For All Time (Nantucket Brides 2)

“Yes, please do.”

When she went to the desk to stand beside him, he put his arms around her waist and pulled her to him, his head against her growing belly.

“I love you,” he whispered. “Here and now in this place and time of great freedom, I can bare my soul to you. Toby, I love you.” When he looked up at her, his dark eyes were glistening with what looked to be tears.

She took his head in her hands and kissed his forehead. “I love you now, I love you then, and I will love you for all time.”

For a moment he buried his face against her stomach, then abruptly he turned away and wiped his eyes. Without looking at her, he handed her the paper he’d brought.

Toby’s hand shook as she took it. She’d only read it once before and she didn’t relish doing it again. She took a breath. “Start it with ‘My dear Garrett,’ ” she said, then reluctantly read the horrible letter again.

Garrett was so worried about his beloved Tabby that he hired a Dr. Hancock to come from Boston. He feared that the local midwife—of twenty years’ experience—would not know what to do if aught went wrong. While Tabby’s labor went on for hours, the doctor said he could not wait all night just for a baby to get born. He used forceps on her before her body was ready. Of course etiquette declared that he could not look at what he was doing so he used the steel monster blindly. He caught part of Tabby’s womb with them, and when the baby was born, he pulled her insides out with it. He must have used too much strength as the baby died instantly, its little head crushed. While Tabby was screaming from pain, the doctor bled her profusely to make her calm down. As the odious man hurried off to catch the last ferry, he said that death was in the hands of God and that he’d certainly done all he could to save both of them. As Tabby faded away, we told her the baby was happily sleeping. She died with her silent infant in her arms, never knowing the truth.

No one has the heart to tell Garrett that the doctor killed his wife and son. With his temper he’d go after the man. I can tell you that no woman on this island cares what happens to the doctor, but we do not want to see Garrett hanged.

Toby wanted to go with Graydon when he went out to spread the word, but she was attacked with such a severe case of pregnancy sleepiness that she was swaying on her feet.

Seeing it, he smiled. “You and our baby need to sleep,” he said as he led her to the bed.

“But I want to help.” Toby could hardly keep her eyes open. “And what if I wake up at home and you’re still here and—”

Graydon kissed her to silence. “Ssssh. I’m sure I’ll be there soon afterward.” He helped her to lie down on the bed. “Just rest.”

Her eyes closed even though she tried to keep them open, but she held on to his hand. “What are you going to do?” she asked.

“First, I’m going to find the local potter.”

Her eyes fluttered in alarm. “Promise me that you’ll protect Garrett.”

“I will,” he whispered, then kissed her again and held her hand as long as he could as he went toward the door.

Toby heard the door clos

e but she didn’t look up. As her body was settling into sleep, images ran through her mind. Victoria in her green silk suit at Alix’s wedding, Valentina in her low-cut dress at Parthenia’s wedding. Dr. Huntley’s face floated through her mind. What was it he said?

Toby didn’t open her eyes but her mind became a bit more alert as she began to remember. “Both Valentina and Parthenia were there with her.” That’s what Caleb said.

Her eyes fluttered. “Tell the women.” The words were in her head in … in Jilly’s voice. “Tell the women.” Graydon had said he was going to tell the head of the family, Caleb, but he was a man. And who knows what men would do? When Tabby went into labor he might be on a long fishing trip and return after it was all over.

As Toby pulled herself up to a sitting position, she kept trying to come out of her sleepiness. She put her hands on her hard, round belly. “I know you are very young but, kid, if you want to be born, you need to wake us up.”

It took a few minutes, but Toby was finally able to open her eyes. She took a few deep breaths and began to feel herself becoming more alert. When she swung her legs off the bed she gasped because the baby kicked her.

For a moment she sat on the side of the bed, her hands on her stomach and smiling. “You’re like your father, aren’t you? You’re ready to do battle to help people. All right, my dear child, let’s go find the women.”

She made it down the stairs to the empty ground floor and out the front door. Lightning was flashing in the sky but there was no rain yet. She hurried over to Kingsley House where the wedding was still going strong. She had yet to find out whose it was.

The first person she saw was Valentina sitting in a corner with Captain Caleb. Their heads were close together and they were whispering like lovers. Toby wished she knew more about their history so she could tell them about their futures. Didn’t the captain go down on a ship? But that was when Garrett was with him. If Garrett didn’t go, maybe the captain wouldn’t either.

The baby kicked again, seeming to remind Toby to stay on the issue. Valentina wasn’t the one to tell. She was too absorbed in the captain to pay attention to anything else.

Jilly—Parthenia—was sitting on a window seat cushion by herself, a cup of punch in her hand, and watching the dancers. “Tabby,” she said, smiling. “I thought you went to bed.”

“I did,” Toby said, her mind racing to think of how to present the problem without talking about time travel, reincarnation, or other taboo subjects. “I had a very bad dream. A nightmare that was so very real.” Toby then proceeded to tell everything she knew about that night in the birthing room. She told of the doctor being in such a hurry to get away to catch the last ferry, that he used the “steel monster.”

Since everything had actually happened to poor Tabitha Weber Kingsley, Toby wasn’t far into the story before she began to cry. Parthenia put her arm around Toby and gave her a handkerchief, but she didn’t interrupt.

A few people came over to ask what was wrong, but Parthenia waved them away. When Toby finished her story, Parthenia led her out of the room, past the dancers, through the little service porch at the side of the house, then out into the cool, dark night. “No doctor will touch you,” Parthenia said. “I swear it.” She was leading Toby out toward the lane. “Now I want you to rest. It’s not good for your baby to be so frightened. If you are scared, so is he.”