Homecoming

She focused instead on Emily, who was growing paler by the minute. She seemed to be conserving her strength, for she was no longer asking Lou to make the promise. At least, not vocally; however she was begging with her eyes. “All right,” Lou said finally. “I promise to save the baby. But you need to promise somethin’ too all right? You need to promise to fight it and not give in. You hear me Emily? You can’t give up. Ike died to save you, so you need to live for the baby’s sake. You hear me?”

Finally Emily nodded. “Okay.” It was all she had the strength to say before she drifted off to sleep.

Lou watched for a moment as the other woman’s breathing deepened; then she stood and went back out to where the Doctor and Mrs Seyton were waiting. “How is she?” the doctor’s wife asked.

“She seems to be sleepin’ at the moment,” Lou replied wearily.

“What did she want?”

“For me to promise that the baby will live,” she told the doctor.

“Louise…”

“It seems that we haven’t been able to hide much from Emily,” Lou went on. “She knows that somethin’s wrong. She wanted me to promise that if it came down to it to chose the baby’s life over hers…” she had to break off here, as tears filled her wide brown eyes and threatened to choke her.

Mrs Seyton was at her side in an instant, leading her to a chair where she could sit down. “It’s all right, dear.”

Lou shook her head. “No it’s not! How could she do that? How could she ask me to do that? How can I make that decision?”

Dr Seyton cleared his throat. “I know it’s hard, but we can’t put it off much longer. That decision will have to be made in the mornin’; and if Emily wants the baby to live…” he trailed off, not wanting to state the obvious. “Anyway, there’s nothin’ more you can do tonight. Why don’t you lie down and get some sleep? You need to keep your strength up, especially now.”

Uncharacteristically docile, Lou allowed Mrs Seyton to lead her to the little room where she had slept the night before. Her thoughts were still in turmoil over the decision she had to make—and what Emily had asked. How could she do this? How could she choose between the life of her friend, and that of Ike’s child who also deserved to live? Maybe both Kid and Dr Seyton were right: she should not be here; it was too soon after losing her own baby to be being with this, and now she was having another.

“You look pensive, dear,” the doctor’s wife commented gently.

Lou shook her head. “I was just thinkin’. It’s so much to deal with. How could Emily ask that, to chose the baby’s life over hers?”

“I know it seems incredible, but it’s different when you’re in that position.”

“Have you ever been in that position?”

“Well, no…”

“Then how do you know?”

“Because I have carried children to term.” Mrs Seyton saw Lou pale at the mention of this, knowing her miscarriage was one of the things plaguing her; and she hastened to explain. “I don’t mean to be harsh, Louise, but it’s somethin’ you’ll figure out in time. When you’ve carried a baby inside you for nine months, when you’ve talked to it, and nurtured it… well, when your time is due you would do just about anything for that little mite who is dependant on you for everything. And when faced with the possibility of losing it… you would ask for the same choice.”

“I guess…” Lou trailed off.

“Now Louise,” the older woman stopped and faced her. “You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t make the same request if you were in that position.”

Lou’s hands moved down to her belly, where they hovered protectively. “No, I guess I can’t.”

Mrs Seyton smiled. “Try and get some rest. You won’t do Emily or her baby any good if you keel over from exhaustion.”

The Kid awoke early, uneasy for some reason. Part of it was due to Lou’s absence—something that he was not used to after five months of marriage—but it was not all that. He had the sense that something was wrong, something that he could not put his finger on. It was still dark outside; too early to be up and about, yet he heard a noise coming from downstairs. It sounded as though someone were in the kitchen. Frowning, he got out of bed and pulled his breeches on over his long-johns; it was bitterly cold, but if one of the children was in the kitchen…

It was Teresa, preparing to fix breakfast the way she had since Lou was away helping Doc Seyton with Emily. Kid had not asked her to do so—it was too early for breakfast—but she knew that Lou had not yet returned, so she was working on her own. She was not alone in the kitchen; Kid heard Buck’s voice as he approached.

“Isn’t it a bit early for breakfast?” Buck was asking.

“Probably,” came the reply. “I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to do somethin’ useful.”

“You expectin’ everybody else to get up early as well?”

“That’s a good question,” Kid stated, walking into the kitchen. “If you cook breakfast now, it’ll be cold by the time everybody’s ready to eat,” he added after the pleasantries were exchanged.

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Teresa admitted. “But like I told Buck, I couldn’t sleep, and I declined to simply lie there in the dark doin’ nothin’.”

