“It’s okay.” Eli handed his plate to Grayson, his argument with Reese apparently forgotten. “Melanie happens to be in the company of no fewer than a dozen experienced midwives.” He gave us all a firelit grin. “Not including me.”
“Nina…” Melanie groaned my name as Finn let me go to give us some room. Fear danced in my sister’s eyes. “It’s too early.”
“She still has another month to go,” I said, and Eli frowned.
“Okay, let’s give her some space,” he said, and everyone who wasn’t already standing got up and backed carefully away from the campfire, taking their food with them. On his way out of the clearing, Reese picked up the plate Eli had set down and began to eat the meal he’d given away minutes before.
I couldn’t really blame him. We all knew we might be in for a very long night.
At least, that was my greatest hope.
“This could just be false labor.” Eli spared a moment for a reassuring smile at my sister. “So I’m going to get my mother. She’s the most experienced midwife we have. Nina, you and Anabelle sit with Melanie and try to keep her calm. Start timing her contractions. If this is false labor, they’ll probably be weak and erratic. But that could be true even if this is real labor. First babies can take well over twelve hours to make their appearance.”
Melanie groaned, and I squatted to take her hand.
“What about us?” Finn set his plate on a tree stump, his dinner forgotten. “What can we do?”
Eli glanced at the other members of our surrogate family, who’d gathered to stare awkwardly at my sister, unsure how to help. “The rest of you can gather some pillows and sheets. Blankets. Whatever you have that will make her more comfortable.”
While the rest of us were occupied with our assignments—busywork though they may have been—Eli went to get his mother. As I watched him wind his way between the neighboring campfires, I realized that the other members of the Lord’s Army knew that Melanie had gone into labor, but as a courtesy, they wouldn’t bother us until and unless they were asked for help.
Finn and Maddock cleared away our plates, taking the occasional bite as they worked. Reese wrapped his hands in extra shirts to protect them while he removed the folding grill from the fire and set it where no one would accidentally bump into it in the dark. Devi and Grayson grabbed several of our bedrolls from the back of the SUV and helped me prop Mellie up against them to make her as comfortable as we could.
I kept up a quiet conversation with my sister—assuring her that she and her baby would be fine and asking about the names she’d been considering—while Anabelle counted the passing minutes on her watch, waiting for the next contraction.
When she finished her assignment, Devi excused herself from the event with a mumble and a graceless gesture I couldn’t interpret, then headed for one of the other campfire groups, where several of her new training buddies were waiting for their fish to finish grilling.
Devi had no interest in childbirth, and every interest in a second helping of dinner.
Several minutes after he’d left, Eli returned with a tall, thin woman in her midforties. Her thick, dark curls were cropped close to her head and she carried a worn hand-stitched leather satchel over one shoulder. “This is my mother, Damaris,” Eli said. “Mom, this is Melanie Kane.”
Flickering firelight revealed deep wrinkles in the woman’s forehead and unwavering confidence in her dark eyes. She squatted on the mat next to my sister. “It’s an honor to meet you, Melanie.”
“Hi,” Mellie returned, then grimaced and clutched at her stomach.
“Eight minutes,” Anabelle said, without looking up from the watch she held angled toward the firelight.
Damaris’s eyes widened. “Well, that’s progressing faster than I expected. What month are you in?”
“We think she’s at the end of her eighth,” I said when Melanie appeared unable to speak.
“Okay,” Damaris said as if she’d come to some conclusion. “That’s not great, but it could be worse. We don’t have the medication and equipment necessary to stop your labor, so the best we can do is make sure your son or daughter makes it safely into the world. After that, it’s up to the Lord. Do you understand?”
Melanie nodded, and I squeezed her hand. If Damaris’s Lord didn’t step in on the baby’s behalf, I would.
And with a sudden jolt of alarm, I realized I had no idea how best to do that.
I’d need to die instantly, to make sure the baby got my soul in time. And I’d need to be near the baby when it happened. But I couldn’t do it in front of Melanie—she’d never get over the trauma.
“Is this your first labor?” Damaris asked, and Melanie nodded again. “Where is the father?” Eli’s mother glanced at Reese, Finn, and Maddock in turn, and they all shook their heads, then took a couple of steps back, just to be clear.
“His name was Adam,” I whispered to Damaris. “The Church had him executed.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said to Melanie. “But the Lord never gives us more than we can bear, so you must be a strong woman indeed. Even if you don’t know it yet.” She patted Mellie’s denim-covered knee as my sister exhaled slowly through her mouth. “Okay, let’s take a look.” She reached for Mellie’s calves to angle her toward the firelight, but my sister screeched and pressed her knees together.
She turned to me, her eyes wide and shiny with unshed tears. “Nina…”
“Okay, hon, I know you’re scared, but you have to let Damaris examine you. If we were still in New Temperance, you’d be used to this already. You’d have been getting checkups once a month.”
