A Changing Light by Edith Maxwell (pdf ebook reader .txt) 📗

if I only consulted with you about the facts? You’re so good at helping me sort out my addled thoughts.”

I gazed fondly at him. I would miss helping the police, being a sounding board, teasing out the facts with Kevin, and digging around asking questions in places he either couldn’t venture or hadn’t thought of.

“My answer is still no.” I stroked Hattie’s head. “What with motherhood and midwifery, I’m afraid even talking about murder would be too much.” At least for now.

David blew me a grateful kiss.

“You know how invaluable your insights and assistance have been to me in the past,” Kevin said.

“I thank thee for acknowledging my help. But I can’t continue at this time.”

Kevin clapped his hat on his head. The act was a final one, but his expression was kindly. He was a father of two. He knew what my life held going forward. “Very well. I do understand.”

“I am glad.” I didn’t want David’s headaches to return. I didn’t want to do one thing to imperil Hattie’s life or mine. I didn’t know what would happen in the future. Perhaps I’d return to investigating homicides, perhaps not. For now, the light in my life had changed, gained a new focus, and I was at peace with it.

Acknowledgments

Amesbury resident Mary Chatigny was the high bidder at the Amesbury Carriage Museum auction to have her name included in this book. Thank you for supporting our wonderful historical museum, Mary, and I hope you like your made-up historical self. When I told Mary her character would be a tuberculosis doctor, she was astonished, saying her grandmother had died of the disease in 1921. For the record, I have no knowledge of real Mary’s vices, minor or major, and expect she has neither.

I enjoyed bringing back into this book other Amesbury residents whose names earlier appeared as characters because of their donations to worthy local charities. Thank you to Marie Deorocki (sorry about the TB, Marie), Fran Eisenman, Amy and Jonathan Sherwood, and Cathy Toomey for your generosity as well as your eagerness to see who you might have been in the late nineteenth century. Jeanne Papka Smith, a fellow Amesbury Quaker (and a fellow California Scorpio), simply donated her friendship to me and her lifelong experiences living as a blind person.

I purloined the name Luthera from my dear friend Deb Hamilton. Luthera was her great-great-great aunt, and a woman to be reckoned with. As far as I know, the real Luthera never had any involvement with homicide, but the name was too good not to use. I also borrowed the name of the great Brazilian author Jorge Amado for a visitor to Amesbury in the book.

Many thanks to midwife Risa Rispoli for reviewing the birth scene in this book, as she has in all the previous Rose Carroll mysteries. My own experience teaching and helping birthing mothers (and being one) was decades ago, so I’m always happy for a sanity check on unmedicated births. Thanks, too, to author-pal Áine Greaney for the Irish phrases about somebody who is not all there upstairs.

Kept company by my sisters Janet Maxwell and Barbara Bergendorf, I was blessed with the chance to sit with our mother, Marilyn Muller, as she died in April 2012. It is an honor to accompany a loved one—or anyone—on their last journey. I hope my sisters will forgive me for bringing some of my memories from that evening into a scene in this book. I also included a bit of my dear friend Annie Tunstall in Orpha’s final days. Annie, one of my biggest fans, was bedridden in her last months. I was blessed by her intelligent company and her broad smile when I visited and helped in the smallest of ways, including feeding her when it became too painful for her to do so herself.

I’m grateful for Bill Harris and the team at Beyond the Page Publishing, who have published the most recent Quaker Midwife Mysteries. Thanks also to my agent, John Talbot, for connecting me with Bill.

I hold enormous gratitude for the late Ramona DeFelice Long, who led the seven o’clock online Sprint Club, a group of writers who all start the morning with an hour of focused creativity. Ramona gave each book in this series a deep read and enriched them in so many ways with her insightful suggestions and critiques. I couldn’t have done it without her. She wasn’t able to read this manuscript, and my fingers are crossed that I didn’t miss something glaring. To my great sorrow, Ramona passed away while this book was in production. The Sprint Club continues in her honor, and I know how happy she would be to know Rose is pregnant and gives birth in this book.

I’m ever thankful to my fellow Wicked Authors, aka my support crew. Readers, please join us over at wickedauthors.com and meet these fabulous authors: Jessie Crockett, Sherry Harris, Julie Hennrikus, Liz Mugavero, and Barbara Ross (and all their alter egos).

Love always to my friends and family, to Hugh, and to my fellow Amesbury Friends for your support and joy at my successes.

I hope readers will also find my short stories, as well as my two contemporary mystery series, which I write as Maddie Day. Please remember, if you like a book, writing a short positive review and telling everyone you know is the best way to help the author.

Finally, thank you to all the dedicated fans of my fictional Quaker midwife. I’ve decided to let her move on with her life and let myself move on to new projects. The characters, era, and setting of this series have always been near to my heart, so don’t be surprised if Rose pops up again in a short story now and again. Thank you for supporting Rose and gang all the way through.

Books by Edith Maxwell

Quaker Midwife Mysteries

Delivering the Truth

Called to Justice

Turning the Tide

Charity’s Burden

Judge Thee Not

Taken Too Soon

A Changing Light

Lauren Rousseau Mysteries

Speaking of Murder

Murder on the Bluffs

Local Foods Mysteries

A Tine to Live,