“Somebody must need a nurse.” Suze looked at Piper. “You ready to take your turn with Nurse Robbins? At night, nobody goes out alone.”
Piper froze, wanting to go but scared at the same time. “Will I know what to do?”
“Sure. Whatever the nurse tells you to do,” Marlie said. “No way to know what to expect when you head out with a nurse.”
“Don’t worry. Nurse Robbins has the patience of a saint.” Suze turned to Marlie. “You get Nurse Robbins. I’ll saddle the horses.”
“Right.” Marlie gave Piper a little push. “Hustle up and get your boots on, Danny. Better grab a candy bar too.”
“Good idea. The nurses stay till the baby comes, no matter how long it takes.” Suze headed to the barn.
Back in her room, Piper’s heart pounded as she pulled on her boots with shaky hands. “Calm down, silly,” she muttered. “You aren’t the one delivering the baby.”
Her gaze caught on the unwritten letter to Braxton. She could write about this, going with a nurse midwife to see a baby being born. Then again, with the way he’d frowned when she told him about being a courier, she probably should stick to describing rhododendrons or telling him about Suze actually knowing him. That should work.
But wouldn’t Jamie love hearing about her riding off on an adventure? He could make up a whole story about that. If things were the way they used to be between them, she could write him every detail. If. So many ifs.
She pushed those thoughts aside. She needed to live in the moment and not be trying to step back into the past. She grabbed a candy bar out of their stash and hurried outside. Nurse Robbins was coming down the steps from the Big House with her saddlebags slung over her shoulder.
Piper ran over to offer to carry the saddlebags.
“No need, Pippay. I’m accustomed to them slung on my shoulder.” The nurse hadn’t accepted the rejection of her nickname for Piper. “Are you ready for a midnight ride? A full moon does bring the babies, but at least we’ll be able to see where we’re going. It’s practically as light as day out here.”
“True. We can see our shadows.” Piper kept pace with her.
“So we can. Both of us are tall and lanky, aren’t we, Pippay?”
The nurse didn’t wait for an answer as she stepped over to where the man still on his mule waited in the roadway. “Is it your wife’s time, Mr. Whitton?”
“She’s punishing bad, Nurse.”
“How long?” The nurse adjusted the saddlebags on her shoulder and peered up at him.
“She didn’t start with the punishing pains until right before I came down after you, but I ain’t lying when I say she’s punishing bad.” His voice rose a little.
“There, there, Father. I’m sure we’ll be in plenty of time to help the little one come into the world.” The nurse sounded calm, as if nothing more exciting was happening than a pleasurable walk in the moonlight. “You head on back. We’ll be right behind you.”
“You will come on in a hurry?”
“Yes, of course. I promise.”
The man kicked his mule to start back toward the river.
Suze had the horses waiting. Nurse Robbins adjusted her saddlebags across Fancy’s rump. Suze handed Piper the reins to Dickens, the gelding she’d ridden on the tour of the outlying centers.
“If you feel a little woozy,” Suze said, “take a deep breath and try not to faint.”
Nurse Robbins laughed. “She wouldn’t be the first. Babies don’t come wrapped in soft cotton blankets, all neat and rosy. But rosy soon enough.” She mounted the horse in a quick movement. “Come along, Pippay. The two of us will have a lovely time.”
They could hear the man already crossing the river.
Nurse Robbins turned the mare in that direction and called over her shoulder. “Do keep up.”
A new worry reared up inside Piper. Losing sight of the nurse. Piper swallowed hard and flicked the reins to urge Dickens forward. That wasn’t really necessary. The horse trotted after Fancy. He knew more what to do than she did.
Once they forded the river and Dickens easily kept up with Fancy, Piper sat easier in the saddle. She’d never ridden in moonlight. Under the trees, the going was dim, but when they came out into a creek, shadows shimmered in the water sliding along over the rocks. The whole world seemed to have a certain glow while the whippoorwills added music.
When a screech owl sounded overhead, Dickens tossed his head. Then a different owl hooted.
“Keep a good hold on those reins, Pippay.” Nurse Robbins looked over at her as they splashed along in the creek. “If an old hoot owl swoops down out of the trees, even the steadiest horse might take a fright.”
Piper tightened her grip on the reins. “But it is beautiful out here.”
“You’re fortunate to have this nice moonlit June night. It’s not so pleasant in January, with snow blowing in your face and the horses struggling to keep their footing on icy trails. Or when the rains pour down and little creeks like this one swoosh down the mountain, ready to take you with it. At times like that, you need a fine horse under you as you head to higher ground.”
“Sounds like you’ve had some scary times.”
“There have been moments, but the good Lord must watch over us nurse midwives. He knows we mean good.” Nurse Robbins glanced over at Piper. “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t let us see some storms. I’m sure you’ll get the pleasure of riding in a few while you’re here. I can handle the wind and rain, but I don’t like it when the lightning starts cracking. Nothing for it but to keep going. Babies do love to come when the skies are thundering.”
“My mother says I came during a snowstorm.”
