“Thank you for coming,” she said when the pain had passed. “Matthew told me you’ve had a busy evening.” Despite the seriousness of her situation, she was still the same Susanna—kind to a fault and ready to put my problems above her own.
“What are you doing out here?” I walked over to her and placed my hand on her back. Very carefully I allowed just enough power to trickle from my fingers to take a quick look inside. The baby’s heartbeat lacked proper strength, but she was alive, and I was going to make sure she stayed that way.
“I’ve been waiting at the window, watching for you.” She sounded in decent spirits, though I could feel her fear coursing back into me.
I looked a bit further to see how far her cervix had opened. Labor was traumatic enough on healthy babies. This little girl needed to come out quickly, before the stress became too much for her heart to bear. “How long in between the pains?” I asked.
“About five minutes.”
I glanced around at the room full of men, most of them still armed. “Let’s go into your bedroom.”
She nodded and leaned onto my arm for support. I got her situated in a rocking chair beside the bed before going back out to speak with Matthew. “The baby is coming tonight. I’ll need lots of towels and plenty of hot water.” I turned to Ben. “Can you fetch my leather case from the apothecary?”
He nodded and went to the door.
“William, I’m safe now if you want to go home.”
“I should stay,” he said stubbornly, still holding onto the sword and pistol as though danger lurked in every corner, just waiting to grab me.
“It would be of greater service,” Henry said, “for you and Nora to start telling people how Selah got that scar. I don’t want anyone going to bed tonight thinking it was made by the Devil.”
William looked unsure for a moment. “Very well,” he finally said. “I’ll go fetch Nora from the meetinghouse. Between the two of us, we should be able to get the truth spread around by bedtime.” He started for the door.
“You might want to leave the weapons here,” I suggested. “People are probably already wondering why a good Quaker man has agreed to take up arms—even if it was for a really good cause.” Like saving my life. Hopefully there would be no talk of having him disowned for the infraction.
Reluctantly, William left the sword and pistol in Henry’s keeping, and then set off for the meetinghouse to find his sister.
A soft groan came from the bedroom. Matthew looked at me pleadingly, the color draining from his face. “She’s going to be fine,” I said, taking his arm. “Just get me those towels and water.” Unable to move, he stood there staring at me.
Henry came up and put a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go find the servant.” He gently turned Matthew toward the kitchen. Coming back to his senses, Matthew nodded, and went with Henry.
With the men gone, I went back into the bedroom to check on Susanna. She was breathing hard again, a piece of thickly knotted rope clamped tightly in her hands as she worked through the pain. I placed my hand on her stomach to hear the baby’s heart again. The beat had weakened noticeably, but the cervix remained tight. At this rate labor was going to take hours, and by then the baby would surely be dead.
“Susanna, when this pain has passed, I need you to come over and lie down.”
She nodded, her teeth clenched against the pain.
“They’re getting harder,” she panted. I helped her onto the bed and waited for the next pain to hit. As her abdomen tightened to a ball, I released a small wave of warmth into her body to help expand the cervix. I had to go slowly, a fraction of an inch at a time, so not to cause undue trauma to Susanna’s body. With a weak baby to contend with, I couldn’t risk putting the mother into shock.
Susanna grunted as each contraction forced her body further open. I took a long wooden needle from my case Ben had fetched from Brighmor, and very carefully inserted it into the birth canal to break the water sack. Fluid rushed out, soaking the towels on the bed.
“It’s time to start pushing,” I said. “At this next contraction, I want you to grab your knees and bear down for all you’re worth. The sooner this baby comes out the better.”
Susanna met my eyes with a look of sheer determination. I kept my hand on her stomach, waiting for the muscles to begin tightening again. She cried out from the pain, but grabbed her knees and pushed.
“That’s right,” I said, “just like that.” More warmth flowed from my hand and I guided the baby down into the birth canal. Fortunately, she wasn’t very big, weighing about a third of a stone. The contraction ebbed, and Susanna lay back on the bed panting, her red face dripping with sweat.
“A few more like that and this baby will be out,” I reassured her.