“Your child won’t have a father, but he’ll have an uncle. I’ll help you raise him, Crissy.”
“Thank you, John!” Christina cried. She came over and stood behind his chair, wrapping her arms about his neck. “You’re so good to me, John, and I love you so.”
“Well, I still don’t like the idea of you sailing all by yourself. It’s not right.”
“You’re such a worrier. I’m sure nobody will bother me in my condition. As you can see, my baby is showing already,” she said, turning sideways to show him. “And by the time I reach London—why, I’ll be as big as an ox. I’ll take lots of material and yarn with me, and spend the whole voyage in my cabin making baby clothes. And when the ship docks in London, I’ll hire a coach to take me straight to Wakefield Manor. So you see, there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Well, at least let me write to Howard Yeats. He can meet your ship and escort you home.”
“There’s no time for that, John. My ship is the first one leaving. Your letter would arrive with me. And anyway, Howard and Kathren would probably insist I stay with them, and I don’t want to. I want to get home as soon as possible. I want to have time to turn that small guestroom next to mine into a nursery. I’ll have to put up new wallpaper, and a door to connect my room to the nursery, and—”
“Wait a minute, Crissy,” he interrupted her. “You’re going much too fast. What’s the matter with our old nursery? It was good enough for us.”
“John, do you know how far that old nursery is from my room? I intend to take care of my baby all by myself. I’ll be his mother, his nanny, and his nursemaid. It’s not as if I had a husband to devote half my time to. All I will have is my baby—all of my time will go to him.”
“You certainly have thought this all out,” John said. He was amazed how adept Christina had become at managing her own life. “Well, if you want your baby next to your room, that’s where he’ll go. But Johnsy won’t be happy that you want to care for him all by yourself.”
“Johnsy will understand once she knows the whole story. And I’ll still need her help,” Christina replied.
“Do you plan on telling Tommy everything, too?” John asked.
Christina hadn’t given a thought to Tommy.
“No—not everything, only what’s necessary.”
“You know he’s going to be hurt. Tommy wanted to marry you.”
“Yes. But I never loved him that way. Tommy will get over it. Perhaps he’s already found somebody else.”
John looked at her doubtfully. Tommy had cornered him before he and Crissy had gone to London. He had declared his love for Crissy and said he could never be happy with anyone else.
“You don’t really believe Tommy has found someone else, do you, Crissy? The boy loves you, and I think I can safely say that he’ll still want to marry you, despite the baby.”
“But I never felt that way about Tommy. I doubt I would have married him even if I’d never met Abu. He’s the only man I’ll ever love. He is lost to me, but I have his child and that’s all that matters. I don’t want to hurt Tommy, but I can’t marry him.”
“Well, perhaps you’ll feel differently about it later. But right now, I am more than late, little sister. There’s going to be hell to pay at the colonel’s office. I just hope he’ll understand and give me leave to take you to Alexandria,” John replied.
“I’m sure he will, John. If he doesn’t, then I’ll just have to talk with Mrs. Bigley.”
“The colonel won’t like you two women ganging up on him,” John laughed. He stood up and kissed Christina tenderly on the cheek. “I’ll try to come home early tonight, and we can talk more then.”
As soon as John left, Christina went to her bedroom to decide what she’d need to buy for her trip home. She rummaged through her wardrobe. All her clothes would fit in her two chests, but she’d have to buy another chest for the baby clothes she intended to make. And then she suddenly realized that all her tight-waisted clothes would be useless in a few weeks.
Christina laughed at herself for forgetting something so important. Now she’d have to buy yards and yards of material to make clothes for herself as well as the baby, and she would have to purchase two more chests.
“You certainly are going to be busy on this voyage, Christina!” she said aloud.
AWARM, FRESH breeze brushed against Christina’s face and played with her loose-fitting dress as she stood on deck holding onto the railing of the ship. She looked down at her protruding belly and smiled when she felt her baby’s forceful kick. His kicking and thrashing had become noticeable during the last month, and Christina loved every minute of it.
She’d been standing on deck for over an hour now. Her feet hurt terribly, but she wasn’t about to go back to her stuffy cabin—not with the shores of England before her.
The voyage had gone by so quickly and she had kept herself so busy that it seemed only yesterday that she’d said good-bye to John. She had cried a little and reminded him that in five months he, too, would be boarding a ship for home. She’d kissed and hugged Kareen, who had come with John to see her off.
“You take good care of yourself and the baby,” Kareen had said, then she, too, had started crying.
And now it was a clear, beautiful early summer morning in England. The passengers all crowded against the rail, happy that their journey was finally over.
Christina patted her belly and whispered softly, so no one else would hear, “We’ll be home soon, little Philip—very soon.”
