“Ve can do dat.” She wanted to accommodate him.
“I know it’s early, but I need to hold ye desperately.” He looked at the alarm clock. It was four-thirty.
“I feel verdy sexy,” she whispered.
“Ye do? Let’s see what I can do for ye, then.”
They disrobed and crawled into bed. Eva shivered at the chill in the air.
“Let’s get ye warm,” he said and pulled her close to him.
Eva felt so aroused, she pulled Liam’s hand between her legs. She helped him bring her to orgasm. She immediately started on him with her hand, but he stopped her.
“I want ye, but I’m so damned exhausted. Can ye save it for later, please?”
“Can I hold you den?”
He turned and settled his bottom into her belly. Her arm went around him.
“Eva, I think yer belly got bigger this week.”
“Vell, it getting toward birt time.”
“I missed ye,” he whispered.
She kissed his ear.
“You smell like Ivory soap.” She sniffed him, tickling his neck. She paused and felt her emotions overcome her. “Liam.”
“Hmmm?” He looked over his shoulder, seemingly sensing her emotions. He rolled to face her.
“Tank you … for Ellen.” She cuddled even closer. A floodgate opened and she let it all out.
“Eva, darlin’, come to me,” he whispered. He pulled her close. He rocked her and whispered loving things into her hair.
The crisis was over.
Chapter 16
It was early February and the winter was a typical Minnesota North Country winter—bitterly cold, snowy, and windy. One afternoon, Eva sat in the rocker in the kitchen with Saimi. The weather had been threatening all day, and had just begun to blow.
“I think it’s supposed to snow,” Eva said in Finnish. Her belly covered most of her lap. “It feels and looks like it.”
“How do you feel, Eva?” Saimi asked.
“I feel very close.”
For the last few days, Eva was sensing the same shift in her pregnancy she’d felt when she was nearing Ellen's birth. The baby had moved and she was feeling it in her back. She felt like she could barely walk. Liam was getting on her nerves about her safety. The chamber-pot-in-the-chair stayed downstairs for her to use. He refused to let her go upstairs at all. Nor did he let her go out on her own, to the sauna or the privy.
“Don’t try it, Eva,” he had warned from the parlor the evening before. She had started for the stairs to use the upstairs bathroom. It was after supper and he was reading the paper. Ellen and the others were lounging with reading materials of their own.
Eva stopped in her tracks, giving Liam the meanest look she could muster. She stomped as best she could to the bedroom and the chair. Before she sat, she locked the little hook and eye in the door. “Don’t come in!” she yelled through the door. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Liam tried to enter right when she was sitting.
“Eva, open up.”
“Vhat! I am sittink on dis God damn tink!”
“I’m sorry. Let me in.”
“Go!” She started to cry. “I can’t do nottink. I hate you. You are son-of-a-bitts.”
Liam didn’t wait. He pushed the door, popped the little lock out of the woodwork, and came in.
“I told you—” she yelled.
“I know what ye told me. I want to say ‘sorry,’” he said softly.
“I vant dis baby come,” she wailed.
Liam came to her. He knelt in front of her and held her. “Let me wipe you.”
Eva cried and cried as Liam tended to her. She felt like a child, but she didn’t give a damn. When he was done wiping, she stood, cried, and let him undress her. He slipped her nightgown over her head. He brushed her teeth for her at the kitchen sink and gave her a drink of water. Then he helped her into the bed.
“I’ll see to Ellen, then I’ll be in.” He leaned over to kiss her. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Eva didn’t say anything. She was exhausted and she wanted to pout.
~~~
Liam was headed home the next evening. There were plenty of patients to see at the hospital all day, but at five o'clock, Dr. Andersen told him to go home. Liam had kept Andersen abreast of Eva’s condition all along. Eva had come in once or twice, so Liam could have a second opinion on her pregnancy. She’d been on his mind nearly all day, every day, for the last week or so, except when he was with a patient. The waiting was downright aggravating. It was eating at him. The night before, he’d made her lose her composure all together. Jesus, I can be a bastard. The baby was due any second and he was getting nervous. Perhaps it was good that Dr. Andersen was scheduled to deliver their baby.
