Untamed (45 page)

PART THREE

No one can be perfectly free till all are free;

No one can be perfectly moral till all are moral;

No one can be perfectly happy till all are happy.

—Herbert Spencer

English philosopher

Chapter 27

Late August, 1887

Josie rolled off the bed and lumbered toward the door. "That's it," she said. "I'm not going to do this."

Daniel beat her to the door, no big trick considering that Josie's belly was so huge, it took her an hour to cross the room.

He stood before her, blocking her path. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"Anywhere but here, so get out of my way. I am not doing this."

Daniel folded his arms across his chest and stood his ground. "You don't have any choice, sweetheart. That baby is coming whether you like it or not."

"Well, I don't like it and I'm not having it."

About that time another pain rolled across her belly and tightened the muscles there into a fist. She leaned against the wall, grunting involuntarily, like a buffalo in heat, and waited for the worst of it to pass. She glanced out the window and saw the twins playing in the yard. They were riding little stick horses and carrying toy bows and arrows, each doing his best to try and murder the other one first. Boys being boys. Please God, she thought, trying desperately to believe in Him. If I have to have a baby, let it be a girl.

"Josie, sweetheart." Daniel reached out to her as if thinking of drawing her into his embrace.

"Don't touch me, you no-account bastard. Leave me be a minute."

He leapt back as if scalded, then stood there waiting for her next signal. Unfortunately for Josie, it was a long time in coming. Not only were the pains hitting her so frequently now that it was all she could do to catch her breath between them, but once they grabbed hold of her belly, they hung on with the tenacity of a mink on a mouse.

When at last she could draw an easy breath again, Josie straightened her spine and said, "Get out of my way."

"No, dammit. There's no place for you to go where you'll feel any better, and nothing you say or do is going to keep that baby from coming." He softened his voice. "You can't ignore it any longer, sweetheart. You're going to have a baby, and soon."

She knew he was right and that made Josie even madder. "What I should have done was ignore you. If not for you and that stupid rubber thingamajig, I wouldn't be in this mess."

"I said I was sorry about that. How was I to know the damn thing would break?"

"You just should have, that's all. You just should have."

The tears came then, although Josie wasn't even sure why she was crying, and she turned away from the door and dragged herself back to the bed. If the next pain was as bad as the last, she'd never be able to remain standing.

Daniel, as useless as tits on a boar, followed her and stood by as she rolled onto the mattress.

"That's better, isn't it?" he said, looking wounded the way the twins had when he sent them outside to play.

"Nothing is ever going to be better again," she cried, hating the sound of her own wails as they filled her ears. "It hurts, and I'm afraid."

Daniel had taken a seat in the chair he'd pulled up alongside the bed, but when she admitted that, he leapt to his feet again. "Let me go down to the encampment to get Sissy or one of the women who know about these things. I swear I won't be long."

He'd wanted to leave the moment he knew she was in labor, the no-account bastard. She probably should have let him go, but at the time, she'd been too scared to face any part of the ordeal alone, Josie wasn't scared anymore—she was terrified.

Reaching out to Daniel, she filled her palm with the hem of his buckskin shirt. Then she gave the material a vicious jerk. "You're not going anywhere," she said, her voice guttural, as if coming from somewhere deep in her chest. "If I have to suffer through this, so do you."

She might have said more had another pain not come along about then, squeezing the breath from her lungs and all thought from her brain. Still clinging to Daniel's shirt, she twisted and pulled on the material until she brought him to his knees at the edge of the mattress.

"If things don't go right," she said, gasping in the throes of the worst agony. "Promise you'll shoot me."

"Josie, for God's sake. How can you talk tike that?"

"Promise, you no-account bastard. And Daniel—" She paused to catch her breath. "`If it's not a girl, go ahead and shoot me anyway."

"Aw, hell." He reared back and peeled her rigid fingers off his shirt. "I've got to go get you some help. How about I send the boys in to keep you company while I'm gone?"

Josie heard herself snarl, or it might even have been a growl, but she managed somehow to control her temper. Something new was happening to her battered body, making the pains feel even more intense and the urge to push nearly unbearable. She couldn't be alone now. Not now.

"Don't leave me," she begged, meaning it. "It's time. Now is when I need you the most. Please, don't leave me."

Daniel came back to the edge of the bed, tentative and white-faced. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. We can do this together. Bring the pot of water we boiled earlier and set it on the floor at the foot of the bed." When that was done, she hiked up her thin nightgown. "Now I want you to take a look and tell me if the baby's head is showing."

He grimaced like a child with its first slice of lemon, and his face turned the color of sleet.

"Don't you dare faint on me, you no-account bastard. Not after what you've put me through."

Daniel drew a couple of deep breaths, then hunkered down at the foot of the bed.

