Whispers of Winter

by Tracie Peterson

  Leah pointed to the trunk. “There are blankets and diapers, clothes for the baby in there. We’ll need a couple of wash basins, some hot water, and scissors.” She clutched her stomach. “Hurry …” She barely managed the word against the pain.

  Just then Christopher came to the doorway of the room. “Where’s Oliver? He was supposed to help me with the wood.”

  “I sent him for the doctor,” Jayce said as he worked to pull a stack of things from the trunk. “Leah’s going to have the baby.”

  Christopher looked at Leah in awe. “Truly? Right now?”

  Leah nodded. She bit her lip to keep from crying out and frightening the boy. She was surprised that he didn’t look in the leastwise uncomfortable with the situation, unlike Oliver, who had clearly been disturbed by the turn of events.

  “Do you want to help me?” Jayce asked.

  “Sure, Jayce. I’d do anything for Leah and you. What should I do?”

  “Get the scissors and bring some hot water.”

  The boy ran without another word to do Jayce’s bidding. Leah smiled and took a couple of ragged breaths. “He’ll be able to help you deliver the baby.”

  Jayce looked at her as though she’d lost her mind. “He’s just turned twelve.”

  Leah nodded. “But he’s got two good hands and doesn’t seem at all bothered by this.” She felt the urge to bear down. “Jayce, I have to push. It won’t be long now.”

  “Here, Jayce. I got the water and the scissors. What else do you need?”

  Jayce frowned and looked as if he were trying to remember. “Washbasins.”

  “And some twine, Christopher,” Leah managed to speak before the need to push once again took her focus.

  Jayce came to the bed and adjusted the bedding to better facilitate the birth. Leah gritted her teeth and panted against the pain. “I see the head,” Jayce told her.

  Christopher came back with the basins and nearly dropped them at this declaration. “Are we really going to deliver the baby? Right now?”

  Jayce pushed up his sleeves and nodded. “Right now. I need you, Christopher. Are you sure you’re up to this?”

  The boy nodded. “I can do it, Jayce. You can trust me.”

  Leah could no longer focus on the conversation. She knew these were the final moments of her baby’s birth. She bore down on the pain and pushed with all her might, feeling the child slide from her body. She fell back against the pillows and gasped for breath.

  “Quickly,” she said, pointing toward the baby Jayce was now turning over. “Tie off the cord in two places and cut in between.”

  “Here’s the twine,” Christopher said, handing the ball to Jayce. “And the scissors.” He was very efficient and matter-of-fact.

  Jayce went to work doing exactly as Leah had told him.

  Once the cord was cut, he looked up and awaited further instruction.

  “Clean the face and clear out the mouth. You need to hang her upside down and hit her bottom a couple of times to get her crying.”

  “She’s so tiny,” Jayce said, lifting the rather lifeless child. He did as instructed, hesitating only when it came to the spanking of this tiny infant.

  “Hurry, Jayce. She’s got to breathe.”

  He smacked the baby’s bottom lightly at first, and then a little more firmly. This sparked life into the child, and she began to cry in an almost mewing fashion. Soon the cry built to a crescendo, and the wailing sound made Leah smile.

  “Welcome to the world, Karen Kincaid,” Leah murmured.

  Christopher looked at her oddly. “You named her after my mama?”

  Leah nodded. “I couldn’t think of a better name or way to honor someone I loved so much. Is that all right with you?”

  Christopher nodded. “I think Mama would like that very much.”

  Jayce wrapped the baby in a couple of blankets and moved the rocking chair beside the stove. “Here, Christopher, come hold her and keep her warm. I need to finish helping Leah.”

  The boy looked with wide eyes at Jayce and then Leah. “Me? Are you sure you want me to hold her?”

  “Absolutely,” Leah encouraged. “She needs to get warm, so hold her close and snug.”

  Christopher went to the rocker and sat. “I don’t want to hurt her.”

  Leah smiled. He seemed so grown up sitting there waiting for Jayce to deposit the baby in her arms. “You won’t hurt her if you’re careful,” Leah said. She watched the pleasure that crossed Christopher’s face as Jayce handed him the baby.

  The boy was immediately smitten. “She’s beautiful,” he murmured.

  Jayce looked at Leah and smiled. The look of love in his eyes was quite evident. “Yes, she is.”

  “I can’t believe you helped deliver a baby,” Oliver told Christopher after the doctor had come and gone. Everyone had gathered in Leah’s room to get their first official look at the infant.

  “He was as good as any doctor,” Jayce declared. “We made quite the team. Maybe we should take it up as a living. What do you say, Christopher?”

  “I might want to be a doctor,” he replied. “I’m thinking it would make Mama proud.”

  Adrik patted his son’s back. “It would at that, but your mama would be proud at any profession you chose so long as you put the Lord first in all you did.”

  Oliver looked at the tiny baby in Leah’s arms. “She’s really little.”

  “Yes. She’s a bit early, but the doctor said she’s breathing well and her lungs are clear. That’s a good sign.”

  He reached out to touch Karen’s tiny fingers. “She was almost a Christmas present.”

