Sweet Release (22 page)

“We must get her to drink,” Takotah said, rising from the bed and pouring water into a tin cup.

“Rebecca.” Cassie took the cup from Takotah and urged Rebecca to consciousness. “Rebecca, you must drink.”

Rebecca looked at her through glazed eyes, seeming not to comprehend. Cassie put the cup to her lips, but after taking just a sip, Rebecca turned her head away, slipping into unconsciousness again. Water spilled onto Cole’s forearm and the sleeve of his shirt.

“Sorry,” Cassie whispered, grabbing a cloth and wiping up the rivulets that ran down his arm.

“It’s only water,” Cole replied.

“Nate?” called Rebecca weakly, turning her head toward the sound of Cole’s voice. “Nate?”

Takotah nodded to Cole, who looked puzzled for a moment before responding, “Aye, Rebecca,” he said.

“He calls her Becky,” Cassie whispered.

“Nate?”

“Aye, Becky.”

Cassie refilled the cup with water and gestured to Cole to speak again.

“You must drink, Becky. The babe…uh…needs water,” he said, looking sheepish.

“Here, love,” said Cassie, smiling at the embarrassed flush that appeared on Cole’s cheeks. “Drink this.”

Rebecca responded, swallowing the contents of the cup sip by sip before lapsing into a troubled sleep.

“When the next pain comes, ask her to push,” said Takotah. “If she thinks you’re her husband, it might give her strength. The sooner this child is born, the better for both of them.”

Cole nodded, though the look on his face showed he was more than a little uncomfortable.

The next contraction came almost immediately, building slowly until Rebecca began to cry out and call desperately for her husband. “I’m right here, Becky. I’m here. Take my hands.”

Rebecca released the sheet she had been clutching and grasped Cole’s hands.

“The babe is ready to be born, but you must help it. You must push, Becky. Push.”

For a moment Cassie was afraid Rebecca was too delirious to understand or too weak to push despite Cole’s comforting presence. Then she lifted her head and began to bear down.

“Strength, Rebecca,” Takotah said. “I can see your baby’s feet.”

“That’s it, Becky,” Cole muttered.

Rebecca cried out as the contraction passed its peak, then sagged against Cole, remaining only half-conscious.

“Rest, Becky,” Cole murmured. “It will soon be over.”

“I love you, Nate.”

The chagrined look on Cole’s face nearly made Cassie laugh out loud.

After two more contractions Cassie could see little feet and legs. After three, Takotah held the baby’s limp body in her hands. It was, as she had predicted, a little girl.

“Come, Becky, your daughter’s nearly born,” Takotah crooned as the next contraction began to crest. “Push her into the world where you can hold her.”

Rebecca moaned through gritted teeth, and her bloodcurdling scream pierced the air as at last the baby’s head emerged. The pain finally gone, she lapsed again into unconsciousness.

Cassie watched, hardly daring to hope, as Takotah massaged the baby and cleared fluid from its throat, speaking softly to the infant in her native tongue as she worked. Seconds seemed to stretch into eternity as, unable to breathe, Cassie waited with the others for some sign of life.

Just when it seemed sure that Takotah would be unable to coaxlife into the child, there came a little cough, followed by another, followed by the tiniest cry Cassie had ever heard. The baby’s skin changed from bluish gray to bright pink, and Cassie knew from the smile on Takotah’s face that she would live.

The room filled with laughter.

“Saints be praised!” Martha shouted.

Cassie felt relief wash through her and thought for a moment her knees might buckle. The room seemed to spin. Two strong hands grasped her shoulders, and Cole’s concerned face swam before her eyes. “Are you well, Cassie? Perhaps you should sit for a moment.”

“ I . . . I’m fine,” she replied, willing her feet to be steady. “Just a bit tired, I think.”

His hands felt warm through the linen of her dress, and the salty scent of his skin filled her nostrils. She fought the urge to sink against him, instead pushing past him to place a cool cloth on Rebecca’s brow. The new mother lay back on her pillow where Cole had placed her, shivering in her sleep, the battle for her life still far from over.

