Post of Honour by R. F. Delderfield Read Free Book Online

here—through the bushes under the rock!’ and Joannie Potter appeared clutching an armful of bedding and towelling and with barely a glance at the baby began to make a couch at the back of the cave, spreading the sacks as a base for heaped-up bracken. The little cave seemed very crowded now and Rachel realised that Joannie was very much out of breath, so much so that it was minutes before she could gasp, ‘You’ve washed the mite? ’Twas warmish, I ’ope?’ and Rachel told her the kettle had contained lukewarm water and that the baby, a boy, had cried out within a moment or two of birth. Joannie paused in her work of doubling the blankets. ‘ ’Er baint crying now an’ her should be! Turn un over, an’ give un a smack or two!’ and Rachel, smiling now, began to turn the child face down and then remembered that the cord was uncut.
    ‘I tied the cord but couldn’t cut it, Mrs Potter!’ she said and Joannie, without a word, poked her head under Rachel’s elbow and bit so that the cord parted and Rachel was able to administer a smack on the child’s tiny behind. The baby opened his mouth as wide as it would go and roared its resentment, the volume of his yells astonishing Rachel almost as much as the mother’s unaided scramble on to the bed. The baby continued to bawl so loudly that Joannie said, grimly, ‘ ’Er’ll do! Just ’ark to un! Still, ’twas lucky you was by, with nought but a few dirty sacks to hand!’ and she sighed as though the birth of a child in these circumstances was a bit of a nuisance but otherwise unremarkable.
    ‘Be ’ee gonner tell ’em whose tacker tiz?’ she asked carelessly but Hazel replied, sharply, ‘Tiz mine! Dornee pester me, Joannie!’ whereupon Joannie sighed again, grumbling that Sam would want to know and so, probably, would the lady doctor but implied by her tone that the identity of the father was not very important.
    ‘Be ’ee strong enough to give un the breast, child?’ she said and Hazel, in answer, reached out for the baby and Rachel, a little regretfully, placed him carefully in her arms while Joannie pulled the crumpled dress over the mother’s shoulders and busied herself tucking the blankets around her. The baby’s outcry ceased so suddenly that the silence inside the cave seemed uncanny. Joannie said, dispassionately, ‘You’d better go an’ watch for ’em. That boy was so scared I woulden wonder if ’er dorn taake lady doctor to Hermitage! I’ll bide ’till they come, for Sam’s with the children, young Barby bein’ sick abed!’
    Rachel went out into the open, surprised to find it was now almost dark. In the glimmer of light over the Bluff she saw the foliage stir down by the north corner of the mere and presently, where the trees fell away around the stream, she caught a glimpse of two figures on horseback moving at a trot and yelled at the top of her voice in case, as Joannie had suggested, Keith had difficulty in locating the spot. Somebody answered her and they came on at a canter, the ponies’ hooves chinking on the stones of the ascent like bottles in a basket. Keith appeared first, rolling from the saddle of Sam Potter’s chestnut pony and shouting the moment he saw her, ‘Are you all right, Rachel?’ and Rachel said, ‘Of course I’m all right! It wasn’t me who had the baby, stupid!’ but then she understood why he had asked for she was blouseless and her hair was falling over her bare shoulders so that for once it was she who blushed and was glad to answer the bark of Doctor Maureen, who climbed out of the saddle holding her bag, demanding to be shown the way to the patient.
    They left Keith with the horses and pushed through the gorse, guided by the gleam of a lantern Joannie had lit but Rachel, acutely conscious of her dishevelled appearance, and feeling suddenly helpless in the presence of a professional, was glad to wash her face, hands and neck in what remained of the water before despatching Keith to the stream for