this is supposed to be easy.”
“Don’t make me hate you more. You try and push a melon out of your ass then we can talk.”
All of us had to suppress our laughter.
“It’s time, you can do it. One big push, Katie. That should do it.”
The queen yelled again and I buried my face inside Lucian’s chest. When I heard a cry I looked again. The baby was so tiny. Oh shit, was that really me?
Tears rolled over the queen’s face as Tanya just stared at me. “We’ve got a problem.” She looked at them, sharing a good laugh and an embrace. Both their happiness dissipated the minute Tanya said those words.
“What’s wrong with him?” The queen asked.
Him?
Tanya didn’t answer.
“What is wrong with my baby?”
“It’s not a him. It’s a her.”
The king and queen looked at one another. The queen started to shake her head. “I can’t do this Albert.”
“Katie, we have no choice.”
“Just give her here.” The queen held out her arms and Tanya wrapped a blanket over the tiny baby. She placed the bundle inside the queen’s arms. She looked at her with eyes so soft. The look on her face spoke a million words. It was as if she’d won a prize, something she’d really wanted and that all the pain this baby had caused her was long forgotten. She placed the baby next to her on the bed and opened the blanket. Her tiny leg carried a big brown mark.
I looked at my own leg carrying a similar dark splat and looked back at mom and baby on the bed. I went closer to see the look on her face again as she inspected the tiny little girl. My father was right next to them, kissing the baby’s head softly.
The queen looked up at the king. “This wasn’t part of the deal, Albert. I can’t do this.”
“We can’t back down now,” Tanya said.
“Give me a minute with her,” my dad asked.
“Albert.”
“A minute, Tanya,” he said sternly and she just gave him the look.
“Fine, but you are only making this harder.” Tanya walked out of the room.
My father touched the queen’s face gently. “I know how long you’ve waited, Katie. But we can’t keep her. When the trouble is over, we can tell everyone and she can come to the castle. Right now, they will kill her if she comes home with us.”
“I can’t do this!” the queen yelled. “A boy was a totally different thing. I never thought that it would be a little girl, Albert.”
“The pond showed you.”
“It showed me both. First the boy then the girl. I never thought in a million years that it would only be one of them.” She wiped away her tears.
My father got up and paced around with his hand pinching his nose. He finally stopped and looked at the Queen. “So what do you want to do? You want to take her home and endanger her, because I promise you Katie, I don’t know who is going to betray us, or when. I don’t have that answer yet.”
“I know.”
“Then what do you want me to do? As God is my witness Catherine, I want to keep her just as much as you do, but we can’t.” Tears welled up in his eyes as he kneeled before my mother’s bed, begging her to stick with the plan. “When the trouble is over, I promise she will come home.”
“What if the trouble is never over? What if she grows up without knowing who she is?”
“She will know who we are. She will know that you loved her. Tanya promised, and when it’s all over, she’ll be sent for.”
“A baby this small needs her mother. She won’t survive without me.” Tears rolled down my mother’s cheeks.
“Then what do you want me to do, Catherine? Because I don’t know.”
“I need time with her. A month.”
My father closed his eyes. “Okay, a month.”
“I stayed a month with them?” I asked Lucian who had tears in his eyes too.
He didn’t have the answer. He didn’t even know about me, he was like three, four years old. The queen kissed the baby on the head and brought her close to her chest.
Both Lucian and I couldn’t stop looking.
“She loved you, Elena.”
I nodded and wiped away a tear again.
He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. We both jumped as Tanya walked into the cabin again. “We should go,” she ordered.
“No, we’re giving Katie a month,” my father said.
She looked at both of them with