“Fair enough,” Kid sat at the table. “But instead of makin’ a full-on breakfast, how about just makin’ some coffee? It’ll warm us up for the moment, breakfast can wait.”

“Okay,” the girl said agreeably, setting about to do just that.

“So why couldn’t you sleep?” Buck asked when the coffee was made and Teresa had sat down.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I just woke up with the feelin’ that something was wrong. I don’t know what, but it wouldn’t let me go back to sleep.”

“So did I,” Kid said. “I haven’t been sleepin’ well last couple of days anyway…”

“Too used to havin’ Lou sleepin’ there beside him,” Buck interjected.

Kid gave the other man a playful punch, but did not bother to contradict him. “It’s more than that. I don’t know, I just get the feelin’ that somethin’s wrong. Somethin’ to do with Lou.”

Buck snorted. “Big surprise there. Kid, she’s just at the doctor’s office. It’s not like she’s out on a run or anythin’ like that.”

“I know that!” came the rather testy reply.

Somewhat amused, and with the intent of lightening the mood somewhat, Buck turned to Teresa. “Kid was like this back when we were ridin’ for the Express. He would get so worried about Lou when she was on a run that he would drive us crazy. Cody used to take advantage of it by getting Kid to do his chores to get his mind off it, usually choppin’ wood.”

Teresa giggled, and Kid gave his brother-in-law/friend a quelling look. “This is different,” he insisted. “I don’t know how or why, but it’s really botherin’ me.”

“Maybe because it’s takin’ so long,” Teresa suggested. “I don’t know much about birthin’ babies, but it’s been a few days. There could be somethin’ wrong.”

“That’s true,” Kid sighed. “Lou did say that it was gonna be difficult for Emily. And it wasn’t that long ago that Lou lost her baby...” he trailed off.

There was an expression on Buck’s face like he did not care that the labour was difficult for Emily, but he had already made his feelings on the subject clear to Lou and the Kid; he did not bother to reiterate them here.

Teresa looked down at the table, then timidly back up at the Kid. She was hesitant when voicing the question. “Kid, do you think that Ike is the baby’s father?” It was something that had not been broached with the children—they had only met Ike the once, and did not know Emily at all.

Her brother-in-law sighed again. “Truthfully, I don’t know. Emily says he was, and Lou believes her. The timin’s about right, but apart from that, I don’t know.”

Buck snorted again, and this time it was not good natured.

“You don’t believe it,” she asked him flatly.

He hesitated. It was one thing to have doubts about Emily’s motives; it was another thing again to expose them to the children. Especially when he was not certain how he actually felt. His first instinct when he heard that Emily was with child was to think that she had immediately jumped into bed with another man without mourning for Ike at all, and part of him still believed that. The problem was, he knew that Lou and Kid had a point. Lou was the only one of them who had bothered to check up on Emily after Ike was killed; and while she had not known of the pregnancy, Kid said she was certain of the fact that Emily had not gone out with another man. If this was true, then the only possible father of the child was Ike, no matter how unlikely he thought that was. And it was a thought that Buck just could not swallow. Maybe it was because of his bias against Emily, but he found it easier to believe that she had been unfaithful to his friend than it was to believe the baby could be Ike’s.

“Buck?” Teresa prompted.

“It doesn’t matter what I believe,” he said finally. “Only Emily knows the truth, so we have to wait to hear her side of the story.”

The girl gave him a wry look, recognising the dodge. “But you don’t believe it, and you just don’t want me to know it.”

“When did you get so smart?” he asked his half-sister, wanting to deny it, but not wanting to lie.

“I’ve always been smart,” she smiled. “More coffee?”

“Please.”

“Still worried?” Kid asked her when she had finished pouring the coffee and was sitting back down, staring pensively at her hands.

“Yeah,” she admitted. “But not about Louise so much. She’s fine, but I still get the feeling that somethin’s wrong.”

“I know what you mean. Tell you what, how about I take you and your brother into town to see Lou after breakfast? It might ease your mind, and I know it’ll ease mine.”

“Okay,” Teresa grinned. “You know, you can always chop some wood in the mean time.”

“Quiet, you,” Kid cuffed her lightly upside the head.

There had not been a snow storm as such the night before, but it had snowed fairly heavily, making it a good thing that Michaelson had insisted on waiting until the morning to leave. Jenny had ranted and raved about the delay, but she knew that it made sense. Getting lost or overturned in a snowdrift and left to die in the cold with no way of getting help was not going to get them Emily’s baby. Their baby.

