No one has to know

Chapter 44

A few more weeks had passed. Catherine still kept up with the renovation, but had found a way to balance her time. Bash however, continued to try to get her to stop altogether, feeling it was an unnecessary strain on her. At the moment,  they were finishing up breakfast, when Bash suddenly suggested another name, as the two had been randomly doing since the subject had come up.

"What about Charlotte?" He said.

"You mean like my former lady who betrayed me and took off into the night, never to be heard from again." She said deadpan.

"Scratch Charlotte off the list." He said, shoving a bite of food in his mouth. Catherine looked up thoughtfully.

"Etienne?" She asked.

"Sure. If you want the other children to beat him up." He said. Catherine rolled her eyes.  A servant came in and handed Catherine some papers.

"Your Grace.  Here are the proposed designs, the architect just needs you to sign off on them." He said. She looked over them.

"Ahh, very good." She said and signed them. She stood and handed the papers back. "And how is the progress on the gallery going?" She asked as she started to follow him out of the room.

"Very well, your grace." He said. Bash got up and went after her. He grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Catherine, I know I keep asking this, and I know you keep saying no, but can you please stop all this. It may be irrational, but I'm worried about you." He said, as the servant disappeared around the corner.

"Oh Bash. There's nothing to worry about. I have been feeling much healthier lately." She said touching his arm.

"I know, and I'd like to keep it that way. You're not completely better. You still get sick from time to time." He said.

"Did I not promise I would tell you if I felt ill? Everything is fine, you need to stop..." Catherine stopped and put her hand to her stomach.

"Catherine, are you okay? Should I get help?" He asked panicked as he helped her sit on a bench in the hall.

"No. No, Bash, it's alright. I'm not in pain." She took his hand. "Here." She said putting his hand to her stomach. He felt movement. His breath caught.

"Is that...?"

"Yes." Catherine said smiling and touching his cheek. "That's our baby."

"That's incredible." He said, grinning from ear to ear. Emotions began to build in his chest. He'd never been so overcome. "That's the best thing I've ever felt." He kissed her. "I love you." Then he kissed her stomach. "And I love you."

Later that night, as they were readying themselves for bed, Catherine started to feel faint again. Bash went over to steady her and guided her over to the bed to sit.

"See, I told you, you needed to slow down." he felt her forehead. It was hot. "I think you should see a physician again, now that the baby is growing so fast. So he can check to make sure matters haven't gotten worse." he said, brushing some hair back over her shoulder.

"Bash..." she started to argue.

"Please. It's only a precaution." he said lifting her chin with his hand. "I don't want to take any chances. I don't want to loose you." she sighed.

"Alright. If it will make you feel better..." she began.

"It will."

"We'll call someone first thing in the morning."

"Thank you." he pulled her in and she leaned against his chest.

The next day, the physician had just finished examining Catherine. Bash was seated next to her, holding her hand.

"Well, from what youv'e told me, your condition hasn't worsened, but it also hasn't improved, which it probably should have by now. But as the last physician told you, there isn't much you can do but rest and take care of yourself. You haven't been over exerting yourself have you?" he asked.

Bash and Catherine answered in unison. Bash answering 'Yes.' and Catherine 'No.'

"I suppose it's all a matter of opinion." she said glaring at Bash. "I've been doing a little redecorating..." Bash then glared at her. "It's not as though I were doing the work myself. I'm merely directing the workers."

"Don't you mean hassling the workers?" he turned to look at the physician. "She's always yelling and pointing out every little mistake." he started mimicking her tone. "That painting is two inches too far to the right, do I have to do everything?"

"I do not sound like that!" she said. Bash raised an eyebrow in disagreement.

"Uh, Well, regardless of weather or not you sound like that, and it's none of my business if you do, it does sound like it may be too much stress. You need to rest emotionally, as well as physically. You really should defer your renovations to a later date, or let someone else take care of it...Oh and also, you shouldn't travel at all, if that was something you were planning on." he said.

"Not travel? But we need to get back to the castle in a few weeks." she said.

"I wouldn't recommend it. But if it is essential, I would go now. The further along you are, the more of a risk it becomes." he gathered his things. "Be well, and good luck to you both." he said as he left.

They looked at each other worriedly.

"What are we going to do?" said Catherine. "It hasn't been long enough, how are we supposed to explain...this?" she gestured to her ever growing stomach. "They are never going to beleive I wasn't pregnant before we were married."

"It's not that bad." he said.

"Not that...I'm enormous." she said.

"Well it's either we go back now or we'll have to wait until after the baby is born." he said.

"I guess we don't have much of a choice then do we? Not going back at all would be just as difficult to explain." she said. "Francis isn't going to be happy about this. Not to mention, all of that play acting was for nothing."

"Now, now. I'm sure we can figure out a way to explain it. And your health is more important, I'm sure Francis can understand that." he said holding her hands.

"I hope you're right." she said.

"Well, I was right about everything else." he teased.

"Oh, here we go. Time for you to gloat." she said.

"I'm not gloating. I wish I was wrong." he said. She groaned and fell back onto the bed, annoyed.

"Uhh, When is this nightmare going to end? I'm so sick of lying and telling stories just to make it through the day, it's exhausting." she said.

"It's only one more lie." he said.

"Yes, there's always just one more isn't there?" she said. He crashed down next to her and pulled her over so she was laying on his chest.

"It'll be alright, we'll figure it out. We always do." he said as he stroked her hair. She tried to muster a smile and he kissed the top of her head.

The next day, they packed their things and made their way back to the castle.