The October sun shines through the slightly open window, illuminating the beads of sweat on the groaning woman's forehead. The maid at her side starts to wipe them away, but stops as her mistress jerks upright with yet another bloodcurdling scream.

"That's it, Ma'am. One more push. I can see the head already. One more push, Ma'am." The third woman in the room calls encouragingly, leaning forward to grasp the rapidly coming child by the shoulders and help it into the world.

With one last heaving push, the mother succeeds in pushing her child into the world, slumping back with exhaustion as she hears its first piercing cry.

A cry that goes on and on, rising in pitch and intensity as the midwife struggles to wash and swaddle the babe in warm, comfortable cloths.

"She's a spirited one, this one, Ma'am. You'll have your hands full with her." She chuckles as she turns back to the bed, handing the woman resting on the pillows the precious infant.

"I have a daughter then, Mrs Peters? Another?"

"Aye, Ma'am. A beautiful, healthy girl. A sister for Miss Jessica."

For the briefest of instants, disappointment flickers in the new mother's eyes and then she catches sight of her child and her heart visibly melts as she gasps for breath.

"Oh!" Cradling the new born infant close, she snaps "Fetch my husband, Mary."

The maid who has been standing nearby all through the ordeal nods, dips a silent curtsy and is gone within moments.

Peace reigns in the little room as the babe, as though realising she is in her mother's arms, quiets and looks around, eyes blinking as she takes in her surroundings.

"She knows her mother, Ma'am." Mrs Peters ventures one last comment, to which the other woman nods gratefully, but their uneasy camaraderie is broken as a man's shadow falls across the doorway.

"I hear I have another daughter, Adeline."

"Yes, Charles. Would you like to see her?"

The man nods and crosses towards the bed. Thus summarily dismissed, Mrs Peters bobs a curtsy and slips from the room.

Left alone, the two parents gaze down at their new daughter, both enchanted by her. Now that she is calm and relaxed in her mother's arms, she seems to be surveying the room as though it were her castle, a fact her father is quick to remark upon.

"She seems to be acting quite the little Queen there, Adeline."

"Shall we name her for the Queen, then? Shall we name her Victoria?" Adeline chances a glance at her husband and is relieved to see that he too is gazing at the girl in her arms adoringly.

Yet he shakes his head at her suggestion. "Victoria doesn't suit her. Perhaps as her middle name, but not as her first name. She has too much spirit in her eyes for that. An all-conquering spirit."

"Alexandra." The name comes to Adeline almost without her having to think about it. "Alexandra Victoria."

"Yes. Alexandra Victoria." Charles reaches for his new daughter and rocks her in his arms gently as he tries her name out for the first time.

"Alexandra Victoria." He repeats, more and more taken with the name every time he says it.

"Alexandra Victoria. Our little Princess. No one will ever be able to gainsay her anything, Adeline. Not with a name like that."

Little does Charles know how true those words; words he speaks half in jest, will be proved.