“Roland and Christiana’s eldest is finally moving back home. He found a bride in France and brought her home with him.”
“Did he bring home the fortune he dreamed of?” Madelina asked. She knew that her cousin was set to inherit the castle, and he would continue on the family name.
“He did. He was very pleased with the amount he earned while he was hiring himself out. His little bride is sweet, but she doesn’t speak English at all, so we’re all speaking French all the time. I think Hugh secretly loves it.”
“I’m sure he does. Someone who will listen to him play his lute.” Madelina looked up when someone stood in the doorway of the sitting room. “Philip, I was wondering if you’d come today. This is my mother, Marina. Mama, this is Alex’s brother, Philip.”
Philip nodded to her mother. “It’s nice to meet you. Did Madelina tell you why I was coming?”
“Yes, she did. I’d love to meet your son.”
He stepped aside and nodded to a small woman with sad eyes. “This is my wife, Sarah. Our son Joseph is coming as well.”
Marina got to her feet, walking close to Sarah. “Are you all right?”
Sarah nodded. “I’ll be fine.”
Unwilling to believe her, Marina hovered her hand over the woman’s shoulder in a gesture Madelina recognized as her scanning Sarah’s body for illness. “Are you having stomach pains?”
Sarah nodded, a tear escaping her eye. “For months, but the leeches didn’t help.”
Marina wrinkled her nose. “I’m not a fan of leeches. May I?”
“You wish to heal me? But my son is the one we brought for help.”
“I can help you both. You are worth just as much as your son is.” Marina had taught Madelina that many women didn’t believe they were worthy of being healed, thinking they were only good as vessels for babies.
Joseph walked into the room then, dragging his leg badly. Marina looked at him for a moment. “Are you in pain?”
Joseph shook his head. “No, I just can’t walk properly.”
“Then would you sit with your aunt Madelina on the window seat while I see to your mother?” Marina smiled at the boy, hoping he’d know he’d be helped soon, too. She had to help the person who was most in danger first.
Philip frowned at Marina. “Is she ill?”
Marina nodded. “She’s very ill. I think something inside her is about to rupture, and it could cost her life. I would like to get it fixed before I move on to Joseph.”
Philip hurried to his wife’s side. “You haven’t said the pain continued. I thought the leeches fixed it.”
“No, but I didn’t want to complain.” Sarah smiled at her husband. “I was more worried about Joseph’s leg.”
“I’m more worried about you living!” Philip nodded to Marina. “Please help her.”
“Of course.” Marina moved her hands to the woman’s abdomen and closed her eyes. It took just a moment before she opened them again. “All fixed. If it starts again, have Madelina let me know. It only takes a moment.”
Sarah smiled up at her husband. “The pain is gone! ’Tis truly a marvelous power she has!”
Marina smiled. “Now, let me get a good look at that leg, young man.” She squatted on the floor in front of Joseph and put her hand on his leg, assessing the damage. “One of his bones has grown sideways. I can fix it, but it would be a painful process. Are you sure you want that?”
Joseph nodded. “I want to be able to run and play with my friends.”
“I think this would be better done on a bed,” Marina said softly. “This type of injury, because he’s had it since birth, is harder to heal and a great deal more painful. He was made this way, so healing him is almost against the natural order of things. I can do it, but I worry about the pain it will cause him.” She looked at Sarah and Philip. “Would the two of you be willing to come up and help?”
“What can we do to help?” Philip asked. He looked over at his son, who looked excited and not like he was dreading the process at all.
“You can hold his hands and let him know you love him.” Marina turned to her daughter. “You are to stay here. No moving. Do you understand me?”
Letice sat down beside her mama. “I won’t let her go anywhere.” She took her mother’s hand and smiled.
“Good girl!”
Marina led the way up the stairs, finding an empty room. “How about this room?” she asked.
Philip shook his head. “I think he’ll do better in my boyhood bedchamber.”
“You lead the way then,” Marina said, obviously willing to do everything she could to make the boy more comfortable.
Thirty minutes later, the four of them traipsed back down the stairs and into the sitting room where Madelina waited. She looked at Joseph. “How is your leg?”
Joseph jumped up and down repeatedly. “It works!”
Madelina looked at her mother. “Are you all right, Mother?”
“I’m fine, but I’ll need a quick nap before lunch.” Madelina immediately understood that to mean before she could heal her again.
“Do you need help? Or are you really all right?” Madelina knew that before their powers had been enhanced, her mother and her sisters had often lapsed into twelve hours of sleep after a particularly difficult healing, waking and feeling as if they had slept much longer. They would have to eat great quantities of food to regain their abilities again.
“After a short nap, I’ll be just fine.”
Madelina nodded. “I’ll wait here then.”
Marina took her leave and left to climb the stairs to one of the rooms there.
Philip frowned at Madelina. “Does it hurt your mother to use her power?”
