The Falcon in the Barn (Book 4 Forest at the Edge series) (95 page)

More calmly, he said, “Just
think
about it, all right?”

She gazed again at the map and tenderly ran a
finger across some of Terryp’s words written in tiny letters to
conserve space. The words “potential farmlands” refused to be wiped
off.

“
Oh Perrin, I’m thinking
about it! In fact, I’ve been thinking about it my whole
life.”

It took them hours to settle down that night.
Mahrree kept Perrin’s larger planning map on the desk in their
bedroom, frequently jumping out of bed to check it and ask him
questions. He never opened his eyes but grinned as he mumbled,
“Uh-huh. Sure. We could try that too. Add it to the list.” Mahrree
went so far as to plan out what clothing she’d take and how she’d
cook on the journey before the fatigue of the day overwhelmed
her.

After she finally fell asleep in the early
hours of the morning, she dreamed again of a large house filled
with noisy children.

Terryp was sitting in the corner reading a
story to some of them.

---

Two men sat in the dark office of an unlit
building.

“
I must confess,” said Mal
to his companion, “this new scenario is turning out to be more
rewarding than I initially anticipated. You’ve redeemed
yourself.”

Genev nodded once, greatly relieved. “You’ll
not be disappointed, sir. I promise you that.”

“
I don’t think I will be. I
believe you can pull this off. To get the measures passed through
the Administrators was quite a feat in itself. Now time is of the
essence. I expect nothing else but to be completely impressed with
your next efforts.”

“
You will be, sir,” Genev
said, “I’m personally going to see to everything.”

“
You do that. And if your
efforts do
not
impress me, do as your predecessor—don’t
bother coming back.”

Chapter 36
~
“I intend for this to be the most
enlightening
day of my life.”

T
he next morning
Mahrree sat on the front steps and gazed at her patch of rocky gray
ground, wondering when the first blades of whatever might come up,
and if she’d be there to see them fully ripen. Or bloom. Or
whatever they would do.

Actually, she was wondered if anything could
replace in her mind the fantastical idea of leaving the world.

There was no real reason
not
to go. If
they left, surely Edge would warm back up to Jaytsy and Deck again,
and everything would return to normal.

Even Shem could benefit by moving into their
home. And should he be threatened with a transfer—which seemed
inevitable as long as Thorne was in charge—he’d already have a
place to live, he could resign just like Perrin, then start
building houses. Jaytsy and Deck would be fine as long as they
still had their Uncle Shem.

Then Perrin, Mahrree, and Peto would
eventually return, and they could start all over again.

That is,
after
they delivered the news
of the unpoisoned “Cursed Lands” which would shake the world, and
then
everyone could start all over again, even in Terryp’s
western lands if they wanted.

Even as Mahrree stared at the ground she
wasn’t seeing it, but was “going over the wall” and envisioning
forests. Deserts. Stone buildings that were broader and taller than
anything in Idumea, and stacked like pyramids stepping upwards.
There were three of those on the map. Temples, Terryp had called
them.

What temples were Mahrree had no idea, but
desperately wanted to find out.

And what lay beyond? Perrin suspected the
expedition didn’t even make it to the ruins before they turned
back. He guessed they camped on the edge of the desert most of the
time creating the new reality of their “origins” that they
presented to the world.

But Perrin and Peto would find a route, with
Mahrree in tow—

She shook her head and tried focus on her
meager garden.
Listen to me,
she thought, I’m already on the
trail Perrin has yet to cut!

They hadn’t told Peto yet, nor Jaytsy and
Deckett. Perrin and Mahrree decided to keep the idea to themselves
until the baby was born and all seemed well. How they could keep
their plans quiet until then, Mahrree could hardly imagine. But it
was her pledge to her husband: Test me and you’ll see that I can
keep something to myself for once. She did owe it to him, after
all.

She grinned at her tiny yard without noticing
a cluster of women watching her from across the road trying to
figure out why Mrs. Shin was beaming at raked soil.

Before Mahrree could wonder what exactly
saddle sores were, she heard Peto shouting from the back garden as
he ran to the front.

