Since it is the holiday season, I thought I would provide my readers with a special holiday treat...a free holiday online read of a Christmas related chapter of my newest book THE COUNTRY GIRL EMPRESS. Enjoy!
Want to read more? Just follow this link: https://goo.gl/Hqv4zc
by A. Piper Burgi
The Country Girl Empress
by A. Piper Burgi
Copyright ® 2017 A. Piper Burgi
Chapter Two
Just Another Girl
Due
to the number of guests, and the expected “big event”, the servant’s Christmas was severely limited. Even though the
Duke was as jovial as always, he seemed distracted…and no wonder! His short
visit to his wife’s bedside had made him concerned, despite the doctor’s
assurances that everything was proceeding normally.
He
and Ludovika were twenty-nine years old. A woman of that age was no longer
considered the youngest, while a man of the same age was regarded as at his
peak. But Ludovika was healthy, and would, as Max hoped, give him many more
children.
The
Duke put his youngsters to bed. Together they said their prayers and asked for
extra help for their mother. But, brother and sister just couldn’t fall asleep.
The opening of the presents and the happiness that followed was not the only
reason for their insomnia. A great secret lay over this house on said evening.
The
clock turned ten, then half past. The air in the delivery room was thick enough
to cut with a knife. The room was overheated, and everyone was on edge. After a
short rest, following a phase of exhaustion, the contractions began anew. They
were so violent that Ludovika began to groan and she finally screamed. It
wasn’t an easy birth. The doctor was concerned for the mother, but the midwife
didn’t lose her nerves and sent one of the servants to fetch the Duke.
“Tell
him, to come quickly. It’s time!”
She
wiped the Duchess’ forehead, while the footman ran out the door.
Unerringly
he headed for the library, where he found the Duke sipping a small glass of
liqueur.
“Your
Royal Highness,” he began his formal address.
The
Duke cut him off with a violent hand gesture. “Just tell me,” he yelled, “is it
time yet?”
“Yes,
it is,” the servant nodded stiffly. “Her Royal Highness is ready now.”
“Well,
then I am ready to join her,” the Duke
replied and took long strides towards the delivery room.
“YUCK,”
he yelled as soon as he entered the salon, in which the Duchess writhed in
pain.
“Does
no one ever open a window in here?”
“For
Heaven’s sake, do you wish to kill Her Royal Highness?” One of the secretaries
stepped forward.
“Very
well,” the Duke conceded, “but some people rather freeze before they suffocate
in this stench!”
And
in just that moment the Duchess screamed bloody murder, and then the doctor
held the newborn in his arms and dictated loudly for the stenographers, while
the midwife took care of the afterbirth: “Born on this Sunday the 24th
of December 1837, at 10:43 pm, a well-formed female child…”
The
people on the other side of the paravent began to clap and congratulated the
Duke. But he only murmured disappointed: “Another girl!”
Nevertheless,
even though it was “only” another girl, the happiness all around was real. The
little princess, a rose-colored and
wrinkled bundle of joy, was vivacious from the beginning. The royal physician
had no need to administer the obligatory smack on the bottom to get the child
to breathe because she did that all on her own. And when Papa Max held her in
his strong arms for the first time, she screamed again. Max held her up and
showed her to all who wished to see her. The newborn obliged and squawked once
more as if to say: “Look here I am! Merry Christmas, everyone!”
Max
couldn’t help but admire that loud little voice, and when he looked closer at
the newest addition to his family, he cried out in surprise: “Holy Cow!”
He
immediately pulled the doctor over to the other side of the room, even though
he had been busy caring for the recovering mother, and Max showed him his
miracle child.
“Doctor,
is there something wrong with my eyes? Take a closer look at her when she opens
her mouth again!”
The
doctor put on his spectacles and did as he was asked. And when the baby cried
out, he said: “Unbelievable, Your Highness. Simply incredible!”
“It’s
true, isn’t it? She’s got a tooth coming in! You can see it clearly right
there. My poor child was born with a toothache!”
“But
that is certainly not my fault, Your Highness, or your wife’s,” the doctor
hurried to reassure the Duke as if he felt responsible for the fact that the princess
was born that way.
Surely
this circumstance was the explanation why the child had been so active in her
mother’s belly of late, and why the birth had been a bit more complicated than
the mother would have liked it to be.
“But
if she’s already teething, then this can only be a lucky omen,” assured the
white-haired Countess Hohenberg, while inspecting the baby through her opera-glass.
“She
is a Sunday child, and on top of that she was born with a good luck tooth, and
all of that on Christmas Eve! One day she will be an extraordinary lady, I can
already predict that,” she assured the
father.
“Is
that so?” Max doubted the Countess. “And how do you know all this?”
“But
my dear Duke, those are all ancient Chinese pearls of wisdom,” the Countess
replied slightly piqued.
“Well,
but we are here in Munich and not in Peking,” Max grumbled while shaking his
head.
“But
the mention of Christmas Eve indeed reminds me of something.”
“What
does it remind you of, if I may ask?”
