A Rose by any Other Name

Prologue

The room felt like it was up in flames, sweat coursed down the woman's face, her breaths coming out laboured as the pain started becoming too much. Someone placed a wet cold rag on her forehead, "Get it out of me!" She cried, tears mixing with the salty sweat. "My queen, you can do it, just a couple more pushes!" One of the handmaidens began encouraging her, "Shut. Up." She groaned out, head throwing back as she pushed again, some of her dark hair fell into her mouth as she screamed.

She was starting to feel faint, her head began to move every which way, "Stay with us, just one more, then you're done." The other handmaiden said, her name was Alice. "Is it looking any better, Vittoria?" Alice asked, her hands wringing anxiously as she looked between the faint queen, Helena, and Vittoria who was delivering the baby. "I can't tell what's going on," Vittoria said, "We need you to push!" She finished her sentence with a raised voice, only hoping the baby was still alive.

The baby had breeched itself, no one knew if it would survive if Helena couldn't put on for much longer. With a final long scream, that sounded more like a howl, the baby slipped out, Vittoria catching her. "Is she doing any better?" Vittoria asked, her eyes moving up to the blood covered sheets, heart dropping into her stomach. She had failed to notice one thing, the baby wasn't crying. 

Handing the baby off to Alice, Vittoria ran up to Helena's side, putting her blood covered hands on the queens cheeks, "are you still with us?" She asked, shaking the woman's head a bit. Alice was frantically trying to get the baby to cry, smacking her on her back, plugging her nose briefly. "Oh please, just cry!" Alice begged, sending a final smack to the baby's lower back, a like some miracle, she began to cry.

Helena's eyes rolled to the front of her head again, while still woozy, removed Vittoria's hands from her face, "My baby. I want my baby." She said, holding her arms out weakly, to which Alice eyed Vittoria before handing the baby to Helena.

"I don't know how much longer she'll last.." Vittoria whispered in Alice's ear, a sorrowful look on her face as she stared at her queen. Helena stared at her baby, eyes hooded, arms barely even holding themselves up. Both handmaidens looked down to the end of the bed, noticing there was still more blood slowly seeping into the mattress. They felt this mark would be left forever.

Alice made the first move, walking up closer to the queen, "Do you have a name for her?" She asked, trying desperately to keep her attention. Both knew Helena didn't know she was slowly dying, the tears from the birth were too great.

The queen managed a smile, her voice weak as she spoke, "A-Annabella."  Vittoria moved the hair out of her mouth, smiling down at Annabella, "Here- let me take her."The handmaiden reached out, carefully plucking the baby from the queen, who took one final breath before her head fell back with her mouth still open, all color drained from her face. Tears pricked at Alice's eyes, she had never expected to witness her queen dying right in front of her, yet she can't be surprised, it wasn't uncommon for a woman to die from childbirth, in fact she was lucky if she survived.

Alice leaned forward, pushing up her jaw to close her mouth, and taking her delicate fingers down Helena's eyelids. As she pulled the covers over Helena's legs, she couldn't help but think, if the king didn't want to try for a boy, as a successor to the throne, this situation wouldn't be happening. She could have lived.

The handmaidens shared a look, Vittoria grabbing a rag to begin washing Annabella off, and Alice heading towards the door. As she opened it, she took a deep breath, stepping outside where King George had been waiting impatiently. "So? How is she? Is the boy here yet?" He bombarded the poor girl with questions, his tall stature towering over her.

"Well.." Alice began, "Our queen didn't make it." Her voice cracked, sniffling slightly as she looked down towards her feet. "And it's not a boy, it's a girl. Before the queen passed, she named her Annabella."

A sigh left George's mouth, but there wasn't any emotion that was readable on his face. "After Helena, her middle name will be Rose." He said, crossing his arms. "Do you want to see her?" Alice asked, gasping at his answer.

"No."