The guilt afterward had been excruciating, for how many times over the years had he wished for things to be different with Jane? How often, when she was ranting and smashing things, had he wondered what life would be like if she were not there?
Adam thrust those thoughts away and said a quick prayer for Mary. His children’s happiness meant everything to him, and he did not want Jacob’s young wife to be taken from them now, when she and Jacob were so deeply in love and eager for the future.
Madeline pulled the quilt back and tossed it into the corner of the room.
“What can I do?” Adam asked.
Fear showed itself in her eyes, but her voice was calm. “Is there no one here? Just us?”
“Just us for the moment. Penelope has gone to fetch Jacob, and George will go for the doctor.”
Adam watched Madeline contemplate the situation, as if she were playing it through in her mind and anticipating what she would have to do.
A feeling of powerlessness moved through him. All he could do was trust her with his daughter-in-law’s life.
“Have you done this before?”
She met his gaze squarely. “Yes. Twice in Yorkshire, and the midwife explained everything to me along the way. We’ll get along fine, Adam. Breathe, Mary. That’s it. In and out.”
He stood in the doorway, watching Madeline move around Mary, talking to her and telling her what to do, her voice always composed and reassuring.
“Adam, could you get me hot water and towels, please?” She sounded wholly in control, and her confidence eased the tight knot that had formed in his gut. “Then you can leave us alone.” With her eyes, she told him not to worry.
He left the room to do as she asked, and thanked the good Lord for sending Madeline to them when He had.
Jacob pounded a fist against the door frame in the hall. “How much longer is this agony going to last?”
Mary screamed again, her cries muffled behind the locked door, but no less disquieting for Adam and Jacob, who waited restlessly outside.
Adam stopped pacing to reassure Jacob again. “This is normal, son, especially for the first child. I remember the night George was born…it seemed to take a week, but it was only six hours.”
“Six hours! It’s only been three so far!”
Adam strove to maintain a confidence he did not feel, not when Mary was screaming so much louder now.
Where was the damn doctor? George hadn’t been able to find him.
“I know it’s difficult, but all you can do is wait and pray. Perhaps you’d be better off outside, where you can’t hear what’s going on.”
“No. If she has to endure this, so must I.”
Jacob collapsed into the chair in the hall and buried his face in his hands. He shook almost violently with silent, pain-racked sobs.
The sight of him weeping was like a knife in Adam’s chest, twisting with excruciating exactness, for his children were his life. His love for them was greater than anything he could ever have expected or comprehended, and to see his son suffer was grueling agony.
Another cry came from inside the room. This time, a baby’s cry.
Jacob looked up, his eyes full of tears. “Was that what I thought it was?”
Before Adam had a chance to reply, the door creaked open and Madeline walked out. Her hair was damp with perspiration around her forehead, her face pale. She wiped her hands on a bloody cloth.
Jacob almost leaped out of his chair. He took one look at the blood smeared on Madeline’s apron and teetered, as if he were about to faint. Adam grabbed onto Jacob’s arm to steady him.
Madeline smiled. “Congratulations, Jacob. You have a daughter.”
The air sailed out of Adam’s lungs. Surely, the weight of the whole world had just lifted from his shoulders.
Jacob stood. “Is Mary all right?”