February could be cruel, and it was just that at the present. The snow that threatened them yesterday had come in with a vengeance earlier that afternoon. Liam stepped out the front door of the hospital and was shocked at the raging blizzard. He nearly lost his hat in the wind. The snow hit his face like pins and needles without mercy. He tried to look around for a cab, but it was hard to open his eyes with the pelting snow. Seemingly out of nowhere, a cab pulled up right in front of him.
“You’re lucky I spotted you coming out,” the cabbie said, yelling over the howling wind. “It’s turning into a full-blown blizzard, Doctor Dady. Let me get you home.” Liam knew Mack the cabbie from Liam's many house-calls over the last months. In addition to the house-calls, Mack would always pick Liam up every morning and drop him off in the evenings.
“Thanks, Mack,” Liam said. He was relieved to find him there. He climbed in the covered cab, out of the wind-driven pelting snow. “There’ll be a big tip for ye, surely. Best get this horse up and dry after that.”
“Don’t worry, I take good care of this mare. Dolly’s a good one. She’s my bread and butter.”
Liam smiled at the roan’s name. He had never thought to ask what it was before.
At the house, Liam paid Mack double what he normally paid and got out of the cab. He quickly went to the mare and gave her a pat on her wet neck. She nickered in a friendly response.
“Thanks, Dolly. Ye get home now, ye hear? Stay warm tonight.” He waved to Mack, and then carefully made his way on the icy walk in the blowing snow. From the covered front porch of the boarding house, he briefly watched Mack and Dolly turn around in the increasingly snow-filled road.
Inside the house, it was toasty warm. The fragrance of baked ham hit his nose with pleasure. As he took a deep breath, Ellen ran up to him from the kitchen. Excitement and trepidation was in her face.
“Mamma,” Ellen said. She pointed to the kitchen.
Since her bout with the flu, Ellen had had a strong shift in her treatment and acceptance of Liam. She rarely argued with him and even started to call him Pappa Liam occasionally. Eva had told him that she had asked Ellen about her change of heart one day around Christmas.
“See says you took care her like a Pappa-Doctor should. You not sleep at all, and you read doctor books to her, like sees ask.”
“That’s true, I did.”
“I ask her vhat else, and sees says you smack David Haskins for hurting her and Katia. Sees know den you care ’bout her.”
“How did she find out about that?” Liam was curious. “It wasn’t meant to be known by her.”
“Sees find out at school,” Eva had told him. “Nobody know who it vas smack bad boy, but Ellen knew.”
Now, he looked toward the kitchen and didn’t see Eva. “Mamma what, Ellen?”
“She started to have her belly tighten,” Ellen explained, rubbing her own belly.
He absorbed Ellen’s emotions immediately. He took off his coat and boots and put on his indoor mocs as fast as he could. He tried not to convey his anxiety. He felt sick to his stomach. He made his way through the foyer. In the kitchen, he said a quick “hello” to Saimi, and then went to the bedroom. There, he found Eva rocking in the big wooden rocker. Ellen was tagging along and moved to
stand next to her mother.
“No water yet?” Liam bent to kiss Eva. She was calm but alert.
“Not yet. I have … vhat you call it?” She squeezed her hands and fingers around her baby belly, indicating a tightening.
“Contractions.”
“Yes, supistukset, for lil vhile now.”
“Since …” Liam pushed her for more information.
“Mid-day.”
“That long? I asked ye to call if anything started.”
“I vasn’t see-yure.”
He could have kept on scolding her, but decided not to. He was home now, and now was what counted. He also remembered last night and making Eva cry.
“If this baby’s comin’ tonight,” he said, “which it seems it is, we’ll have to deliver it. The weather will prohibit Dr. Andersen from coming, and I’m sure as hell not takin’ ye to the hospital in a blizzard.”
“Dat bad now?” she asked.
“It’s startin’ to howl.”
They looked at each other, hearing the strong wind gusts buffeting the house.
“Dis happen vhen Ellen come.”
Liam bent to kiss Eva again, then turned to Saimi who was in the kitchen. “Can you make sure we have kerosene lamps available if the electricity goes out?” he asked.
“I can do dat,” Saimi said. She left for the cellar where the lamps were stored.
