The Mate He Gave Away novel · Chapter 22 of 40
Chapter 22: The Midwife
I smiled at her.
It was the hardest smile I'd ever made, harder than any at court.
"That's kind," I said. "I'd like that very much."
She blinked.
"Come up to the keep tomorrow," I said. "Agnes will find you a chair by the fire. It's warmer than this house."
I walked back up the hill with my empty basket.
My hands didn't start shaking until I reached the kitchen.
"She's what?" Agnes said.
"She's the midwife from the yard. Ondine's woman. Settled in the dead widow's house a week ago."
Agnes put down her knife.
"Then I'll put her out on the road tonight."
"No," I said. "Then they send another one we don't know. I'd rather keep the one I can see."
"You want her near you."
"I want her near you."
Agnes looked at me for a long moment.
Then she picked the knife back up and went on chopping onions much harder than onions need.
"I'll watch her," she said. "Like a hawk watches a henhouse."
The midwife came up the next morning with her leather bag.
She sat by the kitchen fire and drank Agnes's tea and asked me sensible questions in a quiet voice.
She was good at it. That was the worst part.
She knew to ask about my ankles, and my sleep, and whether the sickness was worse in the morning or the evening.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–20 of The Mate He Gave Away are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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