Chapter 27
The sun had set an hour ago behind clouds that hinted at the first snow of the season, and though the cabin was full, it was quiet.
Pa read with his well-worn Bible tilted to catch the light from the cheery fire crackling in the hearth.
Ma sat beside him making adjustments to one of Kate’s skirts, and Ian leaned back in a chair, boots propped on a pail, eyes drifting closed.
Kate sat next to Andrew on the bench while he worked some tallow into a bridle.
She was supposed to be embroidering her handkerchief with her future initials, but she sat staring at the half-finished project.
Having finished the K, she’d moved on to the next letter, only to realize she had unknowingly started the downstroke too close, what one would expect for an M.
What to do? This was supposed to be for her trousseau.
Maybe if she just crossed the downstroke to make a T, no one would notice that the letters were uncomfortably close.
Or should she pick it out and start fresh?
She glanced at Andrew. His head was bent low over the leather.
Surely he would notice if she started ripping threads from the delicate linen.
Would he be offended? Kate bit her lip. Perhaps he’d just assume she wasn’t very good at embroidery. That was fairly accurate anyway.
The door burst open and everyone jumped. A cold wind rushed through the house as James barreled inside.
“It’s happenin’!” he cried, his voice loud and excited. “The baby’s comin’!”
The room exploded with activity. Kate immediately started gathering supplies while Ian and Pa shrugged into their coats to hitch up the mules. Ma packed up her sewing and reached for her coat.
Kate eyed her, brows furrowed. “You sure, Ma?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” she replied resolutely, wrapping her shawl securely around her shoulders.
“It might be a long night. Can you manage?”
Ma lifted her chin. “With the Lord’s strength, I will.”
Kate nodded, inwardly relieved. Ma knew so much about childbirth. Kate grabbed their basket of supplies and wrapped up the remaining biscuits from supper to bring along.
“Here,” Andrew said, handing her the lit lantern. “So you don’t get lost.”
“Wouldn’t want that,” she replied, hurriedly pulling on her mittens.
“Wish I could do more.”
“You can pray.”
“Sure thing,” he said and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Stay safe out there.”
Within minutes they were out the door, Pa driving the wagon while James rode on ahead, eager to get back to his wife.
Kate spent the ride praying that Maria’s labor hadn’t progressed too quickly, that they would make it in time to help her and deliver this baby.
She shivered in the wind. The swinging lantern light glinted off the first snowflakes swirling from the dark sky, making it feel like they were suspended in time, frozen in place while the world whirled around them.
It felt like an eternity to make it to the other side of the valley.
When they finally clattered up to the Leighton homestead, Kate jumped down and reached up to help her mother. Their eyes met as they heard Maria’s cries over the rising wind. Anxiety shuttered her mother’s face. Kate’s heart clenched. Please, Lord, keep them safe.
“Go on inside,” Pa said. “I’ll shelter with the team. And tell James I’ll see to his horse.”
They bustled inside the one-room sod house. Maria lay on the straw-stuffed mattress in the corner, her dark hair curling in damp tendrils around her face, her eyes clenched shut, a grimace of pain on her face. She clasped James’s hand so tightly her knuckles were white.
James glanced up at them, eyes filled with anxiety. “Thank the Lord you’re here.”
Ma immediately set into action. Taking off her shawl, she pointed at the fire. “Kate, boil some water. Make sure we have lots of rags. Did you bring the blankets? Good.” She crossed the room and knelt at Maria’s side, laying a gentle hand on James’s shoulder. “I’d like to take a look at her.”
He looked down at Maria, gently stroking her forehead, his eyes so full of love it nearly made Kate cry.
“Maria, my love. Kate’s here, and her ma.
They’re gonna help you. You’re gonna be all right.
” Maria just nodded, breathing hard, still clinging to his hand.
Kate hurriedly stoked the fire, pouring water into the kettle and hanging it in the hearth.
“Maria,” Ma said in a firm, calm voice, “you are doing so, so well. We’re going to meet this baby soon. We’re here. We’re going to help you.” She turned to James. “How far apart are the contractions?”
