CHAPTER2 NYX
Eight years later
"Mrs. Nyx, won't you purchase more butter from me, before the harvest tomorrow?" Mrs. Oswald inquiries as we walk by each other on the streets.
"I will. I'll drop by when I'm back from the Miller's shop, Mrs. Oswald thank you for the reminder." I reply running down to Mr. James's shop before the line becomes too much.
Tomorrow is the harvest festival in Everguard, the kingdom I'd chosen to settle down in after I ran away from Rimvard eight years ago, and I'm making preparation for the sell out that's to take place this afternoon.
The Kingdom of Evergurd is a small kingdom situated at the far north of the empire of Grahenia. It's a kingdom that consist of lots of farmlands, beautiful landscapes and small villages where everybody knows everybody. The people leaving here make their leaving from tilling the earth and the raring of livestocks, they are very welcoming. The atmosphere is very warm and placid, that's why I fell in love with Evergurd and decided to stay.
I immediately got started with settling down and making a home for me and my child. I was two months and three weeks pregnant there wasn't time to waste. I sold my jewelries and clothes and bought a piece of land close to a lake in one of the villages in Evergurd, meadows Hill's, which name was gotten due to it being surrounded by meadows and hills.
I built a small, two story cottage perched by the shimmering lake. The picturesque cottage boasted ashy stone walls, clear see- through windows and flower filled window boxes, the cottage walls was adorned with climbing vines and a cheerful brown door created a scene so enchanting it seemed plucked right out of the pages of a story book. Well it was actually plucked out of my of my favorites story book my mother read to me as a child, snow white.
I also built a small stable and ranch on the land which housed horses and a few livestock like cattle's, chickens, cows and pigs. I stuck to something minimal. I didn't want to bring more attention to myself which I already had as being new in town people were curious.
I knew that If not Dominic then my father would definitely search for me and I couldn't afford to get caught, not now that I had a taste of freedom. I needed a source of income, though the money I got from the jewelries and clothes would've lasted me for a while but I needed to think for the long run. When my child would be here I didn't want he or she to lack anything even if we were 'peasant'. So I made hay while the sun still shone. I built a bakery. Being a baker had been a hidden dream of mine when I was younger and had a taste of strawberry cake and other deserts and pastries by Mr. Fisher a famous backer in my father's dukedom. I fell in love with his baking and got curious on how it was made so I secretly learnt it from our head chef who I made swear not to tell my father as he would've frowned upon it and I couldn't be more proud of myself for doing that, for learning something. The bakery had given me an addictive sense of independence, freedom of self. Something I'd craved. A thing I never got while at home in either my father dukedom or in the Hawthorne palace in Rimvard.
My father, Duke Helio Hazelwood is a good father the best I'd say, but as great of a father he was he has his bad sides. One of them being his rigid ways, especially with me being the only female child. He caged me in our mansion, always detecting things for me which he said was 'for my own good and protection', that kind of life wasn't what I desired even back then, a life of being an exotic caged bird having everything yet nothing. And like that, I was all set for my new life.
Things weren't always smooth, as much as the people of Evergurd were welcoming, they also had a few nosey ones and gossip mongers which at the beginning had been really hard to cope with, especially when my pregnancy started to show. People got curious about why a young lady like myself was pregnant with no husband and that's when rumors began to spread. While some of the rumors were tolerable some were really hurtful.
Some of the rumors being I was a promiscuous woman who got pregnant out of wedlock and was kicked out of the house because she didn't know who the father was, and another being my husband didn't want me, which wasn't far from the truth. I really appreciated those who took the initiative to ask me my story instead of just assuming things but not that I told them the real story, I'd cooked up a lie prior in the case anyone asked. The lie being of how my husband had died in war and I had decided to move out of our house and previous village because the loss was too much to handle and that everything reminded me of him. The lie had worked and quickly my version of the story had spread diminishing the rumors, and to tie the lie all together I started wearing a ring on my wedding fingers to cancel out the other rumors. Life became easier, though there was still a few bump here and there but none I couldn't handle.
A few month into my pregnancy, I began making research about how to cater to myself and my baby when it got here. My first time being pregnant, I didn't have a clue what to do and that's when I met Evelyn, a nice old lady who helps in meadows hill's to deliver babies for the locals. She calls herself, and a few others who helped, midwives. She asked me to come to her house near the city to get checked. I was nervous to go as I made it a priority never to go near the city. There was a possibility I would bump into someone that recognized me and knows my family or Dominic's plus having been one of the wealthy. I know how much of a snub and how shallow and mean they can be. Even me being one of the nobles hadn't made them spare me. I didn't want to be anywhere near the city but I couldn't back down. I had to check how my child was doing as of lately I had been feeling sick though I was told they were normal symptoms, I still had to make sure. So by late afternoon the following day, I entered the local carriage and headed to the address she gave.
On getting there, I knocked on the door of a small wooden house with a thatched room and a creaking threshold, looking at the place where the house is located were other houses around were more refined it stood out like a sore thumb among the other polish houses in the area.
Evelyn opened the door and her gray head peeked out, "Hello, Miss Nyx, good afternoon, come in please," she greeted, stepping to the side for me and I made my way inside.
"Good afternoon Aunty Evelyn, how was your day?" I greeted back
"Good, how's yours?"
"Its fine," I answered, and she nods towards the bed and said, "lay down on the bed miss Nyx, on your back and keep rubbing your stomach while I prepare the items."
