The Midwife's Dilemma by Delia Parr Read Free Book Online

breath. “Grace died very suddenly two weeks ago,” she managed and tied her bonnet into place. She accepted the sack of foodstuffs from Fern in one hand and her cape with the other before leaving without saying anything more.
    She hurried to the back door as fast as she could. At the moment, however, her weary body did not move as fast as she liked, and a twinge in the small of her back reminded her that it was time to let someone else answer the call to tend to the women and children of Trinity.
    Hopefully that meant someone other than Dr. McMillan, who was likely paying far too much attention at the moment to one young woman in particular—her daughter.

    Once in a month of Sundays, if that often, Martha answered a call to duty only to discover a complaint that only time and nature itself would be able to cure.
    Today turned out to be one of those days, which meant Martha could do little for sixteen-year-old, unmarried Missy Crowder, who did not even realize she was carrying a babe until Martha told her. Missy and her parents, naturally, were shocked. Poor Missy and her mother wailed together, but her father announced that after he delivered Martha back home, he was heading straight back to Sunrise to fetch the young father-to-be and their minister to marry them at once.
    As they started back to Trinity, the chill in the air matchedthe mood of the man who sat next to Martha on the wagon seat. The ride back to town with him was bound to be terribly awkward, and she missed Grace more than ever, wishing she could have returned to Trinity on her own. If she was totally honest with herself, however, she would have to admit that she was so tired right now that she might have fallen asleep in the saddle.
    Not that she would have had to worry. Grace had been a wretched-looking horse, but her spirit and her devotion to Martha had been amazing. She sensed Martha’s moods better than most humans did, and if Martha had fallen asleep in the saddle, which had happened once or twice, Grace would have stopped and gently jostled her awake.
    With a very sullen and silent man at the reins and no hope of conversation to keep her awake, she had to force herself to keep her eyes open. But when she spied an all-too-familiar buggy pull out from behind a stand of trees up ahead, her heartbeat slowed to a dull thud.
    Looking as bedraggled and exhausted as she knew she was, meeting anyone at the moment was the very last thing she wanted to do, but she absolutely, positively had no desire to see the man at the reins of that buggy.
    â€œNot now,” she whispered. “Please not now.”
    Mr. Crowder lifted the reins and used them to point ahead. “Do you know who that is that’s heading toward us?”
    â€œYes,” she said. “I do.”
    His expression hardened. “There’s no time for idle conversation.”
    â€œI know,” she replied, quite certain that Mr. Crowder would be pleased when he learned in a few minutes that he would be well on his way without her. She shook the dust from her skirts and slipped off her bonnet just enough to smooth her hair beforetying her bonnet back into place again. But she was helpless to keep her heart from racing and pounding against the wall of her chest when he slowed the wagon to a halt, waiting for the buggy to close the last few yards between them.
    Yes, she very definitely knew the man who was drawing ever closer to her.
    He was the only man who had managed to steal her heart, not once but twice. He also had the very annoying ability to know what she was thinking, even before she did, and he could charm a blush to her cheeks with a simple glance.

6
    T homas.”
    Martha whispered his name as he stopped his buggy alongside the wagon. The moment he locked his determined eyes with hers, she immediately knew that their meeting like this was definitely not a coincidence.
    His soft gray eyes simmered with such deep want and affection that her heart beat