"Rachel just pats my sleeve and whispers Patience, whenever she notices my frustration. Damn, maybe it's this blasted fog that's depressing everyone. I'm lucky my horse knows the way to Williamsburg, for I'd not find the place on my own."
"You're careful, aren't you?"
"Yes, Lord knows what would happen to Melissa, if anything happened to me."
Not liking the morbid turn of their conversation, Alanna slid off the barrel and went to the open door, but all she saw was the gray mist that had rolled off the river and clung to the earth for nearly a week. The tobacco crop had all been harvested, and the leaves were drying in the curing sheds out of the reach of the dampness, but she wasn't immune to the chill and shivered slightly.
"You're getting cold. Hurry on back to the house. Melissa probably won't get out of bed today. I appreciate how much time you spend with her. I haven't thanked you enough."
"She's been good company to me all these years. I don't mind."
"Thank you, anyway."
Ian leaned down to brush her cheek with a light kiss. His touch was as sweet as Graham's: warm, friendly, but nothing more. Finished passing out apples, Alanna returned to the house. She and Melissa had begun having breakfast together, and she carried their tray up to the green room. Melissa had brushed out her curls, but left them falling free rather than styling them atop her head and covering them with a cap.
"You look wonderful. How do you feel?" Alanna asked brightly.
"Like one of the dairy cows ready to have twins."
"Wouldn't twins be fun?"
"Only if you were to have them." Repelled by the idea, Melissa hurled her sterling silver-handled hairbrush toward the dresser. The edge caught the corner of the mirror, and both girls jumped at the sharp report as it cracked. "Oh, no, now look what I've done. The day's barely begun and already I've ruined it."
Alanna left the breakfast tray on the nightstand and went to the dresser. "You mustn't be so melodramatic. You've scarcely ruined the whole day. Look, when I rearrange your perfumes and lotions, the crack doesn't even show."
"The mirror's ruined, Alanna. Tell mother we need a new one."
Alanna wasn't used to being ordered about, but she curbed the impulse to tell Melissa to do it herself. "If I think of it later—which I probably won't—I will. Now let's have breakfast before the eggs get cold."
When handed her plate, Melissa took a couple of bites, then lost interest in food. "I'm not hungry."
"Well, I am."
"That's right. Go ahead and eat all you want. You'll not end up being as wide as a cow."
Readily sharing Ian's frustration, Alanna had finally heard enough. "You don't even remotely resemble a cow, Melissa. Your skin has a vibrant, healthy glow and you've never been prettier, but must you be so insufferably conceited? Don't you realize you're making everyone miserable with your constant complaints? You're having a baby, not dying of some dreaded disease. Why can't you be happy about it? Whatever became of the blanket you were knitting, did you finish it?"
"No."
"Or the booties?"
"No."
"Well, why don't you work on them today?" Alanna reached for Melissa's plate and placed it on the tray. "Stay in your nightgown if you want, but let's go downstairs."
"No, I want to stay here."
Alanna sat down on the edge of the bed. "If you don't care about the rest of us, have you stopped for even a minute to consider what you're doing to Ian?"
Fearing the worst of complications, Melissa was chilled to the marrow by that question. She clutched the sheets as she sat forward. "What do you mean? What has he said to you? Tell me."
Alarmed, Alanna quickly apologized. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you so badly. All I meant was that he's worried about you. More than any of us, he wants you to be happy."
"Happy," Melissa whispered. When had she last been truly happy? Perhaps it had been at their wedding, when the wretched pretense that had become her life had been so much easier to maintain. As if able to read her thoughts, the babe kicked her, but she didn't need to be reminded of his presence. She prayed daily for a daughter with her fair coloring and blue eyes, but the male child who appeared in her dreams was as dark as his father. Alanna had begun to eye her with a peculiar stare, and she couldn't abide that.
"I do think of Ian, constantly, but I just wasn't ready to have a child so soon."
"But you were so excited at first."