She didn’t protest his reasoning, but she still had very little to say. Henry knew her well enough to know that she was likely terrified of what childbirth would be like—as any woman would be. But she had the extra complication of not knowing how this painful cancerous growth might affect the process, the level of pain, and the outcome. He did his best to reassure her that many people were praying for her, and they had to believe that everything would be all right. Every time Henry tried to offer such reassurances, he felt somewhat hypocritical. If Kat was able to safely deliver this child without too much trauma, they would all consider that a triumph. But then what? Everyone knew that cancer would take her life; they just didn’t know how long before that happened or how much she might suffer before God took her home. Henry sometimes wondered whether that was gradually becoming his own version of believing that everything would be all right; when this was over and Kat was no longer suffering, would everything be all right? For her, perhaps. For him, facing that day only felt like the beginning of a long and dreary existence of attempting to make it through this life without her. But he couldn’t think about that now. He had to focus on being there for his wife, and he offered frequent and fervent prayers that all would go well with the birth of this child. If something was wrong with this baby, or it didn’t survive, it would surely break all of their hearts—most especially Kat’s. He far preferred to imagine Kat leaving this world with the satisfaction of having left a part of herself behind. And Henry wanted that too. If he couldn’t have Kat, then he at least hoped God would be merciful enough to leave him a child that would be living, breathing proof of the love they’d shared and the fact that Kat had lived a meaningful and valuable life—however brief it might have been. And even though the priority of passing down titles and wealth was of little importance to Oliver and Viola, they had both admitted that with Kat being their only child by birth, the idea of their bloodline ending with her was disheartening, to say the least. For that and many other reasons, they were all praying the baby would arrive safe and strong.