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Quentin said, “Sorry, Boss, it’s a taser. It drops assholes. I mean, I get that he’s your brother, but he has been needing to stop his bullshit for a while. I couldn’t watch it anymore.”

Sean was a pile of lifeless body on the ground.

I asked, “Will he be okay?”

“Yeah, he’ll be fine, grab his sword. He’ll come out of it in a moment and he might be cranky. But we’ll be long gone anyway.”

The sound of the buzzing of vehicles came from the direction of the woods beyond the walls.

38 - KAITLYN

Ihad been told what to look for, but I hadn’t considered what it would be like to do it for the first time in the dark. The placenta was out and in a bowl. I asked Madame Greer to hold the flashlight over it while I picked up the placenta and checked every section of it. I had been told to look for lobes that didn’t match and one looked weird. I flipped it over and looked from every angle. One section did have a suspicious looking dip, like a crater on the surface, kind of like a small open wound on something that could only be described as a big open wound.

No.

I took a deep breath. “Lizbeth, I was told that I needed to get all of this out. I’m sorry, that’s what I was told. Okay? Can you lay back down?”

The midwife I spoke to had shown me the pages that I would need in this instance. I had a bookmark. I flipped to it and broke the back of the binding so the book would lay flat. Then I changed my gloves and it wasn’t easy because my hands were shaking like dry leaves on a tree. In a windstorm. In a freaking earthquake.

“This will be super uncomfortable and it might hurt like hell, Lizbeth, but I have to...” A drone retuned to the window, its searchlight sweeping across the panes with its too-loud buzz filling the air around us.

Madame Greer got down on her knees beside the bed and began to pray.

“Tis okay, Kaitlyn.” Lizbeth gritted her teeth and went quiet except for low moans. I placed a hand on her stomach and held while I put my fingers up inside her and swept around with my finger edges for a — there was something. It was stuck but when I brushed along it again it peeled away, holding it in between my two fingers. I pulled it out. Was that it? Enough? I pressed it to the placenta and it looked like the part that had been missing.

Lizbeth looked pale and weak. Madame Greer was praying with a steady murmur.

There was also a jagged tear to deal with. I yanked the midwifery kit closer and pawed through it for the needle. My hands were shaking even more. I changed my gloves for the third time and then got the alcohol bottle and poured alcohol on all the things I had just pawed through. I had pads with numbing stuff and I swabbed it all around and then I cleaned the area, and pulling the two edges closer, jabbed the needle into her skin, oh my god, and pulled it through.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” She was crying, I needed to do at least one more. “Just one more don’t worry, please don’t worry.” I was trying for my most nurse-like voice, but I⁠—

I did it once more then created a knot. I changed the towel under Lizbeth and pulled off the latex gloves and began opening bottles of medicines and pouring them into a small bowl. I passed them to her with filtered water.

“We have to keep that area clean. That’s what these towels are for. Clean towels.”

The buzzing sound of the drones was getting louder and louder. I pulled a towel up between her legs and then I pulled the covers up to her chest and wrapped a swaddling blanket around the baby. “We have to make sure you don’t run a fever. If you get hot, will you tell⁠—”

There was a loud banging on the front door.

Madame Greer said, “Tis probably the physician.” She stood and brushed off her skirts.

My eyes went wide.

Lizbeth asked, “Ye winna show him any of these contraptions?”

Madame Greer said, “I wouldna dream of it — Madame Kaitlyn, is Lizbeth finished with the whole experience, can we tell the physician he is nae necessary?”

I nodded. “But please don’t say anything, you know, that will get me in trouble.”

Madame Greer put her hand on my cheek. “Did ye save her life?”

“I hope so.”

“And I have watched ye in prayer most of this day, it must have been God working through ye. Tis the only explanation as ye have nae bairns of your own.”

Another loud bang on the door.

She huffed. “Please hide all of this verra fast, I will attempt tae keep him down the stairs for a fair while.”