Daughters of the Lake(77)
“But I want to be here,” Jess complained. “For you. What if the baby comes early?”
“In that case, you will have a brand-new son or daughter to greet you upon your return.” Addie smiled. “Don’t worry, Jess. It’s not like we’re living in the wilds of Great Bay—we’re in a city. If the baby comes early, the doctor is just a few steps away. I could crawl there on my hands and knees if necessary.”
“Harrison has promised that he will look in on you,” Jess said. “And Ginny will be here every day for at least a few hours to do the washing and the marketing.”
“A whole legion of people to look after me.” Addie grinned. “I may even go up to visit Celeste. I haven’t yet seen the baby.”
“Don’t you dare,” Jess warned her, wagging his finger. “I don’t want you trudging up that hill like a turtle.”
“A turtle!” Addie slapped him on the chest. “So that’s what I am now?”
“It wasn’t so long ago that you were a tiger, my dear,” he laughed. “That’s how you got into this situation, if I’m not mistaken. All kidding aside, Addie, promise me you’re not planning to go visiting in your condition. Even if you took a car, it’s just not proper. You should be home, resting. We can go see Celeste and the baby when I return, when we have one of our own to show off. Harrison told me she isn’t taking visitors now, anyway. I think, after so many disappointments, she wants to make sure this baby is healthy and well before . . . well, you know what I’m trying to say.”
Addie could see the wisdom of this. They had just received word that Celeste had delivered, weeks ahead of schedule, but even Harrison wasn’t talking too much about it. Because of what happened with Clementine, Addie reasoned, they were in seclusion with this one, not wanting anyone to intrude on their all-too-fragile family. Addie understood the notion of holding something so precious closely, carefully, as though the idea of exposing this new little life to the outside world might cause it to flee from its harshness. She didn’t even know whether the new Connor baby was a boy or a girl. Ah well, she’d find out in time.
Truth be told, Addie was glad for the admonishment to stay home. She didn’t feel much like expending the effort to make a social call. She had been so tired for the past few days. Although she was trying to convince her husband not to worry about this trip, she was filled with trepidation about being left alone. She couldn’t forget that odd sensation when a voice inside her head had told her that she was in danger. Leave this place! Addie Stewart! Hear me! You are going to die on April 24 if you don’t do something about it! That date was but one week away.
It has to be some odd reaction to impending childbirth, Addie tried to tell herself. It was simply too horrible to be true. She could shrug it away; that voice in her head hadn’t recurred. She held Jess tightly and prayed to her great-grandmother’s spirit to give her peace. Now that he was leaving, she dreaded the lonely nights ahead.
“I’ll stay right here, reading by the fire,” Addie promised her husband. “I’ll not even go to the market. Nor to the library. I’ll simply count the days until you get home.”
“As will I,” Jess said to her.
Soon enough, he was gone to catch the train, and Addie felt very much alone in the house. She sat in the rocking chair, the one they had purchased for the baby, and rocked back and forth, back and forth, rubbing her belly and wondering.
Two days passed without incident, then three, then four. For Addie, the nights were filled with worry, but the days seemed soft and effortless and peaceful, as though the light of day evaporated the demons that arose when the sun went down.
Ginny, the maid from the Connor household, arrived faithfully at ten o’clock every day and did the washing, the cleaning, the marketing, and even most of the cooking, always setting a simmering pot of something on the stove for dinner when she left promptly at three. One day, she even brought a basket of hot bread, jam, and several books for Addie to read, with the Connors’ compliments. Her visits were enough company for Addie, who tired easily and wanted nothing more than to sit in her rocking chair, reading and staring at the wide expanse of water that lapped at the edges of their sloping backyard.
On the seventh day, Addie arose from her bed with great difficulty, letting out a monstrous moan as she heaved her body to its feet. She was more than ready for this baby to arrive, unwieldy and unbalanced as she felt now. She smiled as she thought that it had been only two weeks since she and Jess had trekked up the hill to the Connor mansion for dinner. There was no way she could have attempted that journey now.
Ginny arrived promptly at ten o’clock, filled with chatter about the town, the market, and the weather.
“Something’s in the air, Mrs. Stewart,” Ginny said as she was washing the supper dishes from the night before. “Amos at the market says all of the fishermen are staying off the lake today. Might be a storm, he says.”
Addie opened the kitchen door and stared down the long slope to the lake. There was a humidity in the air that was unusual for that time of year. Springtime in Wharton was usually a muddy, rainy affair, quite unlike spring in her hometown of Great Bay, which, although it was not so far away from Wharton, was typically still covered in a soggy, sloppy layer of snow in early April. Addie wasn’t quite used to the seasons in her new home, the warm winds of winter preventing much snow from accumulating, and the crisp zephyrs of summer sucking all the humidity out of the air.