of only four years old. Still, it appeared her husband had ignored her and yet she couldn’t help but smile, watching. 

She rested a hand upon her swollen stomach, feeling the babe inside move as though her joyous emotions had roused it. 

“Perhaps you shall be a girl,” she said, lovingly stroking her stomach. “Maybe then I shall have a playmate of my own.” 

She was distracted from her thoughts of the gender of her second child by the sound of a carriage being drawn along the shingle driveway. 

Glancing down from the window once more, Anna was shocked to see a familiar blue carriage with the letter ‘C’ adorned on the doors. 

What is she doing here? Anna asked herself even as she rose awkwardly from the seat and began to make her way for the door. 

“My lady?” The nurse who had been attending her the last few days looked up from where she had been concentrating on some needlework. 

“Do not worry yourself.” Anna gestured for the woman to remain where she was. 

“My lady, you cannot leave the room. Your confinement has begun.” 

Anna ignored the woman. By her calculations, she had at least a week left until her child was due to arrive. Though she struggled to get around, she was in no danger of going too far to return to her room. 

“I shall return shortly,” she called over her shoulder. 

“But my lady!” the nurse called after her, but Anna was already ambling down the hallway. 

If you are so concerned, follow me, Anna thought, and as she did so, she heard footsteps behind her. 

“Kate, please help me down the stairs. We have a visitor,” Anna insisted, lifting her hand. The nurse looked as though she was about to protest. 

“Doctor Harper may employ you, but without women like me, you would be out of a job,” she pointed out. Though she hated to sound so threatening, she couldn’t afford to miss what was going to occur downstairs. 

The nurse gave a brief nod and began to help her down the staircase. 

“My lady, what are you doing out of bed?” Gordon gasped as they were halfway down the stairs. 

“Gordon, open the front door. It is urgent,” Anna insisted. She pressed her hand into her stomach to ease the pulling, stretching pain she felt as she exerted herself. 

“Is something wrong with the baby?” Gordon asked, glancing at the nurse. “Should I send for Doctor Harper?” 

“No, Gordon, you should open the door as I have asked.” Anna was not usually so demanding of the butler. She had always thought of him as more a friend than a servant, but in that moment her urgency outweighed her need to be polite. As if he sensed the change in her, he hurried to open the door. 

Anna hobbled down the steps of the manor just in time to see the driver of the carriage stepping down to open the door. 

Henry had stopped playing with Henry George and had left the young boy playing with the ball alone, throwing it in the air and failing to catch it four out of five times. 

Anna would usually have smiled with pride for his attempts, but currently her nerves were fraught. 

What is she doing here? she asked herself again. Henry had stepped up to the edge of the lawn to greet their uninvited guest, and he did not seem to notice his wife moving awkwardly toward him with the help of her nurse. 

She reached his side just as the lady in the carriage began to descend the steps. 

“Anna…what are…” he began, but his attention was drawn back to the carriage. 

“There is my beautiful son!” The Dowager Lady Copperfield exclaimed, throwing her arms wide to embrace her son. 

Anna couldn’t help but notice how hunched her spine had become and how many more wrinkles there were upon her haggard face. The years in which they had been apart, had not been kind to her. 

“Mother,” Henry replied curtly, and Anna reached out to take his hand, finding that he was as tense as she had imagined him to be. 

“Anna,” his mother greeted her in a much more friendly manner than she had expected, even bowing her head with respect. 

“Why are you here, mother?” Henry demanded. She looked taken aback by his tone. 

“Is that any way to speak to your mother?” she asked, smoothing the front of her dress. 

“You have not been a mother to me since you deemed not to attend my wedding,” Henry pointed out, and Anna was surprised when the elderly woman’s cheeks began to blush with shame. Anna hadn’t been aware she could feel such an emotion or any emotion at all. 

“Henry, please, that is all in the past,” she insisted. “I have come to make amends.” 

“It is not I that you need to make amends with,” Henry pointed out, and he gestured to Anna. “It was Anna you disrespected by not coming that day, and I wholly stand behind her if she wishes to have you escorted off our property.” 

Even Anna felt cut by the harshness in his tone, and she lifted her free hand to press it again his bicep. 

“Steady darling,” she soothed gently, “I will hear her out.” 

“Perhaps we might go inside?” Lady Copperfield suggested, but Anna quickly shook her head. She would not allow her mother-in-law to go near their home until she had heard some kind of apology. Even then, she might not. 

“You will say what you wish to say here,” Anna insisted, speaking much more confidently than she ever had the last time she had spoken to Lady Copperfield all those years ago. 

“Anna, please, I wish to apologise for my actions,” Lady Copperfield explained. She looked small and insignificant now, nothing at all like the scary woman who had frightened her into hiding. “I am old and nearing the end of my life and I do not wish to spend the rest of it alone. I wish to see my grave with my children and grandchildren around me.” 

There was one word that stuck out to Anna: alone. She had felt that all too often before she had found her husband. She knew all too well what it was like to lose family. 

At that moment, she felt someone tugging on her skirt. 

“Mummy, who is this lady?” Henry George asked, peering around her skirts. 

Anna placed her hand on his head for a moment and weighed her options. In one sentence, she could accept Henry’s mother back into their family or condemn her to live the rest of her life, miserable and alone. 

Taking a deep breath, Anna replied, “Henry George, darling, this is your grandmother.” 

All the pain and fear seemed to drain from Lady Copperfield’s eyes, and she glanced at Anna for permission before awkwardly lowering herself to Henry George’s level. 

“Hello, Master Henry George,” she smiled, and Anna believed that must have been the first genuine smile she had ever seen on the woman’s face. “I would like to be your grandmother if you will let me? I have gifts in the carriage.” 

“Gifts?” Henry George gasped. He looked about to hurry off into the carriage before remembering himself. 

All turned to look to Henry, waiting for permission, and Anna held her breath as she waited for him to have the last word. 

“You may come inside.” He gestured to the manor, and Anna breathed another sigh. 

THE END

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