“
Mother! Jaytsy says the
pains are coming every ten minutes!”

Mahrree leaped to her feet. “Oh, it’s too
soon!”

As she ran into the house she heard Peto call
after her, “You don’t have to rush. A representative is already
there and said she can help.”

Mahrree froze when she heard that news. “Oh
no she won’t!”

She ran to Jaytsy’s old room and snatched the
birthing bag that sat next to the new cradle.

“
Stupid Administrative
retraining!” she grumbled as she hastily checked the bag left for
her by the only midwife in Edge Mahrree felt they could trust. “The
first woman willing to talk to us, and they send her to Idumea for
the week. As if a woman in her fifties and experience with dozens
of deliveries needs ‘retraining’ by the government. Dear Creator,
she better not be listening to them. And she better come back,
quick!”

As Mahrree rushed with Peto back up to the
Briters, she remembered first meeting Mrs. Braxhicks last week.

“
Mrs. Shin! I’m so glad to
see you here,” Mrs. Braxhicks had said when Mahrree came into the
Briters’ kitchen. “I was hoping you’d come by since
I
can’t
come to
you
.” She shook her head in annoyance. “Stupid
regulations! I need to tell you, as I’ve already told your
daughter: I have to leave for two weeks for Idumea.”

“
Why?” Mahrree had
asked.

“
Ridiculous Administrative
nonsense!
” she blustered. “I’m sorry to put it that way, but
if anyone would agree with me it’d be you, right?”

Mahrree looked hard at the woman. “What color
is the sky?”

Mrs. Braxhicks immediately glanced out the
window. “Gray and white. Storm’s coming. Be clearer by tomorrow,
though.”

Mahrree grinned in approval. There were still
a few thinking women in the world.

“
You see, even though I’ve
been delivering babies for over thirty years, I’m not ‘qualified’.
To continue practicing I need to be re-trained by the Office of
Family. They even issued a handbook,” Mrs. Braxhicks scoffed in
disgust. “Under the heading ‘How to handle a breach birth’ they
have one sentence, then a full paragraph on how to comfort the
grieving husband and father after the deaths. Why, Mr. Briter could
do better than that. And I’m telling you now—should Jaytsy start
her pains before I return, do NOT let the Office of Family
representative in this house. Mrs. Shin, you and Mr. Briter can
handle this.”

Jaytsy and Mahrree both burst out laughing at
that.

“
I’ll do my best,” Mahrree
said. “But Deckett? I don’t know where you’ve been delivering
babies for thirty years, but around here men don’t do anything but
pace the fields out of earshot.”

“
In some villages the
fathers are just as involved with the delivery as the mother,” Mrs.
Braxhicks said soberly. “They’re responsible for getting it
in
there, they better assist in getting it
out.
”

That elicited another round of laughter, and
even the midwife broke into a smile.

“
I didn’t mean to put it so
coarsely, but Mr. Briter has more experience with birthing than
most of the new representatives. Just tell him it’s natural for a
baby to come out head first, and there’s no need for him to bury
his arm in anything.”

That afternoon last week Mahrree and Jaytsy
received a fast lesson in how to birth babies.

When they told Deck of the midwife’s
recommendations, he went gray.

“
Then I’ll pray to the
Creator that nothing happens in the next few weeks.” He walked
outside and sat under a tree with his head between his
knees.

I guess he didn’t pray hard enough
,
Mahrree thought as she bounded through Jaytsy’s door.

“
Up here, Mother,” Jaytsy’s
voice called down to her.

“
You’re on your own,” said
Peto as he quickly made his exit.

Mahrree ran up the stairs to Jaytsy’s bedroom
where she was resting—so to speak—on the bed.

A representative in a crisp white
uniform—

White?
Mahrree thought
incredulously.

—
and a bag of her own sat
waiting on a chair. Her hair was tidied into a neat bun and gloves
were on her hands. What was she planning to do in such an absurd
outfit?

White,
of all colors . . .

