The Midwife's Dilemma

by Delia Parr

  Still a bit stunned by the fact that Michael Keyes now owned all the bees and the hives, Martha didn’t realize her aunt had spoken to her until she felt a tap on her hand.

  “I asked if you could hand me your plate,” Aunt Hilda repeated.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you.” Martha held out her plate and watched Aunt Hilda fill most of it with bread pudding before motioning for Victoria to join them.

  “Those griddle cakes can wait,” Aunt Hilda said to Victoria. “Come enjoy this treat while it’s still warm.”

  Victoria wasted no time obeying, and the four of them shared lighthearted conversation all through breakfast and for a good spell beyond. When they finished, Victoria insisted on restoring the kitchen to order and shooed them all out of the room. “I shouldn’t be long, Mother. If you can wait for me, we can walk back together. I have a few things to get for Aunt Hilda from the general store.”

  Pleased that her daughter actually wanted her company, Martha followed Aunt Hilda into the adjoining sitting room. She had not been to the cottage for a spell, and she was surprised to see that the sitting room was in complete disarray. Aunt Hilda had always been such a stickler for keeping her home tidy and clean.

  Two faded upholstered chairs, along with several side tables, had been pushed back against the far wall. The knotted rug that usually covered the middle of the floor lay rolled up along the opposite wall, and the exposed floorboards needed a good sweeping and a strong scrub brush.

  “Don’t look at all this mess. Victoria and I are in the middle of cleaning,” Aunt Hilda offered. “You and I can have a visit in my bedroom.”

  “And I’m off for my constitutional.” Uncle Richard grabbed a sweater and a knit cap off of a peg near the front door and took his leave.

  Aunt Hilda’s eyes remained focused on the door for a few long moments after he was gone. “He’s really a wonderful man,” she murmured before she led Martha into the bedroom the elderly couple shared.

  The door to the second bedroom was open, and Martha had a rare glimpse inside. Instead of holding the four little cots she remembered being there years ago, the room held only two now, and she recognized Victoria’s robe lying at the foot of one of them. Otherwise, there were two small travel bags, similar in size to the one Martha used to hold her simples, sitting on top of a trunk. She recognized one bag as the one Aunt Hilda had used when she had been called out as an afternurse and assumed the other belonged to Uncle Richard.

  The moment she followed Aunt Hilda into her bedroom, Martha dismissed any curiosity she might have had about the contents of the other bedroom. This room was exactly as she remembered.

  The heavy winter drapes were tied back, allowing sunlight to pour through a single window. Directly ahead, a large trunk rested on bare floorboards at the foot of a double bed, and a small washstand to her left held a cracked, flowery basin and a pitcher for water.

  She focused her attention, however, on the coverlet on the bed. The quilt was a bit faded now and well-worn, but the beauty of the design and the workmanship required to create the quilt still testified to the unique talent her mother had been given.

  “I love this quilt, too,” Aunt Hilda said. She sat down on the bed and patted the space next to her. “Your mother had quite a talent for the needle. I think of her every time I make my bed.”

  Martha sat down and traced some of the stitches with her fingertips. “She used to make cradle quilts that Grandmother Poore would give to the new mothers after delivering their babes, too. Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit a bit of her talent.”

  “Talents are God-given, although we make up our own minds about whether or not we use them,” Aunt Hilda cautioned. “Even though we might be related to someone, that doesn’t always mean we share the same talents.”

  “I know,” Martha said as more memories brought the past into the present.

  Aunt Hilda sighed. “I know how disappointed Sarah was when your mother didn’t continue family tradition by becoming a midwife and that you’re just as disappointed with your daughter. But you need to remember what a gifted writer Victoria is instead. And remember, too, that God always finds a way to bring us joy, even in the midst of our sorrows and disappointments. In your grandmother’s case,” she continued, “that was you, Martha. You brought her such joy by following in her footsteps.”

