Chase the Wind (15 page)

“No-o-o-o,” Faith wailed grabbing his arm.

“I’ve birthed many a foal, Elizabeth. I’ll stay for this,” he said
calmly.

“Then stay out of the way,” the doctor said.

Ian settled down at the head of the bed and supported Faith
against his body. He wrapped his arm around her chest, and she hung on to him, her fingernails digging into his arm each time a pain hit her. He lowered his head over hers and talked gently into her ear. She was now soaked with sweat, and her hair was in wild
disarray around her pale face. Elizabeth handed Ian a wet cloth
and he wiped her face with it. The pains were coming closer and closer until she could hardly draw a breath before the next one
consumed her. Her water broke and came out onto the bed in a
rush.

“There’s no going back now,” the doctor exclaimed and bent to
examine her again. He pulled her legs up and apart and announced,
“I see a head.”

“Faith, you’re going to have to push now,” Elizabeth directed her. Faith nodded, her eyes pale and colorless in her face.

“What do I do?” Ian asked.

“Sit her up.”

Ian moved behind Faith on the bed and propped her up against him. Her gown was pushed up over her waist, and Elizabeth was
mopping up the flood on the bed with the old towels.

“When you feel the next pain, push,” the doctor said and moved
down to the end of the bed. Faith nodded and grabbed her knees. The pain was already there. She gritted her teeth and pushed, her body arching against Ian.

“Again,” the doctor commanded. She drew in a breath and pushed, her body trembling with the effort.

“Again,” he shouted, his hands moving into place to catch the baby when it came out.

Faith pushed again, screaming with the effort, tears streaming from eyes that were squeezed tightly shut.

“I see it!” Elizabeth exclaimed.

“Push again.”

Ian didn’t think she had it in her, but she gathered herself again and pushed, her voice hoarse with another scream.

“It’s a boy,” the doctor said. “Will you look at that!” As he pulled the little body out of Faith, a small arm followed, its hand wrapped around the ankle of the baby boy. Ian leaned forward to see, but Elizabeth blocked his view.

“There are two,” she explained simply.

The doctor disengaged the tiny fist from the baby’s ankle and gently pushed it back into the womb.

“This might hurt,” he said. He placed his hand on Faith’s abdomen and inserted his arm inside her. Faith’s back arched off the bed as he probed. Elizabeth pulled the baby away as he withdrew his arm, along with the afterbirth. Ian looked at the goings-on incredulously. Elizabeth was smiling so he knew the boy was all right. The doctor cut the cord, and Elizabeth bundled die baby in a blanket, his small wails filling the room. She handed him to Lynora, who had watched the entire episode wide-eyed from the door. She didn’t seem to know what to do with him.

“Just hold him,” Elizabeth said as she wiped the baby’s face with a wet cloth.

“Here comes the other one,” the doctor said. “Push!”

Faith gathered herself again and pushed.

“Well, look at that,” Elizabeth said. “I think she was the one that was in a hurry.” The baby had come out in one push, and Faith collapsed back against Ian, her job done.

“Lynora, give that baby to its mother,” Elizabeth commanded as she worked over the little girl, whose wails were joining those of her brother. Lynora deposited the bundle into Faith’s waiting arms. Ian pulled back the blanket to find a shock of copper-colored hair
on the babe’s head. His wide grin split his face, and he pulled the
blanket down to find ten perfect fingers and ten perfect toes, and
a huge display of manliness between his two perfect legs.

“No doubt who he belongs to,” he said into Faith’s ear as Eliz
abeth dropped a bundle into Faith’s other arm.

This one had a swirl of golden curls over a delicate face and was
screaming like a banshee. The boy was looking up into the faces
of his parents with eyes the color of the deep blue ocean. Elizabeth
took him to be cleaned up, and the doctor gave him a quick examination. The proud parents pulled the blanket back from their daughter to find the same perfect limbs that her brother had. Eliz
abeth had finished with the boy and quickly exchanged him for
the girl, who protested loudly at the bath.

“What are you going to call them?” Lynora asked from her post
at the door.

Faith looked down into the eyes of her son, eyes exactly like his
father’s. “James Ian after Ian’s father.”

“And the girl?” Elizabeth asked as she deposited his daughter
into Ian’s surprised grasp.

He looked down at the bundle, which had finally grown quiet.
Her eyes were the same as her brother’s, and were looking up at
him in what he swore was complete adoration. “Jenny Elizabeth,
after Faith’s mother and after her grandmother, if you want the
job.”

Elizabeth burst into tears “I can’t help it,” she apologized. “I’m
so happy.”

“Are they all right, being born so early?” Faith asked the doctor.

“They seem fine to me. They’re not even that small, really, and the lungs sounded healthy.” He packed his tools into his bag. “I’ll check on all of you again in a week or so. Elizabeth, take care of
your family,” he instructed and was off.

Elizabeth shooed Ian off the bed and into the rocking chair,
which had been placed in the room that very week. She placed a
baby in each arm, and he sat there grinning, looking from one to
the other. They both stared up at him in blue-eyed fascination.
Elizabeth gave Faith a quick cleaning and brought a fresh gown
out of a drawer. Lynora helped her change the linens, and the new
mother was soon back in the bed with her hair shining from the
brushing Elizabeth had given it.

“Now it’s time for them to eat,” she announced, taking James
from Ian. She placed him in Faith’s arm and helped her to guide her breast into his gaping mouth. Ian chuckled at his antics from his place in the chair, his finger grasped in Jenny’s tiny fist.

