“It’s going to be fine.” She could only hope her words sounded more confident than she felt. “Is it a labor pain?”
Instead of answering, Leah grabbed Rachel’s hand and put it on her belly. She felt the contraction, hard against her palm.
She forced a smile. “I guess so. I told you this baby would be coming soon. ”
“But—it shouldn’t start this hard, should it?”
The contraction eased, and Rachel glanced automatically at the clock. Keep her calm, that’s what she had to do. Time the pains, and hope that nothing bad had happened when she fell. And pray that Daniel would come home soon.
“Everyone’s different.” She hoped she sounded reassuring. “Haven’t you had any contractions at all today?”
“No.”
“Now, stop thinking about all those descriptions in your books of how childbirth is supposed to happen. Remember, the baby didn’t read any of them.”
That brought a smile to Leah’s face. “I guess not. Maybe I should try to get up, and we can start timing the contractions.”
“I already have.” Rachel slid her arm around Leah again. Hopefully she had enough time to get Leah comfortably situated before another contraction came. “Let’s get you up and—”
She felt the contraction almost as soon as Leah did. Leah’s face contorted as she struggled to remember her breathing exercises. “It’s too fast,” she gasped. “Rachel, why is it so fast?”
“You’ll be fine,” she soothed, stroking Leah’s cheek. “You’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
All very well to say don’t worry, when her heart twisted with anxiety. Why was it this fast? In all the tales women told about their babies’ births, she’d never heard of someone starting in labor with contractions so hard and so close together.
The contraction eased at last. Leah lay back, panting.
“Do you want to try to make it to a chair or the bed?”
Leah shook her head. “I’m afraid. Something is wrong.”
“We don’t know that.” Rachel scrambled to her feet and grabbed a cushion from the rocker, returning to ease it under Leah’s head. “But we need to tell someone what’s happening. I’ll help you through the next one, and then I’ll run across the field to your parents’ house ...”
Leah was shaking her head. “No one’s there. They all went to the sale, too.” She grabbed Rachel’s hand in an anguished grip. “What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to be calm.” Although she felt anything but calm inside. “Where is the nearest phone shanty? I’ll have to go and call for help.”
“My midwife’s number is on the counter.”
“Ja, I’ll take it, but I think this babe is coming so fast that we can’t wait for a midwife. Paramedics can get here quicker.”
“I don’t—” Another contraction cut off whatever Leah was going to say, and she clung to Rachel and breathed.
Murmuring nonsense, anything soothing that came into her mind, Rachel held her, stroking her while she watched the clock.
Leah lay back again, white and exhausted, and shook her head. “The phone is clear at the far side of my father’s back pasture. It will take too long—Rachel, don’t leave me. What if the baby came while you were gone?”
“I know, I know. But we need help—”
“Daniel will come soon. I know he will. The rain probably slowed him down. He’ll go for help.”
“Yes, yes.” Anything to calm the panic in Leah’s face.
Father, guide me, please, guide me. If I make the wrong decision, I could put Leah and the baby in danger. Hold them in Your hands, Father. Keep them safe.
“Pray for my baby,” Leah whispered.
“I am.”
“Out loud, so I can hear.”
Rachel nodded. She stroked Leah’s belly gently. “Our Father, we come to You now. We reach out for Your hand. We’re afraid, and we need to feel Your presence. Be with us now, and protect Leah and her baby. Keep them safe and well.”
And show me what to do,
she added silently.
Please, Father, show me what to do.
“You’re going to be fine—” she began, and then stopped.
“A buggy!” Leah started up and then sank back. “Daniel-run and tell him.”
Rachel scrambled to her feet and raced for the door. She plunged outside, to be hit by a shower of water as the wind blew the rain toward the porch.
“Rachel!” A man slid down from the buggy. But it wasn’t Daniel. It was Gideon.
“Your
mamm was worried. Asked me to check—” He stopped, registering the expression on Rachel’s face. “What is it?”
Rachel grabbed his arm and tugged him to the door. “Leah’s in labor.”
