Page 88 of An Unwitting Alliance
Mr. Buttars crossed to the door. “I will send up some hot water.”
Mother Vail moaned and curled up over her knees, her face turning red.
Cassie rubbed her mother’s back. “Don’t forget to breathe.”
Tom hoped Cassie would remember to take the same advice, but she did not look afraid this time. She was stronger than she knew. Stronger than him.
“I wish I could stay and help, but you know I’m squeamish of blood,” Megs whined.
“Wait in the corridor in case we need anything from you,” Cassie ordered.
There was not much of a break before another moan and another wave of pain. Tom did not look up this time as he added kindling and stirred up the hot coals, but the moaning sound was worse than crying. How did women survive childbirth? Was it always so harrowing?
“Has anyone checked to see how far the baby has progressed?” Cassie said.
“Mrs. Buttars?” Auntie Evans asked. “You have the most experience out of the three of us here.”
“I’ll just wash up.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mrs. Buttars move to the wash table and pour water from a pitcher into a waiting bowl. The smell of lavender-scented soap reached Tom as the housekeeper moved to the bottom of the bed.
“I’ll be with Megs if you need anything.” He was not even out the door before he heard Mrs. Buttars announce that it would not be long.
But she was wrong. A half hour later and the baby had still not come. What was the delay? Tom did not expect the doctor to make it in time, but soon there was a knock on the door, and Mr. Buttars rushed to let him in.
Mr. Adams flew up the stairs and quickly assessed the mother and baby while Tom and Megs were left in the corridor, ignorant of what was happening on the other side of the door.
“Do you think something is wrong?” Tom asked Megs.
“It can take all day to have a baby sometimes.”
Tom huffed. “But that’s madness. What makes it take so long?”
“I don’t know; it just does.” Megs looked at him as ifhewere mad, but there was only so much space for the baby to travel. Something had to be wrong, or surely Mother Vail would have had the baby by now.
Tom’s chest heaved at the thought of all this waiting and suffering and still a possibility of loss. Cassie was strong, but if anything happened, it would devastate her. The unknown was enough to make Tom want to barge into the room and argue with the doctor, fall onto his knees and plead with God, and simultaneously cry out in anguish.
No love or family was worth this kind of torture.
Chapter 28
When a baby was born,no angels were seen heralding it into the world, and yet there was not a more heavenly delivery to be found on the earth. Cassandra placed her new baby sister, cleaned from all signs of her birth, into her mother’s arms, just as the sun came up. New light streamed through the window and over mother and child. The beautiful sight stirred her. Someday it would be her turn.
“She looks like you did when you were born,” Mama whispered to Cassandra, her energy spent.
“She looks like all your children did when they were born,” Aunt Evans said with a laugh.
Aunt and Mama called Megan in, and she took a turn holding the baby and cooing over her.
“Cassandra,” Mama said after a few minutes. “Be a dear and take the baby out for Tom to see. And make sure he gets a chance to hold her.”
Cassandra’s brow furrowed. What was Mama up to? “And if he does not want to hold her?”
“Tell him I insist upon it. There are few experiences that compare to holding a baby, and I doubt he has had much opportunity to do so.”
Megan brought their sister to her, and Cassandra tucked the bundle close. “Very well, Mama,” she said. “I will do your bidding, but only because no one could resist a baby that resembles me.”
Once in the corridor, she found Tom slumped against the opposite wall from the bedchamber. He started to climb to his feet when he noticed her.
“Don’t get up,” Cassandra said, coming to sit beside him.
