A Second Chance (46 page)

*

With the milking done and the cows moved to
a fresh paddock, Frank could think of no further pretext to keep
David out of the house. They were again sitting in the parlour,
David picking distractedly at a worn patch on the arm of his chair,
when Lizzie emerged from the bedroom.

‘It doesn’t sound as though anything’s
happening soon,’ she said. ‘I think you’d better take me home,
Frank.’

‘You don’t mind leaving her?’ Frank
asked.

‘I told her I’d be back in the morning, and
she said she’d be all right without me till then. She’s got Amy
looking after her.’ Frank knew that Lizzie considered Amy second
only to herself in competence when it came to household matters.
‘And there’s Richard for if he’s needed, and that nurse seems to
know her business well enough. No, they can manage without me. I’d
as soon not leave Maisie to get the dinner on by herself, let alone
try and make them all behave at the table. You know what those boys
are like, there’ll be a riot if I’m not there to keep an eye on
them. And Rosie’ll play up for her and say she won’t go to bed, and
Kate copies what she does, so they’ll have Maisie tearing her hair
out.’

Frank did not like to leave David by
himself, but he had no argument to counter Lizzie’s. ‘We’re off
home then, Dave,’ he said, rising to leave. David nodded, but Frank
was not sure if the boy was aware of what he had said. He glanced
over his shoulder as he held the kitchen door open for Lizzie.
David was slumped in his chair, still staring at the door into the
bedroom.

*

The sun was getting low in the sky, and Amy
began to worry about how she was to feed the four people in the
house who might have some interest in eating.

‘I’d better see about getting dinner on,’
she said. ‘Beth, will you be all right without me for a while?’

To her dismay, she saw Beth’s eyes brimming
with tears. ‘No,’ she whispered.

Beth clearly did not want to be left alone
with Richard, and with the nurse who was almost a stranger to her.
Amy could understand her fear, but it left Amy in an awkward
position. ‘I have to feed everyone, Beth. I’ll be as quick as I
can.’

Beth clutched at her hand. ‘Please, Aunt
Amy. Please stay here.’

Mrs Dalton got to her feet. ‘I’ll put a bit
of food on, if you like. I’ve nothing useful to do in here till
things get further along.’

Amy was only too glad to take up the nurse’s
offer. ‘There’s some cold meat left that Mrs Kelly brought over.
And Dave can show you where the potatoes and carrots are.’

Mrs Dalton looked amused when she returned
to say that she had food on the table. ‘Your son insisted on
peeling the potatoes himself,’ she told Amy. ‘You’ve trained him
well.’

‘No, that was Beth,’ Amy said, patting
Beth’s hand. ‘Dave never used to do anything in the kitchen till
she started getting him to help.’ She saw a faint smile flit over
Beth’s face.

‘Well, she’s made a good job of it,’ said
Mrs Dalton. ‘He wanted to dish up a plate for her, but I told him
she’s got more on her mind than eating dinner.’

Richard went out to the kitchen at Mrs
Dalton’s invitation, but Amy assured the nurse that she was not
particularly hungry. Mrs Dalton looked sceptical, and was back a
few minutes later with a plate for her.

It did not seem right to sit at Beth’s elbow
and eat while the poor girl lay exhausted and in pain. Amy got up
and walked around the room, stretching her cramped legs as she
picked at the food on her plate. She saw Beth following her with
her eyes, too weary to speak but watching her intently. Amy ate a
few mouthfuls, then put the plate down on the chest of drawers and
returned to her seat.

‘Don’t worry, Beth. I won’t leave you on
your own.’

*

The younger children were in bed, and peace
reigned in Frank’s parlour. But he found himself unable to settle.
He pictured David sitting alone in his own parlour, no doubt
working himself up into worse terrors as the hours wore on. Frank
remembered those long, fear-filled hours all too well.

‘I think I might go back over to Dave’s for
a while,’ he told Lizzie. ‘It’s hard on him, waiting by
himself.’

‘That’s a kind thought. He could do with the
company—he’s as bad as you for worrying when there’s no need. Don’t
go staying there all night, though.’

‘I won’t.’ Frank rose from his chair and
placed a kiss on Lizzie’s cheek before heading for the door. ‘Don’t
sit up waiting, Lizzie. I might be a while.’

*

Frank found David in the kitchen, drying the
last of the dishes from dinner.