He drew back instinctively. But that was foolish. He had to do what he could. “I’ll go for help.”
“Ja, you must. Her folks aren’t home, so best to go to the nearest phone and call the paramedics.” Still she pulled him into the kitchen. “First help me with Leah.”
“Better I should go—”
Leah lay on the floor of the kitchen, her face contorting with pain. But he didn’t see her—he saw Naomi, lying in the road...
Rachel rushed to Leah, grasping her hand. In another moment Leah sank back on a pillow, her face easing.
“Gideon is here. He’ll call 911, but first he can help me get you onto the bed, so you’ll be more comfortable.” She glanced back at him, looking surprised, maybe at the fact that he’d backed himself flat against the door. “Komm.”
That was a command, not a request. Forcing himself to focus, he strode to them and squatted down. “Show me what to do.”
“We’ll wait until after the next contraction. Then just slide your arms under her and lift her.” She jerked a nod toward what he thought was a storage room next to the kitchen. “That’s all ready for the delivery and the first day or two, so Leah won’t have to go up the stairs.”
Leah inhaled, eyes widening, and all Rachel’s attention went back to her. “Here it comes.”
He would have retreated, but Leah had grabbed his hand, squeezing it, and all he could do was hold on and send up wordless, incoherent prayers.
When the contraction finally eased, he felt as if he’d been put through a wringer.
“Now,” Rachel said.
He slid his arms around Leah, half-afraid to touch her, and cradled her against him as he rose.
“In here.” Rachel pushed the door open, moving swiftly to turn down the covers on the single bed that took up much of the small room. “This will be much better. You’ll see.”
She continued to talk, soothing Leah, he supposed, until she was settled on the bed. Leah sank back against the piled pillows, sighing.
“That’s better.”
“Ja.” Rachel stroked her forehead. “You rest while I get a lamp. We’ll need more light, since your boppli decided to come on such a gray day.”
She caught Gideon’s elbow and guided him back into the kitchen. He had the sense that she barely knew it was him. Anybody would do in this situation.
“I’ll go right away.”
She didn’t let go of him. “Be sure they understand that it’s an emergency.” She’d lowered her voice with an anxious glance at the door. “She fell, and the labor came on sudden and hard. Pains are only two minutes apart already. They must come at once.”
Something’s wrong, Gideon.
Naomi’s panicked voice sounded in his head.
Something’s wrong. I’m going to lose the baby—I just know it. You have to get me to the hospital.
“I’ll make sure they understand.” He clasped her hand in a quick, firm grip, but he couldn’t find the right words. “Da Herr sei mit du,” he murmured, and headed for the door.
The Lord be with you.
He hit the steps at a run, crossed the yard, and threw himself into the buggy. Joss seemed to recognize the urgency, starting off instantly at a quick pace.
Concentrate. Think about what you must do, not about the past. Never about the past.
They reached the road and turned left, into the driving rain. Thank the gut Lord there weren’t cars on the road, though if there had been, he might have flagged someone down, asked to use a cell phone.
Too much time explaining, probably. Get to the phone shanty, make the call. He knew just where it was, at the far end of Leah’s parents’ pasture, accessible by another narrow lane. After this, Daniel Glick would probably be putting one in considerably closer.
Unless he was mourning—
No. Don’t think that, not now. Leah would be all right, her baby, too.
Rachel had been frightened. No one else would guess that, masked as it was behind the brisk command she’d taken of the situation. But he had known—had felt it in the grip of her hand, as if they were connected at a place deeper than words.
The rain drove in his face, stinging like ice. Joss plunged sturdily on.
Gideon narrowed his eyes. They’d passed the lane that led to the Beiler farmhouse. The one to the phone shanty would be coming up pretty quick.
With a blare of a horn, a car swept past him, sending up a sheet of water that nearly blinded him. He clenched his jaw to keep from saying something he shouldn’t.
It had been raining that night, too. The road had been a black ribbon against the blacker fields, almost invisible in the downpour. Naomi had huddled, crying, on the seat, ducked down under the blanket. She wouldn’t have seen the car coming at them, known it was going to hit them, known they were going to die—
His hands tightened on the lines, and Joss slowed. There was the lane. Do what he had to do. Forget the time when he’d done nothing but live.