“I-I don’t know. A couple minutes maybe? They weren’t this close when I left to fetch you. She was doin’ fine, but when I got back, she was like this, just exhausted.”
Ma nodded, deftly examining Maria’s bulging belly beneath her damp chemise. “Here comes another one.”
A groan built up inside Maria, rising to a guttural yell as her abdomen visibly tightened and her body writhed on the pallet.
Ma soothed her with calm words as the contraction continued and her yells built in intensity.
Kate’s heart broke at the pain filling her dear friend’s cries.
After what seemed like ages, the contraction released its relentless grip and Maria fell back against the pillows, panting.
“Well done, Maria, well done,” Ma murmured, rubbing her back.
“This baby doesn’t want to come,” Maria said hoarsely.
“Of course it wants to come. Why else would it be fighting so hard to meet you?”
Maria shook her head. “It’s so much harder than last time. It’s stuck. It must be stuck. What if I can’t do it? What if this baby won’t come? What if something happens? What if something’s wrong?”
“Shh, your baby’s not stuck, Maria. He’s sitting a little to the left, and it might be more of a squeeze, but he’s coming all right.”
“He?” Maria whispered.
Ma smiled wryly. “Only a man would make such a fuss over something as simple as being born.” Maria let out a soft laugh, her face relaxing ever so slightly. “You rest for a bit, dear. James is right here with you.” Ma got up stiffly and came over to Kate at the fire.
“How’s she doin’?” Kate asked softly.
Ma shook her head. “All things considered, things are looking fine. Baby isn’t in the most ideal position, but he’s not breech.
Things should be progressing nicely.” Ma glanced over at Maria, frowning.
“She’s fighting it. She’s so tense. She has to want this baby to come.
Her body is trying, but her mind is rebelling. ”
Kate’s heart clenched again. “Because of losin’ Davie.”
Ma nodded, her face sad. “She must be afraid of losing another child.”
“What can we do?”
“After the next surge, I’ll try to get her to move position, to encourage the baby to the right. And then we need to be her calm, to be her joy, to remind her that the Lord has them both in the palm of His mighty hand.”
Another contraction hit and Maria filled the tiny house with her cries.
After it ebbed, Ma helped her to turn onto her right side.
Kate rolled a blanket and propped it between her knees to open her pelvis and sat behind her and kneaded the tense muscles in Maria’s back and hips, encouraging them to loosen and relax, making as much room for the baby as possible.
And all the while Ma spoke over Maria, filling the room with her quiet assurance and the truth of the Lord’s faithfulness.
“‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff will comfort me,’” she quoted.
“The Lord is with you, Maria. He will never forsake you. You are held in His mighty hands. This baby is held in His mighty hands. As the Good Book says: ‘I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.’”
The night deepened. The wind keened around the corners of the house and rattled the door on its hinges.
Pa came in, then the men retreated to the barn to catch what sleep they could.
Through contraction after contraction, Ma quoted Scripture and prayed and encouraged Maria until her voice grew hoarse.
And when Ma couldn’t speak any longer, Kate sang.
She sang every verse to every hymn she could remember, and when in her tiredness she could think of no more, she went back to the start and sang them all again.
Between each contraction, Maria rested, and each time her face and her body softened more and more, and during each surge of pain she came to a place of such focused intensity, her cries coming from a place so deep within her, that Kate couldn’t help but marvel.
Maria’s hands began to tremble. The tremors moved up her arms until her whole body shivered violently, like she was naked in a blizzard. Kate looked anxiously at her mother. Ma nodded, slowly getting to her feet from where she rested by the fire. “Not long now.”
The next contractions seemed more intense than all the others.
Maria was on her hands and knees, rocking, swaying, shaking her head back and forth as fierce moans ripped from her chest. Unspeaking until now, she started yelling prayers into the night.
“Jesus, help me! Lord, I need you! I can’t do it on my own! Lord, help me!”
“Yes, that’s it, Maria. Nearly there, nearly there!
” Ma encouraged. “Katherine, help her up a bit; have her cling to your shoulders, hold her there. That’s it.
Be strong for her.” Ma quickly gathered her supplies close.
She checked for progress. “Almost there, Maria. You can do this. Your body will know when to push.”