Becca's Baby

“Then what was he doing out here?” Betty asked, taking notes furiously, in spite of the fact that Janice had her facts written down.

Over-organized as usual, Betty was their team captain. She was compiling all the information and would be writing the actual biography that was going to be printed in a special edition of Shelter Valley’s newspaper. One of Becca’s friends would use Betty’s compilation to write a play about Montford’s life that was going to be performed—they hoped by Becca’s Save the Youth kids—during the Fourth of July celebration.

“As I said, he married Clara, and brought her to the Montford mansion to live. But she was right. The family and their friends refused to accept her.” Janice was reciting by rote, not even looking down at the typed pages in front of her. “And when she got pregnant, the family and close friends really went through the roof. They couldn’t stand what they called ‘the dilution of Montford blood.”’

“So he brought her out here?” Rose asked, completely attentive for once.

“No.” Janice shook her head, glanced down at her page, then back up again. “Shortly after she had her baby, a little boy, she and the baby were attacked while out on a stroll. They both died.”

“Oh, God,” Betty said, her pen suspended above the pad of paper.

Sari had known something pretty bad must have driven Samuel out west. But she’d never guessed it was anything this heartbreaking.

“His family did that to him?” Rose asked, shocked.

Watching her, Sari was flooded with warmth, with love, for her sweet, zany, busybody mother. Regardless of her idiosyncrasies and preoccupations, family was everything to Rose.

And because of her, it was everything to her daughters, as well.

“According to his journal, Samuel couldn’t bring himself to believe that a Montford was responsible. He blamed their deaths on a society that just wasn’t ready for interracial marriage. But he was devastated by his family’s lack of grief or even sympathy for his loss. Only he and a few of his university friends attended the burials. That was the last day he wrote in that journal.”

“No wonder he wanted to escape,” Sari murmured, linking the man she’d come to know with the story she’d just heard.

Choked up, she felt the familiar grief slide over her and wished Becca was there to help pull her out. Sari could feel Samuel’s pain as though it was her own. She knew only too well how devastating it was to lose a child.

Excusing herself, she made a beeline for the bathroom and a cold compress. She’d had enough history for one day. But unlike other days when the darkness was debilitating, it took only minutes for Sari to start feeling strong again. Strong enough to march out and tell her sisters that she had an appointment to keep and get herself out into the healing Arizona sunshine.

They barely noticed her departure.

She wasn’t coming to another Wednesday meeting without Becca.

Whatever was bothering her absent sister would either come out tonight when Sari visited and called her on her lame excuse for missing lunch, or Sari was going to Will. Though no one else seemed to have a clue, she knew something was wrong with Becca. And that frightened her.

AFTER HER SECOND physical exam in a week, Becca was beginning to feel as though her body wasn’t hers anymore. Pulling into the driveway on Wednesday evening, she couldn’t seem to work up any real steam over the loss.

She’d seen her doctor, as Will had asked. Though Will didn’t know it yet, she also had another appointment at the clinic in Tucson on Friday.

But for now, for tonight and tomorrow, she was a free woman. Free not to think about the problems facing her. The heartache could wait. She’d done all she could do until the end of the week.

There was a note from Will on the refrigerator. He was grabbing something to eat at the university before his board meeting that evening. Becca was okay with that, too, especially since he’d barely spoken to her in the past week. Having the house to herself for one night would be a relief.

Besides, Sari was coming over.

Becca had already changed into a pair of jeans and T-shirt and had just popped a frozen dinner into the microwave when she heard Sari’s knock at the back door.

“Just in time for cabbage rolls,” she greeted her younger sister.

“You look good!” Sari said, sounding surprised. She kissed Becca’s cheek as she passed by.

“I feel good,” Becca answered, amazing herself with the truth. After weeks of anguish, she’d called a truce. She wasn’t going to think about Will. She wasn’t going to think about the other problem facing her. She needed some distance, a complete break, or she’d fall apart.

“You look wonderful!” Becca said, studying her sister for the first time. Sari had gotten her hair cut, short and sassy, the way she used to wear it. She was in jeans and a black angora sweater, loose enough to hide the fact that Sari had lost way too much weight.

“I had my hair done this afternoon,” Sari said, shrugging. The microwave beeped and Sari followed Becca, peering over her sister’s shoulder.

They decided together that the cabbage rolls were ready.

“Mmm, they smell delicious,” Sari said, dipping her finger into the tomato sauce.