Chapter 1

            Amish born Joanna Yoder had been seventeen years old when her and her friends began Rumspringa. It was Amish tradition that teens can experience the English world without Amish rule and restrictions; that included experiencing alcohol, electricity, electronics, cigarettes, and even drugs. Rumspringa participants were allowed to live outside of the community during the two year period. After two years, Rumspringa teens return to the community and decide if they want to be baptized into the faith, living by Amish rules for the rest of their days or leave the community to live in the English world and be shunned by those you once knew – never to be heard from again.

            Joanna and several of her friends had rented a five-bedroom house in Cincinnati. The Amish boys had rented a six-bedroom house a block away. Joanna had been in awe of the English world. It was so busy, full of automotive, motorcycles, pedestrians on the go, and young people having fun in nightclubs and bars.

            She exhaled heavily as she tickled the feather duster over a row of books in the library. Things didn’t work out the way she had hoped. But, as the youngest housekeeper to one of the richest and most prominent families in New York, she had a roof over her head and food in her belly. Joanna was the upstairs maid, but today she was working downstairs beacause Audrey, the downstairs maid had quiet last week. Her mother had won the Powerball for a lot of money. She had called and told Audrey to quit her job and come home to California. So Audrey did – with no notice.

            “Joanna!” Winifred screamed as she rushed into the library.

            The senior maid had startled her so bad that she almost fell off the ladder. “What!”

            “You had said your mother was a midwife and when you got older you helped her deliver the babies in the community, right?” she asked frantically.

            “Yes,” Joanna eased out.

            “Well, we need you to use what you learned now,” Winifred said with wide eyes. “Mrs. Hudson has gone into labor and I don’t think she is going to make it to the hospital.”

            Joanna’s eyes widened. She quickly descended the ladder. “Where is she?”

            “The dining room. Hurry!” Winifred cried and rushed out, waddling all the way.

            Joanna dashed out the library and then passed the fifty-nine year old woman in the hallway. She started to hear screaming – Selena Hudson’s screaming. Joanna and Selena had been close friends for almost four years – way before she had married the head of the Hudson family. When Selena had gotten engaged, Joanna had made her promise to keep their friendship a secret.  She did not want her co-workers to learn about it and resent her or accuse her of being one of the bosses’ favorite.

            Selena sounded like a lamb that was getting slaughtered.

            Joanna turned the corner to enter the dining room and stopped short at the sight.

            Selena had her backside against the table, bracing herself. Intense strain marred her usually relaxed Snow White like features. Her long dark hair was damp with sweat. “It’s coming!” she cried like a heroine in a horror movie.

            “Joanna, thank god!” William yelled with slight relief. “We need your help.” William was the butler and supervisor over the household and grounds staff.

            Joanna rushed to Selena’s side. “How long has she been in labor?”

            “Just for a few minutes . . . I think,” Alex, the head chef, said. “When I heard screaming, William and I rushed in here to see what was wrong.

            Judging from the barely touched food on a plate and silverware on the table, Selena had been eating lunch when she had gone into labor.

            “I was just . . . sitting here and then my . . . water broke,” Selena strained out. “Ahhh! It all happened . . . so fast. I started feeling pain immediately.”

            “Has it stopped and restarted at all?” Joanna asked seriously.

            Selena shook her head violently. “Noooo,” she eased out as she gripped the table tighter.

            That’s not good.

            “It sounds like the contractions are really close together. I know this is going to be a strange request, but I’ll need you to get up on the table so I can see how much you’re dilated.”

            “Strange request?” William said haughtily. “It’s a down right undignified request to ask the mistress of the house to do such a –”

            The butler was interrupted by shouting and ravenous cursing. Selena continued to cuss like a sailor as she hiked herself up on the table. She lifted her legs up. “Just fuckin’ check!” she yelled at the top of her lungs as she whipped her legs open wide.

            “Jesus!” Alex cried as he rushed away.

            “Gah!” William yelled as he turned around.  He put his hand on the wall like he was struggling to stay on his feet.

            “Lord,” Winifred said, aghast.

            Joanna didn’t have to examine Selena that closing because she was crowning for everyone to see. “She’s right. It’s coming. Did you call an ambulance?”

            “Yes, but it will take them over an hour to get out here,” William answered with his back still turned.

            “What!”  Selena screamed.

            “Why?” Joanna asked frantically.

            “There was a ten car pile-up on the interstate coming toward the mansion. First aid responders, who aren’t attending to the scene, are stuck in wall to wall traffic.  No one can move an inch,” William stated breathlessly as he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket.

            He sounds like he is going to pass out.

            “Joanna, can you deliver the baby or not?” William forced out.

            “It appears I don’t have a choice,” Joanna answered. She was grateful the baby wasn’t breach. She had only witnessed her mother handle one breach birth. However, she had watched her mother deliver countless children since she was eleven and even delivered a few herself with her mother’s supervision. “I will need everyone’s help, though.”

            Selena cried out in pain.

            “What do you need?”  Winifred asked like she was ready for anything.

            “Winifred, I need you to grab as many clean towels as you can find and a couple of wash clothes. We’ll need pillows, too – to prop her up. Alex, I need you to go to the kitchen and prepare two pans of warm water and bring soap, too. Oh, and I’ll need sharp scissors to cut the umbilical cord. Oh, and Winifred, I’ll need lots of rubbing alcohol and rubber gloves if we have some.”

            “I have a box of latex gloves in the kitchen,” Alex said. “We use them to handle raw meat.”

            “Great. And do you have a small turkey or chicken baster or anything that has suction?” Joanna asked.

            “Yeah,” Alex answered.

            “Bring that, too. I’ll need something to clean the mucus out of the baby’s mouth,” Joanna said.

            “With my turkey baster!” Alex shouted in a high-pitched tone.  “You can’t use something else?”

            “No!” Joanna and Selena yelled at the same time.

            Alex eyes widened as he jumped half an inch in the air.

            “William, have you called Mr. Hudson to tell him his son is on the way?” Joanna asked as she placed her hand on Selena’s knees.

            “Not . . . yet,” William heaved out as he bent over. “I . . . I . . . once I gather my . . . faculties.

            “Gotdamn it, William, move your ass!” Selena screamed and picked up a plate that still had food on it and hurled it at him.  The china smashed against the wall inches away from the nerve stricken butler.

            William cried out like a wounded animal as he dashed out of the room.

            “Christ!” Alex shouted and disappeared like Houdini into the kitchen.

            Winifred scurried away.

            Joanna was wide eyed. “Oookay,” she eased out softly. “Let’s get you as comfortable as possible.”

            “Unless you have a fucking epidural in your apron, I’m not going to get any more comfortable than this,” Selena said angrily.