3-65

65.

Doria was staying with us, waiting for the baby to come. Neither she nor Meg ever strayed far.

None of us did. We all just sat around waiting, going for the occasional walk, looking at the cows.

When Meg was a week past her due date, the comms team and the Palace began pressuring

me. When’s the baby coming? The press can’t wait forever, you know.

Oh. The press is getting frustrated¹? Heaven forbid!

Meg’s doctor had tried several homeopathic ways to get things moving, but our little visitor

was just intent on staying put. (I don’t remember if we ever tried Granny’s suggestion of a bumpy²

car ride.) Finally we said: Let’s just go and make sure nothing’s wrong. And let’s be prepared in

case the doctor says it’s time.

We got into a nondescript people-carrier and crept away from Frogmore without alerting any

of the journalists stationed at the gates. It was the last sort of vehicle they suspected we’d be riding

in. A short time later we arrived at the Portland Hospital and were spirited into a secret lift, then

into a private room. Our doctor walked in, talked it through with us, and said it was time to induce.

Meg was so calm. I was calm too. But I saw two ways of enhancing my calm. One: Nando’s

chicken. (Brought by our bodyguards³.) Two: A canister of laughing gas beside Meg’s bed. I took

several slow, penetrating⁴ hits. Meg, bouncing on a giant purple ball, a proven way of giving

Nature a push, laughed and rolled her eyes.

I took several more hits and now I was bouncing too.

When her contractions⁵ began to quicken, and deepen, a nurse came and tried to give some

laughing gas to Meg. There was none left. The nurse looked at the tank, looked at me, and I could

see the thought slowly dawning: Gracious, the husband’s had it all.

Sorry, I said meekly⁶.

Meg laughed, the nurse had to laugh, and quickly changed the canister.

Meg climbed into a bath, I turned on soothing⁷ music. Deva Premal: she remixed Sanskrit

mantras into soulful hymns⁸. (Premal claimed she heard her first mantra in the womb, chanted by

her father, and when he was dying she chanted the same mantra to him.) Powerful stuff.

In our overnight bag we had the same electric candles I’d arranged in the garden the night I

proposed. Now I placed them around the hospital room. I also set a framed photo of my mother on

a little table. Meg’s idea.

Time passed. Hour melted into hour. Minimal⁹ dilation¹⁰.

Meg was doing a lot of deep breathing for pain. Then the deep breathing stopped working. She

was in so much pain that she needed an epidural.

The anesthetist hurried in. Off went the music, on went the lights.

Whoa. Vibe change.

He gave her an injection at the base of her spine¹¹.

Still the pain didn’t let up. The medicine apparently¹² wasn’t getting where it needed to go.

He came back, did it again.

Now things both quietened and accelerated.

Her doctor came back two hours later, slipped both hands into a pair of rubber gloves. This is

it, everybody. I stationed myself at the head of the bed, holding Meg’s hand, encouraging her.

Push, my love. Breathe. The doctor gave Meg a small hand mirror. I tried not to look, but I had to.

I glanced, saw a reflection of the baby’s head emerging. Stuck. Tangled¹³. Oh, no, please, no. The

doctor looked up, her mouth set in a particular way. Things were getting serious.

I said to Meg: My love, I need you to push.

I didn’t tell her why. I didn’t tell her about the cord, didn’t tell her about the likelihood of an

emergency C-section. I just said: Give me everything you’ve got.

And she did.

I saw the little face, the tiny neck and chest and arms, wriggling¹⁴, writhing¹⁵. Life, life —

amazing! I thought, Wow, it really all begins with a struggle for freedom.

A nurse swept the baby into a towel and placed him on Meg’s chest and we both cried to see

him, meet him. A healthy little boy, and he was here.

Our ayurvedic doctor had advised us that, in the first minute of life, a baby absorbs everything

said to them. So whisper to the baby, tell the baby your wish for him, your love. Tell.

We told.

I don’t remember phoning anyone, texting them. I remember watching the nurses run tests on

my hour-old son, and then we were out of there. Into the lift, into the underground car park, into

the people-carrier, and gone. Within two hours of our son being born we were back at Frogmore.

The sun had risen and we were behind closed doors before the official announcement was

released…

Saying Meg had gone into labor¹⁶?

I had a tiff¹⁷ with Sara about that. You know she’s not in labor anymore, I said.

She explained that the press must be given the dramatic, suspenseful¹⁸ story they demanded.

But it’s not true, I said.

Ah, truth didn’t matter. Keeping people tuned¹⁹ to the show, that was the thing.

After a few hours I was standing²⁰ outside the stables at Windsor, telling the world: It’s a boy.

Days later we announced the name to the world. Archie.

The papers were incensed²¹. They said we’d pulled a fast one on them.

Indeed we had.

They felt that, in doing so, we’d been…bad partners?