The buggy jolted along the narrow lane, hardly more than a track in the field. Joss halted automatically at the shed, and Gideon jumped down and raced for it. Grabbed the phone, punched in 911. The operator answered immediately.
He stammered out the words, remembering what Rachel had said.
“We’re sending a unit at once. If you stay on the line until they arrive—”
“I can’t. I’m at a phone down the road. I must get back to them.”
The words surprised him as he heard them come out of his mouth. He didn’t want to go back.
But he would. Of course he would. Rachel and Leah and her baby needed him.
Once
Gideon had gone, Rachel felt more alone than she ever had, even in the dark days after Ezra’s death. Alone—with Leah and her unborn child depending on her.
She took a deep breath, giving herself a shake. Foolish, so foolish she was being. They weren’t alone. God was with them. Leah and the baby were in His hands, not just hers.
“Now, then.” She bent over Leah, trying to sound calm. “This baby is going to be fine, and you, too.”
Leah’s head moved restlessly on the pillow. “Are you sure? What if ...”
She couldn’t let Leah’s mind travel down the path of all the things that could go wrong. “Trust, Leah. Just trust.”
“I do, but—” Leah shook her head, managing a slight smile. “You’re sure you know what to do?”
“Well, I did have three babies.” She stroked her friend’s belly. “That was a bit different from delivering someone else’s, for sure, but at least I know what to expect.”
Again she felt the contraction almost as soon as Leah did. Again they rode it out together.
When the contraction receded, Leah sank back against the pillow, face white.
“Rest now, just rest while I get things ready.”
Thank the gut Lord Leah had planned on a home birth. Everything the midwife might need was ready at hand. Rachel moved quickly between the bed and the chest, busying her hands while trying to calm her mind. She’d told Leah she knew what to expect, but she didn’t.
She stood still for a moment, a folded sheet in her hands, picturing herself at this point when Mary was born. Of course she’d had the midwife there and her own mother, too.
Gideon would bring help. She focused on that. He would.
And if the boppli arrived before the help did?
The Lord is my strength and stay.
Her heart spoke the words, and it seemed to fill with peace.
A very present help in time of trouble.
Leah gasped, and Rachel hurried to help her through the contraction. Somehow, the peace didn’t leave. She could feel it steadying her hands, calming her voice. God’s peace flowed through her on a tide of love to Leah and the boppli, and she knew God would give her whatever strength she needed.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I
t
seemed an eternity until Rachel heard the thud of boots on the back porch and knew that Gideon was back. The back door swung open.
“Rachel?” He called her name, his voice strained. “The paramedics are on their way.”
“Gut.” She smiled down at Leah, cradling her babe in her arms, and went to the door so she could see his face when she said the news. “They will be just in time to check out Leah’s baby girl.”
“The babe ... it’s here already?”
“A beautiful little girl.” Joy filled her heart, bubbling through her until she wanted to laugh with the sheer happiness of it. “She and Leah are both fine, thank the gut Lord. Do you want to see them?”
“I’d best go down to the end of the lane. Tell the emergency crew where to turn in.” He swung around and bolted back out the door.
Was he uncomfortable about being with a woman who’d just given birth? Was this too vivid a reminder of the way his wife had died?
Rachel hadn’t even thought of that when she’d pressed him into service. She’d needed someone, and he was there. Even if she had remembered, there would have been no other solution.
“Rachel? Is there any sign of Daniel yet?”
Leah’s voice sounded stronger by the minute. She was eager to show off her daughter, obviously.
As for Rachel—well, she’d rather see the paramedics at this point. She thought the birth had gone well, and everything seemed as it should be, but she wasn’t a midwife. Having three babies of her own didn’t make her an expert on all the things that could go wrong.
She went to peer through the kitchen window at the lane, but saw no one except Gideon. She hurried back to Leah, carrying the towels she’d had warming next to the stove.