Yet no effort she made could expel what caused the agony. ‘I’m worried,’ said Jenny, bending to wipe a soaked cloth across Sarah’s fevered forehead. ‘This isn’t right. Your waters haven’t come but the cramps are so frequent.’ She shook her shoulder gently. ‘Let me fetch her.’
‘For f**k’s sake, fetch ’er,’ yelled someone in the chamber. For the hundredth time, Sarah wished that she’d kept the tiny room the Pitmans’ little money had allowed her. But she’d chosen to spend it instead on the one inside her, on more food to sustain him or her, though she hadn’t told the Pitmans so.
Other voices came.
‘For the love of God, squeeze it out, woman!’
‘We can’t breathe.’
They’d closed the windows and pressed clothes and blankets into the gaps. Even the keyholes had straw stuffed into them. All kn
