Chapter 183: A fortnight of mourning.
Roland hesitated for a moment, on his face was the look of a man about to engage in a fierce battle, one that he was sure he would lose and yet he had no choice but to engage anyway. Decisively, he reached his hand down and ripped the quilt off the bed, revealing the figure that had been hiding beneath them.
It was his wife Sigrid, she was curled up like a child beneath a heavy quilt on a rainy day when the sky was raging. In her arms was a small red black baby sized clock which she had been hugging to bed every night and holding through the day.
She had been mourning the death of their child for a fortnight. During that time, she had done nothing but sleep, eat, run and cry. She did those things in that exact order, repeating them through the day.
The businesses had been left to Roland, the Thorin’s and her subordinates.
Roland sat down and looked at his wife who did not move an inch as if her body had been glued to the bed. "You cannot keep doing this Sigrid." he said.
She moved her legs, curling them inwards like a baby in the womb but she did not respond to his words. He was going to give her the same speech that he had given her the day before. Be strong, get up, you must move one...and all the other motivational speeches he had revised in his mind before delivering them to her.
He was not the first to attempt to drag her out of her mourning and make her re-enter normal society. Her grandmother had tried, her mother and her sister-in-law Deanne who had been very uncomfortable because she herself was pregnant.
At six months now, her bump was showing proudly and every time she saw Sigrid, she was overcome with guilt almost as if it was a crime for her own child to live while Sigrid’s died.
For that reason, Deanne was avoiding Sigrid as much as possible. Other people that had attempted to give her the you need to get back on your feet speech were her brothers, Mauve, Mrs. Elsworth, Mauve’s mother, princess Elarin.