So did babies that were no longer alive. Jessica had acquired that bitter knowledge watching her mother’s futile labors.
«Tell me when the next one comes,» Jessica said with a calmness that went no deeper than her smile. «In the meantime, you can finish hemming the receiving blankets you made.»
It was half an hour before another wave of contractions swept through Willow’s body. She looked up from the receiving blanket she had just folded.
«Jessi!» she called.
«Now?»
«Yes.»
Jessica dropped the pump handle and ran from the kitchen into the living room where Willow was sitting. When Jessica put her hands on the mound of Willow’s pregnancy, the muscles were quite hard. Frowning, Jessica probed carefully yet thoroughly. She had read enough about false labor to know that it rarely involved the woman’s body to this extent. Nor had the baby changed position.
After a long count of three, Willow’s muscles relaxed.
«The clenching — did it go all the way around your body?» Jessica asked, straightening.
«It began in back and then came forward,» Willow said, demonstrating with her hands.
«Can you stand?»
«Without my husband’s strong arm to drag me upright?» Willow asked dryly. «We’ll find out.»
When Willow was standing, Jessica bent and moved her hands over the swollen abdomen. The baby was definitely riding lower than it had been, though not so low as in the drawings in Jessica’s books showing women on the verge of labor. On the other hand, first babies were…first babies. Unpredictable.
Though Jessica waited and waited, she didn’t feel the baby move with any vigor at all. When she was certain none of the fear she felt would show in her eyes, she looked up, smiled, and spoke in a teasing tone.
«As your brothers would say, ‘Well, Willy, you’ve gone and done it again.’ The baby has dropped, it’s standing on its head, and it’s ready to see what the world is like.»
A small smile softened Willow’s pale lips. She took one of Jessica’s hands between her own and squeezed.
«I’m so glad you’re here, Jessi.»
«So am I.»
It was only partially a lie. For Willow’s sake, Jessica was glad to be present. No woman should have to face the dangers of childbirth alone.
Yet Jessica had hoped never again to go through the agony, terror, and wrenching futility of childbed again.
«Did you eat breakfast?» Jessica asked.
«No. I had no appetite.»
«Good. Your body has more important things to do than deal with biscuits and bacon,» Jessica said briskly. «Where do you keep clean linens for the bed?»
«In the chest at the foot of — oh!»
«What is it?»
No sooner had Jessica asked when she saw the unmistakable marks of wetness spread down Willow’s skirt.
«Your water has broken.»
«Yes, that’s it, of course.» Willow smiled tremulously. «Silly of me to be frightened. I forgot that would happen. What a goose I am.»
Jessica hugged Willow and stroked her golden hair as though she were a child.
«You’re not a goose. ‘Tisonly natural to be a bit worried, especially with your first.»
For a moment, Willow clung to the smaller woman, then she stepped back and straightened her spine.
«It’s probably just as well Caleb isn’t here,» Willow said. «He’s so worried that I’ll suffer the same fate his sister did.»
Jessica remembered the night Caleb had carried his sleeping wife from the living room. His face had been as hard as stone, yet the emotion in his eyes had made Jessica’s heart turn over.
She is my life.
Jessica had wondered then what it would be like to hold a man’s love so deeply. She would have moved heaven and earth and taken on Hell in order to have Wolfe look at her with such emotion.
Yet Jessica knew it wouldn’t happen.
We’re all wrong for each of her.
Wolfe was half right, but only half. He was the right man for her.
She just wasn’t the right woman for him.
With an effort, Jessica put her own turmoil aside. Taking Willow’s hand, she led her to the bedroom.
«I’ve been meaning to have Wolfe talk with Caleb about this,» Jessica said, «but I never found the proper moment. It’s been discovered that childbed fever can be prevented if the doctor washes his hands with soap and hot water between patients.»
«Truly? Why would that make a difference?»
«I don’t know. Yet washing is a simple enough thing to do. And while I’m at it, I’ll see that the bed linens are clean, that your gown is clean, and that the rest of you is clean for good measure.»
Willow smiled slightly. «If it works on hands, why not on other things, is that it?»
«Exactly,» Jessica said. «Here, let me help you out of your clothes.»
«I can manage.»
«I can manage better.» Jessica smiled at Willow and began unfastening her skirt. «There’s no room for modesty at a birthing. What will happen, does, willynilly, without so much as a by your leave. And by the time it does happen, neither one of us will have a thought in our minds but getting the job done.»
Willow let out a long breath. «You’re always surprising me.»
«You mean I’m slightly less useless than Wolfe would have you believe?»
«What nonsense. I could have shaken Wolfe by his ears for his bad temper. You can no more help the circumstances of your birth than he can.»
Jessica smiled rather grimly and said nothing.
«What surprised me,» Willow said, «was that you knew nothing about, er, the physical side of marriage, so I assumed you were reticent about physical things and probably horribly embarrassed by them as well. But you’re quite practical about births, aren’t you?»
«I spent my first nine years on a country estate. Dogs, sheep, cats, horses, pigs, cows, rabbits, the whole lot. They all conceived and gave birth with the regularity of the sun rising.»
«Particularly the rabbits?» Willow suggested with a slight smile.
Jessica laughed. «Those blessed bunnies were the only crop that never failed, rain or shine.»
«I’m glad you’re not a city aristocrat,» Willow admitted. «I’ve never attended a birth, but I believe I’ll need you, if only to be reassured that someone is here to care for the baby if I’m too tired at first.»
Jessica’s determined smile almost slipped. She had never had the luck to deal with a live birth, but that wasn’t something Jessica was going to mention. At the moment, keeping Willow’s spirits up was all that mattered. Talking of difficult births and dead babies was the last thing she needed.
«Now, lean on me while you step out of your skirt and petticoat,» Jessica said.
Working quickly but without the appearance of haste, Jessica got Willow washed and dressed in a clean gown. The bed was prepared by stripping off the old linens, putting a tarpaulin over the mattress, and then putting on clean linens. By the time Willow crawled awkwardly into bed, another contraction had come. It, too, wrapped fully around her body.
There was no doubt that the labor was real.
«I’ll be right back,» Jessica said as she tucked the covers beneath Willow’s chin. «If you hear the rifle, don’t worry. I’m calling in the men.»
«No. I’m fine. I don’t need them.»
«Willow, what do you think Caleb would do to the person who kept him from you when you were in need?»
