else do you think I’m going to do?’ She clung onto his hand as she felt him pulling away. ‘Hassan! Where are you going?’
He cursed as he stared down at the flat line on his cellphone. ‘I’ll have to go outside, to ring the hospital. There’s no damned signal in here!’
‘Don’t leave me!’ she whispered.
‘Sweetheart. I’ll be right back.’
Ella felt as if this was all happening to someone else and the unfamiliar sweetheart only compounded it. As if the woman lying back against a pile of cushions, gasping with pain, was someone she’d once met but didn’t really know. Dimly, she could hear Hassan outside the tent barking out a series of instructions in his native tongue. Hurry up, she thought faintly. Just hurry up!
She had never been so glad to see anyone as when he came running back into the tent and crouched down beside her. But then another contraction rocked right through her and she clung to him, panting for breath.
‘It’s okay,’ he said, closing his eyes briefly against her damp hair as he held her. ‘The hospital is sending a helicopter with a full obstetric crew on board. They say that you’ve probably got plenty of time before you deliver, especially as this is a first baby.’
She shook her head as another contraction racked through her body, feeling as if someone had sent a red-hot poker slicing up inside her. ‘No!’ she croaked.
Helplessly, his gaze raked over her ashen face. No, what? ‘Just hang on in there,’ he urged from between gritted teeth. ‘They’ll be here soon.’
‘Hassan,’ she gasped, sweat breaking out on her brow as another contraction came. Her nails dug into him even more. ‘They’re wrong.’
‘Who is?’
‘The hospital. I—’ She gasped as the pain made speech momentarily impossible. ‘I think this baby’s coming now!’
His heart pounded. ‘It can’t be.’
‘Yes, it can.’
‘How can you be sure?’
‘I just am!’
Desperately, he looked out into the starkness of the empty desert which could be seen through the flaps of the tent. How long would the helicopter take, he wondered distractedly, and would it be able to pinpoint their position? ‘I’ll go outside and get a signal. Speak to the doctor—’
‘Hassan, there isn’t time!’ She gripped even tighter as another contraction tightened its vice-like grip around her. ‘Just stay!’ she gasped. ‘Hassan, I need you here with me. I need you. Please.’
He saw the change in her and realised that she was speaking the truth. That their baby was about to be born. Here. Now. And that he was the only person who could help her. He was going to have to deliver the baby. His baby.
He felt a brief roaring in his ears before his head cleared and he suddenly became calm. It was like being in battle, when the sounds of melee all around him suddenly blurred into silence and he could see nothing but the task which lay ahead.
‘I’m here,’ he said softly, injecting calm into his voice as he began to loosen her clothing. ‘I’m here for you and everything is going to be fine. Shh, Ella. Just take it easy. Breathe very slowly. That’s right. Very slowly. Nature knows what to do.’
She looked up at him. ‘I’m scared.’
So was he—more scared than he’d ever been. But Hassan had had a lifetime of experience in hiding the way he felt. Right now, he’d never been so glad of that. Gripping her hands tightly, he looked deep into her eyes. ‘Trust me, Ella,’ he said softly. ‘I am here for you, and believe me when I tell you that it’s going to be okay.’
Ella nodded and, despite the pain and fear, her trust in him at that moment was total and complete.
He found a soft blanket, remembering the first time he’d seen a foal being born and recalling what the stable boy had told him: that mares were like humans, that every birth was different and that most of what happened did so without the need for intervention. Please let that be the case this time, he prayed silently as he brushed her sweat-soaked hair away from her face.
‘Hassan!’
‘I’m here. Keep breathing. Go on, breathe.’
The vice-like contractions were increasing in frequency and intensity. She began to anticipate the next one, wondering if it could possibly be as bad as the one before, only to discover that it was worse. Was this what every woman who’d ever given birth had experienced?
‘I can’t bear it!’ she cried.
‘Yes, you can. You can, Ella. You can do anything you want to do because you’re strong. The strongest woman I ever met.’
At any other time such words would have moved her but now they were nudged onto the periphery of her mind as another great contraction racked through her. Ella bit hard down on her lip as something in her body changed and she looked up into Hassan’s black eyes, saw the question written in them and realised that something very powerful was happening. ‘I think the baby’s coming right now,’ she gritted out. ‘Oh, Hassan! Hassan, please help me!’
He moved just in time to see the slick crown of a head appear. ‘You’re doing fine,’ he said unsteadily. ‘You’re amazing. You’re nearly there.’
Dimly she remembered what she’d been taught: not to push until the need to push was unbearable. Guided by that and governed by an instinct as old as time itself, she held on to that thought. ‘Yes,’ she breathed, her face contorted with effort. ‘Yes.’
He heard the keening sound she made and his heart began to race. Every sense intensified, he moved as if he was on some sort of autopilot. ‘That’s perfect,’ he said roughly. Suddenly, he was aware that he was looking down at the baby’s matted black hair and a great lump rose in his throat. ‘Just one more push, Ella. Do you think you can do that?’
‘Yes! No! I don’t know!’
‘Yes, you can. Ella, you can.’
The moan she made sounded as if it had been torn from some unimaginably deep place inside her and Hassan stretched out his palms to form a miniature cradle just as his baby was born into them.
His baby.
He felt the slippery unfamiliarity of new life in his hands and his heart clenched with terror as nothing else happened. The whole world seemed suspended in that moment of absolute silence before a lusty cry split the air.
His eyes blurred with tears and he looked down to see the wriggling form of a tiny yet perfect human being in his hands, which he quickly wrapped in the soft blanket before laying the child gently on Ella’s stomach.
Her voice seemed to come from a long way off. ‘Is … is everything okay?’
‘She’s perfect, my darling. Perfect. Just like you.’
Ella’s hand was trembling as she reached