Having had to wait all night before starting for Lone Tree Valley meant that she was determined to leave first thing in the morning. Michaelson was rather annoyed; she got him up for breakfast an hour earlier than usual, making sure they were on their way as soon as possible. He gave in with little grumbling though, knowing how much it meant to her. She kept reiterating over and over again that she wanted to get there and take the baby before Emily got too attached to it. It was a logical point—if Emily became attached to the baby, she could refuse to give it up; and it would get very ugly if there was a fight for the child. Jenny was not worried about the fight as such, she was certain that the baby would be given to them rather than left with Emily—they were better suited, after all. She just did not want the bother of a huge battle.

So right after breakfast he hitched the wagon while his wife packed the things they would need on the journey. Despite his acquiescence of the whole affair, he still thought a wagon trip to Lone Tree was a bad idea. He knew Jenny would never give up, so he just packed extra firewood for when they stopped for the night. It would be a long, cold few days journey.

Lou was gently shaken awake from her restless sleep. It was Dr Seyton. Emily had taken a turn for the worse, and the decision had to be made now. Furthermore, he had figured out at least part of the problem with the difficult labour—the placental cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck, which made the decision doubly important. If he was to save Emily, he could give her something to induce the labour further, allowing her to give birth naturally; but the baby would be strangled by the cord. However, if he were to save the baby, as Louise had said Emily wanted, he could perform a caesarean section, which would allow the child to be born safely and had the possibility of allowing the mother to live as well. But he severely doubted that Emily had the strength to survive the operation. In any case, the options had to be put to Lou as it was up to her to make the fateful decision.

Lou was silent for a long moment. It had taken her a while to fall asleep the night before, the choice that Emily had asked her to make lay heavily on her mind. It was a choice that she rebelled at having to make, having to choose between the life of her friend and the life of the unborn child of two friends. But the more she thought about it, the more she realised that the choice was relatively easy after all—it was having to live with it that would be harder. Emily wanted her baby to live, no matter what; and Lou knew she had to respect that. She came to realise that, heaven forbid, if she were in that position she would make the same choice. And knowing that, she could not begrudge Emily the same choice, no matter how hard it was for her. She told the doctor as much.

Dr Seyton nodded. “I thought that’s what would happen. It means an operation, and I’ll need your help. My wife has made hash browns for breakfast, go and have a quick bite to eat and then wash up for the procedure.”

Lou’s stomach rolled slightly at the thought of food. “Um, I’m not really hungry right now. Have you eaten?”

Smiling knowingly, he nodded. “If you think you’re all right then, we can go straight into it. Get yourself cleaned up while I put Emily under.”

True to his word, Kid hitched the wagon to take Jeremiah and Teresa into town to see Lou. Buck declined to go, telling them to give his regards to her. Kid knew why he was so reluctant, so he did not press the point. Jeremiah was reluctant to go as well, but mainly because he found the idea of waiting around a doctor’s surgery boring; and unlike the others, he was not worried about his big sister in the slightest. But as Kid decided to combine the trip with getting some supplies from the general store he needed the boy’s help, so Jeremiah had no choice in the matter.

However, when they arrived at the doctor’s surgery they found that Lou was still in with Dr Seyton and Emily; the operation taking a little longer than expected. Kid’s blue eyes widened when he heard that; he knew that an operation at that stage meant bad news.

“How’s Emily?” he asked.

“Not well,” Mrs Seyton replied. “She’s not expected to survive the operation. She doesn’t have the strength.”

“How’s Lou handlin’ it?”

“About as well as can be expected, given the circumstances. She’s a strong young lady. It shouldn’t be too long now, do you want to wait?”

Before Kid could reply, the door to the surgery opened. It was Mrs Collins, the bank manager’s wife. “Good morning, Mrs Seyton,” she said primly. “Is your husband available?”

“No, he’s busy with a patient at the moment. Is it urgent?”

“Not really, I just came here to state my case.

“Your case?” Mrs Seyton was puzzled, and Kid was none the wiser.

“I heard that you have an unmarried girl here in the latter stages of pregnancy.”

“Boy, news travels fast around here,” Jeremiah muttered, receiving a swat from the Kid for his trouble.

Mrs Collins glared at the interruption. “Now a woman like that is not fit to raise a child. I have therefore decided to adopt the baby, saving everyone the trouble.”