Mahrree glared at her, worried that the girl
had even less experience with birthing than Mahrree. “What have you
done to my daughter?” She turned to Jaytsy. “And why are you in
bed? Where’s the bale of straw?”

“
She shoved it out and she
told me I belonged up here!” Jaytsy said angrily, pointing at the
young woman.

“
But birthing in your bed
will ruin it!” Mahrree exclaimed.

“
I know!”

They both look accusingly at the
Administrators’ representative.

The young woman paled even more than her
silly uniform and seemed stunned to be on inspection. “If she’s
lying down it’s easier for me to deliver the baby.”

Jaytsy blinked. “Why should I accommodate
you? It’s my baby, and I’m doing all the work! Aren’t
you
supposed to be serving
me
?”

The girl furrowed her brows, clearly never
having considered that before. Her eyes began to dart back and
forth, as if reading an invisible text, searching for the script
she had carefully memorized to become a well-trained Administrative
servant. Finally she found it and looked at Mahrree.

“
Good morning, Madam. I’m
Miss Giding.”

Mahrree nearly snorted. “You certainly
are!”

Jaytsy guffawed, but it sounded more like a
cough of pain than derision.

The poor girl’s brows furrowed further, but
she kept to her script. “And you are . . . ?”

“
Irritated that you’re here
without permission,” Mahrree snapped. “And you know full well who I
am.
Everyone
does.”

Miss Giding batted her eyelashes and stood
up. “Now there’s no need to worry. I don’t charge anything. I’m
here as a
service
from the Administrators,” she said as if
she really believed it. “I come to bring help and comfort.”

“
Mother, she hasn’t done
anything to me,” Jaytsy assured her. “I won’t let her. I wanted to
wait for you before I listened to what she had to say.” Jaytsy’s
eyes closed and she began to breathe deeply.

“
That’s looks like the real
thing,” Mahrree fretted. “So you’re trying the breathing first?
Roll to your side, remember?”

Obediently Jaytsy rolled over and breathed
rhythmically until the pain subsided.

“
You could try to crooning,
too. Get in that practice.”

“
She doesn’t have to do
that, you know,” the representative said. “We’ve found that many
women prefer to remain on their backs.”

Mahrree stared at Miss Giding and said,
“Jaytsy, did it feel better on your side or your back?”

“
The pain is
in
my
back! Why put more pressure on it?”

“
Our
midwife,”
Mahrree said pointedly, “who’s been sent away for two weeks, taught
us many ways to ease the discomfort of laboring.” Her eyes she
burned holes in the woman’s white uniform. “So tell me, Miss
Giding, how long are women in this new regime supposed to lie on
their backs?”

The representative looked confused. For a
moment Mahrree almost had compassion for this young woman, barely
older than her daughter. “For the entire time, madam!”

Mahrree’s eyebrows flew upwards. “Tell me
now, how is that position supposed to help her deliver the
baby?”

“
Her body does it for her,”
Miss Giding looked perplexed.

“
And so she just . . .
what, takes a nap?” Mahrree prodded.

“
Yes, actually she
does.”

Jaytsy sat up as quickly as she could. “How’s
that possible?”

The representative rummaged in her bag and
produced a dark bottle. “With this! Truly, you haven’t heard of
sedation?”

Mahrree’s mouth opened, shut, and opened
again like a gaping fish. She looked at Jaytsy, then back again to
the representative. “Oh, we know all about sedation,” she said
tonelessly.

“
Then you know this is a
real wonder. The mother sniffs it and she falls asleep almost
instantly.” Miss Giding beamed, as if it were her own invention.
“She’s in a deep sleep for hours. If she wakes before the baby is
delivered, we just give her more. Within a day, occasionally two,
the baby emerges and the mother has experienced
nothing.”

Mahrree looked at her daughter.

Jaytsy answered with surprising calm. “To
sleep through the pain of what’s to come does sound appealing.” She
shifted in her bed to find a comfortable position but failed. “But
there are ways to deal with the pain, and I do
not
want to
miss a moment of bringing my baby to this world.”