Page 89 of Silver Lining
"Constant. Oh God, it's constant. It doesn't let up. Give me back the blanket, I'm so cold."
"Let us have a minute or two to clean this up and get you into a fresh nightgown, then you can have the blanket," Livvy said soothingly. To Louise she added in a lower voice, "We can fold a sheet into a pad and put that beneath her so all we have to change next time is the pad instead of the whole bed."
Fifteen minutes later, they had the mess cleaned up, the bleeding slowed, and Philadelphia into a clean nightgown and wrapped in an extra blanket. Louise carried the bloody sheets into the corridor with Livvy right behind her. "Well?" Livvy said.
"If I didn't know better," Louise answered slowly, puzzled, "I'd say we were dealing with a miscarriage, not a birth. She's having chills, constant pain… I'd give her a few grains of gallic acid every few hours to arrest the bleeding, and advise her to stay in bed for the next two months and hope she carries to term."
"It can't be a miscarriage." Livvy frowned back into the bedroom, her eyes on Philadelphia , writhing beneath her blankets. "The one thing there's no doubt about is the date of conception. May 29. She's not early; she's overdue."
"And that means we have a situation here that sure ain't good. She must have hurt herself inside when she pitched down the staircase."
"Or maybe it's the baby that's hurt and bleeding."
"Either way, Livvy, this isn't a normal delivery. We need the doctor."
They stood in silence, staring into the bedroom.
"We'll alternate sage tea and tansy tea for the bleeding," Livvy said finally. "I've got some laudanum if the pain gets unbearable. If we can't slow or stop the bleeding, then I'll insist that Howard or Wally send for Doc Pope. I'll throw them both out the door if I have to."
"You fix the tea tray, and I'll stay with her." Shaking her head, Louise entered the bedroom and pulled a chair next to Philadelphia . "Is the pain still constant?"
"You have no right to be here, and I want you gone. I detest you! Get out, get out, get out!"
"Do tell." Louise reached for the basin on the bed table beside her and held it as Philadelphia vomited.
When Philadelphia fell back on the bed, Louise wiped her face with a damp cloth and gave her a glass of water to rinse her mouth.
"To tell you the truth, I don't know why I'm trying to help you. You're about as worthless a person as I ever met. But I'm here for the duration. I guess tending sick folks or folks in pain is a flaw in my character. Now do you want to know what's happening to you, or not?"
They stared at each other, then Philadelphia fell back on her pillow. "I wish it was you lying here suffering. I wish you'd never been born."
"I've wished that myself a few times. Now. You've lost alot of blood. That tells us something is bad wrong. You're also sick to your stomach, shivering, and experiencing continual pain. None of that is usual for a delivery. If Livvy and I can't slow down the blood loss or stop it, we're sending for Doc Pope."
"I'd rather die than send for a doctor!"
"Well, it might happen that's going to be the choice. Death or a doctor. You might be stupid enough to let yourself die because you have some crazy damned notion that a doctor is going to tell everyone that you have a baby everyone will hear about anyway, but I ain't going to let that happen. I can't promise anything about the baby—that ain't looking good—but I can promise that you are not going to die! Long before that happens, a doctor is going to be standing here working on you."
"Never! My father promised! Oh! Oh!"
Leaning forward, Louise placed her palms on Philadelphia 's stomach. It was a contraction, but weak.
After glancing at the clock with the intention of timing the contractions, she explained what had just occurred.
"Where is Livvy?" Philadelphia asked when she'd caught her breath. "I want her here, not you."
"She's downstairs fixing tea."
Philadelphia grimaced and clenched her teeth, then she exhaled slowly. "Max will never love you. Not ever. He loves me, and he always will!"
Louise gazed at the blankets mounded over Philadelphia 's belly and unconsciously her hand dropped to her own stomach.
Philadelphia smiled. In the midst of her pain and nausea, she smiled. "Anyone with eyes can see that you love him. That's good. Because when I take him, I want you to suffer like you've made me suffer!"
" Philadelphia ? Shut up."
"What?"
Louise narrowed her eyes down to slits. "Do you have trouble understanding English, or are your ears bad? I said, shut up. We aren't going to talk about me, and we aren't going to talk about Max. The only person we're going to talk about today is you. You ought to like that since that's your favorite subject."
