The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,323

clear view of Letty’s face.

Her hair was stuck to her face from perspiration, and she was holding on to the headboard of the bed so hard that her knuckles were white. Before he could move, someone shut the door. He felt as if someone had cut off his breath.

He didn’t know how long he stood there without moving, but it was long enough for Letty’s screams to be branded into his brain. When Alice came running out of the room sometime later, he was still there.

“Sakes alive!” she muttered, and had to side-step Robert Lee to keep from plowing into him. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“Why isn’t the baby coming?” he asked.

Alice rolled her eyes.

“I don’t know. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Letty just doesn’t want to give it up.”

Robert Lee frowned. “What the hell are you saying?”

Alice swiped her hands up her face, pushing the hair from her eyes.

“As long as the baby was in her, she knew she could keep it safe, but once it’s born, a mother can do her best and still lose it. I learned that the hard way.”

Robert Lee remembered then that Alice had lost her baby.

“Oh… I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”

“It’s all right. Now, go on with you. This is women’s work.”

Robert Lee frowned as she sped down the stairs. What if Alice was right? What if Letty was putting herself and her baby in danger by an unwillingness to let go?

He ducked his head and started down the stairs, then stopped. By God, he hadn’t come this far with that woman just to lose her this way.

He set his jaw and turned on his heel. Moments later, he was standing in the doorway, his gaze fixed directly on Letty’s face.

“God damn it, Leticia! You can’t control everything. Give up the fight and let that baby be born!”

Surprised by his presence, everyone froze.

Letty threw her head back, meeting his gaze with something akin to desperation. She was still staring when he slammed the door shut between them. They heard his steps receding, and then heard him stomping down the stairs.

“What on earth?” Alice muttered.

“Pay him no mind,” Mildred said, as she braced herself for Letty’s next contraction.

The pain was subsiding, but Letty was already gathering herself for the next. She’d heard Robert Lee through a numbing fog, and only now, was absorbing what he’d actually said. Was he right? Was she delaying this birth by refusing to give up the control?

Alice’s hand was on her belly.

“Here comes another one,” she said, as she felt the muscles contracting again.

Letty closed her eyes, took a deep, weary breath, and then this time, instead of holding her breath against the pain, rode all the way through it.

“That’s it! That’s it!” Mildred cried. “You can do this. You’re a strong-willed woman, so make this happen.”

When the next pains came, Letty pushed—and pushed—and pushed again. She was somewhere between exhaustion and unconscious when she heard a loud, angry cry.

“It’s a boy!” someone cried.

Letty gritted her teeth, willing herself to stay focused, and held out her arms.

“Give him to me.”

“Just a minute,” Mildred said, as she quickly cut the cord and began cleaning up the baby.

The little fellow was wailing lustily as Mildred wiped him down. She wrapped him in a blanket and then laid him on Letty’s chest.

Within seconds, Letty’s arms closed around him, holding him close—holding him safe—as close to her heart as she could get him.

“Prop me up,” she said.

Mildred frowned. “But the afterbirth—”

“Will tend to itself,” Letty muttered. “I need to see my son.”

And she did.

His little face was red and puckered—his mouth wide open in a loud, toothless wail. His hair was thick and dark. She peeled back the blanket to count fingers and toes as he continued to complain about the mistreatment of his arrival into this world.

When she was satisfied that he was perfect, she rolled him back up in the blanket and held him close.

“Here… give him to me,” Alice said.

“Not yet,” Letty said. “It’s only fair that, as his mother, I am forced to listen to his first complaint.”

Having said that, she looked down at his angry, red face and grinned. The louder he wailed, the more she smiled. Finally, the baby’s cries eased somewhat, leaving him with a squeak, not unlike that of a baby kitten.

At that point, Letty laughed aloud.

Robert Lee was sitting at the bottom of the stairs with his head in his hands, struggling to stay sane between Letty’s moans and wails. The