“Then Focht wanted more money to keep up the charade and I didn’t have it, so he left and I went too. I had a few ideas, how to raise a little more money, take the boy’s claim to the courts. But time caught up with me and the money ran out, and there I stood, sick unto death with the almshouse staring me in the face.

“I stole a horse and buggy to get here, but I don’t think they’ll track me down in time to hang me. You all may decide to hang me anyway, or maybe Levi will put a bullet in my head to avenge his ma. It would be a blessing, truth to tell. I’m ready to go, now that I know the boy will be looked after. I like to think of him growing up here on the mountain. Not because I’ll die here, but because it’s a good place and Susanna is a good woman for all she married a Mohawk.

“So now you can sort things out among yourselves. I’ll sign anything you care to put in front of me, as long as John Mayfair says I should. Susanna, could you help me? I feel the need to lay my head.”

Chapter LXX

PUBLIC DECLARATION

Following from a hearing held this 6th day of July in the year 1824, I find sufficient evidence to charge Mrs. Jemima Wilde (known also as Jemima Focht, or Jemima Southern, or Jemima Kuick and also as Monique Moreau) with Manslaughter in the death of Mrs. Cookie Fiddler on or about the 18th November 1812. She is charged also with Depraved Indifference in the death of Mrs. Dolly Wilde on or about that same date.

Because the accused has signed a statement confessing to both these crimes, and further because she is close to death, no trial will be ordered. A report will be submitted to the district court in Johnstown.

May God have Mercy on her Soul.

James Bookman

Magistrate

Paradise on the Sacandaga

Chapter LXXI

On a bright September morning Curiosity-Bonner-called-Birdie flew down the hill into the village and then straight to the schoolhouse where her brother and sister-in-law were getting ready to start classes for the day.

Then she was too winded to tell them what they needed to know, and so they stood there asking her questions while she heaved breath and her voice came back to her. It came out in a rush.

“Lily’s having her baby and Curiosity says you should come, Martha. Lily wants you there.”

Martha’s eyes went very large and round and she pressed her fingers to her mouth as if she was afraid of what she might say.

“Won’t you come?” Birdie looked between them. “Daniel, won’t she come?”

Martha found her voice. “Of course I’ll come. Daniel can manage without me for the day. Unless you wanted to come too?”

The look on Daniel’s face might have made Birdie laugh out loud if she wasn’t in such a hurry. The idea surprised and even alarmed him, but there was something else there too, some curiosity or simple concern. Lily was his twin, after all.

In the end they left a note on the door saying school was canceled and all three of them walked back up the hill together. Walked fast, with Hopper galloping along behind them. They passed Downhill House, where nobody seemed to be home at all, and then they passed the new clearing where Simon had begun to build a house for Lily, and finally they got to Uphill House where all the men were sitting on the porch as if it were a Sunday and nobody had any work to do. It made Birdie cross, that they should sit there all day at their ease while Lily worked so hard.

“You could go build something,” she said as she passed by, but they were too busy talking to Daniel to take note of what she had to say.

“Never mind,” Martha said. “They’re only men after all.”

She looked as nervous as Birdie felt, and that was a comfort.

It still surprised her to come into the kitchen and see only half the little people. Luke and Jennet had taken theirs home just a few days before, and Birdie was glad to have some peace and quiet back. She could even admit she missed having Jennet and her children in the house now and then, but that was mostly when Ma had a long list of errands and nobody to pin it to but Birdie herself.

There was water warming on the stove and a basket of clean cloths that Martha picked up as they passed, as if she knew what was needed in the birthing room, though she had never attended one. Neither had Birdie, but this time they were allowing her to stay. It was very exciting and it made her stomach hurt too.

Lily was in Ma’s chamber, the biggest one in the house but it seemed to be filled up anyway. She had argued with Hannah until she got her way: Lily would bring this child into the world under her parents’ roof.

There was the bed with Lily in it, Lily with her belly like a ripe melon that rippled when the pains came, like a bald man wrinkling his forehead.

They gave Martha the job of getting the cot and the swaddling clothes ready, and she seemed relieved. Birdie was relieved too. Martha might be squeamish about such things, but Birdie wanted to see it all and she didn’t want to have to worry about Martha.

Ma was saying, “Lily, you’re very close now.”

“Not close enough,” Lily said through clenched teeth.

“You can’t breathe with your jaw all clamped shut like that,” Curiosity said. “What did I tell you about breathing? Birdie, come over here and sit by your sister’s head and remind her about her breathing.”

But Hannah winked at her, as if to say This is all good, there is nothing to worry about.

“Can I push now?” Lily said, her voice cracking. “I feel like I have to push.”

“Not yet,” Hannah said. “But almost.”