CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Joseph and Charlotte left for Chicago on Monday morning, Charlotte promising to write to Angelina regularly until she and Hank were able to visit the following year.

Angelina loved being married to Hank. If it were possible, he treated her even better than he had before and as the months passed and her pregnancy progressed, he fussed over her more and more. She travelled into the town just a couple of times a week in the buggy, often visiting Myra who now had her own baby girl whom she had named Samantha.

At Christmas, Hank's son Zach came to visit from Denver and stayed at the house with Hank and Angelina for two weeks. Angelina found him very shy at first, but after a few days he seemed to settle in and began to talk a little. He had brought some of his drawings with him to show Hank and spent several hours doing sketches and charcoal drawings of Angelina. They were beautiful likenesses.

"Zach, do you think you could draw something for me?" Angelina asked him one day when Hank had gone to the saloon, leaving them alone together at the house.

"Sure," he said at once. "What do you want me to draw?"

"Your Pa," she said with a smile. "Then I can still see him when he's in town working."

Zach grinned. "I'll start now."

"Don't you need him here so you can look at him?" she asked.

"Nah. He's in here." He tapped the side of his head and took out his drawing materials, then sat down at the table.

Zach spent most of the afternoon and evening drawing and then presented Angelina with two beautiful pictures. One was a large sketch of Hank's face, so lifelike that his eyes seemed to twinkle as he grinned at her off the paper. The second showed him sitting on the steps of the front porch staring thoughtfully into the distance, his elbows resting on his knees and a cigar loosely held between two fingers.

"Oh, Zach, I love them!" Angelina exclaimed. "Thank you!"

Hank took Zach back to Denver just after New Year. He was away for one night and sent Kathy to stay with Angelina until he returned. Now that Angelina didn't live at the saloon she saw much less of the girls and the two of them happily spent the evening catching up on the town's gossip.

As spring approached Angelina rapidly grew larger and her feet swelled up, making it awkward for her to get about much. She rarely went to town now and she longed for the baby to be born so she could get back to her usual self.

Angelina eventually went into labour four days late on Good Friday. Hank was at the house with her when her waters broke and he immediately hitched Blue up to the buggy and took her into town to the clinic. Michaela and Colleen were still there attending to a man with a broken hand and they quickly finished with the patient and sent him on his way. Hank carried Angelina into the treatment room and lowered her onto the bed.

"You go over to the saloon," Michaela told him. "I'll send you for you later."

"I'm staying," Hank said gruffly.

"You can't be here while Angelina's in labour," Michaela told him.

"You wanna try and throw me out?" He scowled at her and refused to move, grasping Angelina's hand and squeezing it.

"Let him stay," she gasped, digging her nails into his palm as another pain came.

"It's not done," protested Michaela.

"I was with her when the kid was conceived," Hank said suddenly, winking. "So I'll be with her when it's born too."

Angelina laughed and then groaned, hoping her labour would be quick. Myra's little girl had emerged, screaming, after just four hours. Unfortunately, Angelina wasn't so lucky. Twenty-four hours later she was exhausted and in agony and Hank was alternately sitting beside her gripping her hand or pacing around the room shouting and cursing, tearing at his hair. Angelina grew weaker and barely able to push any more and she heard Michaela saying that she was losing a lot of blood.

"Is she gonna die?" Hank demanded at that point.

"Hank, calm down or you'll have to wait outside," Michaela said sharply.

"Well, do something then!" he roared.

Angelina lost consciousness then, everything seeming to go dark and fuzzy and silent. She drifted somewhere between life and death, occasionally hearing fragments of conversation and feeling more pain. Then she heard a baby crying and realised it was over. She slipped away again.

She woke feeling numb and very cold. Her eyelids were too heavy to lift and she couldn't speak or move, but her body shivered. She heard Michaela's voice.

"Hank, listen to me. The only way I can stop the bleeding is to perform a hysterectomy."

"What the hell is that?"

"I have to remove her uterus. It'll mean she won't be able to bear more children. Angelina is barely conscious so I need your permission to do this; you're her husband."

"Will she die if you don't do it?"

"Probably, yes."