“Yes, babies love those too.” She stretched up in her saddle to peer on up the creek. “Mr. Whitton must have kicked his mule into a trot the whole way, but we’ll just keep going along steady. Always the best way. Steady and sure. Don’t want to stress my Fancy.” She patted the mare’s neck. “She always gets me there in time.”
“You never have to hurry?”
“My dear girl, we are hurrying. Didn’t you note how quickly we were ready and on our way? But no need galloping our horses up the mountain and risking their legs and our heads unless a life is hanging in the balance. I have no doubt Mrs. Whitton’s baby will wait until we get there. Probably will wait all night after we get there. That’s another thing about babies. They take their time.”
“How long have you been a nurse midwife?” Nurse Robbins always seemed so poised and in control.
“I’ve been here in the mountains for two years. But I delivered my fair share of babies in the home country before Mrs. Breckinridge talked me into coming to Kentucky. That woman is a charmer.” She shook her head a little.
“The place was a bit of a surprise when I got here. More wild than I expected.” The woman flashed a smile over at Piper.
“Wild?”
“The landscape, I suppose, and then the men with their guns. I’ve treated my share of gunshot wounds. Nearly always an accident, according to my patients, even when the only thing accidental was that somebody didn’t die. But that’s not for me to judge. I merely try to stop the bleeding and patch them up.”
“Does that happen often?”
“Often enough.” She looked over at Piper and laughed. “No need to worry. The mountain men treat all of us with the utmost courtesy and go out of their way to help us. They help their neighbors the same.”
“When they aren’t shooting at one another?”
“Not usually at neighbors.” Nurse Robbins laughed again. “But sometimes feelings run high. Especially when revenuers come into the picture. We stay out of that. No talking about religion, politics, or moonshine.”
“I know. Miss Aileen made sure I understood that.” They rode a little way in silence before Piper asked, “So why did you decide to come to America?”
“You should have heard Mrs. Breckinridge talk about it.” Nurse Robbins sighed a little. “Made the place sound like a veritable paradise where I’d have my own horse, my own dog, and could save children’s lives. All true. Except she failed to mention a few problems in paradise. The poverty. The snakes. The briars if a person loses the trail. The ice and snow in the winter. The heat in the summer. The lack of anything close to conveniences in most of the houses where I go to bring babies into the world.”
“But you stayed.”
“Paradise won out. The mountains speak to me.” Nurse Robbins glanced at Piper. “What about you, Pippay? Why are you here?”
Piper hesitated before she answered. The owl hooted again and a dog howled in the distance. Finally she said, “I guess because I heard Mrs. Breckinridge talk too.”
“She can spin a great picture of the mountains and the people here. She admires their strength and pioneer spirit. As anyone should, though you can see some things not to admire as well. But the mothers, they are the heart of the mountains.”
“What a lovely thought.” Piper looked around. There was a feel of paradise here.
Fancy put her head down to drink and Nurse Robbins didn’t goad her forward. “Let Dickens drink too. We have to head up the hill now. Almost there.”
While the horses drank, the nurse studied Piper. “I always wonder about you girls. You come from a life of ease to do our bidding and that of Mrs. Breckinridge. Wait until you must make tea to satisfy that woman. She’s more English than me when it comes to her tea.”
“Suze has warned me.”
“Suze was as green as you last summer, but she knows why she’s here this summer.” Nurse Robbins tipped her head to the side as she watched Piper. “But I’m not sure you know why you’re here. Perhaps simply a charitable spirit. Then again, you wouldn’t be running away from something, would you?”
When Piper started to deny that, the nurse held a hand up to stop her. “Don’t bother your head to come up with an answer, because unless I miss my guess, you don’t know the answer. Nurse midwives get very good at reading people.” She tightened Fancy’s reins and turned her out of the creek. “Besides, dear Mrs. Whitton is having a baby, and Mr. Whitton has, no doubt, lost his mind by now.”
She smiled back at Piper. “Worry not about what I said. You will figure it out. The mountains give you time to ponder.”
Piper followed the nurse up the hill. Why was she here? Had she really simply wanted an adventure or could Nurse Robbins be right? Could she be running away from all the expectations? Marriage. Children. Society must-dos. What was the matter with her that she wasn’t sure she wanted that? No, she did want to marry and have children. Of course, she did.
I’m ready to pick a wife. Braxton Crandall’s words circled in her head. She wasn’t an apple to pick off a tree. A debutante tree. She swallowed down a giggle as she imagined all the pretty girls in their white dresses perched on the branches of a giant tree.
She pictured herself climbing down from that tree. If any picking got done, she wanted to do the choosing. She thought of the tree again, but this time the guys in their dark suits, straddling the branches. Braxton was on a low branch easy to pick, but Jamie was on a top branch.
Piper squeezed her eyes shut and mentally erased the image before she could imagine a blonde climbing up through those limbs faster than she could.
They came out into a little clearing where dogs ran down off a cabin’s porch to bark at them. The man waited in front of the cabin.
“I was fretting you’d lost your way up the hill.” He stepped up to take Fancy’s reins. “I’ll tend to your horses. You tend to my woman.”