She sniffled softly, looking up as quiet footsteps creaked the floorboards.

Harrison came into view, face wreathed in gentle concern. His shoulders dropped on a sigh. “Addie…”

Tears eked their way from the corners of her eyes. He had never called her that before, and it meant the world and heaven combined to hear it. She shrugged very slowly. “I cannot manage to get up by myself.”

He nodded, his mouth curving sadly, and this time he came to her, arms outstretched. She placed her hands on his forearms, gripping tightly before nodding. Harrison lifted while she held on, and her feet eventually found purchase on the ground, allowing her to press up to a full standing position at last.

She groaned as the pain of her size and sustained position on the floor made itself known in full force. “Thank you.”

Harrison slid his hands up her arms until they were fully around her, pulling her into him. “I shouldn’t have left you like that. I was too ashamed and angered to think clearly. I’m sorry, Adelaide.”

With a sigh, she rested her face against his chest. “I was fully upright when you left. How couldyou know I would crumble?”

“I could tell you were distressed, and that ought to have been enough.” He kissed the top of her head, lingering a moment. “I should have held you then. My poor Adelaide.”

She hummed in pleasure. “Call me Addie, would you? I like the way you say it.”

Harrison chuckled and pulled back, cupping her face. “I’ll call you whatever you like, apart from Your Highness. Now, let me take you down to dinner.”

Adelaide nodded, each breath seeming to come a trifle easier now he was near. She stepped around the chair with his aid, only to freeze stock-still when she felt a pop within her followed by a rush of liquid between her legs. She stared at the floor in horror, then at Harrison, who matched her looks.

She swallowed once. “I think we may need a doctor.”

If there was any punishment for a man in existence, it was the sounds of his wife in the midst of childbirth.

Hours had passed, and the sounds of her distress had only grown in intensity and volume. Harrison paced in his study, forbidden to enter the bedchambers on Adelaide’s orders, unable to do anything but worry and wonder from below. Others fled their house when their wife was in such a way, but he could not do it. He had refused to leave, had refused to go to bed, and he would have refused breakfast had his sister not threatened him with bodily harm if he did not eat something.

Even now, Emblyn was upstairs with Adelaide, having attended several childbirths before in Cornwall, and he had every expectation that she would argue with the doctor in his management of it.