‘Still waiting, are you?’ Frank asked.

David grimaced. ‘How much longer do you
think it’ll take? That nurse wouldn’t tell me.’

‘I don’t know, Dave. It’s different every
time.’ Frank had a vague memory that Lily had been in labour for
days with her first child; he chose not to share this with David.
‘You’ve been keeping yourself busy—that’s a good idea.’

‘I thought it’d take my mind off worrying
about her. It hasn’t,’ David said bleakly. He draped the dish towel
over the back of a chair and went through to the parlour, Frank
following in his wake. They sat down, and David resumed his vigil,
staring at the bedroom door.

*

The nurse looked up from checking Beth’s
progress and gave Richard a nod. ‘Nearly there, Doctor. She’s fully
dilated now.’

‘Good.’ Richard smiled encouragement at
Beth. ‘You’ve been wonderfully brave, Beth. I think it’s time I
gave you something for the pain.’

Amy had expected him to produce a wad of
cloth to be soaked in chloroform, just as her old midwife had used.
But instead Richard withdrew a small box from his medical bag. He
opened the box to reveal two bottles, and an oddly-shaped device
with a beak-like protrusion on one side. He put some liquid from
each bottle into the device.

‘I’ll place this over your face, and all you
need do is breathe deeply.’

Beth flinched as Richard brought the mask
closer. Her expression might have suggested a bird of prey was
menacing her. ‘What does it do?’ she asked, her voice
trembling.

‘It’s chloroform,’ said Richard. ‘It’ll
allow you to be unconscious while the baby’s delivered. There’s no
need for you to suffer through that.’

Beth closed her eyes for a moment, then
opened them to turn a pleading gaze on Richard. ‘Couldn’t I see
Davie first? Please? Just for a minute—before I have to go
unconscious. Just in case,’ she added in a whisper.

‘Beth, I don’t think—’ Amy began, but
Richard held up a hand to stop her.

‘Do you know, I think perhaps you might,’ he
said. ‘Amy, would you mind bringing David in? Just for a moment or
two—he can say goodnight to Beth before she goes to sleep.’

Amy stared at Richard, more frightened than
she had been all day. For Richard to allow this, she was sure, must
mean he was afraid Beth would not survive the birth.

But speaking such things aloud was
unthinkable. She waited for the nurse to arrange a sheet over
Beth’s lower parts, then hurried out to the parlour, noting vaguely
that Frank had come back, and beckoned David.

‘You can come in and see Beth before she
goes to sleep,’ she said. ‘Just for a minute.’

David did not need to be told twice. He was
through the door and crouching at the bedside almost before Amy had
finished speaking.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked Beth.

From some unexpected reserve of strength,
Beth managed to produce a smile for him. ‘Yes,’ she said, in the
face of all evidence to the contrary.

‘David, I’m afraid I can only allow you to
stay for a moment,’ Richard said from the other side of the bed.
‘Beth’s being very brave, but the sooner I can put her under
chloroform the sooner she’ll be out of pain.’

David leaned forward and gently kissed Beth.
‘I’ll see you later, then.’ He went out, looking over his shoulder
as he closed the door behind him.

Beth gave a great shudder, and the smile she
had conjured for David’s comfort turned to a grimace of pain. As
Richard brought the chloroform mask close to her face she snatched
at it and breathed in deeply.

‘That’s better, isn’t it?’ Amy said, seeing
the lines of pain begin to ease from Beth’s face. ‘Now you’ll go to
sleep for a while, and when you wake up it’ll all be over and
you’ll have a lovely little baby.’ As she watched Beth slip into
unconsciousness, she prayed fervently that it might be true.

*

‘
That was good you were
allowed to see her,’ Frank said to David. ‘They never let me with
your Aunt Lizzie.’

David flopped back into his chair. ‘She
looked that worn out and in pain. I don’t know how she’s putting up
with it.’

‘She’s strong, like her ma. It’s a hard
thing, but she’ll come through. You’ll see.’ Frank wished he could
have put more conviction into his words.

‘What if… what if she doesn’t?’ David said,
the last few words coming out in a rush. ‘I don’t know what I’ll do
if Beth—’

‘Don’t talk like that, Dave,’ Frank
interrupted. ‘That won’t do anyone any good.’

