Charlotte woke to screaming in the night, but it wasn’t hers.  She sat bolt upright in bed.  The peculiar rhythm of the screaming was familiar.  Then she knew, it was a woman in labor.  She lay listening to the anguished chorus, the rise and fall, the vehement teeth-clenched godawful sounds that only a woman trying to give birth could produce.  The sounds escalated to fill the night with no promise of an end.

Something occurred to Charlotte.  She put aside the covers and climbed out of the wagon.  It was so dark she almost stepped on Ellis Gray.  He had to put a hand on her leg to prevent that from happening.

“Oh Lord,” she said.  “Sorry.”  She leaned down beside him, barely able to see his face.  “What do you know about her?”

“She’s strong, walked most of the way here.  Should be okay.   Doubt there’ll be anybody getting sleep.”

“There’s no water.”

“Those women have their ways.”

“I have water.  Will you take it to them?  Please?”

He got up slowly, took two jugs of water away and came back.  “They’re grateful as much as put out women can be.  It’s not easy leaving the home you know to follow a headstrong husband somewhere you might not’ve ever wanted to go.”

“I understand.”

“I can’t listen to this anymore,” Ellis said.  “Can you manage by yourself?”

“I have so far.”

He picked up his saddle and left her in the darkness.  His bedroll and saddlebags were still on the ground.  She wondered just briefly whose guns were better, but she didn’t dare look through his belongings and was appalled that she’d even thought such a thing.  Chastened, she climbed back into the wagon, wrapped a blanket around her head and eventually drifted off into a troubled sleep.

In the morning there was no screaming and she had no way of discovering what had happened.  Out in the bushes, she saw two women holding up their skirts to shield a third performing her morning ablutions.  None of them noticed Charlotte and she quickly backed away, finding another bush behind which to shield herself.  There was no one she could ask.

Charlotte was making breakfast when Ellis Gray returned.  She didn’t question where he’d been or if he’d slept.

“The baby?” she said anxiously.

“A girl.  Her husband’s not pleased but at least he’s still got a wife, which is more than he deserves.”