Astonishing. Did they still think of us as partners? Did they really expect special consideration,

preferential treatment—given how they’d treated us these last three years?

And then they showed the world what kind of “partners” they really were. A BBC radio

presenter²² posted a photo on his social media — a man and a woman holding hands with a

chimpanzee.

The caption²³ read: Royal baby leaves hospital.

1 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 bumpy   

adj.颠簸不平的，崎岖的

参考例句：

• I think we've a bumpy road ahead of us.我觉得我们将要面临一段困难时期。
• The wide paved road degenerated into a narrow bumpy track.铺好的宽阔道路渐渐变窄，成了一条崎岖不平的小径。

3 bodyguards   

n.保镖，卫士，警卫员( bodyguard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brooks came to Jim's office accompanied—like always—by his two bodyguards. 和往常一样，在两名保镖的陪同下，布鲁克斯去吉姆的办公室。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Three of his bodyguards were injured in the attack. 在这次袭击事件中，他有3名保镖受了伤。 来自辞典例句

4 penetrating   

adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的

参考例句：

• He had an extraordinarily penetrating gaze. 他的目光有股异乎寻常的洞察力。
• He examined the man with a penetrating gaze. 他以锐利的目光仔细观察了那个人。

5 contractions   

n.收缩( contraction的名词复数 )；缩减；缩略词；（分娩时）子宫收缩

参考例句：

• Contractions are much more common in speech than in writing. 缩略词在口语里比在书写中常见得多。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Muscle contractions are powered by the chemical adenosine triphosphate(ATP ). 肌肉收缩是由化学物质三磷酸腺苷(ATP)提供动力的。 来自辞典例句

6 meekly   

adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地

参考例句：

• He stood aside meekly when the new policy was proposed. 当有人提出新政策时，他唯唯诺诺地站 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He meekly accepted the rebuke. 他顺从地接受了批评。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 soothing   

adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的

参考例句：

• Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
• His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。

8 hymns   

n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• At first, they played the hymns and marches familiar to them. 起初他们只吹奏自己熟悉的赞美诗和进行曲。 来自英汉非文学 - 百科语料821
• I like singing hymns. 我喜欢唱圣歌。 来自辞典例句

9 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。

10 dilation   

n.膨胀，扩张，扩大

参考例句：

• Time dilation works both ways. 时间膨胀在两方面都起作用。 来自辞典例句
• The ciliary body is an anterior dilation of the choroid at the level of the lens. 晶状体是脉络膜石晶状体平面上向前扩大的部分。 来自辞典例句

11 spine   

n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊

参考例句：

• He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.他从马上跌下摔断了脊梁骨。
• His spine developed a slight curve.他的脊柱有点弯曲。

12 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

13 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

14 wriggling   

v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕

参考例句：

• The baby was wriggling around on my lap. 婴儿在我大腿上扭来扭去。
• Something that looks like a gray snake is wriggling out. 有一种看来象是灰蛇的东西蠕动着出来了。 来自辞典例句

15 writhing   

（因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She was writhing around on the floor in agony. 她痛得在地板上直打滚。
• He was writhing on the ground in agony. 他痛苦地在地上打滚。

16 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

17 tiff   

n.小争吵，生气

参考例句：

• They patched up their tiff again.他们平息了争执，又和好如初了。
• There was a new tiff between the two girls.那两个女孩之间有一场新的吵嘴。

18 suspenseful   

adj.悬疑的，令人紧张的

参考例句：

• If his experiences then had been carefully recorded, it would undoubtedly have made a suspenseful and moving book. 若是把他所经历的事实记录下来，那就是一部充满着大智大勇，惊心动魄的小说。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Lily is an atmospheric and suspenseful tale of love, loss and obsession. 这是一个关于爱情、失落与迷恋的故事，充满情调与悬疑色彩。 来自互联网

19 tuned   

adj.调谐的，已调谐的v.调音( tune的过去式和过去分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• The resort is tuned in to the tastes of young and old alike. 这个度假胜地适合各种口味，老少皆宜。
• The instruments should be tuned up before each performance. 每次演出开始前都应将乐器调好音。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

21 incensed   

盛怒的

参考例句：

• The decision incensed the workforce. 这个决定激怒了劳工大众。
• They were incensed at the decision. 他们被这个决定激怒了。

22 presenter   

n.（电视、广播的）主持人，赠与者

参考例句：

• Most people think being a television presenter is exciting.很多人认为当电视节目主持人是一件刺激的事情。
• The programme dispensed with its most popular presenter.这个节目最受欢迎的主持人被换掉了。

23 caption   

n.说明，字幕，标题；v.加上标题，加上说明

参考例句：

• I didn't understand the drawing until I read the caption.直到我看到这幅画的说明才弄懂其意思。
• There is a caption under the picture.图片下边附有说明。