Y O U R C R U C I B L E
"May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows you're dead."
Lottie Thorne, sister of the notorious Freddie Thorne, is counted as part of the Shelby family. And her loyalty is...
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"We have a son"
Lottie Thorne could safely say that in her whole life she had never been happier.
Today was Tommy and Grace's wedding day and the entire family was to meet at the church and then make their way to Tommy's new home, Arrow House. His new home was more like an estate. Michael and Lottie now lived together in one of the houses in Birmingham as she had finally moved out of the apartment she had been sharing first with her brother, Freddie, and then with her cousin, Maxim. The main cause of this was because of the baby. When Lottie had told Michael of her news that Polly had dropped on her, he was over the moon and they knew they couldn't live apart from each other any longer. Polly had offered for them to live in her country house, but Lottie refused. If she was going to live with Michael, she wanted to live with Michael, not reside in her mother-figure's house.
No. That was not what she wanted, nor what Michael wanted. They wanted to be together with their child. Lottie had seen pregnancy often through Ada, Esme and John's first wife, Martha, who had four children before dying during the final birth. They had often spoken about the glowing feeling or the excitement of bringing a child into the world. Sure, Lottie felt that at the beginning, but after a couple of months, she was bored out of her mind. She just wanted it out.
"Not 'it'," Polly would frequently remind her. "'Him'."
Lottie rolled her eyes. "You don't know that for certain, Poll."
"You know I have a gift for these things," she argued proudly.
Lottie couldn't help but roll her eyes again. Polly was trying to make sure that Lottie was doing everything right to keep the baby healthy - after all, it was to be her grandchild. But this only irritated Lottie who primarily wanted to be left alone and to eat whatever weird craving she was having. Michael laughed it off, helping her through it all, putting Lottie's worrying mind to ease. She had been scared that as they were so young, they wouldn't be able to cope, but somehow, they could.
A couple of months on, and Polly was right, of course, about the baby, it was a 'him'. A beautiful baby boy. They decided to name him after Lottie's brother, Freddie. The moment he opened his blue eyes, Lottie's world stopped and she knew at that moment that her very soul was in the hands of a little infant. Ada left the room to fetch Michael as Polly wrapped the baby in a blanket that Polly had said was Michael's when he was a baby. The look of awe on Michael's face when he entered the room, his eyes wide as he stared with such a soft and heartfelt expression. "Is that..." He murmured, stretching out his arms.
"We have a son," she beamed, exhausted. Lottie nodded and carefully passed the baby to him. "It's Freddie."
Polly moved to stand at the end of the bed beside Ada, making room for Michael to sit beside Lottie on the bed, who was now sitting up. He leant forward and kissed her forehead, which was damp with sweat. "I love you," he whispered.
