perhaps it should be. Go on into the other room now, Rachel.'
'No,' she said. 'You need help. Let me do that, David.'
She reached out a hand for the cloth, but he dropped it hurriedly into the bowl in order to take the hand of Mrs. Perkins, who, to Rachel's horror, turned rigid and even redder in the face. She began to moan and bite on her lower lip, which was already looking swollen and bruised.
'Let the sound out if you must,' David was saying to her. 'Scream if it will help. We will endure it, and the children have company.'
Mr. Perkins had just come back in from outside, looking drenched to the skin.
Rachel dipped a finger into the bowl, found that the water was tepid, and hurried over with it to the pail that stood beside the door. By the time Mrs. Perkins had again relaxed, Rachel was back at her side with fresh cold water. She knelt and began to sponge off the hot, tired face and neck. She turned her head and smiled at the two young girls, who were hovering at the foot of the mattress, their eyes wide with tiredness and fright.
'Have you been helping?' she asked. 'How very brave of you. I think you deserve a rest. Would you like to go in and join your grandmama or perhaps go up to the attic to lie down? I shall help the Reverend Gower now. I shall call if we need you. All right?'
Lil almost sagged with relief and even Tess put up no argument. They both disappeared up the ladder into the attic, taking no light with them. Indeed, they needed no light. The lightning was still almost incessant.
On old Mrs. Perkins' instructions and some weak affirming murmurs from her daughter-in-law, David had gathered up the remaining pile of dry cloths that the girls had set on a chair and brought them over to the bed. He and Rachel spread them in a thick layer on the mattress. A smaller pile was left beside the bed for wrapping the baby after the birth. Rachel stared at them and realized suddenly and for the first time exactly what was about to happen. But there was no time to panic. Mrs. Perkins was moaning beside her. Soon she would need the mercy of the cool cloth again.
Over the next hour Rachel forgot the storm, the imminence of birth, and all else in her efforts to relieve the mother's pain.
'It's time,' the woman said at last with some urgency. Her breathing quickened. 'It's time, Reverend. Where is the midwife?' The last words were almost screamed as Mrs. Perkins gripped the sides of the mattress and bore down against her pain.
David's eyes met Rachel's across the bed. He was looking very pale, she noticed, but not panic-stricken. He looked quite in charge of the situation. She forgot that he had no more experience than she with such an event. She looked calmly to him for instructions.
'Grip both of her hands, Rachel,' he said, 'so that she can push with more force. I will receive the baby. Mrs. Perkins senior has given me full instructions on how to proceed.'
Rachel obeyed without question and watched quite calmly the preparations David made as surely as if he had delivered a hundred babies.
And then, quite unaware of the pain in her hands caused by Mrs. Perkins' viselike grip, she watched in growing wonder and awe the slow miracle of birth. And finally there was the moment when David held in his hands the tiny red and slippery child, and it cried without any encouragement to take its first breath. The newest Perkins boy had made his appearance.
Mrs. Perkins relaxed her hold on Rachel's hands and reached out her arms. She was laughing weakly, her whole attention focused on her son. 'Oh, give him to me,' she said.
Rachel reached for some warm cloths in a daze and wrapped them around the tiny, noisy little bundle before placing it in the mother's arms. As she crossed the room to fetch warm water in the bowl, she noticed with puzzlement that David was still busy. It was not over yet. Old Mrs. Perkins was calling instructions from the inner room, and the new mother was adding details.
And then it was all over and Rachel was able to take the baby in trembling hands, wash him off gently with the water, and wrap him in the remaining clean cloths before handing him again to his mother, who was covered up and smiling tiredly, her eyes following every move Rachel made with her precious bundle of humanity.
And then Rachel called in Mr. Perkins, and he came, pale and trembling, and stared down in humble timidity at his wife and son. David was beside the door washing off his hands and rolling down his shirtsleeves. Rachel followed him there. Their eyes met and held.
'David,' she said. 'Oh, David. How very wonderful.' Her eyes were brimming with tears. Had she been able to see clearly, she would have seen that his were brighter than usual too.
Neither knew afterward whether he offered his arms or whether she came into them unbidden. But in his arms she was, and they leaned against each other, weak with the wonder of the miracle they had just witnessed and participated in to a small extent. He held her head against his damp shoulder and Rachel breathed in the smell of perspiration, surely more wonderful than any perfume at that moment.
'How very privileged I have been,' he murmured against her hair. 'Most men experience only the guilt of having caused their women's agony and then the pride of parenthood. I have seen the wonder of pain turned to joy, Rachel. How good our Lord has been to me.'
'David,' she said. 'Oh, David.' Foolish to say his name over and over again. But messages passed without the medium of words. They looked into each other's eyes eventually and smiled, a totally unself-conscious look of deep and mutual love.
Mr. Perkins had taken his new son into the inner room to be inspected by his grandmother, and Mrs. Perkins was shyly trying to attract the attention of her doctor and nurse. Now that it was all over, she was flustered and apologetic. It took all of David's gentle reassurances to restore her calm joy in what she had just accomplished.
David and Rachel spent the next couple of hours talking in low voices to old Mrs. Perkins and her son. The new mother was enjoying a well-earned sleep, and her new son had decided to cooperate. None of the other children had stirred during the excitement of the birth or afterward. The storm eventually passed over, and an hour later both David and Mr. Perkins thought that perhaps a vehicle as light as Lord Rivers' gig might be able to travel the road back to Oakland. David would drive Rachel. He would not hear of her going alone.
Chapter 15
Lord Rivers' ball continued long after it was scheduled to finish. The music and the dancing went on until dawn, and then a surprisingly lively group of people crowded windows or ventured out onto the terrace, all trying to assess the probable state of the roads merely from viewing the rain-soaked cobbles and grass. It was certain that those who had traveled any distance would be foolish to think of returning home yet. Any weighty carriage would at the very least get hopelessly stuck in mud, and there was the added danger of upsetting in a pothole or skidding off the road and overturning into a ditch.
Lord Rivers' staff belowstairs was frantically busy preparing breakfast for a large number of people. The housekeeper and chambermaids were as busy abovestairs preparing beds for those guests who wished to rest while they waited. These were mostly ladies. The gentlemen prepared to settle quite happily to cards or billiards and fortifying bottles of port.
A few guests from the village and the party from Oakland decided to take the chance of returning home. The worst that could happen, Lord Mountford said cheerfully, was that they would have to walk a mile or two over wet grass until their carriages could be pulled out of the mud. His wife's comment that there were many worse fates that might befall them went unheeded. Lady Edgeley was anxious to return home to assure herself that Lady Rachel was safe and had not died of fright during the storm.
The stranded ballgoers were just finishing a very early breakfast sometime later when the butler opened the doors into the main dining room and Lords Edgeley and Mountford strode in. Algernon rose to his feet at once, his face paling.
'Has there been an accident?' he asked. 'I trust no one has been hurt. What may we do to help, Edgeley?'
But the earl did not give the news that everyone expected. 'It's Rachel,' he said. 'She is not at home and has not been there all night. Damn me for a fool. I should have sent someone after her to make sure she had
