“Don’t make our agreement be anything less than my decision, Roen. It diminishes me if you think that you being here is in some way against my will.”
“Then I stand corrected.” He took out cups and saucers. “Should I check on Lizzie? She was reading to her doll when I came in but she’s awfully quiet now.”
“You sit,” she told him again. “I’ll go.”
Roen sat. He thought about the kiss and wondered if Lily knew the bundling blankets were going to be permanently unbundled. She might feel differently about that when she heard what he had to say. “What’s she doing?” he asked when Lily returned.
“Napping. She had a busy morning helping me with the laundry. She scrubbed the socks. Apparently she likes the sound they make against the washboard.” She expected Roen would smile at that. He often did when it came to Lizzie. What he did, though, was pick up one of the empty cups and turn it around in his hands. She knew something was coming. She just didn’t know what that something was.
“Victorine is pregnant.” His eyes lifted to Lily. To her credit, she didn’t gasp, although there was no color in her face when she finally breathed again. “She says I’m the father. I don’t believe her, and I told her that. Our conversation didn’t last all that long. I left most of my eggs and grits on the plate. I was late getting here because I went for a walk after I left the hotel, not with any destination in mind, just to turn down the slow boil to a simmer.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“Do? Nothing.”
“But there’s a child.”
“Not mine.”
She frowned. “But could it be?” His hesitation gave her the answer. “I see. You can’t do nothing, Roen. That’s not a choice. If you think it is, then you need to walk some more.”
“What is it that you think she wants, Lily?”
“I’m not sure. Money?”
“Her father is one of the robber barons. She claims he will cut her off if she doesn’t give up the baby, but I know her grandmother settled a fortune on her that is no longer in trust. She will hardly be destitute no matter what she decides.”
“Then?”
“She wants marriage.”
Now Lily gasped.
“Right,” he said. “I told her I was married and left. I don’t know what she’ll do now.”
“So this marriage of ours has served its purpose.”
“I wouldn’t put that in the past tense.”
“Serving its purpose, then.”
“Yes. You’re saving me.”
“Hmm.” Lily removed the kettle from the stove and poured hot water into the teapot. She put the kettle back but did not sit. “I don’t know how I feel about that. If I’d known there was a child, I wouldn’t have agreed.”
“If I’d known about the child, I wouldn’t have asked, but child or no, I would never agree to marry Victorine.”
Lily stared at the floor, nodded slowly. “The child will be a bastard. That won’t be easy for her.”
“Him,” said Roen. “Victorine thinks it will be a boy.”
“Please. Don’t say foolish things. You know that’s the least of it.”
“I apologize. You’re right. I’m still simmering.”
She surprised herself by saying, “Jeremiah used to simmer.”
Roen looked up from pouring his tea to see if she would say more. It took some time for her to go on, but his patience was eventually rewarded.