Takotah had tied off and cut the cord and was giving the baby her first bath, which, from the sound of the baby’s cries, she did not appreciate. After drying the infant and wrapping her in warm blankets, Takotah handed the baby to Martha.

“Aye, Rebecca will have her hands full with this one,” said Martha, giving the baby a kiss before passing her on to Cassie.

Nearly three weeks early by Takotah’s reckoning, she was the tiniest babe Cassie had ever held. With only the faintest red fuzz on her head, tiny red lips curved into a furious frown, and dark blue eyes that already seemed to examine the world around her, she was a miracle.

It was then that Cassie realized she was laughing and crying at the same time, her vision blurred with tears that rolled down her cheeks.

“She’s so . . . tiny,” Cole said from beside her.

“Aye,” Cassie said.

The baby began to root at her breast.

“And hungry,” Cole said.

Cassie felt color rush to her cheeks. “Would you like to hold her?”

His eyes widened in surprise. “ I . . . that is to say ...”

“Support her head like this,” she said, taking advantage of his hesitation.

Ever so carefully he took the baby into his arms. When he finally looked up to meet Cassie’s gaze, she thought her heart had stopped. His blue eyes held a warmth she had not seen before. The smile that now spread across his face made her breath catch in her throat. For a moment it was just the three of them—Cassie, the baby, Cole. She found herself wishing this were her baby and Cole its father.

“Until Rebecca is strong again, the baby will need a wet nurse,” Takotah said, breaking the spell. She had delivered the afterbirth and was now cleaning up.

“Aye.” Cassie shook off her fantasy and gently took the babe from Cole. “I’ll take her to Sarah. Her son is now three months old. She ought to have milk to spare.”

Takotah nodded in agreement.

“And I’ll go wake the father,” Cole said.

His self-appointed task was more easily said than done, as Alec quickly discovered. Nate refused to budge, even after a few firm kicks to his posterior. Zach, who might have helped, was now facedown in the dirt, snoring. There was only one solution. Alec knelt over the tanner and, slinging him over his shoulder as he might a sack of grain, lifted him off the ground. Nate was lighter than he had expected, and he had no difficulty carrying him across the courtyard to the horse trough. He dropped Nate into the water and waited.

For a moment nothing happened, and he feared Nate was so drunk he would drown.

Then the tanner rose, coughing and sputtering, to the surface.

“What... who ... aack!”

Alec took the floundering man by his collar and hoisted him to his feet.

“What. . . where am I?” Nate slurred.

“It’s the middle of night, and you’re standing in the horse trough, my friend.”

Nate looked down at his feet, which were still submerged, and stepped clumsily out of the water. “I think I’m going to be sick,” he said with a moan before doubling over and emptying the contents of his stomach into the dirt.

Alec left him and, carrying a bucket of water, walked back to Zach. “Son of a . . . !” Zach howled when the cold water hit him. Shaking his head, he lurched to his feet. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Waking you up.” Alec easily sidestepped a clumsy punch. Zach landed on his knees in the din, then looked up at him. “Cole?”

“Aye. Rebecca’s had her baby. I need help getting the new father on his feet.”

“Baby?” ‘

“A healthy wee girl.”

“Where’s Nate?” Zach asked, climbing back to his feet, clutching his head.

“On his knees, retching in the dirt.”

He pointed to the figure huddled on the ground nearby. At the mention of the word
retch,
he saw Zach’s face turn white.

“Not you, too.”

Zach sank to the ground, gagging.

Come to think of it, Alec wasn’t feeling too well himself. He quickly turned and walked ten paces away, gulping in deep breaths of fresh air as he went, closing his ears to the foul sounds behind him. This was going to be a long night.

Chapter Fifteen

Twenty minutes later Alec had both men on their feet and walking in the same direction. With their stomachs thoroughly purged, they seemed to feel much better.

“You’re sure she has red hair?” Nate asked for the third time, clawing at the mosquito bites on his arms. The nasty insects had preyed heavily upon him as he slept.

