“Move aside,” young Abigail Hobbs said as she pushed her way up to the window. “You’re taking all the light and fresh air.”
There were eighteen women in a room that should only hold four at most. Three of them were so ill they could not rise from their pallets on the ground, including Rachel Howlett. The blankets Grace had brought were the only thing they rested upon.
I went to Rachel now as she sat with her back against the wall, her head down and her knees drawn up. She grimaced.
“Rachel? How fare you today?”
She looked up at me, and there was both fear and resignation in her blue-eyed gaze. “The pains have started.”
I knelt beside her and put my hand on her knee. Guilt suffocated me when I thought about how Rachel had ended up here. If she hadn’t come to the ordinary, Father and Susannah wouldn’t have known about her. She had come because she was desperate—yet she had found no sanctuary in our home, only condemnation.
“How long have they been paining you?”
“Only an hour or so.” She grasped my hand, anguish in her gaze. “Promise me you’ll take care of my baby if something should happen to me. See that she’s brought to my mother in Sandwich.”
“I promise,” I said without hesitation, though what could I do if I was still in the gaol? “But you will survive to care for thebaby on your own. There has been no talk of another hanging since the last.”
“’Tis only a matter of time.”
“Then I will pray for God’s peace to surround and comfort you.”
What used to sound like a platitude had become my constant prayer for myself and for those who were incarcerated. And He had been a comfort, whether through Grace and Isaac’s visits, the kind words of an inmate, or even in the thoughts that occupied my mind. I’d found a measure of peace, though I’d like to be anywhere else but here.
“Hope?” Grace called from the bars at the door.
My heart leapt at the sound of her voice.
“I’ll be back to help you,” I promised Rachel. “Tell me if you need me sooner.”
She nodded as she bent her head, grimacing with more pain.
I went to the window, where the crossed bars were so small, they didn’t even allow a hand to slip through.
“Grace,” I said, my tears ever-present. As much as I had insisted I should be the one in this gaol, I had not anticipated the horrors of its reality. “Is Isaac here?”
“He is.” She nodded. “He’s speaking to the gaoler.”
“Rachel’s pains have started,” I said. “The babe will come soon.”
Grace’s empathy softened her gaze, and she nodded. “I’ve made some things for the baby. Cloth diapers, a sleeping gown, and warm slippers. I hope it will be enough for now.”
“It will be better than what we have.” I glanced behind me to see if anyone stood close, then turned back to Grace, a different topic foremost in my mind. “Did you meet Tacy?” I whispered.
Grace’s smile transcended this time and place as she nodded. “She was so surprised. You’re so much like her, Hope. In almost every way.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“’Tis wonderful.” Her smile did not dim. “She’s married and has three beautiful daughters who are eighteen, seventeen, and fifteen. There’s so much to tell you, but I can’t—”
“I know.” There were too many people who might hear. Everything we said had to be said carefully. “What about the flight?” I whispered. “Did you make it?”
“I did—and we wired the payment to Washington. The building belongs to Mama and Daddy forever. They’ll have nothing to worry about.”
Relief overwhelmed me, and I grasped at the bars with my fingers, wanting to weep with joy. “Thank you, Grace. I will sleep easier.”
I wanted to ask her about Luc, but I couldn’t bring myself to mention him. My jealousy and resentment had subsided, but a new fear had developed. Would Grace choose Luc over me?
Isaac appeared in the small courtyard with the gaoler. He saw me behind the window, and a tender smile tilted his lips. My heart leapt at seeing him, just as it had leapt at hearing Grace’s voice. The fact that he came each day and brought my sister was a testament to his love for me—a love he had finally professed in the upstairs room of the ordinary. I had thought about that profession—and his passionate kiss—every day since. On cold, lonely nights, it warmed me more than the blankets they’d brought.