Liam knelt in front of Eva in the rocker, putting his hand on her very big belly. He stared into her big blues. It was a long gaze, during which he gathered his strength. They started to smile. “We’re goin’ to do this and it’s goin’ to be fine,” he stated with confidence … outwardly. Inside, he was raging with anxiety.
“I haff good fait in you.” She put her hand on his cold cheek and rubbed it. Then she put her other hand on his other cheek and tried to warm each one. She got a little silly and smushed his cheeks together. He pulled away, smiling and feigning irritation. He stood up, giving her a kiss on the nose.
“I see Saimi has supper ready. Do ye think I could have a bite? Nothin’s happenin’ at the moment.”
“Go, Liam. I come to be vit you and Ellen at table. I don’t tink I eat now. I eat plenty later.”
“I want ye to drink. Ye need some fluids.” He spoke with his best doctor authority.
In the kitchen, the mehu was brought out from the cold pantry. A couple of quarts were put in the ice box. The little family sat at the kitchen table.
It was about seven-thirty.
After supper, Liam read to Ellen about the visceral organs from his anatomy text. When he was finished, she yawned. “I'm going to bed,” she announced. “Vhen I wake up, I’ll see if I have a brother or sister.”
“Goodnight,” Liam and Eva said in unison.
“Bruss you teet,” Eva reminded.
Ellen kissed Liam and gave her mother a hug and kiss. “Have a good time, Mamma.”
Liam and Eva laughed as Ellen headed to the bathroom upstairs. After a few minutes, Ellen decided to come back in.
“I’m too excited about the baby. I’d like to stay up.”
“If you like. I don’t tink you vill haff school tomorrow,” Eva said.
~~~
Over the next few hours, it was just contractions every so often. Eva’s back felt more and more pressure and she became increasingly uncomfortable. Liam and Ellen passed the time by discussing girls and medical school. Sitting in the rocker, Eva watched the two, pleased with Ellen’s turn-around.
A short while after Liam had helped Ellen through the flu, she’d declared what she wanted to do when she grew up. “I’m gonna be a doctor like my Pappa Liam.”
“Not many women are doctors, Ellen,” Liam explained, “but maybe you can be among the first. I think more would be, if they weren’t afraid of some men working to keep them out.”
“I won’t be afraid. I will do what I want,” Ellen declared. “Miss Lehto says women need the vote. I agree with her.”
“I have a strong feelin’ you’ll succeed. I think women should have the vote, too,” he responded, thinking of how Ellen’s teacher had told them that fall that Ellen was performing better than a lot of the students who were four and five years older. Miss Lehto, a twenty-three-year-old first-generation Finn-American, had taken a keen interest in Ellen and her abilities. Two years prior, she had talked to Eva and Victor about tutoring Ellen at her home in general academics a couple afternoons a week because the Principal at the school was not in favor of Ellen being accelerated to a higher grade.
“If she were a boy, I’d consider it,” the principal had said. “But what is she going to do, become a doctor or lawyer? I doubt it. Maybe she’ll graduate, get married to a doctor, and have babies.” Miss Lehto bristled when she related the story.
Despite the Principal's objections, Miss Lehto had assured Liam and Eva that she was going to nurture Ellen Mattson’s extraordinary academic abilities anyway. If it was on Miss Lehto’s own time, then so be it.
“If Ellen wants it, I’ll work around the unfair system,” Miss Lehto told the Dadys.
“If it’s on yer own time, we’ll pay ye,” Liam replied. They set an hourly fee.
~~~
“Liam.”
“What!” he yelled. Perplexed, he flew out of bed, falling on his knees, which made Eva giggle.
“Vhat you doink?” she teased him. She was standing in the middle of the bedroom.
“Are ye all right?” He looked at the clock. It said three-thirty. Orient yerself, Liam! He blinked his eyes several times to get rid of the cloudy blur.
“Vadder yust break. Can you get towel to vipe floor?”
Liam had asked Saimi earlier to sleep on the day bed in the kitchen so she could be available when the time came to assist him. Saimi had gotten a supply of towels, blankets, and bedclothes. She had gotten the kerosene lamps many hours ago, which were now lit. The electricity had gone down.