“It doesn’t cause her physical pain, but it drains her. She’s already done four healings today and the fourth was particularly difficult.” She had heard Joseph yell with the pain, but he seemed so happy now. She was pleased her mother had taken the time to help the boy and his mother. “She’ll need to sleep for a short while before she can heal anyone again, and right now, she’s healing me before each meal.”
Sarah frowned. “We didn’t mean to hurt her!”
“You don’t understand,” Madelina said softly, trying to help them see what her mother was like. “Mother cannot abide seeing people in pain. Because Joseph wasn’t in pain, she left whether or not he wanted to be healed up to him. You were in pain, so she wanted to fix you. She wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“I see.” Sarah shook her head. “We’re going to stay with you and make sure you’re all right until she wakes up. We saw your father and Alex leaving when we arrived. You don’t need to be alone with just the servants while you’re so ill.”
“I actually am doing much better today. I kept down my breakfast, and that’s the first meal in weeks.” Madelina put her arm around Letice, who was sitting as close to her as she could. “Have you met my daughter, Letice? Alex found her before he came to my home, and Mother healed her.”
Joseph looked over at Letice. “I’m your cousin.”
Letice just looked at him with wide eyes.
“I have lots of sisters, too. How old are you?” he asked.
Letice frowned, but she held up three fingers.
“I have a sister who is three. I think you two will be good friends.” Joseph looked at his mother. “We should bring Avice over for Letice to play with.”
Philip nodded. “We’ll do that soon. I don’t want to impose on them right now while Madelina is expecting. She’s pretty sick.”
Madelina frowned. “I tell you what. Give it a month, and I’m sure I’ll be able to walk around and do more things. Come then, and we’ll be thrilled to have you.” A month was really much longer than she expected it to take her mother to get her back to herself. Part of the problem was that she needed nourishment to heal as well.
Sarah nodded. “We’d like that. I have four girls and Joseph. With Philip’s family being what it is, I guess I thought I’d have all sons, but on
ly one so far.”
“Do you want more children?” Madelina asked. She knew some women didn’t particularly want a houseful like she did. Not that it mattered how many she wanted. She was obviously having seven sons. No more and no less.
“I do. I’d like to have another boy or two,” Sarah said.
“Will you three please stay for the noon meal? I can have Cook make extra.” Madelina wanted to get to know this new sister of hers.
Philip shook his head. “I think we’ve already imposed on you enough just by having your mother heal us.”
“We really wouldn’t mind . . .”
“No, we’ll be on our way, but we’ll take you up on your offer of returning in a month. I think you and Sarah would be friends, and I’d like for Avice and Letice to become close.”
Madelina nodded. “That would make me very happy. I know she’s looking forward to when her brothers are born so she won’t be the only child.”
Charles and Alex returned then. “Where’s Marina?” Charles asked, obviously concerned.
“She did some healing this morning, and she wanted to rest before she had to heal me again at lunchtime. I think this is going to be a difficult time for her.” Madelina hated to admit to her father that she had caused her mother to exhaust herself.
“She’s not . . . ?” he asked, obviously concerned.
“Not at all. She said she would like to nap before lunch, and she climbed the stairs of her own power.” Madelina immediately understood that he was worried she’d worn herself out like she used to before her powers were enhanced shortly after they wed. The three sisters had always helped one another by boosting each other’s powers when there was a big task ahead of them.
He nodded. “I think I’ll go check on her anyway. I want to be certain.”
Madelina smiled and nodded. She understood completely. Her parents were linked in a way very few couples were because they had fought off the worst evil that had been seen in the world in their very early marriage.
Philip stood. “We’re going to leave for our home. We’ll come back in a month as we said. Thank your mother again.”
Alex looked over at Joseph. “How’s the leg?”
Joseph stood up and walked to his uncle. “Look!” The boy was obviously very excited to have his leg fixed.
Alex squatted down to get a good look at the leg. His knee had been turned completely outward the last time he’d seen him. “That’s amazing. A true miracle.” Alex looked at his brother and smiled. “I’m happy for your whole family.”
Philip led his small family out of the castle, and Alex sat down. “How are you feeling? Did you keep your breakfast down?” He had been happy to talk to his brother and his nephew, but his real concern was his wife.
She nodded with a smile. “I did. Mama is going to heal me a little bit before each meal, so that I can continue keeping food down.”
“Sarah looked better than I’ve seen her in years. She must be doing something right.”
“Mama healed her, too. There was something about to rupture inside her.”
“No wonder she needed to sleep for a while. She worked on you this morning, too. She’s going to be exhausted.” Alex shook his head. “Should she do so much all at once?”
Madelina laughed. “Can you imagine trying to stop her? You think I’m headstrong, but you have never fought with my mother about her powers. She would kill herself healing others if that’s what it took.”
“Well, at least I know you come by your defiance naturally.”
“I come from a long line of women of power. How do you think women of power would take to being told to sit down and be quiet? I’m afraid we are not known for our docile natures. Mother even tells stories of her mother, who was powerless, and she hid the three of them and had them work on their powers. Mama didn’t discover her power under she was six or so. The others had been practicing their powers since birth.”
