A Kiss of Fire (A Kiss of Magic #2)(68)

“There! Now we begin,” the doctor said.

“Begin! What room have you been in these past few hours?” Yasra snapped at him. Dendri chuckled as he eased away from the pain centers of her mind and allowed her to feel her full labor once more. The urge to push was tremendous.

“What’s so funneeee!” she demanded of Dendri as she pushed through her words. “You wouldn’t be laughing if it was you here instead of meeee!”

“Save your breath,” the doctor scolded her. “Keep it for pushing. You can yell at everyone later.”

She angrily told to doctor to do something that was anatomically impossible.

“It’s a good thing Tudman isn’t in the room. He would have had a stroke to hear such foul language from you,” Dendri said, his eyes not as bright as his humor. He was worried about her. Worried that something else might go wrong. He could help with her pain, but otherwise he felt completely useless. He had maneuvered himself behind her, so that her back was pressed to his chest and she lay between his thighs. Each time she pushed, he leaned her forward into it, as if he were pushing right along with her.

“There’s the head now!” the doctor said. “Good work. A little bit more…that’s it. A few more pushes should do the trick.”

Yasra dropped back against Dendri’s chest, her head lolling on his shoulder. “I can’t. I’m too tired!”

“Yes you can,” Dendri urged her softly. “You’re the strongest woman I know. Certainly strong enough to birth our little troublemaker into the world.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” she panted. Then she whipped up tight into another contraction and screamed out as she pushed.

“Good girl,” Dendri praised her.

“Go away!” she cried. But he knew she didn’t really mean it. He knew because she grabbed up his hand in hers and nearly crushed the bones in it as she pushed yet again.

Finally, as she screamed again the doctor cried out triumphantly, “The head is out!”

It was a short business after that. The child slipped from Yasra’s body on just a few more pushes and then the doctor and the midwife were hovering between her legs, cleaning off the baby, cutting the cord and tying it tightly with a string. Yasra was weeping and gasping for breath as the doctor wrapped up her child and handed it to her.

“It’s a girl,” he said, acting as proudly as if he were the father.

However he could never have equaled the pride radiating from Dendri even had he tried with all his heart. Dendri was proud of how well Yasra had done. He was proud of how beautiful his daughter was. His hand was shaking as he reached out and touched the damp black down on the top of her head. She had been born with nearly a full head of hair.

She was surprisingly quiet. She had not screamed out upon entering the world. She had merely fussed enough for the doctor to know she was breathing properly. Now she lay with her squished up face wrinkled in sleep, the mottled pink and white coloring of her newborn skin glowing in the gaslights.

“She’s beautiful,” Dendri whispered against his wife’s ear.

Yasra nodded. She was choking back tears. Eventually she just let them loose. Dendri hushed her and soothed her. The midwife then reached to take the baby and Yasra tried to hold her tightly.

“You have to deliver the afterbirth,” the doctor explained to her. “And the midwife can continue to clean the baby up.”

Yasra nodded and finished her delivery without her baby in her arms. But no sooner was she finished then Yasra was demanding she be returned to them.

When Yasra was settled in a clean nightgown and a bed with clean sheets, she sat curled up with Dendri, their baby in her arms. Dendri couldn’t stop kissing his wife all over her face, forehead, ear and lips. Every time he turned his head he pressed a kiss on her.

“Thank the One God it’s over and you are both all right,” he said. He exhaled a shaking breath and Yasra looked at him.

“You were scared,” she said. It wasn't a question. It was clear she knew his mind…just as she always could.

“Terrified,” he admitted breathlessly. “But that doesn’t matter now.”

“No. What matters now is that you will be leaving us soon,” Yasra said quietly.

Dendri looked at her.

“I can refuse to go,” he said softly. “Just say the word and I will refuse to go.”

“No. No, they need you. You heard what Mason said. Only you can pull this off. You go…but you hurry back. Your daughter and I need you. And please, stay safe.”

“I don’t want to leave you,” he said, his voice tight with emotion. “I don’t want to miss out on a second of her life.”

“I’ll write everything down. I’ll write letters. I know you can’t receive them, but I’ll keep them here for you.”

“Yasra…I love you,” he said softly.

“I love you just as much…if not more,” she said. She smiled. “And to think…there was a time when we were both afraid to say that to each other.”

“That was so long ago it seems. And it feels like it was two very different, very foolish people.”

“I know what you mean.” She smiled sleepily at him and rested her head back against his shoulder. “Perhaps you should hold the baby now. I am very tired.”