“Aye, I saw it with my own eyes.”

“And Rebecca?”

“Asleep when I left.”

By the time they reached the cabin, Nate was running, Alec and Zach following behind.

“Rebecca?” Nate called softly, opening the door and stepping to his wife’s side.

“She’s sleepin’, and don’t ye wake her,” Nan scolded, eyeing the three of them disapprovingly. Martha was gone, leaving only Nan, who was busy tidying up the tiny cabin, and Takotah, who was folding several small skin pouches into a leather bundle. “Will she . . . live?” Nate asked Takotah, stroking his wife’s cheek.

“She is still very sick, but we have come this far,” Takotah said. “If she keeps down the red powder I just gave her and does not bleed too much, she should be well soon.”

“No thanks to you,” Nan added. “While you were facedown in the dirt, Takotah—aye, and Cole, too—was busy savin’ yer wife and babe.”

Nate looked questioningly toward Alec, who shrugged, then Takotah. “I’m sorry,” Nate muttered. “I called you a witch and worse, curse my tongue.” He paused. “I just didn’t think that a…a heathen could know the ways of healin’. I’m sorry.”

Takotah accepted the apology with a graceful nod.

“Now if only she had a cure for this headache.” Zach stood near the hearth, holding his head in his hands.

Takotah patted Zach on the arm as she passed, her dark eyes twinkling with amusement. “What you need is sleep and a bit of sense,” she said. She closed the cabin door behind her. “That’ll be the day,” Nan teased, wiping her hands on her apron and plopping her heavy form down in the rocking chair. She’d offered to tend Rebecca through the night, and Takotah, with other patients to tend, had agreed.

Alec was about to leave to follow Takotah’s advice and seek his bed when Cassie entered, carrying a tiny bundle. There were dark circles under her eyes, but her cheeks were flushed with excitement. When she looked at him, her smile was so full of life that any fatigue he might have been feeling vanished.

“Care to see your wee daughter?” she asked Nate, who stood now and stared down at the sleeping infant in wonder.

“Can I hold her?”

“Aye.” Cassie laughed softly. “You needn’t ask me. You are the babe’s father, are you not?”

“Aye,” he answered in a near whisper, accepting the bundle.

“Be sure to support her head,” Cassie instructed. “No, like this.”

Alec watched as she showed Nate how to hold his baby, lost in wonderment of his own. He’d never seen a baby born before, and didn’t quite know what to think. It had been both terrible and wonderful, the pain and suffering all resulting in the tiny miracle Nate now held in his arms. Men were so proud of their physical strength, boasting of their feats to one another, but the kind of strength it took to withstand childbirth was something no man would ever be able to comprehend.

Cassie laughed softly again, smiling at him. Alec smiled back, though he’d been too lost in his own thoughts to know why she was smiling. If she was exhausted, she hid it well. The circles under her eyes were the only sign she’d risen before the sun. She exuded a vibrancy that seemed to fill the room with light, and everyone in the tiny cabin seemed to draw strength from her presence. Alec watched as she took the baby from its nervous father and kissed its downy head. It was obvious she loved children. He found himself hoping for her sake she would one day be able to raise her own. The sharp regret he suddenly felt knowing he would not be the man to father them surprised him. He’d never wanted to be a father before.

Did he really desire her that badly? Aye, he did. That was the hell of it. He’d vowed to himself time and time again to stay away from her, at least until his identity had been restored. But a vow couldn’t make the need go away. Seeing her like this, cradling a new life against her breast, her green eyes sparkling with happiness, he wanted her more than ever. But giving in to this hunger now might end his life, and would certainly ruin hers. Though a night with her beneath him might be worth a trip to the gallows, he wouldn’t ruin her life to gratify his lust.

Suddenly the cabin seemed much too small. He needed air. He bade Cassie a hasty good-night and found the door. He’d made it almost all the way back to his own cabin when he heard her call his name. She had followed him outside and was running to catch up with him.