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“Dr. Turner sends great praise for Nurse Foster. Should you have need, ring one of the maids and they’ll fetch her. Eventually you’ll be able to ring for her directly.” Leah went to the tea cart. “You may go, Mrs. Astor. I’ll see to this.” She picked up the teapot and began to pour. “Would you care for a cup of tea, Nurse Foster?”

“Yes, please.” The woman smiled and kept her attention on her two charges. “So, tell me something about yourselves. Obviously, I know that you are both with child and am familiar with your health, but perhaps something more about yourself that case files wouldn’t record.”

“I’ve lived in Minnesota all my life,” Brigette said. “My father died when I was young, and my mother and I were all alone. We did well enough, however. God was good to us. I’m twenty-seven and have known Leah all my life. In fact, I grew up in this very house.” She glanced at Leah and smiled. Leah had encouraged her more than once to keep the nature of their relationship to herself so Natasha wouldn’t ignore her for being of the working class.

Natasha rolled her eyes. “I’m sixteen and don’t wish to have a baby, but it wasn’t my decision. I was attacked and my father too cowardly to shoot the man responsible.”

“And if he’d shot him, then you’d be without a father,” the nurse countered without so much as a pause.

Natasha looked at her for a moment and shrugged. “Well, he should have done something.” For a moment her voice sounded so childlike that Leah ached for her. Natasha was alone and quite bitter that her family had buckled under the threats of her attacker. Frankly, Leah was just as angry that they would allow him to get away with what he’d done, but it wasn’t her place to stir up the battle.

“It does seem some men would be better off dead,” Nurse Foster said, surprising all three women. Natasha’s eyes widened at the older woman’s comment, while Brigette looked to the floor as if uncomfortable.

“I find, however, that God alone knows best about such things. Still, a wrong is a wrong, and no amount of ignoring makes it right. I’m sorry that you’ve been made to deal with such a thing. Know that I will be here for your care and to assist you in most anything.” She paused and offered a smile. “With exception to killing anyone.”

For the first time, Natasha offered a hint of a smile. Leah was taken aback at Nurse Foster’s methods but said nothing to rebuke her. “Ladies, would you care for tea?”

Both Brigette and Natasha nodded, and Leah continued to pour. She was glad to have such a personable woman to act as their nurse.

“My situation was of my own doing,” Brigette shared. “I was in love and thought he was too. I thought we would be married soon, and no harm would come. I was wrong, and now he’s nowhere to be found.”

“Such is the case more often than you’d imagine.” Nurse Foster sipped her tea as Leah served the others.

Leah took up a plate of cookies and offered them to each of the ladies. “As women, we seem inclined to desire love above all else. No price seems too high.” Leah shrugged. “Love is what we value most.”

“I want nothing to do with men and so-called love,” Natasha countered. “Men are selfish and cruel and demand their own way. They care very little about what we have to say on any matter, much less love. I don’t care about love, I want the power to be safe.”

Nurse Foster considered this. “Some men can be quite selfish and even cruel. The devil gets ahold of them young, and they seem to forever yield to his persuasions. But there are good men too. Men whose mothers were able to train them up right. Men who are respectable and kind. Such men deserve love, and because of that, I cannot put them all in one basket. Just like with women, there are good and bad. It’s best to let each person’s actions speak for themselves.”

“It would seem I’ve only known the bad,” Natasha replied, her tone a little less edged with rage.

Leah considered her own misgivings about men. She had tightened the reins on her emotions and outlook toward romance when Susanna had been taken advantage of, but over the last couple years she had heard this type of counsel more than once. It really wasn’t fair to blame all men for the actions of a few ruthless characters. She took up her tea and cookies and joined the others. Once seated, she looked to Nurse Foster. “Why don’t you tell us something about yourself?”

The older woman set her tea aside. “Oh goodness, where to start? I was born in Texas, raised in numerous places as my parents pursued every get-rich scheme known to man. When I turned eighteen, my father temporarily struck it rich in California, so he gave me money to attend a school where I studied to be a nurse. After that, I struck out on my own. I married three years later and had four children, two died before their fifth birthdays, but the other two are grown and married with babes of their own.

“As I mentioned, I’ve been a nurse for over thirty years, working to help people recover from injury and disease as well as childbirth. While living in California, I worked as a midwife and delivered nearly two hundred babies over a dozen years. Doctors seemed unwilling to worry about such things and saved themselves for situations of complication, figuring a good midwife could manage. It’s not like today where more and more women are having their babies in the hospital.”

“How did you come to Minnesota, Nurse Foster?” Leah asked.

“My husband died years ago and left me no choice but to raise my children on my own. I met another woman in a similar situation, and we decided to combine our earnings and share a house. Her children were younger than mine, and she remarried within a few years and moved to Minneapolis. Once my children married and resettled elsewhere, she suggested I come here to live. Not together, mind you, but near enough.” She shrugged. “Didn’t see any reason not to give it a try, so I did. I enjoy it here, and I’m close enough to my friend that we can get together from time to time when I have a day off.”

“Speaking of which,” Leah interjected, “Nurse Foster will have Wednesdays and Saturdays to do as she pleases, but another nurse will be here to attend you. Dr. Turner said several hospital nurses were interested in making extra money.”

“Do I understand correctly that both of you are due to deliver in May?” Nurse Foster asked.

Brigette spoke up first. “I am.” She looked to Natasha, who was just about to take a bite of her cookie.

“Yes,” Natasha murmured. She looked none too happy to acknowledge the truth of the matter.

“And have you decided what you will do with your babes?”

“I want nothing to do with the baby.” Natasha’s anger was back. “I don’t even want to see it.”

“Could be just as well,” Nurse Foster said, nodding. “And what of you, Brigette?”

“I’d like the baby to go to a good family. I have no way to take care of it.”

The older woman smiled. “There are good families all over the country who desire to adopt. I’m sure Miss Garrison already has something in place to help with that.”