Good morning one and all. Today feels like a good day. I woke before my alarm which is always a good sign. I always love days when I wake before the alarm. I really hate the feeling of being jarred out of sleep by my alarm clock. I am pretty sure that it what puts me in a grumpy mood first thing in the morning. still it is a necessity as if left to my own devices my day would start much later. while not a bad thing it would put me out of synch with everyone else. which would lead to issues. But today, I beat the alarm and woke up on my own. It’s a good feeling. So since I am not grumpy about starting the day, what do you say we get started? Set your timers for fifteen minutes, remember not to stop writing until the timer ends, and let’s jump into our mid-week writing prompt. Ready, set, write!
Okay, this one wasn’t smooth. I think I just picked the wrong perspective to write from at first. Once I switched to Martha’s perspective I started liking the story. There may be something here to come back and work with.
Wednesday, February 9th: They heard the newborn cry for the first time.
The heard the newborn cry for the first time. A collective breath of relief went through the crowd. Still there was a moment of waiting expectation. The birth wasn’t an easy one and while the cry meant at least one of the people involved made it through, there was no guarantee that both mother and child were safe.
Martha came down the stairs. Her exhaustion was written in every line of her face. Of all of them, she was the only one with any form of medical experience and so the others left her to battle it out when Lucinda went into labor. They all steered clear and simply brought any item requested while staying as far away as possible. Martha’s fight had been a long one.
“Both mother and child are fine,” she told them. The tension flowed out of the room. “You can visit one at a time if you’d like but don’t stay long, Lucinda needs some rest.”
Now excitement swirled through the room. None of them mentioned the importance of the child, or that having Lucinda there with the child at the time it was presented would better help their case. This child could change everything. One by one they took their turns going up the stairs to greet the newborn and assure themselves that Lucinda was fine.
As they began their rotation, Martha slipped out of the back door. She was bone weary and a bit sick of the whole affair. Nobles vying for position. A would be king now in the arms of his exhausted mother. Martha frowned and hoped Lucinda turned the would be king over to a nursemaid as soon as possible. Martha didn’t care for Lucinda any more than she cared for the others in the house. They were a grasping lot.
‘I suppose the child will be the same,’ she thought. She was willing to admit King Jeran was not the most benevolent of kings and his first born son and the current heir was already known for his cruelty and not likely to grow into a caring steward. She was not enthused by being drawn into the situation. The king may not have been the best, but by and large he left them alone out here on the frontier edges of his kingdom.
Most of his edicts hit harder on those in the cities and towns closer to the civilized sections of country. Out here they were mitigated by distance and a lower population. Some of the edicts simply didn’t apply to them. The guilds saw no reason to be in the frontiers and so guild regulation was nearly non-existent. And if their local leaders didn’t feel like enforcing one of the harsher elements of a newly written law, then there was very little chance of retribution.
Martha was willing to concede this was why the conspirators whisked off the queen and second wife of the king once they knew she carried a son. The heir would not like to be displaced and putting mother and child in a place that was content to ignore them was the safest course of action.
Martha shook her head. She was bone weary. It took everything in her to make sure both mother and child survived the birth and now she wanted nothing more than to sleep and leave such concerns to others.
Ten til Midnight 