Turning the Tide

by Edith Maxwell

  thirty-one

  I was nearing the end of a prenatal appointment at nine thirty the next morning. My head seemed to be fine for this level of work, which included no physical exertion. “Now that thy baby is growing, it’s important for thee to eat nutritious foods.” This was the young woman’s first pregnancy, now four months along. She’d experienced the normal amount of queasy stomach during her first trimester, but she was past that now. I could talk about foods without needing to have a vomit basin at the ready.

  “Like what?”

  “Milk, meat, fresh vegetables when thee can find them. Thee is married to a farmer, so perhaps it will be easier for thee to obtain carrots, dark green leafy vegetables, and other brightly colored foods.”

  “What does the color have to do with it?” She wrinkled her nose.

  “They seem to carry a greater quantity of healthful properties.” At least my now-retired teacher Orpha maintained such. And a woman who had delivered hundreds of healthy babies had to be at least partly right.

  My client giggled, the gap between her top teeth giving her a childlike look. “So God painted the good vegetables in pretty colors.”

  “I suppose so.”

  “My mother-in-law has a big kitchen garden. She’ll be happy to dig those things up for me, I’m sure.”

  I spied a large Rockaway approaching the house. “Excuse me a moment,” I said to the woman, who nodded. I opened the front door and called out, “Yes?” I didn’t recognize the carriage.

  “Are you Miss Carroll, the midwife?” the driver asked from his seat.

  “I am.”

  He hopped down and secured the reins to the post. He climbed the stairs and handed me a folded note. “It’s from Mrs. Elbridge Osgood,” he said.

  The note read, in a flowing educated hand, Please come quickly. My pains have begun. Lyda Osgood. So her babe was arriving early. But not dangerously so, at all. It should be well mature enough, at only two weeks short of being full term, to survive the rigors of passing into the world.

  “All right. I’ll need several minutes.”

  He tugged at his uniform hat. “I’ll wait.” He trotted back down the steps.

  Five minutes later I’d dispatched my client, donned my outer garments, and given Mother a kiss where she sat reading. “Not sure when I’ll be back.”

  “Is thee sure this is a valid request for thy services?”

  “It’s a very nice carriage. And it’s full daylight. If he doesn’t take me to Lyda’s home, I’ll jump out.”

  “What about thy head?” She frowned. “Is thee able to do this work again so soon?”

  “It’s not plaguing me at the moment. But I plan to pass by Annie’s place of employment and see if she can get away to assist me.”

  “Good. I feel better knowing your plan.”

  I turned toward the door, but paused. “Mother,” I said, turning back, “would thee do me a favor?”

  “Of course, dear.”

  “I might have mentioned Elbridge Osgood is one of the people whom Kevin suspects for Rowena’s murder. I think it would be prudent to let Kevin know I will be attending a birth at the Osgood home. Could thee walk down to the station and tell him, please? It’s not far, and having him know would set my mind at ease.”

  “And mine as well.” She stood. “I’ll do it right away.”

  I thanked her, gave her directions, and we said our good-byes. I made my way out and climbed into the conveyance. “I’ll need to make a stop on the way, please,” I told the driver.

  He didn’t look happy about it. “Where?”

  “It’s on Elm Street, near …” Where had Annie said Mabel Roune lived? I came up with it. “On the right just past Washington Street.”

  “Very well.” He drove the horse along High Street, through Market Square, and up the hill Elm Street ascends.

  Even though the carriage compartment I rode in had a roof and sides, I shivered from the cold. Today was again sunny, but a brisk breeze drove cold air through the open sides of the box and under my skirts. We passed Carriage Hill on the right, the site of the terrible fire last spring. All the rebuilt factories were now of brick, not wood, and the carriage industry was bustling again. After we passed Washington, the only house likely to be Mabel’s was a large square residence with a mansard roof.

  I called to the driver in the front, “There.” I pointed.

  The driver pulled to a halt in front of the house.

