Chapter Nine
It was with a senseof great loss that Izzy said goodbye to Albert’s parents as they returned home to New York City. She was surprised at how close she felt to both of them after their visit.
She hadn’t expected to like his father at all, but she’d found him warm and kind. As they drove off, she had tears in her eyes, and she told Albert she wished they could stay longer, though she was surprised.
He’d put his arm around her and pulled her to him. “We’ll see them again. Perhaps next time, we can take the train to New York City.”
She smiled. “I’d like that a lot. I’ve never been anywhere but the little house we lived in and here.”
He shook his head. “I wish I could understand why your father kept you and your sisters under such careful control.”
“I don’t even care why,” she said softly. “The man was cruel, and I never even want to think about him.” She said the words with more passion than she’d shown in their months together, and he looked at her with surprise. She seemed to truly despise her father.
He hoped that she understood all men weren’t like him.
*****
IZZY AWOKE WITH A START, her stomach churning like a tempestuous sea. She clutched the edge of the bed, steadying herself against the waves of nausea that threatened to sweep her away. For several days now, sickness had greeted her at dawn, an unwelcome visitor persisting with cruel punctuality.
She rose and made her way to the washbasin. Splashing her face with water did little to ease the queasiness that knotted her insides. There was no more denying it. She needed answers, and the only place she could seek them was at the infirmary.
Dr. William Mercer, her brother-in-law, was already tending to a miner with a bandaged head by the time Izzy arrived. Dr. Mercer excused himself from his patient with a nod, his brow furrowed in concern as he caught sight of Izzy’s pallor.
After Izzy described her symptoms to William, he told her, “You’re expecting.”
The words were meant to be joyous, but they landed like stones in Izzy’s stomach. A baby. Her mind raced with the implications, the weight of responsibility, the fear of the unknown. Most of all, there was Albert, her husband, whose world seemed so distant from the one she inhabited.
She left the infirmary with her secret cradled close to her heart, the knowledge of life growing inside her made her both hopeful and frightened. As she walked through the quiet streets, the town of Hope Springs carried on unaware, its residents caught in the throes of their daily struggles for survival within the confines of a world that demanded resilience.
Back at home, she watched Albert from across the room. She only felt close to him at night, in the privacy of their bedroom. Would he welcome the child as a blessing or see it as a burden? Could she carve out a place for herself in his life that was more than just a convenient arrangement?
For now, she held her silence, allowing the truth to simmer within her as she contemplated the future. The decision to wait was hers alone. It felt good to be in control of something, and when she told him she was pregnant was something she could easily control.
*****
THE NEEDLE DIPPED ANDrose, swift as the swallows that skirted the eaves of Ana’s home. Izzy’s fingers worked with a quiet urgency, stitching tiny garments for an infant that fate had deposited on Ana’s doorstep like a parcel with no return address. Lillian, they had named her, a moniker plucked from the air as though it had always been destined for the child with no history.
“Every baby deserves a fresh start,” Ana had murmured. They sat side by side, the rhythm of their sewing a silent pact against the chaos that brewed beyond these walls. “We have asked and can’t find where she came from, so we’re going to keep her. After seeing so many childbirths, I don’t want children of my own.”
Yet, as the sisters created, Albert dismantled. The clink of coin and scratch of quill on paper echoed through his study, each signature severing ties to the empire he’d built. His ledger lay open, its columns a testament to an existence measured in profits and losses. But the numbers held no sway over him now. They were just figures numbers. He’d proven to his father that he could be a successful businessman, and now he was ready to go on with his life as he wanted.
“Albert, are you certain about this?” Charles asked, looking concerned.
“Certainty is a luxury of the naive,” Albert replied, not looking up from the document he was signing. “I’ve seen myself through my father’s eyes—a businessman without a cause. A puppet dancing on inherited strings.”
“But your businesses—they’re your life’s work.”
“Work that holds no meaning,” Albert said. “Let them go. I’m tired of living to please someone else.”
No one seemed to understand Albert’s need to sell the businesses and live life the way he wanted to live, but he had a feeling Izzy would understand. He couldn’t think of anyone’s opinion who would matter more to him.
*****
“ALBERT IS SELLING ALLhis businesses.” Izzy told her sisters as they sewed with Lillian in her cradle.
“Will he be all right?” Ana asked.
“I think so,” Izzy responded, her thoughts straying to the baby she carried. “Or perhaps we are all just pieces on a board, moved by hands we cannot see.” She shook her head. “Sometimes I feel like I’m a character in a novel, and the writer spends all his time thinking about ways to torment me.”
