Chapter 29 ~ Sofie Von Bayern

 

After our talk in the scholar, I didn’t see my hosts until I was woken one night months later. They moved me to another house. We moved every few days. We had to be on the run.

I was big with my pregnancy, much bigger than I had been last time. My maids whispered that I might be expecting twins.

The traveling wasn’t good for me. I was making it difficult for them to move me by being a bad and slow guest.

Lady Adelheid was forever in a bad temper. She scolded me and told me that I would never survive the birth, wanting to be cruel to me.

We were hiding in a tiny farmhouse with a family who was scared to have us with them when a rider approached. He entered the house and strode over to Lady Adelheid. “What should the last of us do, my lady?” the rider asked her as she read the letter.

Her eyes flashed up at him. “Protect us, you fool. You’ll protect us to your dying breath.”

“Is my husband near?” I asked him.

“Yes, my lady.” He bowed to me, making Lady Adelheid furious. “Your allegiance is to my family,” she scolded him.

“I beg your pardon, my lady, but the boy is the only man left in your family.” He pointed at young Albert.

Lady Klara called out in grief for her husband.

“It’s a terrible way to find out that your husband is dead, isn’t it?” I asked them. “Knowing that no one is on the way to save you, and that you’ll be at the mercy of your enemy. I would like to feel pity for you, but you did the same thing to me. The difference is that your enemy is married. He won’t take either of you to wife. Your heads will come off.”

“We’ll have to kill her now,” Lady Adelheid stated.

“I think not. I’m the only one who can save your grandson. He’s an innocent. I’ll make certain that the Lion understands that.”

“You have no power over your husband. He hates you,” Lady Adelheid protested, clenching her fists.

“That isn’t true. He was very loving to her when they lost their daughter. He’s devoted to her.” Lady Klara took hold of my hands. “Please, save my son. I’m so sorry about what we did. I begged her not to do it. Please, save my son.”

“I believe you. I’m certain that your mother-by-marriage was the one to blame, but you could have come to me, or my husband, and told us of the plot. You could have saved my daughter, and you didn’t. I can’t forgive you for that. I won’t lift a finger to save you, but I will save your son.” I looked at the boy. He had been very kind to me, telling me that he hoped that my baby would be a girl so he could marry her. He brought me food to eat, and he looked for soft places for me to sit. I planned to keep him and raise him myself.

I wiped the tears away from my eyes. My heart broke when I thought about holding my dead daughter in my arms. Albert wrapped his arms around me. In the distance, I could hear riders approaching. Lady Adelheid and Lady Klara ran off. Their man-at-arms was directly behind them.

I felt a sharp pain in my back and screamed out.

“I’ll protect you, my lady.” I clung to Albert and prayed that my husband was among the riders. It had been eight months since I’d seen him last.

The door opened, and men poured into the house. Some were wearing the uniform of the Swiss guard. They were the Pope’s men. They stepped aside when Lukas wanted to enter. He was escorted by the Tiroler priest. “My lady, I brought you your husband,” the priest told me proudly.

“Oh thank you. Lukas,” I said, reaching out a hand to him. I still had one arm around Albert. His mother had left him without saying goodbye. At one time, I had thought that she was my friend.

“I’d like to introduce you to our ward. This is our Albert now.”

Lukas placed a hand on my belly and kissed my cheek tenderly before he turned to the boy. “It is a pleasure to meet you. Have you been taking care of my lady wife for me?”

“Yes, my lord. Shouldn’t a lion have blond hair?” Albert asked him.

“Maybe the next will,” Lukas replied, lifting up a lock of my hair.

“Lukas, I fear that the baby is coming now,” I told him.

“Already?” he asked me.

“Yes, already.”

“Twins often come early, my lord.” Greta bowed to him.

“Twins?” he repeated.

“We can’t be certain yet, but I am rather large. These are my maids Greta and Martha. I’d like to take them home with me. I’ve known them all of my life.”

