Githa Gets a Shock

Alred didn’t go to the Selle farm the day after his baby’s birth, nor the day after, nor the day after. Githa understood, of course, and in truth was somewhat relieved. If it had been impossible for her to tell him he needn’t remove his leggings the first day, it was even more impossible each following day, and so she had said nothing, and thus had another woman’s husband stood nearly naked in her house every morning for two weeks while she rubbed ointment on his back. Of course she had told Theobald about the ointment – he had been there with her in her mother’s house when she had asked for the recipe and given the reason – but she hadn’t mentioned that she had been applying it. And this too seemed more impossible to tell every day.

And so she was happy to think that the need for the telling may have passed, and she sang brightly as she cleaned up after breakfast, and laughed aloud as she watched Athelis “helping” her father lace up his boots.

“It’s so sunny today, and almost warm – I think I’ll take a bath before I take Baby up to see the Countess,” she said to Theobald as she helped him into his heavy, fur-​​lined coat.

“I’ll be sorry to miss that,” he growled playfully as he turned to kiss her and pass his hand over the slight swelling of her belly.

Githa blushed pink and laughed. “Silly man, you have to work to do. But first you can carry the water for me.”

“An honor,” he said, and hefted the big kettle of water she kept simmering on the back of the stove over to the bathtub and poured it in.

“I’ll handle the cold water. You just run along,” she said, shooing him out the door. Githa added a few pails full of cool water to make a nice steamy bath and slipped out of her gown. She was just stepping into the tub when she heard Theobald come bounding back up the steps. She blushed and giggled. Of course he would have “forgotten” something. But at least he was polite enough to knock. “Come in, you silly man!”

Githa had prepared herself for the blast of cold air that would come in, but she was not prepared for what came next.

She looked over her shoulder and saw, instead of her husband, a wide-​​eyed Duke Alred standing in the open door. Githa shrieked.

“I – I – I beg your pardon! I beg your pardon!” Alred stammered as he turned and fled out the door.

Githa jumped out of the bath and pulled her dress back over her head. She stood in an agony of confusion as Athelis practiced an imitation of the shriek she had just heard, alternating it with giggles. “Oh, Baby, Baby, what ever shall I tell your father?” Githa asked the little girl, who only laughed harder. It could be explained innocently enough, she supposed, if only the reason the Duke had for arriving on her doorstep early in the morning were innocent… of course it was innocent, but… it would be so hard to explain now why she had not simply explained before. “Oh, Baby, Baby, what ever shall I do?”