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Only Daddy seemed unaffected by my complacency. He ascribed it to my realization that Lucille was a unique, bright woman and thought it was very wise of me to seek her counsel, especially when it came to planning a wedding.
“My father told me the wisest man is one who knows when he needs advice and where to go for it. People are like tools. You choose the right one for the right job. I’m really proud of you, Semantha.”
“Thank you, Daddy.”
“I keep thinking that we’ve turned a page. We’re all off to a wonderful new beginning. I do feel ten years younger, and the proof is that there is no new proposal, no matter how ambitious it might seem, that frightens me. I’m a real Heaven-stone again. And so are you.”
“If I didn’t know you don’t buy into all that, I’d be worried,” Cassie whispered. “Just keep smiling. Our time will come.”
And smile was what I did. There were no arguments, no disagreements. Even Uncle Perry was convinced that we were all heading toward better times. Daddy was roaring about with his new energy. Lucille was making some very wise decisions and not alienating the employees the way he had feared she might. And Ethan was gaining everyone’s respect. To cap it off, Uncle Perry told me I was beginning to look like the future mistress of Heaven-stone should.
Behind him, behind everyone who complimented the four of us now, stood Cassie, wearing that sly smile, and behind that smile, her clever, conniving mind was molding a plan. We would take back our heritage and our history and, most of all, control of our destiny. No one, least of all Lucille, should have come into our world thinking otherwise. I could feel Cassie’s confidence inside me. It was like the old days when she had been my strength, my spine, and I felt very safe.
The first time I worried a little about that safety came when Ethan shocked me with a proposal. We had just finished another of Gerad’s gourmet dinners, all of us drinking more wine than usual. Daddy and Lucille went off to talk about some business projects in his office. Considering what they had consumed, I wondered how they could discuss anything intelligently. I was feeling a little tipsy myself, and Ethan’s face was so flushed that someone might think he had just come in from an afternoon of intense sunbathing. He took my hand and led me to the den. I could see he had something on his mind. He looked like a little boy planning to raid a cookie jar.
“I have an idea,” he began. “It’s something I know will please your father very much and something we’ll probably be doing anyway.”
“And what’s that?”
“I think we should plan right now on your getting pregnant as soon as possible. I mean, it’s not something we have to wait until we are actually married before we plan. Anyway, what difference will two more months make? Of course, the hope is that our firstborn will be a boy we can name Asa. He won’t be Asa Heaven-stone, he’ll be Asa Hunter—but your father will still have his grandson.”
“I wasn’t planning on getting pregnant that fast after we were married, Ethan.”
The whole idea seemed terrifying—and for reasons Ethan wouldn’t understand.
“But you did plan on us having children, right?”
“Yes, in time,” I said.
“Well, you’re not exactly going to sacrifice a career or anything when you become a mother,” he said.
I was sure that he wouldn’t have been so blunt if it hadn’t been for the wine. Nevertheless, I recoiled.
“That’s not the only reason a woman might wait. I’m not exactly closing in on the end of my child-bearing years.”
“I didn’t mean to imply anything negative,” he said. “I just thought . . . well . . .” He looked at me harder. “You’re not afraid to have children now because of what happened to you, are you?”
“Don’t start talking therapy, Ethan,” I warned.
“No, no, I don’t mean to even suggest such a thing. I just want you to know I’m here for you and want to help you get over anything you have to get over.”
“I don’t have to get over anything. What is this rush to have children?”
“It’s not meant to be a rush. I just thought it would be something wonderful for all of us. I’m not saying it would even happen that quickly. I know you’ve been on your birth control pills, and it could take months after you stop because of how a woman’s body readjusts, but—”
“What, are you doing research about it?”
“A little,” he said, smiling. “My Boy Scout background. Always be prepared. Anyway, I know a woman could have to wait about two or three months or more after she stops the pill and returns to her normal menstrual cycle before she conceives, so the sooner you stop taking it, the better the chances of our having a baby within the first year or so of our marriage. That wouldn’t be so terrible, would it? Just imagine. When our children are older and on their own, we’ll still be relatively young.”
“That’s true,” I said, but I was thinking more about my daughter. I’d only be in my thirties when she was a teenager. I could literally be a grandmother in my thirties.
“Sure. It makes sense for us. I know the room we should fix up as a nursery,” he added quickly. “It’s the one right next to yours, the smaller guest room. Lucille even suggested we have an access door made from your room, which will become ours, to this nursery.”
“Lucille suggested? You discussed this with her first?”
“She was just talking one day about the future and planning, and she came up with the idea.”
“What else did she suggest about our future and how we should conduct our lives?”