“Whatever your heart desires, my love.” He helped me to my feet and out to the carriage. I held onto Albert’s hand, knowing that his mother and grandmother were nearby, but that they would soon be beheaded. I didn’t want him to see that. Their heads wouldn’t be hung where the child could see them. No one should have to see someone they loved in that manner.

Lukas, Albert, my maids, and I all rode in one carriage. Lukas stayed by me, wanting to keep his promise as I suffered through my pains. They were coming fast. I filled him in on what happened, telling him how Anna-Rosa had truly died and what the Tirolers had done to us.

“My father would have let you marry me when you asked if they had left us alone,” I surmised.

“So we were meant to come together,” Lukas smiled when he heard that.

He told me that he had received a letter from the Pope personally, telling him that I was expecting a child. He proudly told me that he would keep the letter forever. Lukas informed me that the Pope’s army had helped us win the battle against the Tirolers.

Albert apologized for his family.

Lukas lifted him onto his knee and told him that we would take care of him forever if he swore his allegiance to us. Albert immediately promised us everything he could think of. I doubted that his father had ever held him or let him sit on his knee. Lady Klara had been nice to him, but she had married into an evil traitorous family.

My pains were coming closer together, and I could no longer talk. “We need to stop. I can’t have my child in a moving carriage.”

“We are almost at the Werdenfels trading post. The baby can be born there.” Lukas assured me.

“I hope I can make it that long.”

He took hold of my hand and told me that he would stay beside me no matter what happened.

~

When I recognized the area, my heart leapt with joy. I felt as if I were home. Part of the castle had been rebuilt. We stopped and went inside. Lukas hurried everyone out who he felt didn’t need to be here. I warned Albert not to go far. I promised him that I would hurry.

I instructed Greta to find someone to watch over him.

Lukas held onto my hand to the point that it annoyed me. I pulled my hand away as we waited for the Werdenfelser’ midwife to arrive. She was the same woman who had brought me into this world. I was glad to see so many familiar faces. I introduced people to Lukas between contractions.

Then it went fast. My water broke, and I was pushing. The midwife told me that I was doing well. Lukas clung to my arm as if he thought that he would never see me again.

“This feels different from last time. It’s so much faster. I’m sure everything will be fine. Please, let go of my arm. You’re hurting me.”

The midwife threatened to have him sent away, but he promised not to be in the way.

Then I screamed with power, sounding like a lioness roaring, and I pushed my baby out. He was beautiful. The midwife gave him to Greta to wash.

“He has your hair, my lady. It’s silver,” she declared. “Like your mother before you too.”

“Your lady still has work to do,” the midwife scolded Greta. “There’s another one, wanting to be born. Push, my lady.” She encouraged me.

I roared again and fell back into Lukas’s arms.

“Another healthy boy. You did well, my lady,” the midwife praised me.

“That’s it? You’re sure there aren’t anymore?” I asked her as she felt my belly.

“Your work is done, my lady.” She grinned at me.

“That went fast.” I looked over my shoulder at Lukas. “Twin boys, Anna-Rosa will be so pleased.”

“Yes, I can feel her smiling down on us from heaven. I love you, Sofie. I’m never letting you out of my sight again.” He leaned down and kissed my lips.

“Heavens, the way you two are carrying on, you’d think birthing was easy and that you wanted another babe soon.” The midwife went to our sons and looked them over again. “Two beautiful and healthy boys, but they certainly aren’t identical. One looks like his lordship, and the other like our lady. They’ll break a lot of hearts in the years to come.”

“One will be the lord of Tirol, and the other of Bayern. I’ll split my lands in two for them,” Lukas declared.

“But they were born in Werdenfels,” I reminded him.

“Yes, they were. Thank you for not collecting a tax for that,” he teased me.

“I grant them free passage for their entire lives,” I joked, feeling so jovial. My babies were alive and well. This was the best thing that could have happened to me.

The midwife gave each of us a baby, and we admired them and told them how much we loved them.

Our happiness was almost perfect. The only thing missing was a second cradle. I teased Lukas, telling him that, knowing that he would gladly make another one.