  “I’ll be back out as soon as I can.” I climbed out and made my way to the double front doors, each with a tall arched glass insert. After I pulled the bell, a uniformed maid opened it.

  “I’d like to speak to Annie Beaumont, please, if I may.”

  She cocked her head like it was an odd request, but said, “Please wait here, miss.”

  It was a well-appointed hall, with gleaming woodwork on the staircase and a gilt-edged mirror across from me. I gazed at my reflection. I was still more pale than usual, and I hoped I was recovered enough to undertake a labor of unknown hours and outcome. Annie bustled in from a door farther down the hallway, her red hair pulled back in a stylish do decorated with a green ribbon.

  “Rose, what brings you here?” She smiled, took a closer look, and replaced the smile with a frown. “You don’t look well. Is everything all right?”

  I guessed I truly didn’t look well. “I did have a slight accident two days ago. But now I’ve been called to a birth. Is there any way thee could come away to assist me?”

  She stared at me. “Goodness. I want to help you, of course. But Mrs. Roune—”

  A door next to us swung open. An imposing woman fully as tall as me, with a battleship bosom in a fine gray wool dress, appeared. Her white hair was done up in a knot on top of her head and she looked at us out of faded green eyes. “I what, Miss Beaumont?”

  Annie started. She gave a small curtsy. “Mrs. Roune, this is Miss Rose Carroll, the midwife. Rose, Mrs. Mabel Roune.”

  “I am pleased to meet thee, Mabel.” I extended my hand.

  Mabel’s lips knit together and her nostrils flared. “Well, I never …”

  She ignored my outstretched hand, so I dropped it. I didn’t know if she was shocked with my uttering her given name or at my use of thee.

  Her voice trailed away as she peered down her nose at me. “Good heavens. A midwife? And you’re called Rose?”

  I nodded slowly.

  “You’re the kind soul who found my Rowie. The policeman told me.” She reached for my hand and took it in both of hers as she blinked away suddenly full eyes. “Do come in, Miss Carroll. Do come in.” She led me into a large sitting room. Books and newspaper were scattered on a low table and several large floral arrangements filled side tables.

  “Thank thee. I will, but for just a moment.”

  Annie lingered in the hall.

  “Come along, too, Miss Beaumont.” Mabel beckoned. “Please have a seat, Miss Carroll. I can ring for tea.”

  “Call me Rose, please.” I remained on my feet. I really needed to get to Lyda, although in truth it was rare the call to a birth was of great urgency.

  “As you wish. Won’t you sit and tell me all about finding Rowena? We are quite devastated at our loss.” She frowned. “All except Mr. Felch, that is.”

  Oh? I needed to move along to the birth, but I wanted to hear more. “I’m so very sorry thee had to lose thy granddaughter, Mabel. Annie has told me thee was very close to her.”

  “She was my namesake in a way. I cherished her company, her wit, her intelligence.” She wrung her hands in her lap.

  “I was quite impressed with what I saw of her the last time we met,” I said in soft voice. “The night before she died.” I hesitated. I needed to leave, to ask if I could have Annie’s time, but my need vied with my intense desire to understand Mabel’s comment about Oscar. I perched
on the chair nearest Mabel. “What did thee mean saying Mr. Felch is not devastated, if I might inquire?”

  “That man only pretended to care for her.” She tossed her head. “All he cared about was progeny. He didn’t love Rowena for herself, for her considerable mental capacity, for her passionate ambition. No, the only thing he wanted was a baby factory and she wasn’t having it. I do believe he hired someone to kill her himself.”

  thirty-two

  Annie nodded. She’d mentioned that when she’d spoken to me of Mabel a few days earlier. Annie glanced at me. “Is it possible, Rose?”

  “What would Miss Carroll know of these things?” Mabel asked her, blinking.

  “Rose is something of a private detective, Mrs. Roune,” Annie said. “She has solved murders in the past.”

  “You don’t say.” Mabel examined me with interest. “Are you also looking into my Rowie’s death?”

