Maura had sent for the midwife with every one of Peggy’s deliveries and Peggy had run to fetch the midwife for Maura. On occasion, the midwife busy elsewhere, they were the only two there, in that special hour when the smell of a newborn and new love filled the room, often in the early hours when all the cleaning up was done, the baby on the breast or lying in a blanket-lined drawer. Then, the fire lit and tea in hand, they talked of their hopes and dreams for the new life they had brought into the world…

Scamp scraped his paw at the outhouse door and whined and Peggy, dragged back into the moment, just at the point that her body could hold on no longer, reached down, and caught her baby in her hands and then fell backwards onto the wooden plank seat, wondering and amazed that her child was the longed-for daughter at last. She knew to wait; she had birthed seven children. The great contraction was to come when she would deliver the placenta and she knew it would come in its own time, just as her daughter had. She reached up for the grubby ribbon tied around the neck of her blouse, yanked it out and, using her teeth, ripped it in half to tie the umbilical cord. Then she took a wire curler out of her apron pocket and using that and her teeth, separated her daughter from the placenta.

Sighing loudly and spitting, Peggy pulled her uncomplaining bundle up onto her chest and wrapped her cardigan around her, holding her against her as she rocked. Her eyes were wild, her face flushed and she felt a huge sense of relief and panic, all at the same time.

‘The bailiffs are coming,’ she whispered into the side of her daughter’s face. ‘I prayed for you, I wanted you, I’ve asked and asked the Holy Mother to send you, but you’ve come too late; they will take you off me now, they won’t let me keep you. I can’t let that happen, I can’t.’

Her baby snuffled and Peggy, holding her away from her, looked down into her face She was struggling to breathe and so Peggy sucked the mucous from her nose and her airways and spat it onto the floor. Her daughter gasped, her first full breath, opened her eyes, and looked straight into Peggy’s own, which were bright with tears.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I can’t keep you, you can’t stay here for there won’t be a here; we will be out on the street.’

*