MR. DARCY TAKES A WIFE -W 2 3 7
"You are here now and that is all that matters ," she smiled. "They should have let you be and you could have come home to sup and been handed a baby." "I want to be here with you ," he kissed her hands. Her smile of encouragement deepened into a grimace as a contraction began to do eclipsed her will. She clutched his hand, but turned her face from him, biting upon the edge of the pillowslip to keep from crying out. Perspiration broke out upon her forehead and upper lip. He felt ill. After what seemed an eternity, it began to recede. "I fear this will not transpire with haste," she gasped. "In time, Jane shall come to you with word of the birth." Her indirect request for him to withdraw for the duration of her labour was taken as neither a rebuff nor a reminder of propriety. He knew he was unsuccessful at masking his horror at her suffering. His discomposure was one more burden for her. Thus, he knew he would do as she bid. "Do you recollect once telling me how unfair it was that men are not allowed to see what their wives endure to bring their children into the world?" he inquired. "Yes, but I also remember you reminding me that for every person in the world, there had been an act of love. I remind you that for every said same person there had to be a childbirth. My mother endured it for me, yours for you, and I shall for our child." With that declaration, Dr. Carothers arrived, clearing his throat and tugging at the neck of his shirt. A fubsy, fleshy looking man, he had the good sense to appear a bit unkempt (a toff for a doctor was indefensible). Jane escorted him to Elizabeth's bedside to "have a look." Darcy fled the room, face averted, stationing himself just outside the door in an impatient wait of the foetal examination. He did not abide the pause well, for he could ^earJej3RthY.rjmr^urin&s.and-^^ Both countenances were sombre. Dr. Carothers explained his grave face thusly, "Mrs. Darcy's labour is early.. .As often is in such cases, the baby is not positioned correctly. I have tried to exact an external cephalic version to turn it but it will not budge. Determined little cusser." However obscure the terminology, his meaning was hardly unfathomable. The danger was clear. "Pray, is that it then?" Darcy demanded far more loudly than he intended, thus he reiterated more softly, "There will be no further attempt?" "Of course. Of course there shall. You must know, though, I hold little hope of success." Darcy asked the unthinkable, "And if it cannot be turned?" Dr. Carothers chose his words carefully, "I have delivered a number of breech babies with little more vexation than a lengthier duration of labour. But those were babies born of mothers who had birthed previously. This, of course, is Mrs. Darcy's first. She has a narrow...she is narrow. It is difficult to predict the outcome." The look of frightened despair upon Darcy's face caused Jane to soothe, "Do not lose hope."