“Ah yes.” Solo’s voice, so calm, gave me no choice but to relax. “Is that what you saw there, Rusty?”
“Yes. But it doesn’t look like a head?”
Solo stood up. “That’s because it’s not.” He wiped his hands on his britches and rolled up his sleeves. “Redella, listen to me very carefully. Your baby is trying to be born feet first.”
“Solo.” I huffed through another pain. “I have to push.”
“Not yet.”
Jack interjected. “Solo, have you ever seen such a thing before?”
“Yes. Once.”
Jack’s voice was as anxious as I had been before Solo took over. “Tell me Solo. Did the baby live?”
For the first time since I’d come to know him, Solo didn’t answer his captain. “Redella, I need you to change position. Get on all fours. Rusty, you help her.”
Jack’s voice sounded nothing like the mighty ship captain but had taken on the fearful tone of a new father. “Solo, I asked you, did the baby—”
“Captain,” Solo interrupted. “Help your wife. Hold her steady.”
Jack did as he was told. “It’s going to be over soon,” he whispered. “And I’ll be here the whole time, by your side.”
Inside, worries and thoughts mixed together until I was afraid I’d be sick. So many things to worry about, to plan, to fix, to prepare—
“Jacky,” I managed. “Where are we?”
“Sailing south along the coast of Africa. Why do you ask?”
I curled my fingers into our bedsheets. I managed a smile as I leaned against him. “So we can tell our Loreena Jacqueline Rackham where she was born.”
Solo’s voice came from behind me. “Push with the next pain, Redella.”
Something deep inside me that shouldn’t have been bothered burned like fire with a sudden, sharp burn. I let go a yell before I could help myself.
“No. No yelling.” Solo’s voice was sharp. “Take all that breath and use it to push your baby out.”
Rusty’s excited voice tolled like a church bell. “I see feet!”
I leaned against Jack on wobbling elbows. Big drops of sweat dripped down my nose, wetting our sheets. “I’m going to split in two!”
“One more big push and we’ll be almost finished.” Solo’s voice was calm again as he reported from between my legs.
Someone banged on the door. “Cap? Cap!” Dark Water’s deep, throaty voice sounded worried. “We have a problem.”
“Rusty, can you come up here with your mother?” Jack stood up, but didn’t move from beside me until Rusty was there. He dropped his voice low. “Dark Water wouldn’t have come down unless it was life or death.”
“Is—is—all right?”
Rusty sounded like she was smiling. “Everything’s fine. Probably just the storm, is all.”
I gripped the blankets into sweaty knots as the next pain took hold of my body. I gritted my teeth and tried not to yell. Instead, I pushed with every ounce of energy I had left. My insides were on fire and I may well have been pushing a bag of rocks out of me.
With my bottom half in the air, I lay my head on my pillow.
“She’s born.”
The lack of emotion in Solo’s voice didn’t go unnoticed. “Why isn’t she crying?” I tried to move, but Rusty stopped me.
“Don’t move, Mama. The afterbirth has to come.” Her usually chipper voice was notably muted. “I know that much.”
“What’s wrong?”
Rusty mopped my forehead and smiled at me. “I love you, Mama.”
Tears welled in my eyes, but it wasn’t because of the final pain that delivered the afterbirth. It was from something else.
“Solo,” I begged.
“Rusty. Go get Cap. Now.” He patted my lower leg. “Red, you can lay down.”
I let my quivering frame fall into the sweaty sheets and sniffled. “What’s wrong? Please tell me.”
Solo sucked in a breath as Jack flung open the door. The hopefulness in my husband’s eyes drained as he looked at both Solo and me. I saw Solo shake his head before turning his attention back to me. “How long ago did she stop kicking and moving about, Redella?”
I licked my lips and tried to remember the last time I felt my daughter move. “Well before we landed in Madagascar. I thought it was normal for her to calm down. Felt a bit like she dropped. Thought it was normal. Wait—” I struggled to sit up on my elbows. “You said she.”
Solo’s hand fluttered down to my arm as Jack reappeared. “Redella, she didn’t make it.”