"Well?" Josie said. "Can you see her head yet?"

He nodded and gulped.

"Is it out?"

He shook his head.

"Oh, God." Another pain rippled in a not-too-distant warning. "Quick, Daniel, wash your hands with a rag dipped in the boiled water, then get ready to help the baby out when I start to push. You got that?"

He rose up to meet her gaze. "You want me to pull it out when you push?"

Pain roared down on her, an avalanche of convulsing muscles that threatened to squeeze the very life from her, but Josie managed to say, "Don't pull on her, just help ease her way."

And then there was no time for talking, at least nothing that made any sense. Josie heard her own voice well enough to know that she kept on jabbering, but near as she could figure, most of what came out was a string of curses mingled with a few vague promises to God and a phantom buffalo.

At last the pain eased, leaving behind in her womb a peace and quiet that could only mean one thing. "Is she here?" Josie asked, suddenly too weak to lift her head.

"Yes. I've got the baby." Then, in a much quieter voice, "Mercy—I'm holding our baby."

"Why isn't she crying?"

'Is it supposed to?"

"Yes. Make her cry so she can start breathing. Take one of the rags and clean her mouth and nose, then give her a little slap on the bottom. And Daniel—hurry."

A moment later, the infant's enraged cries filled the cabin.

Josie closed her eyes, wondering when in hell those damnable tears would ever stop running. When she felt she could control her voice and emotions again, she asked, "Did you cut the cord?"

"And tied it, just like you said." Daniel was sounding stronger by the minute.

"The afterbirth will come soon. You have to take care of it, too," she said, her own body reminding her of that last little detail.

"I know. I'm just getting the baby cleaned up and wrapped in the blanket." A moment later he got to his feet and came to the side of the bed. He was still pale, and a row of perspiration stood out just above his eyebrows, but his eyes were shining with pride and what she already knew was love.

"We did it," he whispered with awe as he settled the baby in the crook of her arm. His eyes were stick blue raindrops. "You were great, Josie, just great. I love you."

"I love you, too." Tears splashed down her cheeks, and Daniel kissed them away. "You've got to finish taking care of me now. Do you remember what to do?"

He nodded, and then swallowed hard. "Ah, Josie—there is one thing I should mention. It's, well... I'm sorry your little girl isn't all she should be. Maybe we ought to call her Miracle, too."

Confused, Josie looked down at the infant. She half expected to find that something was dreadfully wrong, but quickly saw that her baby was beautiful, with a full head of thick black hair, long slender fingers, and an extraordinary cute nose. She instinctively dropped a kiss on the baby's head, inhaling a scent she would never forget, and then eased the blanket open to examine the rest of marvel that she and Daniel had created. Her daughter's shoulders were large and well-muscled for a newborn and her trunk was long—almost as long as her legs, which were joined at the top by a healthy little spigot and the rest of his manly equipment.

Josie's head snapped up and she glared down at the foot of the bed. "It's a little pisspot."

Daniel looked up from his task and grinned. "I kind of noticed that myself. What do you think? Shall we keep him or throw him back?"

Josie groaned, again kissing the top of her baby's head. "I guess we'd better keep him. Do you have any boy names picked out? I'm afraid I haven't been thinking along those lines."

Daniel shrugged as he took his place on the chair at the edge of the bed. "How about Daniel McCord, Junior?"

Josie shook her head. "Too confusing. We've already got Hell and Damnation. Why don't we call this one Thunderation?"

Daniel raised one indignant eyebrow. "I've got a better idea. Why don't we call him Jofess?"

She laughed, promising to think about it, and then Daniel turned serious and took her by the hand. "I want you to know," he said, kissing each of her fingertips, "that I intend to do everything I can short of staying out of your bed to make sure that this never happens to you again."

Josie considered that, then surprised herself by saying, "Well, it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be—I sure didn't die. And since you're such a good father, and a pretty good mother, too, I guess I wouldn't mind if we were to have another baby someday. Especially if you think there's any chance of us coming up with a girl."

Daniel crawled onto the mattress beside her and scooped both Josie and the baby into his embrace. "That means you're going to have to keep me and this little fellah around a lot longer than you figured on. You sure you want to do that?"

Josie nuzzled the baby's head, then leaned over and kissed her husband's lips. "`Oh, yes," she said. "I think I'll be keeping the both of you with me for a good long time."

She lay back against her pillow and brought the infant to her breast for the first time, feeling the baby enrich her soul as she nourished his body. It made her think of the person she'd been less than a year ago, and all that she'd been through. Most of all, gazing on her husband at her side and the baby at her breast, it made her realize how truly fortunate she was.

And to think, but for the toss of God's coin, she'd have been born male... and missed out on being the happiest woman alive.

The End