The scene that greeted Calent's return was one of chaos. Though the guards outside the palace had remained silent and firm at their posts, inside was an entirely different world as everyone, it seemed, rushed back and forth with fresh linens and with water...and most of them seemed so intent on their work that Calent's presence was all-but ignored.
It wasn't until Calent was much closer to the Grand Duchess's room that he would hear that agonized scream of a woman in the midst of a hard labor accompanied by the voice of the doctor rising about her's in encouragement or instruction.
Inside, Kathryn was exhausted -- like both of the child's parents, this baby was stubborn, and that was already apparent. Wasn't the second labor supposed to be easier? Instead, it seemed to be taking forever...and the fact that the baby had tried to come into the world backwards, well...it hadn't helped.
Kathryn was allowed to rest at last as the screams of a baby brought a whole new level of pandemonium to the room. She sagged back against the pillows and smiled tiredly up at the ceiling first, then at the child as it was put into her arms.
The baby was screaming loud enough to be heard halfway across Connlaoth, Kathryn thought -- but she was too exhausted, really, to care. A screaming baby wasn't likely to keep her awake at this point...
"Congratulations, your Grace. Your wife has given you a healthy baby girl."
For half a second, it didn't register that the doctor was speaking to someone else; Kathryn was too startled by the fact her son -- the baby who had survived being poisoned several months back -- was a girl. Her eyes lifted, then, in surprise to land on the figure of her husband in the doorway.
Just how long had he been standing there, she wondered. She hadn't expected him back so soon -- his trips to Allar were usually much longer, even the ones for business...