Jewels (26 page)

She kept pushing and trying, and by eight o’clock she was losing a lot of blood. She looked deathly pale, and the baby hadn’t moved in hours, and then he heard a stirring downstairs and he called out to anyone who might hear him. Sarah was barely conscious and her pushing had grown weaker. She just couldn’t anymore. He heard rapid footsteps on the stairs, and a moment later, he saw Emanuelle, the young girl from the hotel, with wide eyes, in a blue gingham dress and an apron.

“I came to see if I could help Madame la Duchesse with the baby.” But only William suspected that Madame la Duchesse was dying and there would be no baby. She was hemorrhaging, though not uncontrollably, but the baby wasn’t moving, and she no longer had the strength to push when the pains came. She just lay there and moaned between screams, and if they didn’t do something soon, he was going to lose them both. By then, she had been in hard labor for nine hours and gotten nowhere.

“Come quickly and help me,” he said to the girl urgently, and she stepped forward and came to the bedside without hesitation. “Have you ever delivered a baby?” He spoke to her without taking his eyes off Sarah. She was a gray color now, and her lips were slightly blue. Her eyes were rolling back in her head, and he was still talking to her and making her hear him. “Sarah, listen to me, you
have
to push, you have to, as hard as you can. Listen to me, Sarah.
Push! Now!”
He had learned to feel for the contractions by keeping a hand on her stomach. And then he spoke to the girl from the hotel again. “Do you know what to do?”

“No,” she said honestly. “I have only seen animals,” she said with a heavy French accent, but she spoke good English. “I think we must push it out for her now, or … or …” She didn’t want to tell him his wife might die, but they both knew it.

“I know. I want you to push down as hard as you can, to push the baby toward me. When I tell you to …” He was feeling for the next pain and it was already coming, as he gave a sign to the girl, and began shouting at Sarah again, and this time the baby moved more than it had in hours. Emanuelle was pushing down as hard as she could, and she was afraid that she might kill the duchess herself, but she knew they had no choice. She just kept pushing and pushing and pushing, trying to squeeze the baby out, and bring it into life, before they lost both mother and child.

“Is it coming?” she asked, and she saw Sarah open her eyes as he nodded. She seemed to be aware of them, but only for an instant, and then she sank back into her sea of pain.

“Come on, darling. Push again. Try to help us this time,” he said quietly, fighting back his own tears as she cried. Emanuelle bore down on her with her full weight and all the force she could exert this time, as William watched and prayed, and slowly … slowly… the head pushed slowly out of Sarah, and before they had freed the baby, it gave a long wail. Sarah stirred when she heard it, and looked around as though she didn’t understand what had happened.

“What’s that?” she asked groggily, staring at William.

“That’s our baby.” There were tears running down his cheeks, and Sarah began to panic as the pains started again, and she had to push some more. They still had to free the shoulders, but now William was helping, trying to get them free, as mother and child cried, and William felt his sweat mix with tears. Sarah just couldn’t help them. She was too weak, and the baby was much too large. The doctor in Chaumont had been right. She should never have tried to give birth to this child, but it was too late now. It was half born, and they had to free it from its mother at last. “Sarah! Push again!” William shouted at her this time, and Emanuelle continued to press on her abdomen until it looked like she would go right through her. But the baby inched forward again, and William got one arm out, but he couldn’t get the other. And then suddenly he remembered the puppies he had delivered so long ago. There had been one like that, and it had been terrible for the mother, but he had saved them both. The pup had been unusually large, as he could see his own child was.

And this time when the pains ripped through Sarah and she screamed, William reached inside her and gently tried to turn the baby to a different angle, while feeling gently around the shoulder, and Sarah jumped in anguish and fought him as hard as she could. “Hold her down!” he told the girl. “Don’t let her move!” Or she might kill the child. But Emanuelle held her firmly, while William forced her legs down and tried to free the baby, and then suddenly with an odd little sound, the other arm popped out, the shoulders were free, and a moment later, William delivered the rest of him. He was a boy, and he was beautiful, and absolutely enormous.

William held him aloft in the morning sun, to look at him in all his beauty, and now he knew what his mother meant when she spoke of a miracle, for truly this was one.

He carefully cut the cord, and handed the baby to the girl, while he tenderly bathed Sarah’s face with damp cloths, and tried to stop the bleeding with towels.

But this time Emanuelle knew what to do. She gently set the baby down in a little nest of blankets on the floor and came to show William. “We must press down very hard on her stomach … like so … so she will stop bleeding. I have heard my mother say this about women who have had many children.” And with that she pressed down on Sarah’s lower abdomen even harder than she had before, and kneaded it like bread as Sarah screamed weakly and begged them to stop, but he saw that the girl was right, the bleeding slowed and eventually all but stopped, except for what seemed normal to both of them.

It was noon by then, and William couldn’t believe that it had taken twelve hours to deliver their son. Twelve hours that Sarah and the baby had barely survived. She was still deathly pale, but her lips were no longer blue, and he brought the baby to her and held the baby for her so she could see him. She smiled, but she was too weak to hold him herself, and she looked up at William gratefully, instinctively knowing that he had saved them. “Thank you,” she whispered as tears rolled down her cheeks and he kissed her. He gave the baby back to Emanuelle then, and she took him downstairs to wash him and then bring him back to his mother later on. William bathed Sarah and changed the bed, and wrapped her in clean blankets and towels. She was too weak to move herself, or even to speak to him, but she watched him gratefully, and finally lay back against the pillows and drifted off to sleep. It was the worst thing William had ever seen, and at the same time the most beautiful, and he felt overwhelmed by his own emotions, as he went downstairs to make her a cup of tea and lace it with brandy. As he made it, he couldn’t resist taking a quick swallow himself.

