Just Above a Whisper (51 page)

“Did you tell Maddie your suspicions?” Conner asked.

“No,” she answered, smiling a little. “I didn’t want to detract from her news, and we’re not sure yet.”

Conner gave her that skeptical look that she loved. Reese rolled toward him and looked into his eyes.

“You don’t know, Conner … not for sure.”

Conner kissed her nose.

“You might as well face facts, Reese Kingsley. You’re going to have a baby nine months from when we were married. It’s just like that for some couples.”

“People will think the worst.”

“Not people who know us, and that’s who really matters. If we had been trying to do something we shouldn’t, why did we court on the green, walking in the freezing cold for all the village to see? I didn’t make you my wife in that way until after the vows were said, and God knows that.”

“I like being your wife,” she said as she smiled into his eyes.

Conner didn’t say anything.

“You’re supposed to return the compliment,” she teased him.

But Conner was still quiet, and Reese misunderstood. “Is this one of those times when words come hard?” she asked compassionately.

“What are you talking about?” Conner frowned in confusion.

“Douglas told me. Right after you returned from Linden Heights, he came and said you wanted to talk to me but couldn’t find the words.”

Conner began to laugh and could not stop. His wife watched in confusion, a bemused smile on her face. It took some time, but eventually he was able to explain. Reese’s mouth opened.

“I did that? I poked you with the broom handle?”

“Yes.” Conner was still chuckling. “Our relationship at that time was not to a point of being able to explain it to you.”

“I’m sorry, Conner,” she said contritely. “I had no idea.”

“It was probably for the best.”

“Why do you say that?”

Conner had no trouble thinking back. “When I saw you in the kitchen that day, the only thing on my mind was telling you that I was back to marry you, and the sooner the better.”

“I wouldn’t have minded,” Reese confessed, and Conner took that as an invitation. He began to kiss her, but Reese was distracted.

“We’d better start thinking of names for the baby.”

“I can’t,” Conner barely got out, pretending that his voice was going.

“Is that right?” Reese was not fooled.

Conner touched his throat as though it would no longer work, and Reese, always delighted with him, laughed and slipped her arms around his neck. He was right: Names for the baby could wait.

Glossary

This glossary holds reminders from the first book, plus a few new ones. Enjoy!

      
   
Argand lamps:
I’m sorry this entry didn’t make it into the first book. Ami Argand was born in Switzerland in 1755. In 1784, he patented an oil lamp with a circular wick. This wick allowed air to all parts of the flame and made for more efficient burning.

      
   
bank notes:
coins were hard to come by at this time, so banks printed their own paper notes and folks used them for debts and purchases, treating them like real money.

      
   
bells:
New England towns had their own system for announcing when someone died—nine bells for a man, six for a woman, and three for a child, and then a bell for each year the person was alive.

      
   
buttery:
pronounced but’ry, it’s a room where dairy goods are worked into various products, cheese and butter making for example.

      
   
celebrating Christmas:
the influence of the Puritans was still very strong at this time, and they were against the celebration of Christmas.

      
   
deep in his cups:
drunk.

      
   
dinner:
the noon meal, always a full-blown affair.

      
   
donsie:
I’ve loved this word ever since I heard it on an
I Love Lucy
episode. I’m using it as Lucy did: slightly ill.

      
   
green:
also called the center or common, it’s the middle of town—a grass area where homes and shops sit in a square or rectangle. I know of one in Connecticut that’s a mile long.