“I’ll go with Meg,” Mother Wren said.
Edward nodded and helped her and the maid into the carriage. “Is there a midwife to find as well?” He directed the question at Anna.
“Rebecca was going to have Mrs. Stucker—”
“The midwife is attending Mrs. Lyle,” her mother-in-law interrupted. “She lives four or five miles out of town. Several ladies were talking about it at the party.”
“Fetch Dr. Billings to Mrs. Fairchild first, and then I’ll send my carriage for Mrs. Stucker,” Edward ordered.
Mother Wren and Meg nodded from inside the carriage.
Edward slammed the door shut and stepped back. “Go, John!”
The coachman shouted to the horses, and the carriage rattled away.
Edward caught Anna’s hand. “Which way is Mrs. Fairchild’s house?”
“It’s just ahead.” Anna snatched up her skirts and ran toward the house with Edward.
The front door to Rebecca’s house stood ajar. All was dark except for a curtain of light that fell from the entrance onto the walkway. Edward pushed open the door and Anna followed. She looked around. They stood in the front hall with the stairs to the upper floor immediately before them. The lower part could be seen in the light from the hall, but the higher steps were in darkness. There was no sign of Rebecca.
“Could she have moved herself?” Anna gasped.
They heard a low moan from the upper stairs. Anna ran up before Edward could move. She heard him curse behind her.
Rebecca lay on a landing midway up the staircase. Anna thanked the fates that she had stopped here, instead of falling down the longer, second flight of stairs. Her friend was on her side, the great mound of her belly more prominent in that position. Her face shone white and greasy with perspiration.
Anna bit her lip. “Rebecca, can you hear me?”
“Anna.” Rebecca held out her hand, and she caught it. “Thank God you are here.” She gasped and her hand tightened painfully.
“What is it?” Anna asked.
“The baby.” Rebecca expelled her breath. “It’s coming.”
“Can you rise?”
“I’m so clumsy. My ankle is hurt.” There were tears in Rebecca’s eyes and traces of others on her face. “The baby is too soon.”
Anna’s own eyes were suddenly flooded with tears. She bit the inside of her cheek as she tried to control them. Tears would not help her friend.
“Let me carry you up to your room, Mrs. Fairchild.” Edward’s deep voice interrupted her thoughts.
Anna glanced up. Edward stood behind her, his face grave. She stepped to the side, letting Rebecca’s hand go. Edward eased his palms under the laboring woman, then squatted and positioned her in his arms before rising in one fluid movement. He was obviously careful not to jostle Rebecca’s ankle, but she whimpered and squeezed her hands in the front of his coat. Edward’s lips tightened. He nodded to Anna, and she went ahead of him up the stairs and down the upper hall. A single candle flickered on a bedside table in Rebecca’s room. Anna hurried to take it and to light several others. Edward turned sideways to enter, and then laid her friend gently on the bed. For the first time, Anna noticed that he was very pale.
She pushed a damp lock of hair off Rebecca’s forehead. “Where is James?”
Anna had to wait for the answer as another pain hit her friend. Rebecca moaned low, and her back arched off the bed. When it was over, she was panting. “He went to Drewsbury for the day on business. He said he would return tomorrow after midday.” Rebecca bit her lip. “He will be so cross with me.”
Edward muttered something sharp behind them and paced to the dark bedroom windows.
“Nonsense,” Anna scolded softly. “None of this is your fault.”
“If only I hadn’t fallen down the stairs,” Rebecca sobbed.
Anna was trying to comfort her when the front door slammed below. The doctor had obviously arrived. Edward excused himself to direct the man up.
Dr. Billings tried to wear an impassive face, but it was evident that he was quite worried. He bandaged Rebecca’s ankle, which had swollen already and turned purple. Anna mostly sat by Rebecca’s head, holding her hand and talking to her in an attempt to calm her. It wasn’t easy. According to the calculations of the midwife and Rebecca, the baby was a month early. As the night progressed Rebecca’s agony grew worse, and she became despondent. She was convinced she’d lose the baby. Nothing Anna said seemed to help, but she stayed by the other woman, holding her hand and stroking her hair.
A little over three hours after the doctor had arrived, Mrs. Stucker, the midwife, blew into the room. A short, rotund woman with red cheeks and black hair, now liberally sprinkled with gray, she was a welcome sight.
“Ho! This is a night for babies, it is,” the midwife said. “You’ll all be glad to know Mrs. Lyle has another boy baby, her fifth, would you believe it? I don’t know why she even bothers to call me. I just sit in the corner and knit until it’s time to catch the wee one.” Mrs. Stucker took off her wrapper and a great many scarves and threw them over a chair. “Do you have some water and a bit of soap, Meg? I do like to wash me hands before I help a lady.”
Dr. Billings was looking disapproving, but he made no protest at the midwife seeing his patient.
“And how are you, Mrs. Fairchild? Holding on well, despite that ankle? My, that must have been painful.” The midwife laid her hand on Rebecca’s tummy and looked at her face shrewdly. “The babe’s eager, isn’t it? Coming early just to aggravate his mother. But you’re not to worry about it. Babies sometimes have minds of their own about when they want to come out.”
“Will he be all right?” Rebecca licked dry lips.
“Well now, you know I can’t promise anything, luv. But you’re a good, strong lady, if you don’t mind me saying so. I’ll do my very best to help you and that baby.”
Things looked brighter after that. Mrs. Stucker got Rebecca to sit up in the bed because “babies slide better downhill than up.” Rebecca seemed to regain hope. She was even able to chat between pains.
Just as Anna felt as if she were going to drop from fatigue right there in the chair, Rebecca began to moan deeply. At first Anna was terribly alarmed, thinking something must be wrong. But Mrs. Stucker wasn’t perturbed and stated cheerfully that the babe would soon be there. And indeed, in another half hour, during which Anna came wide awake, Rebecca’s baby was born. It was a little girl, wrinkled and small but able to bawl quite loudly. The sound brought a smile to her mother’s exhausted face. The baby had dark hair that stood on end like a baby chick’s fluff. Her blue eyes blinked slowly, and she turned her head to Rebecca’s breast when she was snuggled against it.