‘She was fine, and then she was… sick. And I just don’t understand what went wrong.’
3
Goose had left Handy’s children and her own at a relative’s house. With the youngsters gone, the atmosphere in Handy’s courtyard became more subdued than ever.
It was still early morning, the last of the stars only just gone out, and there was nothing to be done for Star now until nightfall. Handy and I rested against the wall, opposite the sweat bath, while from inside the house a slapping sound told us that Goose was belatedly preparing tortillas. Death might interrupt the daily routine but the living still had to be fed. The moment she had returned, the woman had set about her work in grim silence, giving the dough her undivided attention as she flung it onto the griddle.
Handy stared moodily into the entrance hole of the sweat bath. Much of the time he was silent, and when he spoke it was not always clear whether he was talking to me, to himself, or someone else whom he alone could see.
‘Nothing we could have done,’ he mumbled. ‘What were we supposed to do, wait until a better midwife came along? We couldn’t get hold of Piazticuechtli.’
‘“Slender Neck”?’
‘Star’s midwife – the one she’s always gone to before. I sent one of my girls to her house but they said she was ill. She had to go to the Pleasure House to see if any of the women there could come instead.’ He gave a short, dry, mirthless laugh. ‘Imagine, my daughter had to go to a Pleasure House!’
‘At least she came back again,’ I said unfeelingly. I was not looking forward to the burial, and resented being pressured into helping with it. Otherwise I might have reassured my friend that the marketplaces his female relations all no doubt frequented were probably riskier than the Pleasure Houses. These were the official establishments that our successful warriors were allowed to visit as a reward for valour. The girls were clean and eminently respectable. Some indeed were destined to become concubines or even wives of exalted commoners or even nobles. Others went on to become midwives. The midwives’ profession was centred on the Pleasure Houses, where their skills were naturally much in demand.
Handy ignored me. The big man was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he seemed to be speaking to himself most of the time. ‘Gentle Heart knew what she was about, didn’t she? She came as fast as she could. In fact she must have run all the way, I think, because she was here before my daughter had got back from the Pleasure House. And she did her best.’
I wondered whom he was trying to convince, but I was spared the need to think of an answer by Goose, who had finished her work for the moment and joined us in the courtyard.
‘The bread will be ready soon,’ she announced tonelessly.
I watched her out of the corner of my eye, but I did not know what to make of what I saw. She was kneeling, with her hands together in her lap. She was not looking at us, or at the sweat bath where her sister’s body lay. Her eyes were pointed towards a blank wall, but narrowed slightly, as though inspecting something. They were dry but the effort she was putting into keeping the tears back showed in the thin line formed by her lips.
When she spoke, it was in answer to Handy’s last words. ‘I think Gentle Heart did all she could. Maybe Slender Neck might have done more, but who knows? Gentle Heart tried her best. She thought the baby was stuck.’
‘It wasn’t true!’ Handy suddenly blurted out. ‘What the old man said, it wasn’t true! I didn’t touch Star, not after the fourth month, when Slender Neck told us we mustn’t… Goose, you believe me, don’t you?’
I looked from one to the other, as baffled now as I had been by the scene in the courtyard earlier, when Handy’s father-in-law had stood over him, shouting obscenities. ‘What was that all about?’
Star’s sister looked at the knees she had folded under her. ‘If the baby was stuck, that can mean… I’m sorry, Handy, but…’
He sighed. ‘I know what the midwives and curers say: we already had nine children, remember. Your father thought Star must have been accepting my seed after we had finished forming the baby – after the fourth month. But I’m telling you I didn’t touch her!’
I said: ‘Don’t take too much notice of your father-in-law. He’s probably forgotten what it’s like!’
‘I’m telling you we didn’t!’ Handy snarled. He turned back to his wife’s sister. ‘Tell me what happened.’
Goose hesitated. ‘When it all started to go wrong, and she thought the baby was stuck…’ She let out a long, shuddering breath. ‘Oh, Handy, are you sure you want to hear this?’
‘Go on,’ he said, in a strained voice.
‘She was trying to turn him in the womb, but he wouldn’t move, and Star was getting weaker. She was struggling hard, and then not so hard… Gentle Heart said she tried everything, grasping her by the neck and shaking her, kicking her, shouting at her – we heard her, until long after midnight…’
‘“Shouting at her”? Is that normal?’
‘Childbirth is the woman’s battle, Yaotl. Ask any mother. She has to have the courage and strength of a warrior. And my sister fought.’ This with a note of pride, her face upturned, as though defying either of us men to argue. ‘She fought! I saw the bruises. But the Giver of Life would not grant her her victory. Have you ever heard a midwife speaking to a woman, when she salutes her after the birth? “Now our lord hath placed thee