  “Unfortunately, I don’t have a granddaughter to do that for me—not that it matters much anymore,” Martha replied, quickly confiding her decision to give up her calling and marry Thomas as soon as she did.

  “You’ll find someone,” Aunt Hilda insisted and put her arm around Martha’s shoulder. “Just keep in mind that God likes to surprise us now and again. You might find a new midwife in the most unlikely of places,” she said. “Speaking of surprises, I have one of my own to share with you, but you must promise not to say a word about it, not even to Victoria.” Aunt Hilda hugged Martha a little closer. “It seems that my dear darling husband still has a yearning for travel in his soul. He’s planning to leave again in a few weeks.”

  Caught completely off guard, Martha eased out of her aunt’s embrace and turned to search her face. Instead of the grief or sorrow she expected to see etched there, or perhaps a stream of silent tears, Aunt Hilda’s countenance radiated sheer joy. Her eyes, however, were oddly mischievous. “You’re not upset?”

  “Not in the least,” her aunt insisted. “I can’t decide if I’m a bit daft or not, but this time I’m going with him.”

  Martha gasped. “You’re . . . you’re leaving?”

  Aunt Hilda grinned. “Rather exciting, isn’t it?”

  “Where are you going?”

  A shrug. “Probably west, at least at first. Richard has a few places he wants to show me. After that, we’ll discover a few new ones together.”

  “Are you absolutely certain you want to give up everything you have here in Trinity? How can you be sure that this is what you want to do?”

  Aunt Hilda smiled. “Because I trust that God wouldn’t put the desire to leave with my husband in my heart and make it possible for me to go if He had other plans for me.”

  Envious of her aunt’s faith, Martha took one of her aunt’s hands and held on to the last living link she had to her mother and grandmother. “But you’re my rock! What will I do without you?”

  Aunt Hilda pressed their hands to Martha’s heart. “We’ll always be together here. Always, sweet Martha. But there’s only one place I want to be, and that’s with Richard. Wherever he goes, for as long as he lives, I want to be with him and share my life with him. If that’s how you feel about Thomas, then stop dawdling and marry that man now, Martha, and make every day you have together really matter.”

  With her heart pulsing rapidly against her hands, Martha grew even more determined to find a woman to take over her duties as midwife as quickly as possible. Then she’d do exactly as Aunt Hilda suggested: marry Thomas and make every day they spent as husband and wife even better than the day before.

  11

  The sun hung high in the sky as Martha and Victoria walked back to the center of town and parted ways.

  While Victoria continued on to the general store, Martha walked down the alley alongside the confectionery. She could hear voices inside, although the curtains in the new alcove were drawn and blocked her view.

  The white horse lightly tethered to a post near the back door, nuzzling a baking pan that must have been returned and left on the back step, however, garnered all of her attention.

  In a matter of heartbeats, she considered the reasons the horse would be there. Even if the confectionery had reopened—which it had not—customers entered by the front door, and so did visitors. Deliveries arrived in the alley by wagon, not a single horse, and customers returning baking pans walked down the alley and left them by the back door. Which meant there was only one reason for the horse being there: another call to duty.

  Her heart sank. Unless she was needed somewhere very close for something easy t
o resolve, she would have to postpone meeting with Victoria and Dr. McMillan tonight.

  Martha hurried her steps, paid little more than passing attention to the horse on her way inside, and rushed down the hallway to the kitchen with a prayer on her lips and hope in her heart that there might be another reason for that horse to be there. Instead of finding someone she knew who had come to summon her away, she found Fern and Ivy standing by the door on the opposite side of the room. There was no one else with them who might have come to summon her away.

  “We were just talking about you. How was your visit with Victoria and Hilda?” Ivy asked.

  Relieved that she had not been called away, Martha quickly removed her cape and bonnet. “They’re all very well,” she replied and hung her cape and bonnet on a wooden peg on the wall. “Did you know there’s a horse tied up in the alley, right outside the kitchen door?”

