Authors: M.A. Abraham
He entered the house, after handing his horse to his squire, to find her in an exhausted sleep. Again. That does it. He thought furiously, but remained silent in consideration of her state. Tomorrow he was going to have a serious talk with her. This had to stop.
There was a
n intense sense of impending disaster in the air and Aura could scarcely breathe. She was falling in a darkness so encompassing she could almost touch it. It surrounded her, filling her with a fear so deep she wanted to scream. She opened her mouth to do so, but no sound came out. Her body jerked, she woke with a painful gasp, with the sound of her heart pounding in her ears.
The abrupt movement by Thorn's side woke him and he watched as Aura turned terrified eyes onto him. She swallowed hard and took a deep labored breath, deciding it must be an approaching storm that was causing her such discomfort, for it had been unseasonably warm. The look of terror passed, as did her feeling of doom, and she looked into the deep concerned eyes of her husband, first to seek comfort then to reject it as it was offered. She moved to turn from him as the look in his eyes made her uncomfortable. He frowned in irritation at her dismissal, and her apparent disregard for what he might have been able to offer. With a mixture of hurt feelings and an urgency to make her aware of him and what could be between them, he pulled her into his arms.
"Do not shut me out Aura. I am your husband. I want to know what causes you such fear. I want to help you."
"It was nothing Thorn, just a dream too silly to concern yourself about." She rested against his chest, refusing to meet his steady gaze.
He softly ordered. "Look at me Aura."
She shook her head as she held her trembling lip between her teeth and his voice firmed as he repeated the order. "You will look at me Aura, then you will tell me what it is which bothers you so much that you woke in such a manner from a dream."
As she knew he would give her no peace until she did as she was told, she raised watery eyes to look into his and answered: "It is nothing, just a dream of emptiness Thorn."
He felt a constriction deep in his heart, as he looked deep into her eyes and moaned as he covered her lips with his, to kiss her lingeringly. She submitted to his embrace and kiss, but returned nothing. It was because of this that he pulled away from her in hurt anger.
"When do the games end Aura, I am getting tired of waiting for all of this to come to an end."
"What games are you talking about? I play no games." She denied.
"Do you not?" He snapped. "Shutting me out of your life. The constant labor until you pass out every night, sneaking out of my arms every morning and off all day. We are no closer now than we were on the day we were wed and it is long past the time we did something about that. I am tired of you trying to avoid me."
"Avoid you?" Aura slammed her fists against his hard chest as she struck back in her anger. "You think that all I have done so far was just so that I could avoid you? Of all the arrogant, conceited, egotistical, pigheaded people I could ever hope to meet you have got to take the cake." She pushed at him to no avail and continued in frustration. "Leave me go, you big overgrown oaf. You make me sick to my stomach. If I were really out to avoid you I would have just left. I would never have gone to all the trouble of remaking your house and village so it would be comparatively fit for human habitation."
Thorn was surprised by the venomous sound in her voice as she angrily passed on a piece of her mind. He then smiled as he hugged her close to himself, to kiss her on the side of her head as he whispered in a thick hoarse voice. "You do care. I had begun to think that it might never happen, but you really do care. I cannot begin to believe that my prayers have been answered. That God would help me find the one soul in creation that would make my life complete and that she would love me in return. Love me Aura, please love me? Make my life complete. You must, for I love you so."
Aura could not believe what she was hearing. Thorn could not be serious. How could she be what he had prayed for? She would not be born for centuries and as far as loving her, he hardly knew her, how could he say he loved her?
"No, it is not true, you do not know what you are talking about." She denied, afraid that it just might be true.
To prove it he lowered his lips onto hers to demand a response. Within moments Aura went from trying to push him away, to winding her arms about his neck as she moved beneath him in unconscious invitation, in her own attempt to get closer.
What did she really feel for him? Aura wondered as their kiss deepened. She was physically attracted to the man. She admitted that much. But then how could she deny it when her body ached for his touch every time she let him close enough to make love with her. For that matter if she was to be honest with herself, that would include every time she thought of him.
"Thorn," she whispered his name, her voice thick and her breathing ragged as his hands ran up the sides of her legs and over her hips, running up and under her bunched up nightgown, to caress and fondle breasts already swollen in passionate reply to his touch. Her mouth met his, seeking closer contact as he moved to deepen the exchange.
She was so soft. Thorn felt Aura’s body respond and moaned as their lips fused and he crushed her against his chest. It had been, he felt, forever since he had touched her like this, tasted her sweetness and caressed the curves and valleys of her body.
"Yes," he spoke the word his mind thought, as Aura sought to return some of his caresses.
She ran her hands across his broadly muscled shoulders and down his solid biceps, before winding her hands behind him to stroke the tense muscles in his back. She loved how he felt beneath her fingers. The velvety hardness of his body, the way his shoulders tapered to his hips, to create a form any body builder in her time would have had to have worked years to perfect. She supposed they had been developed, as had his skills at war, by constant practice and by the use of his sword. It was not something she was giving much thought to, not when her blood ran hot through her veins and caused her to writhe against him in a silent plea for fulfillment.
A pounding at the door penetrated their inflamed desires, and the urgency the knocks pressed on their consciousness.
"Something terrible has happened." Aura whispered, in her inability to do little else yet. "We have to go Thorn."
Thorn nodded his ascent with deep reluctance, hesitating to leave go of her. It would not have been more than a few more moments and he would have been thrusting hard into her, searing her with his heat as he filled her with his seed in answer to her responding flame. It would, he realized, take him a few minutes now to collect himself, before he cooled enough to be able to respond to the person at the door.
It was not quite so with Aura, for as soon as he let her go, she rolled off the bed to run to the door. A man, in definite distress, awaited her presence.