  “I’m truly not a private detective at all, Mabel,” I protested. “But I have had an involvement, shall we say, with investigating more than one violent death in the past year. And the police detective now welcomes my insights and bits of information, as long as I stay out of trouble.” Which I haven’t been very successful at just lately, I didn’t add.

  “Does Mr. Donovan suspect Mr. Felch?” Mabel asked.

  “I believe Oscar is under consideration, yes.”

  “And anyone else?” Mabel’s sharp eyes focused so completely on me I felt rather under a microscope.

  How much should I reveal? “It’s possible her friend Zula Goodwin had reason to wish Rowena harm. She seems both intensely fond of thy granddaughter and angry with her at the same time for rejecting her advances.”

  “That woman.” Mabel curled her lip. “Overeager for Rowie’s affections and without scruples. Yes, I wouldn’t put murder past her.”

  Interesting. Both Oscar and Mabel shared a jealousy for Zula as much as a dislike for each other. “And there is a man harboring resentment at losing his job because of Rowena,” I went on, speaking quickly to shorten the conversation as much as I could. “Plus a local fellow hard on his luck whom the detective suspects but had to release because he didn’t have any real evidence against him.”

  “You have quite the collection of possibilities. I rather envy you, Miss Carroll. I myself have spent time reading Pinkerton’s stories. The idea of investigation, disguise, sleuthing seems quite attractive. Not that I would do it, alas.” Mabel sighed. “One has one’s reputation to uphold, of course.”

  She seemed to make that last remark without a thought for what it might mean to me. I didn’t care. My reputation was intact, or would be if I ever got out of here and on to the work at hand.

  “But my true profession is as midwife, which I confess is what brought me here today.” And why Annie and I had to make our exit as soon as we could. When my left leg started a fast jitter, I pressed my hand on my thigh to quiet it.

  “Ah, Miss Beaumont has told me of her interest in this vocation, as well. I think it’s a fine line of service. My own children, all six of them, were born upstairs in this very house, with the midwife Mrs. Perkins.” Mabel glanced at the ceiling with a fond smile.

  I smiled. “Orpha Perkins was my teacher, and a fine one. I still consult with her from time to time, but she has retired from practicing.”

  “A pity,” Mabel said. “But age comes to all of us, and I am certain she trained you well.”

  A knocking came from the front door. It had to be the driver impatiently wondering, with good reason, where I was. The maid scurried past in the hall to pull open the front door. Sure enough, a man’s voice rang out.

  “Sorry to trouble you, miss. I’m looking for a Miss Carroll,” he said gruffly.

  The maid appeared in the doorway of the sitting room. Mabel looked at me with raised eyebrows.

  “Forgive me.” I stood, chagrined. I doubted Orpha would approve of me taking so long to arrive at a labor in progress. “I was about to tell thee I’ve been called to a labor,” I told her. “I’m just coming,” I said to the driver, who touched his cap and went back outside. I looked at Mabel again. “I wanted to inquire if thee might do the favor of lending me Annie for the day. An important part of her training is to attend births, even at the beginning of her training.”

  She thought for a moment. “I have nothing pressing to attend to today. I’ll let her go with you.” She cocked her head. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep such a smart girl as companion for long.” She smiled fondly at Annie.

  Annie blushed. “Thank you, Mrs. Roune. I’ll get my things.” She hurried out.

  “I also thank thee, Mabel,” I said. “I enjoyed making thy acquaintance.”

  She nodded her head. “And I, yours. I hope you’ll come to call again when you don’t have to rush off to attend a woman in her travails. I don’t get much excitement in my life any more. That was one thing Rowena never failed to provide.”

  “Please accept my condolences on her passing. Are there plans for a funeral service to commemorate her life?” Was it Zula or Oscar who’d said they were in conflict with Rowena’s grandmother about the arrangements? I couldn’t remember, which worried me. Where had my usually excellent memory fled to?

