Free Red Sky in the Morning by Margaret Dickinson Page B

with you? This is hardly the ideal place anyway for the lass to give birth, but with animals a few feet away . . . I
don’t want her getting an infection. So,’ she went on, rolling up her sleeves, ‘get me a bowl of hot water and the first thing we’ll do is wash in disinfectant. Both of us.
Where’s my bag? Ah, there it is.’ As she turned she added, ‘You still here, Tony? Off you go and take those dogs with you.’
    Tony cast a wide-eyed glance at his father. ‘I can’t take Buster home. What’ll Mam say?’
    ‘Put him in with Duke. She never goes in there.’
    Tony picked up the puppy. Like his father, he knew that Bertha never went anywhere near the pony unless it was safely harnessed between the shafts of the trap. Buster made little yelping noises
and licked the boy’s face, ecstatic to be fussed.
    ‘Have I time to take the tractor back and pick up some food? Bertha was packing summat up for me. I – I don’t want her to wonder why I haven’t gone back.’
    Pat could only guess at the full story from the brief outline Eddie had given her, but, knowing his wife, she realized the importance of Eddie’s request. ‘Yes, go on, but be as quick
as you can.’
    Eddie put his hand on his son’s shoulder. ‘You run on home, son, but not a word to your mam.’
    The boy nodded and turned towards the door, but before he left he gave one last glance at the girl on the bed. Then he was out of the door and wading through the snow as fast as he could. As he
went, he heard Anna’s last, despairing cry. ‘I don’t want it. Let me die. Just let me die.’

Nine
    The birth itself was straightforward enough. The baby was small, a little early, Pat thought, but it was the girl’s attitude that concerned her. Anna screamed and
writhed, fighting the pain.
    ‘When you get a contraction, you’ve got to push,’ Pat told her, but irrationally Anna would only shout, ‘I don’t want it. I don’t want it.’
    Kindly, but firmly, Pat said, ‘Well, you can’t leave it in there, ducky.’
    Eddie kept the fire built up and soon the room was hot and stifling. He fetched and carried to Pat’s commands and, as she brought the child, kicking and screaming, into the world, he was
standing beside her, holding Anna’s hand and mopping the girl’s brow gently.
    ‘You’ve a lovely baby girl, Anna. She looks a bit premature, but she’s beautiful and what a pair of lungs!’ Pat laughed and held up the wriggling infant. Swiftly, she
wrapped the baby in a piece of flannelette sheeting. ‘I’ll see to you in a minute, my pet,’ she murmured. ‘Here, Eddie, you’ll have to hold her for a moment. I must
get the placenta.’
    ‘Me?’ Eddie looked startled.
    ‘Yes, you, Eddie Appleyard. I don’t see anyone else handy.’
    Eddie sat down in the battered old armchair he had brought from his barn for Anna and held out his arms. Gently, Pat laid the tiny infant in the crook of his elbow and watched Eddie’s face
soften as he looked down at the baby girl. If Pat Jessop had not known Eddie so well that she believed every word he had told her implicitly, at that moment she could have believed that the child
was indeed his. Watching his tender expression and the gentle way he held the child, as if she were the most precious being on God’s earth, brought a lump to Pat’s throat. There were
going to be plenty of the village gossips who would believe that he was the father once this news got out. But no one would hear it from Nurse Jessop.
    ‘Now then,’ she said briskly, turning back to the new mother, who was lying quietly with her eyes closed. Anna’s cheeks were red with the effort of giving birth, but it was not
the colour of robust health. The young girl was very thin and Pat wondered if she would have enough milk to feed the child naturally.
    ‘Now, Anna, you’re lucky you don’t need any stitches, but we’ve got to get the afterbirth away. I’ll have to massage your tummy.’ Drowsily, the girl opened