David fell silent. ‘I can’t hear her any
more,’ he said after a few moments.

‘They’ve put her under. That’s good—you
don’t have to worry about it hurting her now.’

‘No,’ said David. ‘But at least when I could
hear her I knew…’

He left the words unspoken, but Frank could
finish the sentence easily enough in his head: while David could
hear Beth crying out, at least he knew she was still alive.

*

Richard took off his jacket, rolled up his
shirt sleeves and washed his hands. Mrs Dalton stood aside for him
to take her place at the foot of the bed.

‘Amy, I need you to watch Beth carefully,’
he said. ‘Check her breathing—if there’s any sign that she’s
struggling for breath, or any hint she might vomit, tell me at
once.’

Amy moved her chair even closer to the bed
so that she could hear the rhythm of Beth’s breathing. When she
felt able to risk taking her eyes from Beth for a moment, she
darted a glance at Richard. She saw something metal in his hands,
and knew it must be forceps. A shudder ran through her, even as her
head told her that Richard had Beth’s welfare in mind.

‘The head’s engaged,’ she heard him say to
the nurse. ‘It’s early to use forceps, but this is the stage that
would put her heart in the most serious danger if I were to let
nature take its course.’

Amy could see little past the mound of
Beth’s belly, but she thought Richard had removed something else
from his bag.

‘I’ll need to cut, to make room to insert
the forceps,’ he said.

‘So much?’ the nurse murmured. ‘She’ll be a
long time healing, poor child.’

Amy wiped away a trail of saliva forming
under Beth’s mouth, and dabbed at the girl’s damp forehead. She did
her best to ignore what was going on at Richard’s end of the bed,
though she could not avoid catching an occasional glimpse of a
bloodied cloth being dropped into a basin.

She did not dare distract Richard by
speaking to him, to ask if things were happening as they should. It
all seemed to be taking a long time, and she thought she could hear
Richard grunting with effort.

‘This baby isn’t eager to enter the world,’
he muttered. ‘Nurse? Would you mind?’ Out of the corner of her eye,
Amy saw the nurse leaning over to mop Richard’s forehead.

Amy fought down the nausea she felt at what
was happening to Beth; at the thought of metal tools scraping their
way inside her, grasping at her unborn child to drag it into the
world. She concentrated on her task of watching Beth, bending low
over her face and occasionally stroking an unresponsive cheek.

Beth’s breathing seemed steady, though from
time to time her mouth twisted, as if she were dimly aware of what
was being done to her. Amy fretted over whether Beth might wake up
before this horrible business was over. Even worse was the fear
that she might not wake at all.

‘I think we’re almost… just a little more…
yes.’ Amy heard Richard heave a breath of relief. She looked down
the bed to see him holding a bloodied creature in his hands.
Richard seemed barely interested in the baby; as soon as he had
ensured it was breathing, he passed it to the nurse and turned his
attention back to Beth.

Amy was vaguely aware that the nurse had
taken the baby to the other side of the room to wash it and wrap it
warmly; her concentration, like Richard’s, was all on Beth. Beth
was making small noises, almost like sobs. Amy wondered if she
should tell Richard, but she did not want to interrupt what he was
doing. The nurse was back at his side helping him; more
bloodstained cloths appeared, and then something that made a wet,
slapping noise as it was dropped into a basin. Amy guessed that it
was the afterbirth. Now Richard seemed to be doing something that
took finer movements; when she saw the nurse passing him a pair of
scissors, Amy realised he had been stitching Beth where she had
been cut.

Richard stood up, wiped his hands on a
towel, and approached the head of the bed, leaving the nurse to
finish cleaning Beth. He listened to Beth’s chest, felt her
forehead, then looked across her to where Amy sat watching him. His
mouth eased into a weary smile. ‘I think she’s safe.’

‘Thank heaven,’ Amy murmured.

‘And now let’s have a look at this little
girl,’ Richard said more brightly. ‘Yes, it’s a girl—you’ve a
granddaughter, Amy. Come and see her.’

He carefully lifted the baby and placed her
in Amy’s outstretched arms. ‘She’s a fine size. It’s a good thing
she wasn’t any bigger, things were difficult enough as it was.
Don’t worry about those marks,’ he said, indicating the red lines
on either side of the baby’s head. ‘They’re from the
forceps—they’ll fade in a day or two.’