Marisa Carroll - The Midwife And The Lawman

Devon pulled her lower lip between her teeth after she spoke—as though she, too, wished to take back the words. She put her right hand on the floor to push herself to her feet.

Miguel closed his fingers around her forearm and held her beside him. “Devon, have you given any thought as to why you ended up in my bed that night?”

“Shock. Confusion. Sleep deprivation. I was a little out of my mind, I think.”

“Maybe,” he agreed, smiling, although it took some doing to produce a grin. Part of him wanted her to say it was because she was still madly, passionately, forever in love with him. “I think we both were.”

“I didn’t know if my grandmother was going to live or die. I needed comfort. You offered me that.”

“Devon, it went past offering you comfort five minutes after we left the hospital.” The words came out as a kind of growl and her eyes widened a little with dismay.

“I told you, it was an aberration. We were both a little crazy that night.”

Dear Reader,

Babies are such wonderful little creatures. Being able to contribute a story to a series dealing with the women who dedicate their lives to bringing babies into the world was a challenge we were happy to accept.

Midwives have helped women deliver their babies from ancient times, but in the past hundred years, at least in the United States, the craft has fallen into disfavor and is still viewed with skepticism by much of the medical profession.

Today many women are rediscovering the joy of delivering their children with the help of skilled midwives like Lydia Kane and the others at The Birth Place.

Lydia’s granddaughter, Devon Grant, has always known she wanted to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps, but she’s taken a different path to that goal, becoming a Certified Nurse Midwife instead of following traditional ways. Now she’s back in Enchantment working alongside Lydia, and old wounds and new secrets add to the tension between the women, tension that’s intensified further by their differing approaches to their age-old craft.

The reappearance of Devon’s teenage love, all grown up and even more handsome than before, only adds to the complications in her life—and then there are the children she’s taken under her wing at the risk of being arrested for harboring illegal aliens…and wildfire on the mountain…oh yes, and a baby born under the stars.

We hope you enjoy reading The Midwife and the Lawman as much as we enjoyed writing it. We’d also like to add a special thank you to the great authors in this series (Darlene Graham, Brenda Novak, Roxanne Rustand, C.J. Carmichael and Kathleen O’Brien) whose books preceded ours. It was an honor and a privilege working with all of you.

Sincerely,

Carol and Marian

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For Erika, Jennifer, Allicyn and Matthew and now for Becca and Nicholas, and always for Sarah

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

EPILOGUE

HE WONDERED if Devon would ever come to him again.

Enchantment’s Chief of Police Miguel Eiden put the decidedly nonregulation thought out of his head as his radio crackled to life. It was the day dispatcher, Doris Fernandez, checking in.

“Chief Eiden, did you copy the transmission from The Birth Place?”

He hit the toggle that opened the receiver affixed to his shoulder, frowning a little at the use of his title. Until a few weeks ago Doris would have called him Miguel. Then he’d still been one of the guys. Now he was the boss, and things had changed. “Roger that, Doris.” He’d picked up Devon Grant’s conversation with her grandmother, Lydia Kane, on the scanner speaker. He hadn’t responded, though. That was the last thing Devon would want.

“Shall I send out a ten-fourteen?” Ten-fourteen was code for a police escort.

The only other officer on duty this shift was Hank Jensen. Hank was six months out of the New Mexico Police Academy. It would be lights and siren all the way back to The Birth Place. Devon would be furious. Madder than she’d be if he showed up. “Negative, Doris. I’m heading back into town. I’ll meet her at the Silver Creek Road intersection.”

“Affirmative. I’ll notify the clinic that you’re available.”

“I’ll give you an ETA after I connect with Ms. Grant. Eiden out.” He stood up but didn’t leave the shade of the brush arbor where he’d been sitting with his grandfather, Daniel Elkhorn. “Gotta go, Granddad. Devon Grant doesn’t want to be delivering a baby in the back of her Blazer any more than I do. I’d better see she’s got a clear run the rest of the way into town.”

His grandfather stood, too, unfolding his barrel-chested, six-foot frame from his lawn chair, and took a limping step forward. “This’ll be the second baby in two weeks that she’s talked the mother out of delivering at home. Not the best endorsement for her grandmother’s clinic.”

“How’d you know that?” Miguel looked at his grandfather over the top of his sunglasses.

“Heard it down at the Legion.” Daniel stared back at him from eyes that had faded from black to brown with the passing of years, but still seemed able to see right through him. His skin was bronzed and creased as an old leather jacket. His hair was more gray than black now. His nose jutted out from his face like a hawk’s beak. Miguel had inherited that nose. “’Course you already know that. You helped her get Ophelia Pedroza to The Birth Place, too, didn’t you?”

“It was a breech birth. I don’t blame Devon for not wanting to deliver Ophelia way the hell out on the reservation with only an assistant midwife for help. And now Lacy Belton’s running a fever. Sounds like it could be serious.”

“Or she could’ve caught a cold from one of her kids. Makes no difference. Lydia Kane will be fit to be tied that Devon’s done it again.”

Miguel didn’t have an answer for that. He opened the door of the Dodge Durango the town fathers had seen fit to buy for the chief who’d preceded him and swung inside. The air conditioner wasn’t working again. The vehicle had been sitting in the sun and the interior was like an oven. It was nearing ninety this July afternoon, a higher than normal temperature for the altitude. He rolled down the window and made a mental note to have the SUV serviced, which ensured another hour of doing paperwork.

“I’ll check back in tomorrow if I can, Granddad. And if you see anyone else prowling around the barn, you stay put inside, you hear? You’re not the only one who’s had things come up missing. It could be just kids from town or the reservation raising hell, or it could be illegals making their way north to Colorado. Either way, you don’t need to do my job for me. Give the station a call. I’ll get someone out here, pronto.”

Daniel lifted a hand in acknowledgment—or dismissal, more likely. Sixty years ago he’d island-hopped his way across the Pacific, one of the famous Marine Navajo Code Talkers. Before that he’d grown up on the Navajo reservation when living off the land was the only option for most Native Americans. Even crippled by arthritis and nearing eighty, he was fearless and a crack shot. He wouldn’t stay locked inside his trailer waiting for his grandson to come to his rescue. He’d confront the person stealing the eggs from his chicken coop and carting off things from the pile of darn-near junk behind his barn.