[Lovebite]

"I am too, my love."he murmured, though her second comment made him pull back to look at her, concerned,"Why are you scared? You know you don't have to be."he told her,"I'm healthy, the child is healthy and the Lord won't have me dying while trying to deliver what may be his only heir. Not if he can help it." His hands held her cheeks, looking into her wet eyes,"I'll be here through the entire thing, they have gotten me all types of doctors, nothing will happen." He kissed her head softly,"It's okay..."he held her for a moment, then pulled away slightly to ask,"Is Hobbs okay? I remember the wonderful party they had for the announcement."

[bhdire8]

"I.. I don't know. I had to travel early so by the time i left, everyone was still gathering around his house. His screams... Oh... love, please be ok..." Marie started sobbing again, burying herself into his husabnd's broad chest that had always made her feel so protected. It still was, though the pregnancy had made his pecks swell more than usual. "I hope they were fine... he's big, and everybody suspected he was having twins. Apparently it's only one single large child...." She thought, still not daring to touch Orvin's belly but was thinking that wasn' tunlike her husband's situation. SHe tried to remind herself her hsuband would be much better treated and cared for than their neighbor, but the worry just wouldn't go away.

[Lovebite]

"Send them my congratulations when you return, it must've been incredibly hard for him-"he wrapped his arms around her once again to stroke her back and hair gently, kissing her head,"Shush... Shush, my love."he murmured against her ear, focused on what she was worried about, doing his best to comfort her despite the horror story she seemed to be reliving again and again in her mind. "I'll come back to you, I always will and that will never change."he spoke softly to her and ended up glancing upwards where he could see the master of the house had been watching the entire thing, though he said nothing about or to him.

[bhdire8]

The lord looked at the obviously loving couple and sighed. It.pained his eyes seeing.them. and wws reminded once again of his own failing marriage. He hadnt seen his wife for at least a montb, perhaps even longer, but he hadnt thought of a way to reconcile with her. It had been so long he was starting to forget he loved his wife. He just stood there, merging into tbr statues alongthe corridor , and looked with a distance on the happy couple that stayed strong even after his mingling.

It was getting late and time for Marie to leave, and that had led to much more tears. The meague woman couldnt quite take her leave, but eventually she mounted the carriage that the lord offered, and cried her way out of the mansion.

[Lovebite]

That night was the last night he saw his wife before the birth, a couple of months later he could feel himself preparing for the moment. He was nervous and anxious most of the time, pacing the guest room he had been staying in and going to get fresh air out in the garden when he thought he may pass out. Orvin forced himself to stay calm, to breathe despite the frog in his throat from panic when he thought about his due date growing ever closer.
It was evening when he knew it was really happening, he sat at the dinner table with the Lord and Lady of the house, after not seeing the woman for weeks it was even more awkward to see her sitting just a foot away. Seemingly not worried about anything at all as she avoided looking at either of them and the room was filled with the simple clatter of silverware against their plates. Though the butler hadn't been feeling up to eating, he shifted in his seat and put down his fork to lift the glass for a sip of water.

[bhdire8]

The months of coldness and simple ignorance with his wife had extinguished every last bit of hope in the lord to rekindle his relationship with his wife. He glanced at her while no one was looking, and couldnt help but let the sigh of lament escape him. His wife, who had always been metivulously in keeping her looks, was nowhere near what he used to see. His wife was never one to fear about aging but with her jetblack hair now, tied up in a stern looking style, was clearly dyed black recently. She looked, fake. The stiff posture and the tone just shouted of nobility. He didnt like her like that at all.

With the butler srtting his fork down, he looked up and frowned at the few consumption. However, this wasnt a good place to show his concern for his butler, and he let it slid. Their.relationship wasnt as strained now, but his butler wasnt really too friendly with him either.

[Lovebite]

The man felt the other's eyes on him, placing down the glass of water again and pressing his lips together for a moment before meeting his eyes. He cleared his throat and then said,"I think it'll be time soon."he didn't think about it before he was looking down the table at the Lady of the house next,"As in, very soon."he added, then picking up his utensil again, that was exciting news, or he thought so at least. It was exciting on his part as he could go home soon, although he almost didn't want to leave the child here with the feuding couple.

[bhdire8]

Everybody in the room was startled enough to miss the insane bright spark quickly lit up in the lady's lifeless eyes. The lord was finding it quite strange for the butler to be announcing directly looking at the lady, it would have felt like a challenge to the only woman in the room, but the concern he had over the impending arrival of his heir was the most important thing. He tried to keep his hands steady, taking a huge gulp from his glass of wine, and asked quietly. "How far apart are the contractions now?" He had done his homework on the topic and thereby, could guess that labor had started.

[Lovebite]

The butler didn't mean to challenge the Lady of the house, he had meant it in a way of understanding, they both wanted him out of this house. Though he had no idea how badly she wanted it more than him, as he looked to the Lord of the house then,"How far apart?"he looked down at himself slightly, one of his hands resting on his stomach, shrugging lightly,"I haven't been paying much attention, since they don't hurt so much."he replied, stroking his middle, the other man seemed to have done more research than he had.

[bhdire8]

"You should. That would help the miwife and doctor for their assessment. Do you want any more food? You should eat as long as you could rake it.. it's quite physically demanding, what you would need to do soon." He rang the bell and asked the butler to summon the doctors ans everyone else to be involved in the process. By showing such an avundance of knowledge, he also missed how his wife was getting even more agitated by his concern over the childbirth. The lady had been squeezing her napkin under the table, but no one was free to pay any attention to her.

