It was not easy visiting home. I found that after staying away those few Sundays during the quarantine, home had come to feel like a strange place. I was beginning to forget where my mother kept things, what kind of tiles lined the fireplace, how the sun shone in the rooms at different times of the day. After only a few months I could describe the house in Papists Corner better than my familys.
Frans especially found it hard to visit. After long days and nights at the factory he wanted to smile and laugh and tease, or at least to sleep. I suppose I coaxed him there hoping to knit our family together again. It was impossible, though. Since my fathers accident we had become a different family.
When I came back one Sunday from my parents, Catharina had begun her labor. I heard her groaning when I stepped inside the front door. I peeked into the great hall, which was darker than usualthe lower windows had been shuttered to give her privacy. Maria Thins was there with Tanneke and the midwife. When Maria Thins saw me she said, Go look for the girlsIve sent them out to play. It wont be long now. Come back in an hour.
I was glad to leave. Catharina was making a great deal of noise, and it did not seem right to listen to her in that state. I knew too that she would not want me there.
I looked for the girls in their favorite place, the Beast Market round the corner from us, where livestock was sold. When I found them they were playing marbles and chasing one another. Baby Johannes tumbled after themunsteady on his feet, he half walked, half crawled. It was not the kind of play we would have been allowed on a Sunday, but Catholics held different views.
When Aleydis grew tired she came to sit with me. Will Mama have the baby soon? she asked.
Your grandmother said she would. Well go back in a bit and see them.
Will Papa be pleased?
I should think so.
Will he paint more quickly now theres another baby?
I did not answer. Catharinas words were coming from a little girls mouth. I did not want to hear more.
When we returned he was standing in the doorway. Papa, your cap! cried Cornelia. The girls ran up to him and tried to snatch off the quilted paternity cap he wore, its ribbons dangling below his ears. He looked both proud and embarrassed. I was surprisedhe had become a father five times before, and I thought he would be used to it. There was no reason for him to be embarrassed.
It is Catharina who wants many children, I thought then. He would rather be alone in his studio.
But that could not be quite right. I knew how babies were made. He had his part to play, and he must have played it willingly. And as difficult as Catharina could be, I had often seen him look at her, touch her shoulder, speak to her in a low voice laced with honey.
I did not like to think of him in that way, with his wife and children. I preferred to think of him alone in his studio. Or not alone, but with only me.
You have another brother, girls, he said. His name is Franciscus. Would you like to see him? He led them inside while I hung back in the street, holding Johannes.
Tanneke opened the shutters of the great halls lower windows and leaned out.
Is the mistress all right? I asked.
Oh, yes. She makes a racket but theres nothing behind it. Shes made to have babiespops them out like a chestnut from its shell. Now come, master wants to say a prayer of thanks.
Though uncomfortable, I could not refuse to pray with them. Protestants would have done the same after a good birth. I carried Johannes into the great hall, which was much lighter now and full of people. When I set him down he tottered over to his sisters, who were gathered around the bed. The curtains had been drawn back and Catharina lay propped against pillows, cradling the baby. Though exhausted, she was smiling, happy for once. My master stood near her, gazing down at his new son. Aleydis was holding his hand. Tanneke and the midwife were clearing away basins and bloody sheets while the new nurse waited near the bed.
Maria Thins came in from one of the kitchens with some wine and three glasses on a tray. When she set them down he let go of Aleydis hand, stepped away from the bed, and he and Maria Thins kneeled. Tanneke and the midwife stopped what they were doing and kneeled as well. Then the nurse and children and I kneeled, Johannes squirming and crying out as Lisbeth forced him to sit.
My master said a prayer to God, thanking Him for the safe delivery of Franciscus and for sparing Catharina. He added some Catholic phrases in Latin which I did not understand, but I did not mind muchhe had a low, soothing voice that I liked to listen to.
When he was done Maria Thins poured three glasses of wine and she and he and Catharina drank good health to the baby. Then Catharina handed the baby to the nurse, who put him to her breast.
Tanneke signalled to me and we left the room to get bread and smoked herring for the midwife and the girls. Well begin preparing for the birth feast now, Tanneke remarked as we were setting things out. Young mistress likes a big one. Well be run off our feet as usual.
The birth feast was the biggest celebration I was to witness in that house. We had ten days to prepare for it, ten days of cleaning and cooking. Maria Thins hired two girls for a week to help Tanneke with the food and me with the cleaning. My girl was slow witted but worked well as long as I told her exactly what to do and kept a close eye on her. One day we washedwhether they were clean already or notall the tablecloths and napkins that would be needed for the feast, as well as all the clothes in the houseshirts, robes, bonnets, collars, handkerchiefs, caps, aprons. The linens took another day. Then we washed all the tankards, glasses, earthenware plates, jugs, copper pots, pancake pans, iron grills and spits, spoons, ladles, as well as those from the neighbors, who lent them for the occasion. We polished the brass and the copper and the silver. We took curtains down and shook them outside, and beat all the cushions and rugs. We polished the wood of the beds, the cupboards, the chairs and tables, the windowsills, until everything gleamed.
By the end my hands were cracked and bleeding.
It was very clean for the feast.
Maria Thins placed special orders for lamb and veal and tongue, for a whole pig, for hare and pheasant and capons, for oysters and lobsters and caviar and herring, for sweet wine and the best ale, for sweet cakes prepared specially by the baker.
When I placed the meat order for Maria Thins with Pieter the father, he rubbed his hands. So, yet another mouth to feed, he proclaimed. All the better for us!
Great wheels of Gouda and Edam arrived, and artichokes and oranges and lemons and grapes and plums, and almonds and hazelnuts. Even a pineapple was sent, gift of a wealthy cousin of Maria Thins. I had never seen one before, and was not tempted by its rough, prickly skin. It was not for me to eat anyway. None of the food was, except for the odd taste Tanneke allowed us. She let me try a tiny bit of caviar, which I liked less than I admitted, for all its luxury, and some of the sweet wine, which was wonderfully spiced with cinnamon.
Extra peat and wood were piled in the courtyard, and spits borrowed from a neighbor. Barrels of ale were also kept in the courtyard, and the pig was roasted there. Maria Thins hired a young boy to look after all the fires, which were in use all night once we began roasting the pig.
Throughout the preparations Catharina remained in bed with Franciscus, tended by the nurse, serene as a swan. Like a swan too, though, she had a long neck and sharp beak. I kept away from her.
This is how she would like the house to be every day, Tanneke grumbled to me as she was preparing jugged hare and I was boiling water to wash the windows with. She wants everything to be in a state around her. Queen of the bedcovers! I chuckled with her, knowing I shouldnt encourage her to be disloyal but cheered none the less when she was.