Hopefully, he wouldn’t see Maisie again before he left – he had made enough of a fool of himself for one day.
‘Come on, Cloud, you can’t loll around in here all day,’ Maisie told the little creature. The goat had found a pile of straw to lie down on and was studiously ignoring her. ‘Cloud, stop being so lazy.’
The rotund animal let out a small bleat and stretched out her neck as she lifted her tail, her whole body tensing.
‘Aw, big stretch,’ Maisie said, expecting the goat to clamber to its feet. Instead, Cloud subsided and seemed to settle down again.
Maisie wondered whether she should fetch a halter and a lead rope, and try to get her to shift that way. Dulcie had warned her that goats had minds of their own. As well as being intelligent, they could also be stubborn.
Cloud uttered another odd little bleat, and once again she stretched out her neck, her torso tensing as she strained.
Abruptly Maisie realised what was happening and she clapped a hand to her mouth to hold in a shriek.
Cloud was in labour!Not only was she in labour, but the birth was imminent. Two tiny hooves could be seen at the animal’srear end, and the rest of the goatling was about to follow.
‘Dulcie?’ she called, trying not to shout too loud for fear of startling the mum-to-be.
There was no answer, and Maisie guessed Dulcie must be in the house.
With a last look at the goat, Maisie ran out of the barn and across the yard, her voice growing louder as she yelled for her sister. Bursting into the kitchen, she shot through the empty dining room and skidded to a halt at the bottom of the stairs.
‘Dulcie!’ she screeched. ‘Cloud is giving birth. Help!’
The house was still and silent, apart from the ticking of the grandmother clock in the corner.
Drat! Dulcie must still be down at the stables.
Maisie thundered upstairs to grab her phone, her fingers shaking as she stabbed at her sister’s number. A ringing coming from the kitchen told her that Dulcie hadn’t taken her phone with her, which shouldn’t be a surprise considering mobile reception on Muddypuddle Lane was so dire.
She resorted to the landline instead and, after looking up the number for the stables, she waited impatiently for an answer. ‘Hello? Is that you, Amos? Is Dulcie there? It’s Maisie.’
‘Hello, Maisie; how are you? Dulcie’s just been telling us that you’re visiting for a few days. How—?’
‘Sorry to interrupt, Amos. I need Dulcie urgently. One of the goats is in labour.’
‘Ah, I see. She’s gone down to the bottom field with Petra. I’ll send someone to fetch her.’
‘Thanks. I’ve got to go; I might need to boil a kettle and find some towels!’
Maisie high-tailed it back across the yard – and ran straight into Adam, who was coming out of the shed. His chest was a solid wall of muscle and it felt like hitting a brick wall.
His arms came around her as she bounced back and staggered.
‘Help,’ she panted. ‘I need help. Cloud is in labour and I don’t know what to do. Dulcie’s still at the stables and I’m here on my own and I’ve never given birth to a baby goat before.’ She knew she wasn’t making much sense, but she was scared, damn it! Dulcie would never forgive her if something happened to Cloud or her baby, and Maisie wouldn’t be able to forgive herself either.
‘It’s okay,’ Adam said, steadying her before letting go.
‘It’snotokay. I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing and—’ She stopped as a faint high-pitched bleat reached her ears.
‘It’s lucky the mama goat knows what she’s doing then, isn’t it?’ Adam said and stepped aside.
Cloud was on her feet, busily licking the tiniest, cutest baby goat in the whole world. It was lying in the straw, shaking its little head and bleating, and even as Maisie watched, it attempted to stand, heaving itself up on knobbly legs, to wobble for a precarious second before collapsing back into the straw.
Maisie’s eyes filled with tears and she brushed them away, her relief acute.
‘Who’s a clever girl?’ Maisie whispered as she crept closer, not wanting to scare the baby, but itching to cuddle it. Then she froze. Cloud’s back was hunched once more, and her neck stretched out. ‘Oh God, she’s doing it again!’ Maisie hissed. ‘There’s another baby in there. What do I do?’
‘The same as you did the first time,’ he said.