[Lovebite]

"They'll figure it out." Orvin replied and exhaled as he sat up more,"Sure, I'd like that."he said, watching as the young butler did as he was asked, he was proud of the boy for taking up his position. The older man looking to one of the chefs who also came out to serve him some more stew, he frowned only slightly at the choice of food they had for dinner. Though said nothing else about it as he took the spoon and picked up a bit of meat and blew on it before starting on his second serving.

[bhdire8]

The Lord was quite nervous himself even though he tried to hide it. He wiped his mouth with his accustomed elegance, but the slight trembling of his hands would be obvious to anyone who looked close enough, including his wife. He played with his food for a little longer out of courtesy, and waited until his good old butler also finished with his food to leave the table. Orvin was having trouble standing up, and the Lord just gave him a hand when he nearly stumbled over with how his belly dropped through the short time of dinner, causing him to lost his balance.

[Lovebite]

Orvin laughed nervously when he almost fell, gripping onto Augustus and exhaling as his hand cradled his low stomach for a moment then held onto the table cloth. He grimaced lightly and looked up at the other man,"How far away are the midwives?"he asked him,"Not far I hope."he looked down at himself,"I should lay down."

[bhdire8]

"They should be on call around the clock, at most 30 minutes." The lord frowned and asked. "You surely sounded urgent.... let's get up now." He signalled the other servants to come give their former butler a hand, getting to either side of him and helped him out of the hall. The lord theb finally turned to glance at the lady, but she wouldnt even look at him. He sighed and said. "I.would be up with Orvin. Just to let you know, I wanted to witness the whole.process...."

[Lovebite]

"Mmhm."he nodded,"I can wait that long."he said and took in a deep breath then as he looked to the servants who came and helped him out of the dining room and up to the guest room.
Adeline frowned at what her husband said,"You've already proven that I'm not important to you any more, so go ahead. I can't control what you do anyway."she pushed her own plate away, the other servants coming to clean up after them.

[bhdire8]

"You didnt give me thr chancce to.... nevermind." The months of coldness against him had extinguished his hopes and thoughts about reconciling with his wife. He was prepared he would be alone forever, even though he lived just next door to his wife.

He briskly walked to the bedroom and caught up with his butler. Orvin was just enduring another contraction and the 2 servants were having trouble holding him up.

[Lovebite]

The woman didn't want to hear it, cheating, no matter the cause made Augustus dead to her, thirty years of marriage down the drain. She frowned as he left the dining room, looking up to his back as he dissapeared, doing her best to stick to the lower floors of their mansion after that.
The guest room was bustling with activity when the Lord of the house came inside, the nurses that were on call were arriving, there was one there already and boiling water to clean her tools for the birth. While one of the maids removed the sheets from the bed, placing a few towels down and leaving some pillows.
Orvin barely realized what was going on around him as he was held up by two servants, one of his hands holding onto someone's shoulder and his other cradling his low stomach. As he moaned softly and sank forward to lean against the edge of the bed, letting go of the person he held and pressing his hand into his back.

[bhdire8]

Granted the lord hadnt witnessed any births himself, but it did seem quite ironic for the laboring man to be receiving the least amount of attention in the crowded room. The ladies seemed more concern with making the bed than tending to Orvin, and the servants were at a lost of what to do. He frowned and walked towards the butler, who was leaning precariously against the bed wothout much support with the servants just stand aside dumbly. Augustus half lifted him up and put him.down the birthing stool that was just brought in as part of the nurses' collextion. The lord felt like Orvin at least deserved to be sat down in this situation.

The lord knelt beside the butler, still endurong another contraction as he looked around and found a lack of male nurses. He didnt askfor it specirically but it wasnt usual for there be have no male attendants around when its a male giving birth. He just dismissed it as a careless omission on the servants' part and didnt think too much about it.

(Wow 30 years of marriage... would that make the lady too old to pull off that trick that the lord had before, like asking the lady to pretend she's the one pregnant?)

[Lovebite]

The butler was surprised when he was lifted up, looking up at the person who had done so and grimaced lightly as he was sat down just as quickly. He shifted in the odd seat and frowned lightly at the openness beneath his ass, both hands going to his stomach now,"I was fine standing."he told him, shutting his eyes for a moment and arching his back with another groan, breathing in and out slowly,"Goddamnit."he had been mentally preparing himself for months for this moment, though of course that did nothing more than give him false expectations.
He looked at the master of the house as he stuck by his side and reached out only slightly to grasp onto his hand, tight,"Let's say I break your hand, I think that would be half of what I owe you for doing this to me."he said to him, his voice low and eyes dark for a moment as he looked up then after what he said to him, watching as the room felt like a hive of activity.
This was really happening, he panted for a moment as he lifted one of his cheeks from the seat of the open chair and pressed his lips together for a moment. He hadn't even realized that his pants were off until the end of that contraction, he looked down at himself, at least they let him keep his shirt. That was good enough b especially with all the strangers roaming around the guest room he had called his own for six months.

[bhdire8]

"I just thought you w9uld have more support sitting down..." the lord responded, still being defensive but soon sighed hearing what Orvin said about crushing his hand. "Do go ahead, I would be fine without my right hand for awhile...." he didnt even know himself if he was attempting to make a joke here - he could write with both hands and as his butler, Orvin knew it.

He wasnt sure what Orvin was trying to do, bur seeing him suffer through the contraction - and obviously in much discomfort when even moving on the chair looked so exhauating, was enough for the lord to feel for his butler. He felt guilty for making the stout man go yhrough this, so unwillingly, yet a part of him was very excited for finally able to see his child. It was strange, seeing his butler half naked, he could barely remember about thay timr when he forced himself on Orvin.