  Fern walked over to the cupboard, retrieved a small bit of paper, and handed it to Martha. “Jane found the horse when she left with Cassie to get a few things from the general store. This was tied to the horse’s reins, though she had a bit of a time getting it. I hope you don’t mind, but Ivy and I were too curious not to read it. Go ahead. Read it quick before I blab out what it says and ruin everything.”

  A bit perplexed, Martha wiped her hands on her apron and looked at the note. The paper was badly crinkled, so she straightened it a bit first before she started reading. But the penmanship was so poor, it took her a moment to decipher the words:

  Widow Cade, I heard about your horse dyin’ so I figured the best reward I could give to settle my debt to you is this mare. Her name is Bella.

  Martha read the note twice again before looking up at Ivy, who was beaming. “The horse is for me?”

  “That’s what the note says. Too bad whoever gave it to you didn’t remember to sign the note. Now you won’t know for sure who gave it to you, and you can’t settle his account in that book of yours.”

  For half a heartbeat, Martha wondered if Thomas had gotten the horse for her, but she dismissed the thought because he would have given it to her directly. “Even if I could figure out who did this, a horse of any kind is worth far more than anyone owes me,” Martha said, but her heart swelled with such joy that her chest actually hurt. “The horse is for me!” she gushed as she rushed out of the kitchen and down the hallway, Ivy and Fern following.

  Her pulse was racing and her mind was churning with thoughts of how much easier her life was going to be and how much faster she would be able to reach each of the four women she had in mind as her replacement now that she had a horse of her own again. She opened the back door slowly, half afraid she would find the horse gone, but her fears were unfounded.

  Bella was still there, and she was as fine a mare as Martha had ever seen. To her surprise, the horse was still licking at that baking pan, and she nearly chuckled at the idea that this horse had a sweet tooth just like she did.

  “Good Bella,” she whispered and stepped outside to stand next to the post in front of the horse. Fern and Ivy, however, remained standing side by side in the open doorway. As best as Martha could judge, Bella was only three or four years old. Now that she was really studying the mare, she could see that it was not pure white, but a softer cream color. Her mane and tail were flaxen, but it was the pale, irregular star on her face, just between her eyes, that made her extraordinary in Martha’s eyes.

  She stroked the mare’s face and found brown eyes staring back at her, a bit wary, but definitely interested in the person who was paying such close attention to her. “I don’t know you very well right now, Bella, and you don’t know me, but I promise to take very, very good care of you. We have a lot to learn about each other, but we’re going to have some amazing adventures together,” she whispered and leaned forward to nuzzle the horse’s face with her own.

  She never got close enough. Without warning, Bella hit her square in the chest with her muzzle. Hard. Jolted back, Martha hit her shoulder on the post and landed square on her bottom on the hard-packed dirt.

  She heard Ivy and Fern scream and would have screamed herself, but the air had been knocked right out of her lungs and her brain was too scrambled by the jolt she had taken to have any thought but one when she saw the horse lift a foreleg: Get out of Bella’s way.

  Acting out of pure instinct, she used the heels of her hands and feet to scramble back, well out of the mare’s reach, before she was able to stand again.

  Even though her fear that Bella had been about to kick her never materialized, she kept her attention focused on Bella to take stock of the situation, more surprised by the mare’s odd behavior than anything else.

  Despite the fact that her hands were stinging from scraping against the ground, her back and shoulder ached, and she was still trying to draw measured breaths of air, she had nothing more to complain about than a rather large bruise on her pride.

  After reassuring Fern and Ivy that she was fine and sending them back inside, Martha took a few moments to wipe the grit and grime from her hands before she brushed off her skirts. She made no attempt, however, to go near the horse to retrieve the baking pan, now covered with dirt.

  Unfortunately, Thomas chose that precise moment to appear, and Martha took what solace she could from the fact that he had not actually seen her fall so ignominiously.

  He took hold of her elbow as if she were not capable of remaining steady on her own two feet. “I was just passing by when I saw the horse knock you off your feet. Are you all right?”

