Meeting Mary Ann

Prolouge

   Charles Kingsley paced the foyer as he listened to his wife give birth to their third child, no matter how many times he heard it he never got used to the awful sounds escaping the room. He could hear footsteps racing back and forth, then he finally heard it, the soft cries of his newest child reached his ears and he raced up the stairs nearly bowling over the doctor who was exiting the room.
   "My wife?" he asked looking around the man.
   "She is tired and resting comfortably..."
   "And the baby?"
   "She seems to be okay, though she does have a heart palipatation. It means she has a heart that skips a beat, every few beats."
   "Can I see them?"
   "Of course," the doctor stepped aside letting him pass. Mr. Kingsley looked at the door, took a breath and walked in. His wife was nestled with her daughter cooing sweet things in her ear. Catherine Kingsley's beautiful brown locks were braided and small strands were matted against her skin, but all he saw was the love of his life and the mother of his beautiful daughters. He thought all of this as he stepped closer to the bed and she beamed up at him, a ray of sunshine.
   "Isn't she beautiful?" she asked as she moved aside the blanket so her father could look at her. The small bundlel looked up innocently at him, her beautiful green eyes sparkled from shed tears, her hair was the same brown hair as her mothers and there was enough of it to know it would be a mess of curls as she grew. He sat gently next to them and kissed the top of each of their heads.
   "You both are my sweet Catherine my beautiful Alice."

   The next morning Mr. Kingsley was awakened by the shrill cry of his newest daughter. He chuckled to himself softly, he had almost forgotten about this part. He decided his wife had been through enough the night before and went to Alice.
   "For someone so small you sure make plenty of noise," he said softly as he approached the cradle, "You're liable to wake the whole house." He moved the blanket covering her and gasped, the baby in the cradle looked almost identical to Alice except where Alice had brown curls, this baby had golden blonde hair straight as a straw.
   He ran to Catherine, his heart racing, he roused her from her sleep and dragged her to the cradle. When they finally reached it she looked in, then she looked at her husband utterly confused.
   "I don't understand what's wrong dear, it's our beautiful blonde angel."
   "Yes she is beautiful, but just yesterday Alice had brown hair, now her hair is golden blonde..." he trailed off he couldn't understand why his wife was so calm.
   "Charles dear, I think maybe all the stress of yesterday is catching up with you. Let's call in the wet nurse and you and I will go and enjoy some calming morning tea."
   "But..but Catherine..." he mumbled as she pulled him from the room.
   "No buts, Charles, you need tea and perhaps a morning dose of calming pills, childbirth can be hard on the father too."
   Charles looked at the baby in the cradle, maybe she was right it was probably just nerves and exhaustion, he could have just mixed up her hair color, it was possible. Still he had this feeling in the pit of his stomach, a nagging feeling, the baby in this cradle was not his daughter.