“Did she tell you not to say anything to me?”
He shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back slightly on his heels. “She thinks I worry too much.”
Susanna was a very independent woman, verging on stubborn. As her midwife, I should have marched right over to her home and demanded she tell me everything. For Matthew’s sake, I decided to go about it another way. “Henry and I are having supper at the Boyles’ this evening. How about if we stop by later for cake and wine?”
His face immediately brightened from the suggestion. “That would be nice. And then maybe you could ask how she’s feeling.”
I went down the steps to meet Henry. “We’ll be over soon as we can,” I told Matthew.
“Would you mind pretending we never had this conversation?”
“It will be our secret,” I promised.
Matthew offered his arm to assist me into the carriage. “Thank you, Selah. I don’t know what we would do without you.”
I gave him my best reassuring smile as the horse pulled the shay away from the steps. Then leaning back in my seat, I closed my eyes and started debating what to do about Susanna.
The Appletons had moved to Hopewell from Philadelphia to open a dry goods store fifteen years ago, when they were first married. Since then they had built up a flourishing business while gaining the reputation for being good-natured and possessing the best of hearts. Matthew offered quality merchandise at fair prices, and more than one widow or poor family could claim receiving indefinite credit or being offered the necessities at a significantly reduced rate.
But despite this success, one disappointment overshadowed everything else. For fifteen years they had remained childless, Susanna having suffered through several miscarriages and two stillbirths from what I knew. Being in her mid-thirties, she had all but given up hope of ever having a child when she unexpectedly became pregnant again late last fall.
Over the past few months I had been checking on her regularly. The baby seemed to be growing normally, but these things could change without warning. If the baby died in the womb, there would be nothing to do. If it were only a matter of preterm labor, Susanna was far enough along that it would be possible to sustain the little one’s life so long as I was summoned in time. Once Susanna had passed into her eighth month, I had been very adamant about being called the moment the pains began.
“You seem to be thinking awfully hard about something,” Henry said, his deep voice drawing my attention back to the carriage. We passed by the gristmill, which meant I must have been musing to myself for a good thirty minutes.
“I’ve been trying to decide what to do about Susanna Appleton. It was her husband Matthew who invited us over later tonight.”
“Is it something you want to talk about?” he asked politely. “I might be able to offer an opinion.”
“Not unless you know anything about midwifery,” I laughed. “She’s expecting a baby in the beginning of August, but has a terrible history of miscarriage and stillbirth. I’m just trying to decide what can be done to minimize the risk. Susanna and Matthew desperately want to be parents, and I think this might be their last chance.”
Henry stopped the carriage to let the horse rest in a patch of shade running alongside the creek. “Childbirth has always had its risks.” From the sadness in his voice, he seemed to be speaking specifically of his own mother who had died on the birthing bed. “What else is there to do other than wait and see what happens?”
His suggestion sounded completely reasonable, for someone who didn’t have the ability to change the final outcome. Even so, unborn babies were very tricky to fix and my gift was somewhat limited until Susanna went into labor. Without more experience I could inadvertently cause additional harm by interceding too early. So other than sleeping on the Appletons’ sofa and following Susanna around like a shadow for the next month, Henry was right, and to some degree I would have to wait and see what happened.
“There’s not much else to do,” I admitted. “But it would be heartbreaking if they lost another baby.”
“They would still have each other for comfort, which is more than a lot of folks can claim.”
“I guess you could look at it that way,” I said, somewhat taken aback by his matter-of-fact perspective. “Any woman would be fortunate to find a man who loves her half as much as Matthew loves Susanna. It’s what I had always hoped for in my own marriage, before—” I caught myself just in time.
“You mean before Samuel died?” Henry asked.
I saw no use denying it and simply nodded.
Securing the reins, Henry got out of the carriage and walked over to the water’s edge. After two hours of sitting in meeting followed by a long ride, I understood the inclination to stretch his legs.