  She slipped her arm away and ignored the growing pain in her shoulder. “I’m fine. Just getting acquainted with my new horse, who doesn’t appear to be very open to the idea that she now belongs to me.”

  He looked back and forth from Martha to Bella and back again twice. “You bought this horse? I thought you said that you—”

  “Of course not. If I bought any horse at all, I’d buy a gentle, well-mannered horse like Grace. Unfortunately, someone must have thought that I needed an ill-tempered horse like this one and left her here, along with a note claiming she was my reward,” she quipped before she realized she was talking out of anger and not being fair to the horse. “As I recall, Grace wasn’t all that gentle when I first claimed her, though, so I should be able to win Bella over, too.”

  He took a few steps closer to study the horse for a moment before he reached out to scratch behind the mare’s ears. When he slid his hands down to stroke her face, the horse gently nuzzled at his chest, leaving Martha grumbling under her breath.

  Thomas looked over to Martha and shrugged. “Maybe the mare just prefers men, in which case there’s probably little you can do to change her mind.” He checked the mare’s hindquarters as well as her shoulders with gentle strokes that evoked no response from Bella. “What did you say her name was?”

  “It’s Bella,” she said, still unable to get past the idea that if Thomas was right, God had answered her prayers with a horse that preferred men. Mercy!

  He slipped the reins free from the post. “Do you have any idea who left the horse for you?”

  “Unfortunately, whoever left the note forgot to sign it.”

  Thomas laughed. “Or didn’t sign it because he was more interested in getting rid of Bella and used the fact the he owed you a reward to justify tethering his problem at your doorstep.”

  “I don’t believe that anyone would do such a thing!”

  “Maybe you should,” he argued. “But maybe I’m just judging Bella too rashly. Let’s see what she does when you take the reins.”

  The moment Martha had the reins in her hand, Bella reared and tried to yank them away, but Thomas grabbed the reins midway up and held them fast so Martha could let go. “Easy, Bella. You can trust Martha. She can be a bit cranky at times, too, but a dessert or two can usually sweeten her mood. Maybe all you need is a bit of a sweet treat, too.”

  Martha rolled her eyes but decided not to protest his rather ungallant description of her. “In case you haven�
�t noticed that baking pan lying in the dirt, Bella already had a treat,” she argued, mostly to suggest he was wrong to think the horse preferred men. “I think she’s just a bit nervous with me because she doesn’t know me yet. Or because she wanted more of a treat than a few crumbs stuck to a baking pan.”

  “In that case,” he argued, “I’ll hold on to Bella while you slip back inside. There must be some dried apples in the confectionery left from last year’s crop. Grab some and let’s see what happens when you offer them to her.”

  She headed inside and returned with a handful of dried apples. Although she was a bit anxious, she piled the dried apples in the palm of her hand, well away from her fingers. Under Thomas’s watchful gaze, she held her hand out to Bella very slowly, prepared to yank her hand away the minute the horse made any move to bite her.

  To her great relief, the mare daintily nibbled at the dried apples and managed to polish them off as if she and Martha were the best of friends. “See? She likes me better now. She’s perfectly happy with me.”

  “Right now she is, but just a few minutes ago, she tried to yank the reins out of your hand and knocked you off your feet before that,” he reminded her. His expression grew somber and his gray eyes darkened with real concern. “I know you need a horse, and it’s awfully tempting to think this horse is the answer to your prayers, but the only thing worse than an ill-tempered horse is an unpredictable one. If you can’t truly trust the horse to carry you to and from your calls without any kind of incident, then you have no use for her. Just promise me that if she turns out to be as unpredictable in her behavior as I think she will be, you won’t hesitate to come to me. If you can’t agree to let me buy you a more reliable horse, you can simply borrow one of mine. Can you at least agree to do that for me? Please?”

  Thomas’s mood had become so serious, Martha almost asked him why—until she remembered that his wife, Sally, had been killed in a riding accident.