To be a wife is to be a mother.

Ros bit back the gentle admonishment on the tip of her tongue. It would not do to set Zelda upon the defensive.

"Even those who believe they are ready," she replied gently instead, "are apt to find themselves overwhelmed when the time comes. Anything to keep the seed from the garden, as it were, however, will delay 'the time' altogether—though, short of barring your husband from your bed altogether," Roslyn acknowledged, "no course of action is infallible."