Any life has to be better than the one I was headed for, but at least I’ve managed to pull this promise from him. Only time will tell if he’ll keep it. “All right.” I give my agreement with a short nod.
I expect to see him gloat in victory, but his soft smile never changes. “Ready, Judge?”
“Ah, yes,” the portly man says, quickly stepping up and producing a Bible from his overalls. “Hold hands, please.”
“No.” I release his shirt as if it had burned me and wrap my arms about my belly. “Not touching him.”
The befuddled man frowns. “But you...”
“It’s all right, Judge,” Warren says easily. “Go on.”
Just like that, I gain a husband while sitting on my childbirth bed. Down on bended knee, Warren promises to give me and my baby love and protection, and over the pangs in my back and stomach, I blatantly skip over the part about promising to obey him.
“I now pronounce you man and wife,” Judge Ballard finishes with a flourish. “You may kiss the bride.”
No. Not a kiss. I clench the sheets, mynoturning into a moan as a more intense contraction seizes my body. Mrs. Smith notices and swiftly takes charge. “That’s it, all of the men out of the room now. Goes for the groom, too.”
“Now hold on just a minute,” Warren protests over his shoulder, stumbling to his feet only to be shooed toward the door. “She’s my wife now. I need to be in here in case she needs me.”
“You’re right,” the little woman agrees. “She does need you.”
He does an about-face and grins, catching Mrs. Smithbefore she trips into his chest. “Then why are you pushing me out the door?”
She lowers her voice but it still carries. “Because she needs you to leave. The poor girl is overdue for some privacy, Warren. And as much of a Shay as you are, surely even you can understand that.”
Warren’s heavy glance lands on me as his grin falters. “Right outside the door. That’s as far as I’m going.”
It’ll do for now.
Once the men leave the room, Mrs. Smith rolls her sleeves up. “Let’s have another look at you, dear.” I don’t have time to dwell on how quickly my circumstances have changed or the way I narrowly escaped his kiss as my borrowed nightdress is lifted again for another inspection. “Time to walk it out and get your hips ready. Up we go.”
Ten paces from the bed bring me to a wall filled with framed pictures of painted landscapes. Twenty more in the opposite direction have me meeting the window overlooking the empty street. I waddle from one side to the other, pausing at the cracked bedroom door. My new husband’s back is to me, but he’s there, standing guard to either protect me or to keep me prisoner. Likely the latter, given my luck in life.
A soft hand cups my shoulder as I stare at my prison guard. “You did the right thing, Mara. He’s going to be so good to you and your child.”
My hands cradle my aching belly. I can only hope, but time will bring out the truth. Dragging my eyes from that infernal opening, I resume my lumbering walk, but the unsettling presence of my new husband follows me even with a wall between us.
On the third pass, I avert my eyes from the door.
On the fifth pass, my muscles seize in a cramp.
On the ninth, the clock downstairs chimes again. How many does that make now? I don’t even know the hour. I lean my forearms onto the wall and close my heavy eyes. “Just want to sleep. So tired.”
“Sleep will come, but later,” Mrs. Smith says sympathetically as she urges me to walk again.
Back and forth, back and forth. Back to the bed to rest and then back up to walk again. Over and over until my low groans sound suspiciously like the bellows Abner accused me of. Until the pains are longer now with hardly a pause between them. Until I feel the urge to push. “I think...I think this is it.”
And once I make it to the bed, everything happens in a flurry, my mind slipping into a state of blankness as I lean back on a mountain of pillows. Someone holds my legs apart and presses warm cloths to my center. My eyes fall closed as sudden vulnerability and loneliness swallow me whole. Voices speak around me, but I only hear bits and pieces.
“Push.”
“Legs open.”
“See the head?”
“Hold her leg, Jolene.”
Heat.