  “It’s to be tomorrow. Mr. Felch and I are still in a tussle, though. I insist on having the reception afterward here. He wants to rent a hall. Rent a hall, can you imagine? Can you think of a more unseemly location? No, we’ll be having a fine spread of food and drink right there in the next room. I hope you’ll join us for both the two o’clock service at Union Church at Point Shore as well as the gathering here.”

  “I shall be pleased to. I thank thee for the invitation.”

  Annie appeared. “I’ll be here tomorrow morning to help with the preparations, Mrs. Roune.”

  “Good. Miss Carroll, you’ve brightened my morning. I look forward to seeing you again.”

  As the carriage made its way down Elm Street, Annie said, “Mrs. Roune liked you.”

  “Thee sounds surprised.”

  “Well, you must admit she is somewhat formidable.”

  “I think she wishes she’d had a more adventurous life. She saw Rowena starting one, with her law degree and her suffrage work, but her future was cruelly cut short. I suppose my being an amateur detective fills the same bill.” I watched as we neared the bottom of the hill before the carriage would head into Market Square. “Let me tell thee about the impending birth.”

  “Please.” She clasped her hands and gave me all her attention.

  “It’s her third time, so the labor should be fairly easy. A woman’s first baby is usually the hardest to produce. The body hasn’t done it before and the tissues haven’t yet been fully stretched. But there are always exceptions to the rule, as with anything.”

  “And twins, or a breech presentation can complicate the birth, correct? That’s what the book said.”

  I smiled in approval. “Thee has been studying. Yes, many are the possible complications. But one thing Orpha told me early on in my own apprenticeship has remained with me ever since. A woman’s body is designed to birth her baby, and women all over the world do it with barely any assistance at all.”

  “I’d like to meet your teacher,” Annie said.

  “I’ll bring thee to visit her one day soon. I know she’ll like thee, and will approve of my passing along the knowledge I gained from her.”

  “I hope so.”

  “She also taught me the best thing we can do is help the laboring woman to remain as calm as possible so the process can go forward.”

  Annie nodded in thought. “I saw my littlest sister be born at home just last year. Mama didn’t have anyone’s help but Mamere’s.”

  “Thy grandmother?”

  “Yes. It was Mama’s seventh baby, so her body had done it quite a few times before. She only labored for two hours, and was
up and making supper that very night.”

  “Is that what made you want to become a midwife?”

  Annie smiled. “In part.”

  The carriage bounced over a deep rut in the road and I touched my temple, wincing at the throbbing that started up when we landed.

  “Rose, are you all right to go to a birth? It looks like your head very much pains you.”

  “It does hurt some, at that. Thee will be a great help, though. I’ll be fine.”

  “What was the accident you had?”

  “I did something foolish on Third Day.” I saw her frowning. “What thee calls Tuesday.” I described getting the note, being attacked and locked in, and my eventual escape.

  She brought her hand to her mouth. “Midwifery is more dangerous than I thought.”

  I laughed softly. “No, what’s dangerous is looking into the lives of criminals. Someone doesn’t like me asking questions, and they tricked me. I won’t be responding to such a note again. I didn’t recognize the name, and I knew I’d never been to the abode, which turned out not to be an abode at all. As I said, it was foolish of me to go and I paid the price. But I’m healing.”

  Of course, now we were heading to the home of one of the murder suspects. Should I even be taking Annie into a potentially dangerous situation? A mother’s life and her baby’s were at stake, though. With any luck Elbridge would be away looking for employment until the end of the day. But I was glad I’d let Kevin know our destination, and of course Mother knew, too.

  The driver clucked to the horse to make it up the hill into the square, which was bustling as always. The scent of manure drifted in through the windows and cries of men hawking wares vied with the clop-clop of horses and donkeys hauling all manner of conveyances. From the square we headed north on Market Street on our own assigned employment to assist a tiny new person into this world. This world of work and family was not always safe and warm, but I trusted it would be for this newborn, at least for a few years.