“Saimi,” Liam called and started toward the kitchen.
Saimi was already on the way with a towel in hand. She went in and cleaned up where Eva had been standing. “You can go back to bed,” she said to Liam as he helped Eva to the bed. “Tink of somptink to do vit Eva to help dis go faster, Liam. You von’t need me for a vile. Ellen vent to bed.”
Liam closed the bedroom door.
Eva saw his puzzled look and smiled. “After vadder break, sometimes sex speed up baby comink,” she said.
“I remember, now, hearing that at medical school. All the students laughed, including me.”
“If you vanna laugh, dat’s fine vit me. I start to feel lil frisky. I tink you come to me.” She was hugely pregnant, but nonetheless intensely sexy, Liam thought. She lumbered back on the bed, then blatantly pulled her nightgown up around her waist and began to massage her own breasts. She laughed as Liam grew crimson, gawking at her wantonness. She began to moan from touching her own swelled, dark purple areola, her nipples quickly turning big and hard as cherries.
“Jesus Eva, ye’re killin’ me.” He stood at the side of the bed and began to rub his genitals through his trousers. He undid them and dropped them on the floor, stepping out of the crumpled heap of clothing. He watched her stare at his erection. He looked at her swollen belly. “I want ye.”
“Use you mout. I feel crazy for dat.” She spread her knees.
“Ye’re done with foreplay then?”
“Come!” she said, still laughing.
He climbed carefully on the bed and put his tongue where she wanted it. He could barely wait to relieve his own hardness.
The orgasm took her hard. She bucked her hips and barely suppressed a scream.
“Dat grip hard, after good strong come. Liam, you are sexy boy.” She worked to push herself up on the pillows. “Liam, come here and put you hands on dis bed.” She pointed to the headboard. “Den I can use my mout on you.”
Liam was still gawking, but moved obediently into position, going on a sex ride with Eva holding the reins. He could hear himself using the Lord’
s name, not in vain, but perhaps in thanks. It was all so—naughty, he thought to himself, as he climaxed, bucking and grunting to every pulse.
He barely crawled off her before he collapsed on the bed. He was still gawking at what they just did to each other. “I hope the baby doesn’t come this second, because I don’t think I’ll be able to get up for a while.”
Still mirthful, Eva said, “Aren’t you happy ve not go to hospital?”
He laughed breathlessly. “You are a sexy, naughty girl.”
Her next contraction came roughly ten minutes after the one the orgasm set off. Liam knew it was time to pull his trousers and shirt back on. He went to the door, opened it, and asked Saimi to put a pot of coffee on.
“Kahvi ready,” he heard from the other side.
He hesitated before he went to face Saimi after the almost feral sex he and Eva had within Saimi’s earshot.
“I hope we weren’t too noisy,” he said, feeling the heat of embarrassment. He walked into the kitchen to fix a coffee for himself.
“Of course, you vere noisy.” Saimi tried to stifle a snicker but couldn’t, sounding more like a little “hick,” She seemed to enjoy seeing him blush wildly.
He retreated quickly into the bedroom with his mug of coffee. He found Eva in a strong contraction, her mirth gone. She was getting down to birthing this baby. He swiftly went to her. “I guess the orgasm does help,” he said. “What do ye need, darlin’?”
“Yust hold my hand vhen I have con—”
“Contractions, sweetheart.”
Saimi brought in a pan of cool water and a cloth to wipe Eva’s face. She put the pan on the bedside table and left the two alone in the room, staying in the kitchen, ready to help. Liam wrung out the cloth and dabbed Eva’s forehead and cheeks.
~~~
Streams of sweat poured from Eva’s hairline. She was in full labor. In a moment between contractions, she looked at Liam, studying his face, trying to read it. She saw a bit of concern, but mostly she saw him in a state of—she didn’t know what to call it—but he was in full doctor function. She had never seen him like this before. Perhaps she’d seen it a little, when he took care of her after Victor died, but she hadn’t been focused on Liam at the time. At present, he was focused only on the patient at hand, and nothing was going to take him from that. She was so proud and in awe of him.
Eva and the Irishman Page 51