“There was no way to prevent this,” Matthew said, stroking my hair away from my forehead. “Not this time.”
“What about next time?” I demanded.
The men were grim and silent.
“Oh. Of course.” I drew in a sharp lungful of air, and my fingers tingled. Corra burst out from my ribs with an agitated squawk and launched herself upward to perch on the chandelier. “You’ll stop him. Because next time he’s coming for me.”
I felt a pop, a trickle of liquid.
Matthew looked down to my rounded belly in shock.
The babies were on their way.
Don’t you dare tell me not to push.” I was red-faced and sweating, and all I wanted was to get these babies out of me as quickly as possible.
“Do. Not. Push,” Marthe repeated. She and Sarah had me walking around in an effort to ease the aching in my back and legs. The contractions were still around five minutes apart, but the pain was becoming excruciating, radiating from my spine around to my belly.
“I want to lie down.” After weeks of resisting bed rest, now I just wanted to crawl back into the bed, with its rubber-covered mattress and sterilized sheets. The irony was not lost on me, nor on anyone else in the room.
“You’re not lying down,” Sarah said.
“Oh, God. Here comes another one.” I stopped in my tracks and gripped their hands. The contraction lasted a long time. I had just straightened up and started breathing normally when another one hit. “I want Matthew!”
“I’m right here,” Matthew said, taking Marthe’s place. He nodded to Sarah. “That was fast.”
“The book said the contractions are supposed to get gradually closer together.” I sounded like a peevish schoolmarm.
“Babies don’t read books, honey,” Sarah said. “They have their own ideas about these things.”
“And when they’re of a mind to be born, babies make no bones about it,” Dr. Sharp said, entering the room with a smile. Dr. Garrett had been called away to another delivery at the last minute, so Dr. Sharp had taken charge of my medical team. She pressed the stethoscope against my belly, moved it, and pressed again. “You’re doing marvelously, Diana. So are the twins. No sign of distress. I’d recommend we try to deliver vaginally.”
“I want to lie down,” I said through gritted teeth as another band of steel shot out from my spine and threatened to cut me in two. “Where’s Marcus?”
“He’s just across the hall,” Matthew said. I dimly remembered ejecting Marcus from the room when the contractions intensified.
“If I need a cesarean, can Marcus be here in time?” I demanded.
“You called?” Marcus said, entering the room in scrubs. His genial grin and unruffled demeanor calmed me instantly. Now that he’d returned, I couldn’t remember why I’d kicked him out of the room.
“Who moved the damn bed?” I puffed my way through another contraction. The bed seemed to be in the same place, but this was clearly an illusion for it was taking forever for me to reach it.
“Matthew did,” Sarah said breezily.
“I did no such thing,” Matthew protested.
“In labor we blame absolutely everything on the husband. It keeps the mother from developing homicidal fantasies and reminds the men they aren’t the center of attention,” Sarah explained.
I laughed, thereby missing the rising wave of pain that accompanied the next fierce contraction.
“Fu—Sh—Godda—” I pressed my lips firmly together.
“You are not getting through tonight’s main event without swearing, Diana,” Marcus said.
“I don’t want a string of profanity to be the first words the babies hear.” Now I recalled the reason for Marcus’s expulsion: He’d suggested I was being too prim in the midst of my agony.
“Matthew can sing—and he’s loud. I’m sure he could drown you out.”
“God—blasted—it hurts,” I said, doubling over. “Move the fucking bed if you want to be helpful, but stop arguing with me, you asshole!”
My reply was met with shocked silence.
“Atta girl,” Marcus said. “I knew you had it in you. Let’s have a look.”
Matthew helped me onto the bed, which had been stripped of its priceless silk coverlet and most of its curtains. The two cradles stood in front of the fire, waiting for the twins. I stared at them while Marcus conducted his examination.
Thus far this had been the most physically intrusive four hours of my life. I’d had more things jabbed into me and more stuff taken out of me than I thought possible. It was oddly dehumanizing, considering that I was responsible for bringing new life into the world.
“Still a little while to go,” Marcus said, “but things are speeding up nicely.”
“Easy for you to say.” I would have hit him, but he was positioned between my thighs and the babies were in the way.
“This is your last chance for an epidural,” Marcus said. “If you say no, and we have to do a C-section, we’ll have to knock you out completely.”
“There’s no need for you to be heroic, ma lionne,” Matthew said.
“I’m not being heroic,” I told him for the fourth or fifth time. “We have no idea what an epidural might do to the babies.” I stopped, my face scrunched in an attempt to block the pain.
“You have to keep breathing, honey,” Sarah pushed her way to my side. “You heard her, Matthew. She isn’t taking the epidural, and there’s no point in arguing with her about it. Now, about the pain. Laughter helps, Diana. So does focusing on something else.”
“Pleasure helps, too,” Marthe said, adjusting my feet on the mattress in such a way that my back immediately relaxed.
“Pleasure?” I said, confused. Marthe nodded. I looked at her in horror. “You can’t mean that.”
“She does,” Sarah said. “It can make a huge difference.”
“No. How can you even suggest such a thing?” I couldn’t think of a less erotically charged moment. Walking now seemed like a very good idea, and I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. That was as far as I got before another contraction seized me. When it was over, Matthew and I were alone.
“Don’t even think about it,” I said when he put his arms around me.
“I understand ‘no’ in two dozen languages.” His steadiness was annoying.
“Don’t you want to yell at me or something?” I asked.