Dangerous Heart Read Free Page A

the love of his life had been the reason he stopped practicing medicine in the first place.
    Struggling against a desire to walk out of the tent and turn his back completely on the entire wagon train, he forced himself to study the pain on Yellow Bird’s face. He had to bestrong and do his best. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be God that failed; it would be him.
    â€œYellow Bird,” he said softly, caressing her sweat-soaked brow. “Your baby is not able to come any further because he isn’t in the right position. I am going to try to turn him and pull him out. It will be painful, and there are no guarantees. But we have to try. Do you understand?”
    She nodded, and another contraction rocked her small body. “If you do nothing, my child will not live.”
    â€œThat’s right.” He made no mention that she would likely die, as well. But he figured she knew, and there was something to be said for keeping hope alive.
    Yellow Bird gripped his hand and lifted her shoulders off the pallet. She gave him a hard, pleading stare. “Please, doctor. You must try.”
    Grant sprang into action. The young woman was growing weaker by the minute. “Ginger, Miss Sadie, get on either side of Yellow Bird and don’t let her thrash about too much.”
    â€œMe?” Ginger’s voice sounded faint. “I’ll go get Toni or Fannie. I’ll be right back.”
    â€œThere’s no time!” Grant grabbed the white-faced girl by the shoulders and gave her a little shake. “Ginger! You have to be strong. I know you don’t like illness or blood. But you can not faint, is that clear?”
    â€œWho said I was going to faint?”
    Good! Some of her spunk was showing.
    Grant tried to ignore the sound of Yellow Bird’s groans as he felt for the baby’s head, and then the shoulder.
    He looked up at Miss Sadie. “Hold her.”
    Slowly he tried to turn the baby. Still, with the next pain, the baby didn’t descend any farther. “I have to try to turn him the other way,” he said more to himself than the women. He could hear his panic. “Lord, please,” he whispered.
    â€œPray, Ladies.”
    Ginger prayed the same two words over and over like a mantra. “Please God, please God, please God, please God—” Finally Grant’s nerves could take it no longer.
    â€œGinger! Stop!”
    â€œWell, you’re the one that told me to pray!”
    â€œCan’t you pray something else?”
    Yellow Bird let out a scream of pain that pierced the interior of the tent.
    â€œIt’s the only prayer I know!” Ginger resumed her petition. “Please God, please God, please God, please God.”
    As Grant turned the infant counterclockwise, he felt the shoulder begin to dislodge. Hope sprang up inside his heart, and he found himself joining in Ginger’s prayer. “Please God, please God, please God.”
    Moments later, a healthy boy slid into the world with lusty cries that brought a slow, exhausted smile to his mother’s pale lips.
    â€œWould you look at that?” Ginger said, excitement and wonder in her tone. Miss Sadie wrapped the baby and tried to give him to Yellow Bird. The young woman had fainted. “Ginger, take the baby,” Miss Sadie said. “I need to help Grant take care of Yellow Bird. She’s bleeding too heavily.”
    â€œI don’t know if I can,” Ginger said, the fear in her voice so thick Grant could almost reach out and touch it.
    â€œIt’s okay,” Miss Sadie said with uncommon gentleness that surprised Grant. “There’s nothing to it. You’ll do just fine.”
    Miss Sadie slipped the baby carefully into Ginger’s arms. A soft gasp caused Grant to raise his head just for a second. His stomach jumped at the sight of the young woman holding Yellow Bird’s baby. Ginger’s lips parted slightly, and her eyes widened as she looked from the