The Dragon Duke's Heir Contract novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: Labor
The midwife was a square woman in a leather apron who had delivered half the county.
She told the Duke of Vaskary to get out of her room.
He didn't move.
"Your Grace," she said. "A father's place is in the passage."
"I'll stand in the corner."
"You'll faint in the corner."
"I won't."
"Men always say that."
Ysolene gripped the bedpost through a pain that took her breath, and when it let her go she said, "Let him stay."
The midwife sighed. "Then he holds her shoulders and keeps his hands cool."
"They're always cool," said Valerian.
His hands were smoking.
"Then think of ice," said Fenna, from the washstand, without turning her head.
It went on for nine hours.
The snow piled against the windows, and the stove roared, and the keep went still.
Her father paced the corridor outside, and she could hear him reciting a very long poem about the sea.
His voice carried through the wall.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Dragon Duke's Heir Contract are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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