The Mountain Midwife
Read The Mountain Midwife Online
Authors: Laurie Alice Eakes
A
CCLAIM FOR
L
AURIE
A
LICE
E
AKES
“Laurie Alice Eakes brings the Blue Ridge Mountains to life in her newest novel,
The Mountain Midwife
. From the accents and people—good and bad—the hues of the Appalachian culture mingle with the hues of grace to create a story of unexpected wounds and even greater healing. Laurie Alice’s writing is always thick with fresh and memorable descriptions, endearing, flawed characters, and enjoyable adventure.”
—P
EPPER
D. B
ASHAM
,
AUTHOR OF
T
HE
T
HORN
B
EARER
AND
A T
WIST OF
F
AITH
“Expertly crafted and filled with mystery and intrigue, Laurie Alice Eakes’s newest book is sure to delight historical romance fans.”
—S
ARAH
L
ADD
,
AUTHOR OF THE
W
HISPERS ON THE
M
OORS SERIES
“Beautiful 19th-century Cornwall offers a contemplative setting for this dramatic romance that involves murder, suspense, and a surprise villain.”
—
R
OMANTIC
T
IMES
4½
STAR REVIEW OF
A L
ADY
’
S
H
ONOR
“With a fabulous mix of emotionally complex romance, gothic suspense, and characters who will stay in readers’ minds long after the book is finished,
A Stranger’s Secret
is a compelling, mystery-infused love story that any historical romance lover will enjoy.”
—D
AWN
C
RANDALL
,
AUTHOR OF
T
HE
H
ESITANT
H
EIRESS
,
T
HE
B
OUND
H
EART
,
AND
T
HE
C
APTIVE
I
MPOSTER
A
LSO BY
L
AURIE
A
LICE
E
AKES
T
HE
C
LIFFS OF
C
ORNWALL
N
OVELS
A Lady’s Honor
A Stranger’s Secret
T
HE
D
AUGHTERS OF
B
AINBRIDGE
H
OUSE
S
ERIES
A Reluctant Courtship
A Flight of Fancy
A Necessary Deception
T
HE
M
IDWIVES
S
ERIES
Choices of the Heart
Heart’s Safe Passage
Lady in the Mist
ZONDERVAN
The Mountain Midwife
Copyright © 2015 by Laurie Alice Eakes
ePub Edition © October 2015: ISBN 978-0-310-33346-3
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan,
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546
Eakes, Laurie Alice.
The mountain midwife / Laurie Alice Eakes.
pages ; cm. -- (Mountain midwife)
ISBN 978-0-310-33344-9 (paperback)
I. Title.
PS3605.A377M68 2015
813'.6--dc23
2015028775
Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.
Interior design: Lori Lynch
15 16 17 18 19 20 / RRD / 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to midwives past and present. Your dedication to helping women never fails to fascinate, intrigue, and move me.
C
ONTENTS
M
ANY OF YOU
will recognize the names mentioned in this book, such as Tolliver, Brooks, and Penvenan. Yes, they belong to descendants of the people living within the pages of my historical novels set in Virginia and Cornwall. Since the notion of passing along the skill of midwifery was strong in my previous midwife books, I couldn’t resist keeping the tradition alive enough to last for the next two hundred years. Esther from
Choices of the Heart
wanted her daughter to be a doctor. Unfortunately, I realized later, that daughter would come of age during the Civil War, making medical school unlikely. So I have imbedded the idea that one woman in the family should yearn for this more traditional medical training and placed that burden upon Ashley in the twenty-first century.
T
HE DOORBELL RANG sometime after midnight. The electronic tinkling of the telephone in the middle of the night meant a patient had gone into labor. But this was the double-toned chime of the doorbell in the darkness, and that meant trouble.
Heart pounding, Ashley Tolliver rolled out of her queen-size four-poster, dislodging several cats in the process, and snatched up the jeans and T-shirt ever ready on a chair beside her bed. By the time the bell chimed again, she was dressed and shoving her feet into a pair of ballet flats. The third ring found her halfway down the steps.
A shadow loomed behind the sheer curtain covering the front door’s glass at the foot of the steps. It was a hulking man’s silhouette against the porch light. No sign of a woman beside him.
Ashley paused on the bottom step. At the least she should have brought her cell phone with her despite the terrible reception inside the house there in the hills. The gun her brother insisted she own for protection on her lonely nighttime excursions to patients was, as usual, locked in the glove compartment of her Tahoe.
She turned to retrieve her cell.
Three rings of the bell in rapid succession conveyed a sense of urgency. She was being silly. No burglar was going to announce his arrival by ringing the doorbell so persistently. Emergencies brought men and their expectant wives, daughters, girlfriends to her door.
She grabbed a cordless phone from the foyer table and slid back the dead bolt. “May I help—”
“Let us in.” The door slammed against her hand, stopping at the end of the too-flimsy chain lock.
Wind off Brooks Ridge swept through the opening, carrying with it the sharpness of wood smoke and drying leaves, along with a far less pleasant odor. Ashley’s nose twitched. The stench was familiar, but she couldn’t place it at the moment, only knew she wanted to be away from it.