Strangers of The Midst

Strangers in the Midst

Chapter One

England 1887

“Mama, my room is cleaned and I did all my choirs. Can I go out side and play?” Eight year old Julia yelled from the back kitchen door, impatiently shifting her feet, waiting for a reply.

“Mama,” she yelled, “Did you hear me?”

Her mother, Jone, slowly came down the stairs balancing a basket of washing against her huge belly, taking care not to trip on the hem of the ragged dress she wore.

“Yes. Julia I heard you,” she said with a tired sigh. “And yes you can go play but be back for lunch.”

“Yes mama.”

The back door screen slammed shut with a resounding thud, causing Jone to start and sigh with annoyance for her ever absent husband who failed, yet again, to fix it.

Jone set the wash on the scared wooden oak table in the small kitchen and rubbed her aching back. She felt so tired lately that it was an effort just to drag herself out of bed each and every morning. She worried about the baby and she worried if she would survive this birth. It was too soon; this pregnancy and she had recently heard that old Gram had been found dead in the woods by the Stuart’s house. Now she would be alone with no mid-wife to help her and she was terribly afraid. But it was more than that; Gram had been a friend, another woman to ease the loneliness.

Jone shook her head, painfully remembering the last time she had seen Gram. It was just a few days ago.

Jone hadn’t been feeling well that day and had just sat down on the porch to rest when the old woman had showed up with her black bag she was never without. The black bag held many medicines, treatments and other mysterious herbs to treat the sick but no one had ever been allowed to look in it and the only things anyone ever saw was what she pulled out of it.

“You do too much and you aint a youngster anymore Jone. You should put that man of yours to work,” Gram said as she stepped on the porch.

“He’s in town looking for work Gram.”