“A
kind of parental negligence. In all this chaos, no one thought about it, you
see? We have no Christmas present for the little worm!”
The
Countess clapped her hands together and laughed. “But my dear Duke, I highly
doubt she will notice!”
“She
might not, but I do,” declared Duke Max seriously. “Everything must be done in
an orderly fashion! I shall take care of this oversight myself first thing
tomorrow morning!”
At
last, he gave the exhausted new mother a big kiss on the forehead.
“You
did a great job, Vicka,” he praised her. “Even if it’s only another girl, we
shall, nevertheless, be happy!”
Ludovika
sighed and smiled; Vicka, as Max affectionately often referred to her…such a
ridiculous nickname! But although her husband had little to no tact, he was
otherwise a good man.
The
worst was behind her.
“Holy
Mother of God, I thank thee and grant our little one your special protection!” Ludovika
sent a quick prayer towards Heaven.
Another
half an hour passed before the last of the visitors had left, and the recovering
mother could eat a bowl of chicken broth in peace. And while the broth warmed her from the inside, her wide-awake
mind was working overtime.
“What
name shall we give her, Max?” she asked her husband, who sat at the foot of the
bed. “And our two other children? Are they asleep yet and were they happy with
their Christmas presents?”
“They
are both fast asleep,” Max reassured her. “Do not worry about them, Vicka. And
they were indeed happy with their new toys, but we have nothing for the new
baby.”
“She
doesn’t need anything,” Ludovika shook her head.
“Of
course we need something for her since it’s not only Christmas but also her
birthday. She shall not be able to one day throw it in my face that I forgot.”
The
naming of the child was, of course, another state affair. If the child would have
been a boy, the name had already been chosen for them by the King and his
ministers.
The
newborn slept next to her mother, restless in her cradle and did not worry
about her ancestry or the future. But she was no ordinary child. She was a part
of the House of Wittelsbach.
The
Duke felt exhausted. He had a vague vision of a get-together at the Hofbräuhaus.
He definitely wanted to pay the place a visit tomorrow. His friends would already
be curious to hear about the details, and to Max, they were almost more
important than all those high-born visitors today.
“Good
night, Vicka,” he quickly told his wife, “and get well soon! We need you.”
That
came straight from his heart. Even high-born mothers died from childbed fever.
This disease was a mysterious illness, which quickly and gruesomely killed new
mothers when their newborns needed them most. The fear of the fever was part of having children, in poor
homes as well as the wealthy and no one seemed to be safe from it. One could
only hope that it could be avoided.
The
next day the Duke attended Christmas mass in the Palais chapel. Afterwards,
when he had confirmed that Ludovika was well and had presented her with a
valuable pearl necklace, he just couldn’t stay home any longer. He donned on a
simple, green coat and stomped towards the Hofbräuhaus.
He
was pulled towards it like a magnet, where in
the so-called “Extra Room” a table for the Duke and his friends was always
reserved, and they already awaited his arrival.
“It’s
another girl, just so you know!” Max yelled across the room while hanging up
his coat.
“And
she already has a tooth! She shall become quite a lady!”
Everybody
laughed, and the Duke got comfortable in his usual chair. Before he knew it, a tankard
of beer was placed before him, which he emptied in honor of his newborn daughter.
His
circle of friends consisted of an apothecary, a university professor, an
artist, a factory owner, a lumber and
coal dealer, a veterinarian and a merchant – they were the “Good Seven”, as the Duke called them. Altogether they
were part of the middle class, and all of them except the professor were
wealthy, but nevertheless, the fellow was an essential element of this circle
of friends since he was a learned man.
“Does
the King know?” asked the professor.
“I
believe he knew even before Ludovika and I,”
the Duke grinned from ear to ear. “But seriously, if he read the protocol from
last night then he knows everything. Possibly even that our little treasure
already has a tooth. Now it’s only a matter of time before he will show up on
our doorstep and whether or not he feels generous.”
“We
shall hope so,” declared the merchant. “We, and I mean the lot of us, will definitely…”
“I
have a problem,” the Duke interrupted, while the waiter served a second round
of beers and the obligatory roasted lamb with red cabbage and potato dumplings.
“What
sort of a problem?” asked the merchant.
“Yesterday
was Christmas Eve when our little girl was born,” Max explained and began to
eat with gusto. “And I didn’t have a Christmas present for her, and a proper
father would have been prepared for such an eventuality. Now I don’t know what
to do about it.”
“Ahhh!”
the chorus replied.
“Aren’t
I right?” the Duke chomped down on a potato dumpling and looked around the
table, hoping for help from his friends.
***
Want to read more? Just follow this link: https://goo.gl/Hqv4zc
by A. Piper Burgi
Piper is the author of several non-fiction books, and recently added two historical fiction novels to her ever-expanding collection of published writings, In the Shadow of Her Majesty and The Country Girl Empress. When she isn't busy typing away on her computer, she can be found chasing after her furry children or holding on tightly to a good cup of coffee. Follow her on LinkedIn, Facebook, Goodreads and Google+.
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