“So she came into her powers late?” Alex asked with surprise. Marina was so adept at healing, it was hard to believe she hadn’t done it from a very young age.
“You know, I’m not sure. I think mayhap she just didn’t know she had the power, so she had never tried to use it. I only know that Aunt Christiana once cut her own hand so Mama could practice healing. After that, their mother made sure they were brought peasants to heal whenever possible.”
“And their mother had no power? How was that?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I just know she was powerless, but their grandmother had told their mother a story every night that she then told them. That story told what they needed to do with a man who sought to rule the world.”
“I can’t imagine your mother fighting anyone or using violence.”
Madelina smiled. “She couldn’t. She healed his heart instead.”
Alex stared at her for a moment, and then a slow smile spread across his lips. “A brilliant woman indeed.”
Chapter Ten
It took a full two weeks before Madelina’s mother thought Madelina was strong enough to go up and down the stairs on her own. It was another month after that before she lost the gaunt, underfed look. Throughout it all, her belly continued to grow.
A month before she was due, Madelina sat down with her mother and discussed whether she needed to stay longer. Madelina had finally stopped losing her meals and no longer needed to be healed before she could eat, but it had only stopped in the last week or so.
“I hate that you’ve already stayed so long,” Madelina said. “It is nice to see Alex and Papa getting along so well, and Letice has grown very attached to both of you, but I think you could leave now if you wanted to return home. You’re welcome here, of course, but I’m thinking about how you feel.”
“We’re staying until the baby comes,” Marina told her. “We’ve already been here for six months. What’s one more? And I want to be sure you and the babe are all right before we journey back home.”
“I love that you’ve worked with Letice on her riding. She’s going to be the best big sister seven little boys ever had.”
Marina smiled. “Yes, I do believe she is. Are you getting nervous about the birth?”
Madelina shook her head. “I’m not. Now that I’m not upset to my stomach, I’m enjoying being pregnant. Well, I would like to not be quite so large, but I know that will happen eventually.”
“Too many women die in childbirth for me to be willing to go home. I will be right beside you for this birth and all the others. I’m not sure why you were afflicted so during your pregnancy, but I will not allow you to go through another minute of this alone.”
“Are you going to move in with each of my pregnancies?” Madelina asked with a grin.
“If I need to, I will. I won’t lose my daughter for anything.” Marina reached out and squeezed Madelina’s hand.
As she got closer and closer to her due date, Madelina realized she was happy. She had a sweet child, parents who loved her, and she loved her husband a great deal. He had never told her he loved her, and she had never said the words, but she was sure he knew how she felt.
She just wished she knew how he felt. He had never given her an inkling of his feelings other than talking to her about how excited he was about the birth of the babe. Being happy about getting a son and feeling love for his wife were two very different things in her opinion.
Every afternoon, they would walk around the area. Her mother felt that a woman who was soon to give birth—especially one who had been so inactive at the beginning of her pregnancy—needed to be very active leading up until she gave birth. She felt that women trained in much the same way knights did, but their battles were very different.
“I’m glad you’re getting along so well with my father now. At first, I thought the two of you would always hate each other,” she said as they walked through the garden. It was early May, and the flowers were in bloom. Madelina and her mother had taken over just a corner of the flower garden for their medicinal herbs. The garden was hug
e, though, so it was still beautiful.
“We’ve come to an agreement. Because we both love you so much, and we know it’s easier if we get along, we have made a real effort. Besides, he’s excited to be a grandfather again, and he knows to see the grandchildren, he has to come through me.”
Madelina looked at him in surprise. “Wait . . . you love me? Why have you never said so?”
He frowned at her. “Why do you think I was in such a hurry to marry you?”
“Because you wanted to bed me, of course.”
“Well, that too,” he said with a grin. “But I wanted to bed you because I loved you so much.”
“I wish you’d said something sooner . . .”
“I thought you knew! Why else would I let your parents stay here for six months straight? Why else would I allow you to bring home a child who wasn’t either of ours? Why else would I dote on you every day and put up with your constant headstrong ways?”
She smiled, stopping there and turning to him. “I love you, too.”
“I know.”
“How?” she asked. She’d thought her declaration would please him, and his simple, “I know” was a bit offensive.
“How do I know? Because you smile at me every day. You make sure you at least make an appearance of being obedient before you go off and do whatever you want.” He shook his head. “I really thought when I married you that you’d be obedient. I guess I lost my mind!”
“I’m as obedient as I can be.” She grinned, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I’m glad you came to me with a letter from your father and a little girl who needed to be healed.”
“So am I. And I’m glad we’ve almost got your first pregnancy out of the way. Do you think your parents will feel the need to live here for all seven of them?”
She shrugged. “I think they just might. From what your mother told me, though, I should plan on having all seven boys within ten years. Then they can go back and live with Uncle Roland.”
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