  Leah laughed. “Almost. At least this way, I can be up and around with everyone on Christmas morning. What fun that will be.”

  “Mrs. Kincaid, I specifically remember the doctor telling you to stay in bed for a week.”

  Leah looked at her husband and shook her head. “No, he told me to rest for a week. I promise, I will rest on Christmas morning, but I will do it with everyone else in the front room, sharing a wonderful breakfast and opening presents.”

  Adrik laughed. “The women in this household have always tended to the stubborn side. I wouldn’t argue with her. We can surely make provision.”

  “Is there room for a couple more?” Jacob called from the door.

  Leah turned and saw her brother. Helaina stood directly behind him, Malcolm in her arms. “You know you’re welcome. Come see your new niece.”

  He came to her side and leaned down to view the new baby. Oliver moved away to afford him a better view. “Well, she’s mighty pretty. Going to break a few hearts, no doubt.”

  “If she takes anything after her namesake,” Adrik said, “she’ll be a handful to be sure.”

  “I can’t believe you delivered her, Jayce. That must have been quite the experience.” Jacob was in complete awe. His voice dropped a bit as he added, “Our mother died in childbirth, you know.”

  “I had forgotten, but I suppose Leah never did.”

  “Actually, I hadn’t really thought of it,” Leah admitted. “I was too busy.”

  Everyone laughed at this, but it was Adrik who spoke. “I think it’s probably time for us to let you and the baby get some rest.” He came to Leah’s bed. Leaning down, he kissed Leah on the head. “Thank you for naming her after Karen. She’ll be a special blessing to all of us.” He turned and looked to his boys. “Come on, fellows, we have some cooking to do. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

  Jacob took Malcolm from Helaina. “We’ll be just outside if you need anything. Adrik invited us to supper. He’s making ‘surprise meat’ pie. At least that’s what he promised. Remember the old days when he’d make those for us?”

  Leah smiled. “I do indeed. Has he told you what meat he’s picked out?”

  Jacob shook his head and smiled. “Nope. Hasn’t even hinted. Guess we’ll all be surprised.”

  Helaina reached down and gave Leah’s hand a squeeze. “I can’t imagine having a baby out he
re without a doctor or midwife. You are very brave, Leah. I hope I can be more like you. I’ll have Jacob move my things here so that I can take care of you and the twins, and of course this little one.” She gently touched her finger to Karen’s face.

  “I’ll look forward to it,” Leah replied. “It will be like the days when we all lived together. Just one big happy family.”

  After everyone had gone, Jayce came to Leah and knelt beside the bed. “Mrs. Kincaid, you are a wonder. I think back all those years to that sweet kid who told me she thought she was falling in love with me. I can’t believe I said no to that love then. I can’t imagine even being able to live without it now.”

  “Everything in its time, Mr. Kincaid. A wise woman once told me that.”

  “Who? Ayoona?”

  Leah shook her head. “No. Karen. Karen waited until she was considered well past a marriageable age, until true love found her as well. When I despaired of ever finding another love to match what I felt for you, that’s what she told me, ‘Everything in its time.”’

  Jayce took hold of her hand and kissed her fingers. “The war has ended, we’re all safe and healthy, and we have each other. The blessings we know are abundant.”

  “Among many sorrows we have indeed been blessed.” Leah shifted the sleeping baby to lean closer to her husband. “I thought after nearly losing you that I would grow afraid each time you walked out the door. I thought I would dread those moments when you had to be out of my sight—to the point where I would make us both crazy. But God has given me such a peace about life.”

  “How’s that?” Jayce asked, his gaze never leaving hers.

  “I’ve had weeks to lie here praying and reading the Bible. God has been good to meet me here. Perhaps it was the only way He could get me to be quiet long enough to hear Him.”

  Jayce grinned but appeared to know better than to speak.

  Leah continued. “I heard Him speak to me, Jayce. As clearly as if you or Jacob had been here talking to me. He assured me that I would never be alone—that the future was something He had already seen—already taken care of. No matter what happens, God will walk with me—with us. I know it might sound silly; after all, we’ve heard it said many times that we need to put our trust in God. But somehow it’s more real to me now. More understandable.”

  Jayce nodded. “I think I can understand it too. Seeing Karen born—feeling the breath come into her body as she took her first cry … well … it did something to me. I was praying so hard to do all the right things and in the end I knew there was nothing I could do to give her life or keep her alive. Only God can do that. And just like He’d preserved my life so many times, He faithfully brought us a new life.”

  Leah sighed and gave Jayce a smile. “Whether in the glory of summer or the whispers of winter, He has ordained our path. It doesn’t mean there won’t be uphill climbs or rocky roads, but it does mean we can count on Him—believe in Him—hope on Him. We have only to trust our hearts to Him … and to each other.”

  Jayce leaned down and kissed her ever so gently. “And we’ll do just that—in good times and bad.”

  “For better or worse,” she whispered.

  “For so long as we both shall live.”

  TRACIE PETERSON is a popular speaker and bestselling author who has written more than seventy books, both historical and contemporary fiction. Tracie and her family make their home in Montana.

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