"My lady, please come, my wife is in trouble. She bleeds heavy and the child does not come. They say you are gifted in healing, and the midwife says she can do no more for her."
"Lead me," Aura ordered as she ran, still clad in her nightgown, losing her slippers as she rushed. The man raced after her, to pass so he could show her which house was his.
Giving sharp looks of observation about her as she entered the house, Aura shot out orders as she continued to move into the second room of the hut. "Boil water and get some clean cloths ready and warm."
Nothing seemed to have been gotten ready, and to her estimation none of the conditions were sanitary enough to deliver a child in. She wondered how she would manage to keep the woman from catching infection, if she did not die first.
The woman on the bed gave another scream as she convulsed under another contraction and Aura ran to wash her hands in whatever water was available. A moment later she pushed the midwife out of the way to check the position of the child. It was breach and she sucked the air into her lungs through her teeth, giving off a hissing sound as she did, as an indication of how she truly felt. She knew she was in over her head. She had never delivered a child into the world before, never mind one in the kind of trouble this one was in. She suppressed the fear that threatened to overcome her, and took several deep-bracing breaths. The contractions stopped for a moment and she spoke to the woman as she lay panting.
"I am going to have to turn the child, but you must help me. Take the midwife's hand and when you feel another contraction coming on, let me know. In the meantime, I am going to try to get that child facing the right direction before it happens."
Aura felt as if she was almost incoherent in her babbling then decided that she must have made some sense or no one would have taken their places as ordered. She looked to Heaven for a split second, as she prayed for guidance. She had only seen this done once before and that had been on close circuit television. She hoped she would be lucky enough to pull it off. The lives of two people depended on it.
Aura swallowed, took a bracing breath then slid a hand into the woman's body to turn the babe. Only a split second after that the woman yelled. "Now, it is coming now."
Almost shaking in her fear Aura put the baby down, and cut the umbilical cord. She then cleared off the baby’s mouth, to breath air into the child's lungs. After a few tries the child began to mew in a weak pitiful manner, then cry, as he filled his lungs to give great lustful and healthy screams. The cries were drowned out by his mother's voice.
"Please my Lady, another is coming."
Aura flashed the woman a quick glance then passed the wailing baby to the midwife, ordering her to take the child and clean it. She then turned her full attention to the birth of the second baby. This time the child came easy and he started to cry almost as soon as he entered the world. She had no sooner had the child disconnected from its mother than the afterbirth followed, and as the new mother looked at Aura, she passed out.
The midwife returned to collect the second baby, and as Aura passed it to her, she asked. "How long did she suffer?"
"It started yesterday. She went into hard labor last night. It is a miracle the children have survived and both boys. It is a blessing my lady, a sign from Heaven."
"Yes, a blessing." Aura repeated, though she was not so sure about that. She turned from the woman before her to view the mess. She was not going to leave the mother to lie in her own blood. As long as she was in command she would not allow any woman in a position where she would have to clean herself after spending twenty-four hours in hard labor. She ordered some warm water brought to her and as she waited for the water to arrive she checked on her patient.
Aura gave a bit of a hiccup as she fought to control her tears and as she finished stripping the covering, which was still clean and untouched by the blood about her. The mother opened her eyes to look at her.
"My Lady! You should not be tending me, you are our Lord's Lady."
"That makes you my responsibility then, right?" Aura stated as a matter of fact then on a softer note added: "You have two healthy sons. Do you feel strong enough to see to them?"
The woman smiled her gratitude and nodded. "I need to know that they are truly alive and well. I have had terrible dreams about their birth."
"They are fine, but first we must clean you up so you are presentable. Are you capable of standing?" Aura felt as if she was asking a lot of the woman, but knew that it was no more than what would have been expected. It was a harsh world they lived in.
"Yes my Lady, I think I can do that much." The woman’s smile was weak, but she was willing to try.
"Then I will send the midwife in to see to your sheets. When you are abed again I shall bring you your sons."
Aura left the room to check to see if the babies had been properly taken care of. They had been and were now wrapped in semi-ragged cloths. She held out her arms to the midwife to receive them, as she ordered.
"I will take the children to their mother shortly. Before I do, however, I would like you to get her clean sheets and fix her bed. When she is comfortable and warm again, you are to let me know and I will bring her the children."
The woman nodded as she handed over the babes then rushed to do her bidding. Aura sat with a child cradled in each arm and smiled tenderly as she looked at them. She did so love children.
Thorn stood by the father, with a mixture of love and pride shining from his eyes as he watched his wife. She had not even noticed him. She had been so involved with the twins she had no time for him. He imagined, for a moment, that these were his children. That Aura was their mother and he had to suppress a great urge to go to her. They were not their children, but he knew that when they did have babies that she would be a caring and loving mother. It filled his heart with joy to know that she would someday bear his children.
The midwife came out of the room and nodded at her and she rose to re-enter the room, to place the boys into their mother's eager arms. She noticed how the woman's eyes lit with joy, as she looked up at her and asked.
"How can I ever thank you enough for saving all of our lives?"
Without thinking Aura replied: "Just raise them to be good and strong in their support of your Lord Thorn."
She turned to leave them and her eyes fell on the frame of her husband, standing not four feet from her. She blushed deep in her embarrassment, feeling as if she had been caught saying something she would rather he not have heard. She felt the heat of his gaze upon her as she lowered her eyes and a moment later, she ran from the building.
Aura was not alone in her confusion, as Thorn felt himself at a sudden loss as to what to do. Should he leave her on her own for a while, or should he follow? He decided to leave her be.
Nor was he given a chance to change his mind, as he might have done, for one of his men came barging into the house to relay a message to him of a disaster at the building site. Thorn sighed, in a way he would have rather have gone after Aura, but he supposed she would be waiting for him, when he returned to their own home. She always was, albeit asleep.