The Midwinter's Midwife

Prologue

Hi there, this is my first story that I think I'm actually going to finish! Please give me feedback on what sort of thing I need to improve on, and what you'd like to see more of, but this chapter is only really to set the scene of what's going to happen, everything else will start afterwards. Enjoy! - Taddea

      "Keep going Sarah, the baby's coming," Sarah had heard this sentence too many times, she already had two sons and three daughters, and now another one was coming. Sarah groaned in frustration at her fate – to forever have more and more children, already forcing her eldest son of twelve to work full-time with his father, all just to make enough money to keep them going. Adding more and more mouths to feed was tiring and unrewarding.

"Just kill the damn thing, and me with it," screamed Sarah, ready to give up and go with her already beckoning God.

"No Sarah, I won't have you talking like that," reprimanded her sister, who was the village midwife. She was experienced, and she knew that by the time the mother was begging for death the baby was about to come "Just push damn you, you impertinent woman," she scolded, fed up with her sister's moaning.

"I am pushing!" Sarah shouted in reply, and then there was a sudden gush and a piercing shriek filled the small bedroom. "There, you see? I told you I was pushing!" said the triumphant mother, who, although she was tired, was happy to see and hear her healthy baby.

"You've got another daughter Sarah," said Lilly the midwife, not willing to waste time settling her stubborn sister in. No, Sarah knew what to do, so Lilly could just slip away to her solitary hut on the outskirts of the village.

*

Sarah's little girl grew up fast, and she was constantly questioning everything that was going on around her. She wouldn't take anything less than satisfactory for an answer, and even when she got a good answer she would make the adult explain it further. She was named Ebony, after a long argument between Sarah and Lilly, when Sarah wanted Lillian, to say thank you to her sister, but her sister wanted Jill, after their mother. They both eventually came to the conclusion that they couldn't compromise, so they named her after the first tree she crawled to when they took her out in the woods to find herbs.

"Sing little birdie, don't you cry. Sing little birdie, and fly, fly, fly." Sarah sang to her seven-year-old daughter and tried to get her to go to sleep but Ebony was too stubborn and strong-headed to even consider doing as she was told.

"Mother, why aren't you making dinner? Pa, John, Edward, Rebecca, Nancy and Gilda will be back from the fields soon, and Robert will want a feast for his first day of work." Ebony pulled on her mother's skirt, as she always did, but it was not taken lightly.

"Get off my skirt you little nuisance, I'm too tired today, that's why I'm not making anything. If you're so worried about your brothers, sisters and Pa, then you make the bloody stew yourself." Sarah was feeling ill and tired, and that was the first time she hadn't prepared something for her husband Gideon to eat when he got home from work.

"Fine then Ma, I will." There wasn't much that Ebony could do apart from stoke up the fire which she had plenty of practice in, and throw in some already chopped up vegetables to the great cauldron over the fire.

Once the rest of her hungry family came home, Sarah was quick to take the credit from her daughter and even took Ebony outside after they had all eaten to punish her for going near too close to the fire.

When Ebony turned eight Sarah's weariness became a worrying problem, and they called Lillian over to see what the matter was. Sarah was going paler than ever before, and her pulse was weak. And when it was next Sarah's time of the month and Lilly was helping to clean the sheets, she saw that her blood wasn't a strong red, it was a weak, diluted colour, as though her blood was failing her.