The Midwife's Apprentice: Chapters 1–3

But the girl noticed and, on that frosty night, burrowed deep into the warm, rotting muck, heedless of the smell.

A woman was there, a woman neither old nor young but in between. Neither fat nor thin but in between. An important-looking woman, with a sharp nose and a sharp glance and a wimple starched into sharp pleats.

A woman was there, a woman neither old nor young but in between. Neither fat nor thin but in between. An important-looking woman, with a sharp nose and a sharp glance and a wimple starched into sharp pleats.

And there was more work, sweeping the lady’s dirt floor and washing her linen in the stream and carrying her bundles to those cottages where a new baby was expected, for the sharp lady was a midwife.

Beetle liked to watch the cat stretching in the sunshine, combing his belly with his tongue, chewing the burrs and stubble out from between his toes.

The taunting, pinching village boys bedeviled the cat as they did her, but he, quicker and smarter than they, always escaped.

The boys were already there, holding the cat aloft by his tail.

She did her job with energy and some skill, but without care, compassion, or joy.

Beetle sometimes feared Jane Sharp was a witch, for she mumbled to herself and once a pail of milk curdled as she passed, but mostly she knew Jane was just what she first appeared, a woman neither young nor old, neither fat nor thin, with a sharp nose and a sharp glance and a wimple starched into sharp pleats.

Each morning Beetle started the fire, blowing on the night’s embers to encourage them to light the new day’s scraps.

Beetle carried the basket with the clean linen, ragwort and columbine seeds to speed the birth, cobwebs for stanching blood, bryony and woolly nightshade to cleanse and comfort the mother, goat’s beard to bring forth her milk and sage tea for too much, jasper stone as a charm against misfortune, and mistletoe and elder leaves against witches.

As the weather warmed and the villagers began digging long furrows in the field to take the seed, Beetle found herself doing more and more of the collecting and stewing and brewing, while Jane Sharp spent her time haggling over her fees.

When spring arrived with soft breezes and meadows grown green, the villagers began sowing early peas and barley, followed by the village boys who threw stones at the hungry birds trying to eat the seed.

She sent Beetle back to the cottage to pack a basket of necessaries. “And don’t drop or forget anything, you with the brains of a chicken. And don’t dawdle.”

In that way she learned that midwifery was as much about hard work and good sense and comfrey tonic as spells and magic.