Anika reached out a hand and I climbed into her lap. Nora peeled back the corner of the towel and I saw her daughter’s wet, red, scrunched-up face—she’d stopped crying for now and her lips were making a gentle sucking sound, her eyes shut tight.

Vi came around to Nora’s other side and pressed a damp hand towel to her head, and it was then I noticed that Nora was still flushed and sweating. Giving birth must have been exhausting.

“What now?” Vi murmured.

I felt Anika shift next to me. “There’s nothing else we can do.”

I frowned, unsure what they were talking about. The baby was here, and that was all that mattered—surely? Then I had an idea.

“Shouldn’t we call Mr. Khouri?” I whispered, so Vi and Anika got up to do exactly that, back at the big house, but not before I thought I saw them exchange worried glances with each other.

Then it was just Nora, me, and the baby.

Nora, with her hair in a loose braid with wisps stuck to her face, and I didn’t know how she could look so lovely and drained at the same time. Because she did; both glowing, and also red-hot with a fever sweat that the cool towel hadn’t wiped away.

“What will you call her?” I asked, watching as the baby burrowed deeper into her mëma’s chest, her little head with a mass of black hair and tiny fists pulsing delicately.

“I was thinking to give her a place,” Nora said, and then she whispered her name, and the baby stirred.

“Rose,” I repeated, and just then she opened her little mouth to make a soft, whimpering sound.

“For Rosebud,” Nora explained, and that made me smile.

I reached out to stroke a finger very lightly along her chubby arm to the curl of her fist that opened a little, like a flower.

“Winifred,” Nora said, “we can’t stay here.”

I nodded and gave Rose my finger, which she wrapped her whole hand around. I didn’t know babies were so strong right away.

“Mr. Khouri will take you away somewhere, and once everyone’s stopped looking, you’ll come back. . . .”

Nora shook her head, and the movement made Rose grumble and start to cry, so Nora started rubbing her back gently.

“No, no. Vi and Anika are worried. I have something inside that is meant to come out after the baby, but it hasn’t. . . . They don’t know what to do; it is something for hospital and doctor to help me, I know.”

Nora shifted again, and this time I saw her wince as she rearranged Rose slightly, and I pulled away—afraid I was hurting her.