My Sister's Prince

Chapter Sixteen:

     Eulalie and her daughter were afforded only several minutes' time to themselves before the curly, dark-haired babe was pulled from her mother's chest. "What are you doing?" She asked, panic evident in her strained voice. 

     The wet nurse bounced the baby up and down in her arms, but the child had resumed her panicked screams once she could no longer feel her mother's warmth. "So sorry Your Majesty, but the child must be taken to her rooms so that she might be bathed and fed. Then, she needs to get some rest."

     "She can do all of those things here," Eulalie said, but the exhaustion from her labor took most of the strength from her voice. Her heart that had hardened with anger and rage just moments before suddenly split in two as if it were constructed of thin, delicate porcelain as she watched her wailing child being carried off out of the room. 

     Pain that was so much deeper than physical rang out throughout her body as Eulalie curled into a tender ball within the covers of her bed. She watched as nurses and midwives packed up and carried out any evidence of her daughter's birth and left the room one by one. In the hour that followed her delivery, Eulalie found herself completely alone. 

     Sobs that heaved throughout her aching body rocked through her. A million thoughts were racing through her head as she tried to fathom and articulate the anger and emotion surging through her. 

     A tentative knock sounded at the door, and Eulalie picked her head up from the wet pillow she was resting upon. She tried not to look discouraged when Elisabetta appeared before her, rather than her husband. "I hear congratulations are in order, Your Highness," the young girl said with a curtsy. 

     Eulalie opened her mouth to respond, but wails that mirrored her daughter's own were the only sounds to escape. Elisabetta flocked to her side and stroked her shaking hand soothingly. "Where...wha-where is everyone?" 

     Elisabetta looked up at her sovereign through sorrowful, round eyes. "The King is attending to the princess in her chambers, along with the Queen-Mother. I'm assuming all the midwives and physicians are there as well, my Lady."

     Eulalie threw her aching legs over the side of the bed and moved the covers aside. "Then we shall go as well," she started, making to get up. Pains stemming from her core shot through her, and she sat frozen in the bed.

     "I'm afraid you need to rest up, Your Highness," the maid said, tucking Eulalie back into the warm bed. "You've just delivered a child-the country's next monarch, in fact. You deserve a little respite yourself, wouldn't you agree? Besides, the princess' chambers are too far away for you to walk." 

      It was then that Eulalie realized the wing of the palace in which they were speaking had gone completely quiet. All the rushing around and racing that she had expected to hear was gone. The princess, whose rooms were supposed to be adjacent to Eulalie's, must be in another part of the castle. "Where is she?" 

     Elisabetta hesitated-something Eulalie had never seen her do. Before she even responded, her eyes gave her answer away. "Your Majesty, the Princess' rooms were placed beside the Queen-Mother's chambers, per her request." 

     At the baby's Christening, Eulalie barely lifted her eyes up from the floor. In the days following her daughter's birth, the two had hardly been allowed in the same room together, let alone by themselves. Eulalie felt the pain as the milk within her breasts dried without a baby to feed, and she watched as others took to mothering her own child. She didn't mean the wetnurses, who struggled as her perfect, beautiful child refused to latch and continued to cry. She meant, instead, her mother-in-law, who took great pains to isolate her and remove her from her baby's life entirely.