The Secret Healer(66)

“I swear it!” Roswitha yelled with all her might; Agathe broke her grip.

Roswitha continued to scream in pain. Madlen laid her hand on the maid’s stomach. The contractions were strong. It was almost time.

“I’m going to pull the baby out now,” Madlen announced. “Agathe, help me. Sit behind Roswitha and hold her tightly.” Madlen pushed the blankets aside and pushed up Roswitha’s petticoat. “Put up your legs like so.” She put them in the right position. “All right. We’re going to wait on a contraction, and then you push as hard as you can. I’ll pull it out.”

Roswitha didn’t see that Madlen had a special hook that she’d laid next to the bed. Her pain was too strong to feel what Madlen was doing. When Madlen gave her a sign, she pushed as hard as she could when the next contraction came. Madlen did what she had to do, then she tended to the bleeding. When it was all over, Roswitha collapsed in exhaustion. She wasn’t in any condition to cry or speak.

Agathe stood and let Roswitha down gently onto the pillow as Madlen put the bloody towel and its contents into a bucket. Roswitha’s petticoats were still pushed up so that Madlen could see whether she was still losing blood. She was relieved to see the thin trickle grind to a halt. Everything had gone well.

“You can still have children,” Madlen said, though she couldn’t be sure.

The maid didn’t react at all.

Madlen cleaned up everything as well as she could. She replaced the cloths under Roswitha until there was no more blood. She washed her hands and helped the maid change her undergarments. Finally, she covered her up. Roswitha was totally exhausted.

“Sleep a little. Sander will be downstairs. I’ll tell him that you had a miscarriage.”

“Yes.” Roswitha touched Madlen’s arm. “I won’t say anything, I swear. This is all my fault. I know that you only wanted to help me.”

Madlen was relieved, especially since Roswitha had pleaded with her to save her child. Madlen had felt frightened and desperate at the same time. A life had been wiped out; a child had died. No matter how many mistakes she’d made in her life, this was definitely the biggest. In the future, she would stay away from people who needed her help. No more herbs, no more healing. She would sew and be happy with her husband and child. Nothing more.

“Were you serious when you said that I could have more children?”

“Yes, everything’s all right.” She knew that she could be lying, but she wanted to make things easier for Roswitha. “And I must tell you something else.”

“What?”

“The baby . . . it wasn’t like it should have been. You would have lost it anyway. The herbs accelerated the process but had nothing to do with it.”

“Really?” Roswitha’s face lit up. “Do you mean that I didn’t do anything?”

“No, you didn’t. It might have been already dead for days, maybe weeks. Neither you nor I had anything to do with it.” She smiled. “It was good that you drank the herbs. Otherwise, your body would have been poisoned by it.”

Roswitha broke out again in tears, this time tears of joy. “I thank you.”

Madlen bent over so that she could hug her. “But you need to sleep now. Agathe and I will speak to Sander. And if he doesn’t want to marry you now, you can be happy that he’s gone.”

Roswitha smiled and shut her eyes. Madlen went over to Agathe, and they spoke quietly. The women left the room together.

“That was very clever of you,” Agathe whispered as the women closed the door behind them. “You and I are the only two people who know the truth. It’s better this way.”

Madlen took a deep breath. “Let’s go talk to Sander.”

“I hope he’s smart enough to only ask about his future wife’s health. He may have survived that cough, but he won’t survive my wrath.” Agathe stomped off, and Madlen couldn’t resist a smile.

Sander was waiting for them downstairs. He’d been pacing up and down the hall, his concern for Roswitha written all over his face.

“Sander,” Agathe began. “I’m so sorry. Roswitha lost the baby.”

“How is she?”

“She is fine,” Madlen said. “We were able to stop the bleeding.”

“Why did she lose the baby?” He gulped. “Was it the sheer shock of seeing me?”

Madlen held up her hand to quiet him. “That didn’t have anything to do with it. It was neither you nor her. The child just wasn’t healthy, so her body rejected it.”

“So what will you do now that you don’t have to marry her?” Agathe’s anger was evident as she raised her eyebrows.