The Midwife's Apprentice

Alyce starts secretly watching Jane at work, gaining knowledge of herbs as well as less useful information about delivering children, such as yelling into the birth canal that God wants the baby to come out. One morning when Alyce visits the calves she helped deliver, she finds a boy huddled with the cows for warmth. Her arrival startles him, but before he can run, Alyce stops him and asks who he is. The boy argues he’s “nobody,” to which Alyce says, “everybody is somebody and so are you” before offering him food and taking him home (60). After cleaning him up and convincing him to choose a real name for himself—Edward—she sends him to one of the rich families who are hiring boys, all the while feeling proud that she helped.

One night, a boy comes to fetch Alyce to help deliver a baby because the mother, Emma Blunt, heard how she helped the bailiff’s wife and “will have no one but Alyce” (64). Alyce does everything Jane would do, but the baby refuses to come. Alyce sends for Jane, who fusses until the baby is born, and Alyce leaves