Missing Moments

6) The Birth of Edward of Middleham

"How long will it take?!" Grunted Richard, pacing back and forth.

"These things take time, son, but in the end you'll see that it will be worth it and your wife will give you a boy" Said Cecily, trying to calm down her son. They were in the great hall of Middleham Castle, while Anne was in the birthing chamber, in the tower.

"I am worried, Lady Mother. What if Anne..."

"Anne is a Neville, remember? She's a strong woman and she will live long enough to see her son becoming a man."

Richard smiled, relieved in hearing such words, but he didn't care much if it was a girl and not a boy, Anne was seventeen, she was young and she would have many children in the future.

"You are right." He agreed and Cecily smiled.

"An other quality of us Neville women, we are always right." She continued, proudly.

Richard smiled again, but it disappeared and he started to worry when he heard Anne screaming, he could hear her from that distance and he couldn't imagine how painful could it be for her.

Cecily stopped her son from going and he felt powerless.

He knew Anne was a strong woman, and he knew that from the very moment he met her at the battlefield of Tewkesbury and then when she told him she was with child. He had to stay away from her often because he had duties, but when he was at home he would stay with her.

He was brought back to reality when he heard the steps of the midwife with his child in her arms.

Richard could hear its crying when she put it into his arms. He didn't know what to do, if smile or cry out of joy, so he did both things.

"I never saw a man crying for their child... oh well, Richard did for your eldest sister and so Warwick for his daughter Anne." Cecily said, trying to concentrate on her memories. Richard stopped looking at his child for a moment. He could never imagine his father and his cousin crying.

Then he uncovered his child just to see its sex and he saw he was a boy.

"Well, your wife, unlike the Queen and Isabel, has accomplished in giving you a boy as first born. You should thank her." His mother said.

"That is what i will do, take me to my wife!" He exclaimed, happy and excited to see his Anne.

He went immediately in her chamber with their son and he saw her, cleaned from blood and she was smiling. Her skin was pale, but the doctor explained that it had been a long delivery and hard for her petite body.

"Richard, have you seen our son?" She smiled happily and Richard sat beside her with the baby.

"How we will call him?" He asked her and Anne took her baby in her arms, counting his fingers.

"Edward, for your brother the King" She said, smiling at her son, whom was now attached to her breast, after she unlaced her shift.

"Anne..."

She looked at him, but he didn't say anything. It wasn't good that it was her nourishing him.

"Don't worry, is just a one time only. I want a bond with him, before he can get affectionate to his nurse." She reassured him, moaning lightly because Edward was quite hungry.

"I don't think she will find a better nourishment than the one his mother can give..." Observed Richard, resting a hand on his son's cheek.

"Can I? But..."

"Don't worry. We will have time for other children, now we have Ned and is enought."

Anne smiled and it was everything he needed.