“What was all the fuss about when James came out?” he asked Elizabeth as she stood beaming down at Faith and the baby.

“Jenny had a hold of his ankle,” she explained. “It was the darnedest thing I ever saw. It was like she was afraid he was going somewhere without her.”

Ian looked down at the wide blue eyes of his daughter. “I have a feeling, my sweet little child, that you are going to be nothing but trouble.” Jenny held tightly to his finger, her eyes gazing up into the face of her father.

When Elizabeth felt that James had had enough she traded him for Jenny, who took the breast with a fierceness that amazed them. “I’m afraid two of them might wear you out,” she said to Faith. “Are there twins in your family anywhere?”

“I never heard of any. Ian?”

“Not that I know of.”

“They usually skip a generation. Were either of your parents twins?” Elizabeth asked.

“I don’t know who my real father was. Maybe he was a twin,” Faith volunteered.

“It would have been nice to know beforehand. We’re going to have to find another bed, and we’ll definitely need more diapers.” Elizabeth began a mental list in her head of all the things they would need with two babies in the household. Ian immediately solved the bed problem by emptying out a dresser drawer, lining it with a few blankets and placing it on top of a small chest. Elizabeth went off to see what other items she could come up with and left the new family to themselves. Jenny had stopped eating, and Ian joined his wife and babies on the bed.

“You’ve managed to double our family in one day,” he said to Faith. She had curled on her side and had pulled Jenny up against her. Ian lay on the other side of James, so the two babes were sheltered between their parents’ bodies.

“I believe you might have had a little to do with it,” she said as she stroked the soft cheek of her daughter.

“I love you, Faith. You were so brave. I don’t think I could have done it.”

“I didn’t have much choice,” Faith laughed. “I love you.” Ian
leaned across the babies and kissed his wife. Jenny started to fuss
beneath their joined lips.

“We’re going to need a bigger bed,” Ian said when the two
parted.

Faith bent down to soothe her daughter, whose wide blue eyes
were focused on Ian again. “At least young Jamie here knows what
it’s good for,” she said. Jamie was sound asleep against his fussy
sister.

A while later Elizabeth returned to find the entire family asleep on the bed. “Best get it now, because you’ll sure miss it later,” she
said and shut the door.

Chapter Nine

The family soon settled into a routine. They found that Jenny was the demanding one of the twins. She would be the first to wake up, and Ian would scramble to get her before she set Jamie off. Jamie, on the other hand, was content with everything and seemed happy to do things at his parents’ convenience. Ian and Faith’s life for the moment was a cycle of taking care of babies and trying to catch up on sleep when the babies slept. Ian was also working at the livery, and the hard hours were taking a toll. Ian also was anxious for the weather to break so he could get about the business of claiming his land. Soon February had passed and March was upon them. The snow melted, the days were longer, and the twins were sleeping through the night. He began to gather the things he would need to begin their homestead.

Faith was ready to pack up the babies and go with him, but Ian
wouldn’t hear of it. He loaded the buckboard with supplies and hitched the gelding and another horse that he had bartered for to the front. Storm was tied to the back. He planned on using him to travel back and forth. He promised to return at the end of two weeks’ time with a progress report. He hoped his family could join him before summer.

He kissed Faith long and hard before he climbed onto the seat
of the buckboard. They had just rejoined again as man and wife,
and that was the one thing he hated, to do without. The circles
under her eyes were gone now that the twins were sleeping more and she had regained her slim figure, except for the extra fullness
in her breasts. He commented on that very fact as Faith leaned into him and pushed his hair back out of his eyes. He kissed her again,
kissed the babies, whom Elizabeth was holding in her arms, and bussed Elizabeth on the forehead with instructions to take care of
the Duncans for him.

He set off into the spring morning, finally seeing his lifelong
dream with his reach. The land office in Council Bluffs confirmed
what he had found out in St. Jo. The land was his, all he had to do was stake his claim. As he drove the buckboard around the
gentle curve of the hill and saw before him all that he had dreamed
about, he gave a prayer of thanksgiving. He now had everything
he had ever wanted. Life was good.

Ian set to work laying out a foundation for a house, building a corral, carefully planning everything. He would dig a well after Faith arrived; he could get water from the stream until then. It was too early to think about a garden, besides, Elizabeth and Faith had been canning all fall and had enough to keep them well fed until
they had their own crops. With
all the things we’ve been collecting, it will take me to next jail to get everything hauled out here,
he thought
as he struggled with a stud to erect a wall in his house. He pushed
against the section and slowly moved it into place. He bent to pick
up his hammer, and froze when he saw a man on horseback on
the rise above the house. He pulled his gun from his holster and
dropped down from the foundation as the rider came down the
slope.

It was Gray Horse. He rode up to what would be the front of
the cabin and dismounted. Ian stepped out from behind the frame
of the house and put his gun away.

“I came to see if you were the one who had settled here.”

“None other,” Ian replied. He followed Gray Horse, who was
walking over to the small corral Ian had built.

“You do have a gray horse,” the Indian commented as he admired
Storm. “He should give you many strong foals.”

“I hope so,” Ian said. “How’s your wound?”

Gray Horse touched the faint scar on his steely abdomen. “It
healed well, thanks to you.” He stood and surveyed all the work
Ian had done. “I still owe you a life,” he commented.

“I would be happy instead with your friendship,” Ian replied, “You might get bored waiting around for me to get into trouble.” The Indian looked at Ian and gave a heartfelt laugh, and soon Ian
was laughing with him.