I nod at her words as she leaves to the kitchen. I take in the room I'm in. The room is the parlor but it was not decorated as it should. Instead of chairs and tables, it's filled with beds arranged in a way it doesn't get in the way of someone and it doesn't seem too congested. Tables are placed in-between each bed, the room is neat and smells like herbal remedies. I make my way to the bed and do as instructed. A few minutes later she returns to the room with bowls in her arms and a young girl no more than twelve trailing behind her with auburn hair, brown eyes and a fair skin. She's quite a beauty.
Noticing my curiosity Evelyn introduced, "This is Bonnie, my granddaughter. She assists me." Bonnie waved at me with a shy smile on her lips and I waved back.
"She's very pretty."
Evelyn motions for Bonnie to drop the things on the table. "Nyx it'd be required for you to pull down your clothes at least to your waist." she tells me and I complied. I stand to unbutton and take off my inner chemise and then lay back on the bed half naked. Evelyn immediately got to work she blends a few leaves while Bonnie blended something that looks powdery in a small muter pot occasionally adding water, when she was done she brought the paste and started to rub it on my stomach while massaging it lightly which felt cool and soothing.
While massaging my stomach, her gray brows drew together in confusion twice and fear gripped my heart. She gave Bonnie a signal and she stood up and went to the kitchen before returning with a funnel shaped object and handed it to Evelyn which she placed on one end of my stomach before placing her ear on the other end, listening for something.
After a few seconds, she repositioned it to another spot and then another and through each check her smile grows wider until it's almost taking over her whole face and her brown teeth's are in full display, my curiosity began growing with her smile.
"What is it, Evelyn? Is anything wrong?" I asked my heart racing.
"Nothing is wrong, not at all. Its wonderful news sweet child," She said with glee dripping from her voice.
"What is it Evelyn, please tell me?" I pleaded, attempting to sit up but she pushed me back on the bed gently.
"Lay down I'll tell you." she giggled "your pregnant with not one child," she says and my eyes widen.
"N-not O-one? T-twins then?, O, my, GOD, wow!" I stammered in shock but she shakes her head.
"Not twins dear triplets. Judging by their heart beat they're all boys!" She exclaimed and Bonnie who's sited beside her claps in joy while I lay there frozen, overwhelmed with joy and panic if before I was filled anxiousness about the future now I was scared, scared to my bones. I had not the slightest idea of how to cater for a child but now I have three.
I had cursed Dominic out loud for his potency and had cried because of I was overwhelmed by the news and I thought I would be a terrible mother, especially because I had no husband and I know the essential role a father has in a child's upbringing, but aunty Evelyn reassured me and told me a few words of encouragement and one really struck a cord in me. She'd said 'it took a strong mother to be a father too'.
Her words gave me the courage to embark on the journey ahead, head on without flinching away. A few months later, I got the best gifts the world could ever offer, my little gems. My Marcellus, Gennieve and Malachi.
Aunty Evelyn had been wrong they weren't all boys
Marcellus the first, older than Malachi by three minutes and Malachi older than Gennieve by another three they were the cutest little humans I've ever seen, it brought tears to my eyes and I vowed to love them more than life itself and I did.
As toddlers, the three were the most energetic of all, always running about flipping things over and as a first time mother of toddlers it had been really hard, I had no experience whatsoever, I hadn't been around much children growing up. I was the last of four children of my parents, so I had no younger ones to look after and the few children I'd been around were always composed something instilled in them by their socialites parents and governesses.
Sometimes I cried when I couldn't get them to listen, that was how terrible I was. And when they saw me cry, they would cry too. Amusing, isn't it. Things started to get better when the Harrisons moved in next door and Mrs. Harrison and her daughter Teresa were the sweetest souls. Mrs. Harrison would give me advice and show me tricks to get them to listen and tips on how to be a better mother and Teresa, her twelve year old daughter would help baby sit for me while I worked in the bakery. Mr. Harrison and his son Isaac were also the kindest; fetching firewoods, helping me with things that require manly strength and many others. The Harrisons took me as one of their own and cared for me. Something I really appreciated and because of them I didn't feel so lonely anymore.
Over the years, the thought of Dominic still sneaks its way into my thoughts like a thief in the night, stealing away my minds tranquility and flooding it with the chaos of the what-ifs. What if he had been better, would things have gone in another direction where we would be happily married?. What if he hadn't brought Addison into the picture, would I have stayed even if it was a loveless marriage? What if he had loved me, would we be happy? What if he had known about the pregnancy, would his view of me have changed?. What if, what if, what if. The question itself is a like demon feeding on my heart ache.
I've tried so hard to put the thoughts away but it always finds it way back into my mind. When I see kids with their fathers and wives, with their husbands I always feel sad. It doesn't help that all my children look like him, especially the boys. Marcellus and Malachi inherited his gray hair and stainless gray eyes and a similar facial features but Gennieve inherited more of my features, my hazel eyes, brown hair with a portion of white at the front. Even she couldn't escape the mark of Dominic's gene. Though I tell myself that I'm detached from everything that had to do with my past, but deep down I know it's a lie. I still find myself wondering how he's doing, if he married Addison, if he has children with her, if they are happy, if he is happy, if he thinks of me, if he misses me. No matter how much I hate him for not choosing me, for treating me badly, I know deep, deep down I still care. It might not be love, but I still care more than I'd ever admit.