The Romancing of Evangeline Ipswich by Marcia Lynn McClure Page B

dead friend that she would? Hutch certainly did not want Evangeline’s companionship for the sake of pity and obligation.
    “Another push, Mrs. McKee,” Hutch heard Doctor Swayze instruct. “When you feel the pain begin, push as hard as you can…with all your might and strength.”
    Hutch closed his eyes and listened—listened to his sister growl with agony and the exertion of attempting to push another human being from her body, with the attempt to bring new life into the world—and he prayed for hers to be spared.
    “Hutch?” Evangeline asked in her beautiful, lilting voice.
    Hutch opened his eyes to see Evangeline hunkered down in front of him, offering a glass of water to him.
    “And this is for you, Jones,” she said, placing a bowl of water near Jones.
    Hutch took the glass from her and mumbled, “Thank you.”
    Jennie cried out, and Evangeline clenched her eyes tightly shut. “She’ll be all right. She has to be all right,” she whispered.
    Hutch knew his time for weakness was over. Patting Jones on the head with reassurance, Hutch stood, took Evangeline’s hand, and pulled her to her feet.
    “She’ll be fine,” he said, attempting to appear certain. Evangeline was his wife now, and he was her husband—her protector, her provider, her companion, and perhaps one day her lover. He would be strong for her sake—no matter what the outcome eventually was on the other side of Jennie and Calvin’s bedroom door.
     
    Evangeline’s hand clenched tight where Hutch held it as she heard an earsplitting, agonizing scream from Jennie’s room. For a moment following Jennie’s shriek, there was silence. And then, she heard it. Hutch heard it too. Even Reverend Lloyd abandoned his plate of cake to hurry toward them.
    As the baby’s cry broke the horrid silence following Jennie’s screams, a measure of comfort washed over Evangeline.
    “The baby is here,” she whispered to Hutch. As the baby continued to cry, a nervous giggle rose in her throat, and she repeated, “It’s got a powerful set of lungs too!”
    Hutch smiled a little, but Evangeline knew the worry that was still in his heart—for it was in hers too.
    “And Jennie?” he asked.
    Evangeline wanted to throw her arms around his neck in that moment—hold him close to her—draw strength from the power of his body and lend him the strength of the hope in her soul. But she didn’t. She simply said, “I’m…I’m sure all is well, or they would’ve come for us. Wouldn’t they have?”
    The bedroom door opened then. Jones leapt to his three legs and began wagging his tail as Calvin stepped from the room with his and Jennie’s baby swaddled in a blanket.
    “It’s a girl,” Calvin whispered almost reverently. “A strong and healthy baby girl.” He chuckled as he studied the tiny baby in his arms. “She’ll need a good bath, of course,” he said. “But I thought you both should know that the baby is fine.”
    Evangeline exhaled one sigh of relief. Yet she felt that another was waiting in its wake.
    As Hutch kissed the new baby’s small head and then the fingers on one tiny hand, he asked, “And Jennie?”
    Calvin gulped—seemed to force a smile. “She’s…she’s unconscious and not well. But she’s alive.”
    Evangeline glanced past Calvin into the bedroom. She could see Jennie lying on the bed, eyes closed, as Mrs. Swayze removed some blood-soaked towels and Doctor Swayze dabbed her head with a cloth.
    The baby fussed a bit and the nervous new father, Calvin, handed her to Evangeline.
    “The baby will need to nurse soon,” Doctor Swayze said as he walked to where Evangeline and the others stood. He looked to Evangeline and added, “I’m afraid you’ll have to see to nursing the baby, Miss…Mrs. LaMontagne.”
    “Me?” Evangeline gasped.
    “How is that possible, Doctor?” Hutch asked, obviously as astonished as was Evangeline.
    Doctor Swayze, tired as he obviously was, chuckled all the same. “No, no, no,” he began.