"It was a strange sort of second childhood that Lainey, Lucian, and I shared that summer. Lucian had responsibilities of course, but not so very many. I only had two mothers in my care then and neither of them needed lots of my time. Lainey and her needs were my chief responsibility." Ylsa paused here a moment smiling. "It may have been my job to heal what the pox had done to her womb, but it became my pleasure. She was so easy to care for, wilting only for lack of a little nurturing, a little kindness, and a little compassion. I took her under my wing like a lost little sister come home."
"We taught her to play chess, indulged her interest in history,and passed many an afternoon fishing. She was an able fisherman and always she gave her catch to to villagers that did not have time to spend sitting at the side of a pond."
"We became friends and I started to disbelieve my aunt and everything I knew about my family's abhorrent behavior."
"I told them they need to wait a full year after the onset of menses this was they had her married in a short three months."
"Why, pray tell, Ylsa would we rush the girl into marriage when she could marry just as easily at sixteen as she could at thirteen?" Her father looked at her with annoyance. "De Beaunes are many things, but we are neither foolish nor wasteful." Her father shook his head and looked back at the scrolls on his desk as if the matter were wholly dismissed.
"What you say is full of sense and wisdom, but it happens often enough. People want money, titles, land connections. Sometimes they just want more of the things they already have."
He looked up with a sigh and pushed back from his desk.
"Ylsa, my daughter," he got up then and went to her. "I know you. I've know you and loved from the first day of your infancy."
He squeezed her shoulders, his expression soft.
"I remember the first life you saved. A broken winged bird that you healed and cared for until he was strong enough to fly away on his own. And I remember how worried you were, how upset that some hunter might take him as game." He smiled now. "And do you remember what I did?"
"Yes," she felt an upward tug on the corners of her mouth. "You went to grandma and convinced her to issue a ban on hunting quail for the next ten years."
"I protected you and the things you loved then. Do you think I would do any less now?"
"No," Ylsa felt some stirring of guilt at having suspected him.
"I can control many things, but humans are not birds." He put an arm around her and pressed her close.
"No, but he was poached."
"I know sweetheart, but you can still take care of your friend," he kissed her on the forehead then. "You are strong, a woman grown, I have never seen a talent like yours Lainey Dublois is in good hands."
"Thanks dad."
"Lord Dublois has given orders to save the life of the child over the life of the mother."
Lainey's face turned deathly, pale, and Ylsa sat up still and straight before turning a cold eye on the other midwife.
"This is my lying-in room and my patient. I make the decisions about whose life shall be protected. Now if you can respect that you can remain. If not you can go."
The woman nodded slowly.
"It is indeed your room Mistress. I am with you."
"Good."
Ylsa turned back to her patient with a smile.
"Rest now my dear, I am going to take care of you."
"We have some time before the contractions begin again. Take this time to rest yourself."
"I get a break?" Lainey asked that question eyes bright with hope and relief.
"Yes," Ylsa stroked her friend's hair back from her forehead. "There are shifts, in the labor."
One of Ylsa's assitstants brought her a steaming mug with a sharp, pungent smell.
"Here now, drink this," Ylsa handed the mug to Lainey and the girl wrinkled her nose.
"It is strong, but it will invigorate you. Drink it down."
Lainey nodded and did as she was told. In short order color flushed her cheeks.
"So what happens now?"
"Each woman is different sometimes there is no distinguishable pause in labor. But if there is then the baby- in most cases, comes quickly when the labor starts again," Ylsa explained.
Lainey paled and Ylsa bit her bottom lip at her clumsy words.
"Will all of you please excuse us I need to have some confidence with Ylsa."
The other women in the room looked to Ylsa for direction.
"Lainey?"
"Just a short confidence, Ylsa, please?"
"Very well."
When all of the other woman had cleared the lying in room Ylsa settled on the edge of the bed.
"Ylsa," Lainey took her hand. "You are my very dear friend, you have been a better friend to me than any I have ever had. So I ask you this as a friend."
Here the other woman paused and Ylsa waited for the request.
"I want you to save my child's life. I am too young to give birth in safety. I know this, we both know it. Save my child's life at any cost."
Ylsa stared at the girl unable to form words.
"If the child does not survive I shall have to do it all again, and then I shall be sent to a midwife who will follow my father's orders regardless, or I won't be able to do it all again and shall be set aside in shame and to live out my years in some dusty convent or castle."
"You don't want to live?" Ylsa finally formed that question.
"No. Not if my son does not live."
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"You have to understand, Lainey was my first patient as independent midwife," Ylsa said.
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