‘Great beside manner,’ she managed, and he smiled again.
‘The doctor will make it all better,’ he said. ‘Just keep on believing that, you two. But the doctor had better move. I’ll be back as soon as I can be. Stay calm.’
It was all very well staying calm and controlled when Ben was close, but the moment he disappeared it got a lot harder. But she was a doctor, too, Lily decided. So conjure up your own bedside manner, she told herself. Right!
‘We have to stay calm,’ she told Benjy sternly, and they both turned to looked at the mare. Her eyes were wild and fearful, and while they watched, Lily saw a ripple pass over her glossy hide. A muscle contraction? Labour?
Lily had been in some tricky delivery situations before but none surpassed this.
‘Ben will know what to do,’ she murmured, more to herself than to Benjy or Flicker. ‘He’s gone to get what we need.’ What did they need? A crane? Did farms have cranes? She knew the answer to that would be no.
She reached out across the mud and touched the mare’s nose, but Flicker snorted and flung back her head in alarm. ‘It’s OK, girl,’ Lily told her, but maybe the mare heard the lack of certainty in her voice.
‘I sang her a Kira song before you came,’ Benjy whispered. ‘She went down so far I thought she might go all the way. I was scared I’d be pulled down, too, and I didn’t know what else to do so I just held onto her and sang.’
‘That was a really sensible thing to do,’ Lily said, swallowing hard at the thought of the bravery he’d shown. She thought of what sensible things she could do and she came up with only one suggestion. ‘Do you think we could both sing?’
‘OK,’ Benjy said doubtfully. ‘I will if you will.’
So they did, and it was dumb but it seemed to work. They sat on the soft ground in front of the mare-but not so close as to alarm her or be sucked down as well. Lily held Benjy on her knee and they sang together the songs Kira had taught both of them, soft island songs, meant to pacify a child before sleep. They were songs that were meant to murmur that all was right with the world and it was safe.
All wasn’t right with her world, Lily thought, but Ben had saved her son and he’d save the horse as well-she knew it. So she held Benjy tight and she sang until finally Ben reappeared, driving the farm truck. He parked it just in front of where the ground became soft. While Lily and Benjy finished the song they’d started, he climbed from the cab and started unloading gear.
Planks. Lots and lots of wooden planks, each about six feet long. Spades. What looked like tarpaulins.
‘Let’s help,’ Lily said, but Flicker tossed back her head, her eyes fearful again. ‘Benjy, you keep singing while I go to help Ben. She’s your friend.’
‘OK,’ Benjy said. ‘But I’m scared.’
‘Ben’s here now. Flicker will be fine. The best person to be here in an emergency is an emergency doctor. You’ll see.’
By the time she reached him, Ben had almost finished unloading. He smiled at Lily as she approached, the same way he might smile at a terrified patient.
‘We’ll get her out.’
‘You’re as worried as I am,’ she accused, and he gave a rueful smile.
‘I might be.’
‘And if we can’t get her out?’
‘I’ve called the local vet for back-up.’
‘And the local vet would be how local?’
‘He’s half an hour’s drive away.’
‘So he’ll be here in half an hour?’
‘Not quite. He’ll be here half an hour after he delivers a heifer of her first calf.’
‘Oh, great.’
‘I brought the rifle,’ he muttered, and Lily gulped. Um, that was never a back-up plan in her sort of medicine.
‘It’s only if she breaks anything or starts to struggle deeper,’ he said.
‘She can’t deliver a foal where she is.’
‘We don’t know she’s in labour.’
‘I’m sure she’s having contractions.’
‘Right.’ His lips compressed. ‘So we get her out before she has her baby.’
‘How?’
‘Dig,’ he said, and handed over a spade. ‘We’re in this together.’
They were.
They laid planks around the mare, giving themselves a solid place to work. Right. The next thing was to stop the mare sinking further. Ben knelt on one side of the mare and shoved a tarpaulin under her belly, talking softly to her all the time. Lily knelt on the other side.
Flicker’s belly was resting on mud, sinking a little beneath the surface. Ben worked his way in from one side; Lily burrowed from the other; Flicker stayed still and they were able to drag the tarp through.
There were three more contractions as they worked.
‘Now what?’ Lily demanded, struggling to her feet again, a heap of mud coming with her.
‘Now we dig,’ Ben said. ‘Benjy, you keep singing. You’re exactly what Flicker needs. Lily, we’re working down from about six feet in front of her, digging what will act as a ramp outward from her hooves. We’ll be sliding planks in as we dig and then we’ll cover them with canvas. She should be able to get purchase.’
‘Really?’
‘Got any other suggestions?’
‘Nope,’ Lily said, and started to dig.
They worked for half an hour, digging forward steadily. Lily wasn’t half the digger Ben was, but every few minutes they swapped so the trench they were creating was even. Fifteen minutes into the digging, Lily had blisters on blisters but she would die rather than admit it. The thought of the rifle in the back of the truck was the best of spurs.
And all the time Benjy sang, in a high, quavery voice that held the occasional sob. Every time he paused, the horse became agitated again, rolling her eyes, pulling back. Her legs had no purchase in the mud and she’d almost ceased trying to get herself out, but Lily was worrying now about shock.
How did you tell if a horse was in shock?
‘Can we contact the vet and see if we can give her a sedative?’ she asked as she dug.
‘I’m imagining a sedative will cross the placenta, the same as in human babies. Wouldn’t you say?’
‘Yes, but-’
‘I already asked the vet,’ Ben said grimly. ‘No sedative. Let’s just dig.’
So dig they did, forming a sloping hole downward, until they had what was essentially a ramp from close to the mare’s front legs. They left about a foot of mud between the hole and the mare’s legs, deciding they’d break through in one hit at the end, fearing she might lash out.
Finally the hole was dug. Swiftly they lined it with boards and covered the boards with canvas, shoving the canvas under the boards at the ends and the sides so as soon as the horse was on it, her weight would hold it in place.
‘Now we just have to break through,’ Ben muttered. ‘Lily, hold her halter, talk to her, see if you can distract her.’
Ben didn’t want to get kicked, Lily thought, and she was in complete agreement. Neither did he want her to surge forward when only one leg was free.
‘OK, Benjy, we’re into distraction.’
The mare was in obvious pain now. Labour must be advancing. Her eyes were panicked, and Lily thought it was more than being stuck that was panicking her.
She had to distract the mare from pain-and from Ben.
She knelt on the mud to the side of the mare and tugged Flicker’s halter, making her look sideways rather than
