More silence reigned over the pretty new blue-and-green room until Kendra caught her breath.“Oh my God, that’s wonderful!”she gushed, wondering if it really was wonderful.
“Is it?”Cait’s voice sounded strained.“I’m forty-three.Jamie’s fourteen years old.”
“But you’re having a babe.How can a babe not be wonderful?”Long past pacing, Amy plopped to sit on her other side.
Violet knelt at Cait’s feet.“And you’re healthy,” she added.“What does Jason think?”
“He doesn’t know.”
“What?”they all repeated.
“I just figured it out this morning—God’s truth, I counted the days on my calendar seven times before I believed it.There were other signs, but it still seemed it couldn’t be true.”Cait dropped her head and covered her face with her hands.“Now I’m afraid to tell him,” came muffled through her fingers.“I’m going to wait till after Christmas.”
“Oh, no,” Kendra said, wrapping an arm around Cait’s shoulders.“You must tell him now.It’s not fair to keep news like this to yourself.”
“I cannot.I…I just cannot.Every time I think of doing so, I feel like I’m going to boak.”
“To what?”
“To boak.To puke, to vomit, to—”
“That’s the morning sickness,” Amy interrupted.She wrapped an arm around Cait, too.“For heaven’s sake, why should you be scared to tell him?”
Cait’s hands dropped to her lap, but her words were still directed there.“He wants to travel to Scotland next summer, just the two of us—he’s so happy that our lads are finally old enough for us to leave them.He was planning to ask you and Colin if Adam and James could stay with you for a month next year—” Breaking off, she looked up at Amy.
“Of course.Of course they are welcome to stay at Greystone anytime.I’d be pleased to have them, and I’m sure Colin would be, too.”
“But can’t you see?We cannot do that with a new bairn!We cannot travel to Scotland in July with a bairn due in August or September.Twenty years he’s waited for this, and we’ll be restarting that count from one!He’s so happy now, and he’ll be so upset.I cannot tell him now—I just cannot!I cannot ruin his Christmas.”
Violet reached up to grab her hands and hold them tight.“You have to tell him, Cait.You must, and not only because it’s the right thing to do.Keeping this secret and dreading his response will ruinyourChristmas.”
“And his response will be a relief.”Kendra squeezed Cait’s shoulder.“I know my brother—he won’t be upset.He’ll be happy.”
“You think so, aye?”Cait snorted.“The last time the possibility of another child was mentioned, he called the notion acalamity.”
The other three women exchanged glances.“I’m sure he didn’t mean it the way it sounds,” Amy said carefully.
“I’m sure, too,” Kendra added.“A new babe, Cait…it’s a blessing.Maybe you’ll finally have your girl.”
A shaky laugh escaped Cait’s lips.“Somehow I doubt I’ll be that lucky.”
“But you’ll tell him, won’t you?For your sake as well as his.It’s tearing you up inside—I can tell.You cannot keep this from him.”
“Today,” Amy added.“You must tell him today.”
“Very well.”Cait swallowed hard.“I’ll tell him.”
“Today?”Violet pressed.
“Today.”
Eight
Colin
“IT FITS,”Jason said when the men had finished wrestling the Yule Log into the drawing room’s huge fireplace.
“I told you it would.”Ford wiped his hands on his breeches.“When will you all learn to trust my ability to judge area?Perhaps by the next century?”
