Keep My Heart- Prologue

Keep My Heart- 40

"You're my beloved, beloved, I'm yours. Death shall not part us, it's you I died for."

Beloved, Tenth Avenue North

This is the best song I have ever heard. It made me cry, but that might be because of what it means and the path of my life, personally, of late. You should listen to it!

Also, big, big thanks to UniqueeSmile for the new cover! I already thanked her but it is just so fabulous and I love it so much. 

 The pains were getting closer and closer together.

Doctor Spurlock had sent for his friend, the midwife, to bring Mrs. Hawke's baby as her husband battled putting out a fire. The one in the barn was smothered but the servant's quarters were still blazing. 

"Is he safe?" Olivia asked, continually. 

"He's perfectly safe, ma'am. He'll be here soon enough...but of course, you do not want him present, do you?" Doctor Spurlock glanced down at the writhing, pale creature of a woman, worried that she might say yes.

"Of course not." She growled low at a pain, and just then the midwife walked through the door. 

"How far is she?"

"She is a seven."

"She's close." The midwife was a tall, skinny woman who might have been beautiful in her youth but she appeared to be in her fifties. Her long, silvery blonde hair was worn in a severe knot on the back of her head. Her clothes were drab and gray and they were loose on her skinny figure. "Mrs. Hawke, my name is Elizabeth Jane Lidderbee. You may call me Beth."

"When will my baby be here?" Olivia asked abruptly.

"Within the hour, ma'am. Within the hour."

Adam's leg was badly burned but he continued fighting the fire with his servants. He had to get this fire out and get into the house. 

There was a man dead, Adam guessed from smoke inhalation. And whoever had done this...there was hell to pay. His wife was to have their child soon, his barn was in ruins, and the servant's quarters was soon to be as well. 

Suddenly there was a commotion and a gunshot in the front. Adam looked there, and a flurry of servants came running towards him. 

"Mr. Hawke, your brother just shot Mr. Penn!"

Mr. Penn the grounds keeper. His brother.

Adam made a mad dash for the back door, ready to get his gun and lock the front door. His feet flew across the ground, and the coloring of the flames cast a shadow. If Rashleigh got to Olivia...there was no telling what he would try. He had tried his best to rape her, to turn her from her husband. He had murdered Constance, and now Mr. Penn.

No, he would not hurt her anymore.

Adam was inside then, and leapt up the stairs to the bed chamber. The door was closed, and he knocked on it. "Doctor, I need my gun."

"Come in," was a familiar voice from the inside.

Adam opened the door, and the scene was unlike any other. His wife writhed in pain, he could tell. There was terror across her face, and Adam longed to stop and comfort her, tell her to draw strength from him and bring forth this blessing.

"Adam!" she cried and from the corner, Rashleigh came out. He held the pistol Adam had, cocked and ready to shoot . 

"Hush," Rashleigh growled. 

She bit her lips, and tears fell from her eyes. Adam sensed her terror at this scenario, and he put his hands where his brother could see them.

"Rashleigh," Adam said carefully, "don't do anything you'll regret."

"I regret sending her to you, that's what I regret," Rashleigh growled. "Move to the bed."

"She's having a baby, now," said Elizabeth Jane Lidderbee, stubborn, and unafraid of this foolish man. 

"Quiet, woman!" he yelled. "I don't care if she's having fifteen babies this instant. Her husband is going to pay."

Adam swallowed, moving cautiously to the bed. He gripped his crying wife's hand, ready to take a bullet for her is necessary. Rashleigh had the gun pointed in their direction, and he moved closer to the door. "Is it money you want?" he asked, running his thumb over Olivia's tight hold on his hand as she breathed through a contraction.

"I came for blood."

"You killed a man. You have blood."

Rashleigh's lip curled, evil and fearless and fierce in all that he was doing. He was not afraid. He had gone psychotic, Adam thought. He would doubtless kill a pregnant and delivering woman, as well as a soon-to-be father. He would kill his own brother.

"I must deliver this baby," Beth said. "She'll die if I do not."

"Die?" Olivia cried. "Oh, get him out! Get him out!"

"Let the whore die. She jumps from man to man. I'd wonder if this creature is even yours, brother." He pointed the gun at the old, skinny woman. "Move and I'll shoot."

Adam was quick to defer him. "Look, Rashleigh. I'll...I'll leave if you'll promise to take care of her."

"Take care of her?"

"Forever. You can have the house, the wife, the child. The business. Just don't hurt her." Adam swallowed. "But you must promise."

"If you think that you're fooling me, Adam, I'd step back. I don't want her. She's used up."

Olivia began to cry harder. Rashleigh could cut her down to nothing at all and it made Adam sick. He must get Rashleigh out of the room so Olivia could have their child. 

"Get him out of me!" she whispered to Beth, furious and grumbling and sobbing at all of the pain and the fear. 

"She will die, Rashleigh. You don't want Olivia to die. You once loved her," Adam said quietly. "Remember when you used to love her? You showered her in gems and gowns and-"

The gun fired out the window and everyone in the room was silent, save the crying of the pale, sweating woman on the bed.

"Enough!" Rashleigh roared. "I'm not leaving until you're both dead."