“He’s a beautiful boy,” Emanuelle said to him as she watched him. “And he weighs five kilos. More than ten pounds!” she announced in amazement, which explained all of Sarah’s agony.

William smiled in amazement, and tried to express his thanks to the girl. She had been very brave, and incredibly helpful and he knew that without her, he could never have saved the baby or Sarah.

“Thank you.” He looked at her gratefully. “I couldn’t have saved them without you.” She smiled, and they went back upstairs to see Sarah. She took a sip of the tea, and smiled again when she saw the baby. She was still in pain, and very weak, but she knew the brandy would help her. And even in her weakened state, she was thrilled about the baby.

William told her he weighed ten pounds, and he wanted to apologize to her for what he had put her through, but he didn’t have the chance to say anything. She fell sound asleep before she had turned her head on the pillow. And she slept that way for hours, as William sat quietly in a chair at her bedside and watched her. But when she woke again at dusk, she looked more like herself, and asked him to help her to the bathroom. He did and then brought her back to bed, and marvelled at the endurance of her sex.

“I was so worried about you,” he confessed as she lay in their bed again. “I had no idea the baby was so large. Ten pounds is enormous.”

“The doctor thought he might be,” she said, but she didn’t tell him that she hadn’t wanted a cesarean, for fear that they couldn’t have had any other children. She knew that if she had told William there was even a question of it, he would have forced her to go back to London. But she was glad she hadn’t, she was glad she had been brave, even if she had been a little foolish. There would be more babies now … and her beautiful son … They were going to name him Phillip Edward, after William’s grandfather and her father. And she had never seen anyone as beautiful, she thought, as she held her son for the first time.

Emanuelle finally left them at dusk to go back to the hotel, and when he walked her downstairs, he saw some of the men who worked for them waving at him from the distance. He waved back with a smile, thinking they were congratulating him on the arrival of the baby, but as he looked at them, he realized that they were calling something to him, something he didn’t understand at first, and then he heard a word that made his blood run cold and he began to run toward them.

“C’est la guerre, Monsieur le Duc
…
C’est la guerre
…” It was war, they were telling him. Britain and France had declared war on Germany that afternoon…. His baby had just arrived, and his wife had almost died … and now he would have to leave them. He stood listening to them for a long moment, knowing he would have to go back to England as soon as he could. If he was able to, he’d have to send a message to England now. And what would he tell Sarah? Nothing yet. She was too weak to hear it. But she’d have to know soon enough. He couldn’t stay much longer with them.

And as he hurried back to their room, to check on her and the sleeping child, there were tears rolling down his cheeks. It was so unfair … why now? She looked at him as though she knew, as though she sensed something.

“What was all that noise outside?” she asked weakly.

“Some of the men came to congratulate you for bringing such a handsome boy into the world.”

“That’s sweet.” She smiled sleepily, and drifted back to sleep again, as he lay beside her and watched her, fearing what would happen.

Chapter 12

HE
next morning dawned sunny and warm, and the baby woke them just after dawn with muffled cries for his mother. William went to bring him to her, and put him to her breast as he watched them. The hearty boy seemed to know exactly what to do, as Sarah smiled at him weakly. She could still hardly move, but she was better than she’d been the night before, and then suddenly she remembered the noise outside, and the look on William’s face, and she knew something had happened, but William still hadn’t told her what it was yet.

“What was all that last night?” she asked softly, as the baby nursed hungrily from his mother, and William wondered if it was still too soon to tell her the truth. And yet, he knew he had to. He had called the Duke of Windsor in Paris the night before, and they had both agreed, they would have to go back to England very quickly. Wallis was going with him, of course, but William knew there was no way he could move Sarah so soon. Certainly not now, and perhaps not for weeks, or even months. It all depended on how quickly she would recover, and that was impossible for anyone to predict now. And in the meantime, William knew he had to go back to London and report to the War Office. She would be safe in France, but he hated to leave her alone. And as she watched him, Sarah saw all his anguish and worries. For William, it had been an agonizing two days. “What’s wrong?” Sarah asked as she reached out to touch him.

“We’re at war,” he said sadly, no longer able to hide it from her, and praying she was strong enough to take the news, and all its implications for them. “England and France against Germany. It happened yesterday, while you were busy bringing Phillip into the world.” It had been quite a task, they both knew, and understandably they’d all been distracted. But now there was no running away from the truth.

Tears filled her eyes the moment she heard it, as she looked at William in fear. “What does that mean for you? Will you have to go soon?”

“I have to.” He nodded mournfully, devastated to leave her now, but there was clearly no choice. “I’ll try to send a cable today and tell them that I’ll come in a few days. I don’t want to leave until you’re a bit stronger.” He gently touched her hand, remembering all that she’d been through. Watching them seemed like a double miracle to him now, and he hated to have to leave them. “I’ll ask Emanuelle to stay here with you when I go. She’s a good girl.” She had certainly proved that, and more, the day before, while he had delivered the baby.

Emanuelle came back that morning, just after nine, looking spotlessly clean in another blue dress and a freshly starched apron. Her dark red hair was pulled neatly back in a thick braid that fell down her back and was tied with a blue ribbon. She was seventeen, and her younger brother was twelve. They had lived all their lives in La Marolle. Her parents were simple and hardworking, and intelligent, as were their children.

And when she was there, William went to the post office to send a cable to the War Office. But just after he got back to the château, Emanuelle’s brother, Henri, arrived from the hotel. “Your phone is out of order, Monsieur le Duc,” he announced. And the Duke of Windsor had called and left a message at the hotel to tell him that the H.M.S.
Kelly
, would come to pick them up the next morning in Le Havre, and he had to come to Paris at once.