Hardly a Lady

XIII

To Elsa's credit, she served Giselle dutifully and without complaint, so far as to make Giselle wonder if Elsa was happy to be there. She carried out each and every task Giselle gave her to a higher standard than Giselle could have anticipated, and as the weeks went on she became more and more grateful for the help of another woman in her household.

Giselle and her ladies dedicated a large proportion of their time in preparing the future Prince's nursery, which was attached to Giselle's own bedchamber. Giselle consulted with the decorators and Queen Lahleh about her plans for the room, and then set to work on hiring a wet nurse for her baby. She wasn't overly fond of her child being fed from another woman, but the Queen explained that it was the Decristo tradition, and that since Giselle and the child both bore the Decristo name, they would have to adhere.

Eventually Giselle chose a buxom young woman by the name of Navia, who was married to the castle blacksmith and was 8 months pregnant with her second babe. Giselle liked Navia instantly; she had bright rosy cheeks, a calming laugh and despite being near her full term was full of life. Giselle knew instantly that Navia was the woman she wanted to nurse her son.

When Navia went into her confinement, Giselle sent her a string of pearls as a good luck gift. A note was returned from the wetnurse, writing about how bored she was sitting in the darkness of her bedroom all day with nothing but embroidery to keep her entertained. It thanked Giselle for the beautiful pearls - which were no doubt worth more than anything Navia had ever owned in her life - and wrote about how excited she was to bring her own child into the world and then to nurse the heir to the Helixonian throne as well. From then on, Giselle spent a lot of time writing to Navia, and chuckled as she read her replies. The fact that Navia had reached her full term had done nothing to dampen the woman's humour.

One morning as Giselle ate her breakfast, when Navia had been in her confinement for almost three weeks, a hastily scribbled note in the blacksmith's messy handwriting arrived courtesy of a stable-boy whom the blacksmith had paid a silver coin to bring it to Giselle. It bore the news that in the night, Navia had given birth to a baby girl, who was perfectly healthy and beautiful. They had named their daughter Aria, and the blacksmith wrote that both the mother and baby were doing perfectly well. Giselle was desperate to go and see the child for herself, but Lady Tressema convinced her against it, since she was close to full term herself. Nowadays Giselle tired incredibly easily; she could hardly manage the walk to the orangery any more. Most of her time she spent in her chambers, receiving people who wished to see her there. As the time went by, the amount of visitors allowed to enter her chambers were limited, since Giselle found that her patience was becoming increasingly tried and she couldn't stay cordial as was expected of her for long. Soon the time would be approaching for Giselle to enter her own confinement, and she honestly couldn't wait, since it would give her the chance to enjoy some quiet, relaxing time without the constant demands of court to attend to.

On the evening before her confinement was due to begin, the Queen had arranged a lavish masquerade ball in celebration of the impending birth of the Decristo heir. Giselle would have liked nothing better than to curl up in her bed with one of the many books she'd been given as gifts by various courtiers, but since the ball was in the honour of the child who bloomed within her, she had no choice but to attend. For the first time in weeks, she sat still whilst her ladies fussed around her, plaiting the sides of her hair and fastening them at the back of her head with pearl pins and brushing her dark curls - which seemed to have grown thicker and more lustrous during her pregnancy - before applying rouge to her lips and cheeks. They dressed her in a specially made gown of white silk which clung tightly to her body and proudly showed off her large bump. The gown split at the skirt to reveal a golden forepart, and golden roses had been embroidered around the hem and cuffs, and to finish it all off a golden mask had been tied around her eyes. As she gazed in the mirror, Giselle had to admit that although she didn't particularly want to attend the ball, she did look eye-catching.