"Then do it," said Hank, his voice sounding tearful. "Just save her. Please."

Angelina tried to open her eyes, but they felt too heavy. A cloth was placed over her nose and mouth and she tasted the odd sweetness of chloroform. Then she slept again.

When Angelina woke she had no idea how much time had passed. She still felt numb and heavy and her head was spinning. She kept her eyes closed, convinced that if she opened them she would see the room whirling around her. Gradually she became aware of sounds around her again; footsteps and voices.

"….blood transfusion," she heard Michaela say.

"How you gonna do that?" Hank's voice asked.

"I'm going to need some blood. At least a pint."

"Then take some of mine."

Angelina must have passed out again because she heard no more of the conversation. The next time she came to there was silence except for the sound of her own breathing and the spinning sensation seemed to have stopped. Her eyelids rose slightly and she confirmed the room wasn't moving and opened her eyes fully. Michaela was looking down at her and the doctor began to smile as Angelina looked back at her. Angelina's mouth was dry and she licked her lips and tried to speak.

"Hank…." she said.

"I'm here," he said gruffly.

She turned her head to the left and saw him lying on another bed next to her. A bandage was tied tightly around his upper arm and a large needle protruded from the inside of his elbow. He had something in his hand which he was squeezing, making the veins in his arm visible. There was a tube attached to the needle and Angelina realised it was connected to a contraption that was drawing Hank's blood out of him and pumping it into her via another tube and needle.

"You're going to be alright, Angelina," Michaela said.

"What about the baby?"

"A fine healthy boy." Michaela went to Hank and removed the needle from his arm. "That should be enough. You lost a lot of blood, Angelina. I had to replace it."

Michaela pulled the needle from her arm and she purposefully didn't look, glancing over at Hank again instead.

"You saved my life," she said to him.

"Yeah, it's getting to be a habit."

She remembered him carrying her out of the saloon when it was on fire and smiled. He sat up on the bed quickly and suddenly all the colour drained out of his face.

"Hank, just lie down for a few minutes," Michaela said, pushing him back onto the pillows. "You'll feel a little faint. Eat this." She passed him a cookie which was clearly one of Grace's. "The sugar will help."

To Angelina's surprise, Hank just lay there and nibbled the cookie, his eyes closed. Gradually the colour began to return to his face, but he didn't sit up again immediately.

"May I see the baby?" Angelina asked.

"Of course." Michaela turned to Colleen who was sitting in the corner of the room, a bundle wrapped in white in her arms. She gathered it up and returned to Angelina, sitting on the side of the bed beside her. "He's a strapping fellow."

Angelina looked into the little wrinkled face with its tuft of blond hair and bright blue eyes and felt a huge surge of love for him immediately.

"What will you call him?" Michaela asked.

"I don't know, we haven't talked about it," she said.

"What was your Pa's name? Hank asked.

"William."

Hank sat up again, slowly this time and took hold of Angelina's hand.

"We'll call him William," he said.

It was three days before Angelina was able to return home. It took her that long to recover her strength and Michaela wanted to make sure she had no more heavy bleeding. Angelina was saddened that she would be unable to have any more children, but at the same time delighted with William, who she thought looked just like Hank.

Michaela said it would take a couple of months for Angelina to recover properly from the operation and when she was home Hank gave Jane a vacation from the saloon and employed her as a helper for Angelina instead. She would arrive at the house in the early morning and stay until the evening when Hank returned from the saloon.

It didn't take Angelina long to get back on her feet. She couldn't actually lift William out of his crib, but if Jane picked him up and passed him to her, she could cuddle him and feed him and so on.

Michaela rode out to the house every few days to check on the progress of mother and baby and by the end of May, Angelina was back to normal. She had healed well, lost the extra weight gained during her pregnancy and she was as healthy as she had ever been. William was strong and healthy too and he rarely cried, much to her delight. Myra complained that Samantha did nothing but cry and the sleepless nights were wearing her and Horace out.

Angelina felt so lucky. Although she had lost her parents, losing them had led her to Colorado Springs and Hank and now she had her own family. She had a lot to be thankful for and a wonderful future to look forward to.