A Lantern in the Window by Bobby Hutchinson

Author:Bobby Hutchinson [hutchinson, bobby]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: historical romance, Romance, mail order bride, deafness, christmas romance, canadian prairie, Historical Fiction, Sisters, western romance
Amazon: B009THHHF6
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

By mid-June, summer had come to the prairies.

One afternoon Annie looked at Bets and saw that she was blooming like one of the wild roses she’d just picked and put in a jar on the table. The good food and clean air had done exactly what Annie had prayed they would. The cough that had plagued Bets for more than two years was gone, and her painfully thin body was showing the first timid signs of a bosom and hips.

It was a busy time on the farm. Calves were being born, Noah was finishing the last of the spring planting, the early lettuce and radishes Annie had planted in the garden at the back of the house were up, and the kitchen door stood open to catch the fragrant evening breeze.

Annie drew in deep draughts of the warm, fresh air and prayed that she wouldn’t throw up again.

"What is wrong with you?” Bets’s hands flew, her brow furrowed with worry over her big sister. "Everyday, sick, sick, all the time. Maybe you go to see doctor, yes? I worry over you,” she added plaintively, wrapping her arms around Annie. "I love you,” she added, pulling away enough so Annie could see the sign.

“I love you too.” Annie returned the hug, fighting against the nausea that made her stomach churn. She was in the midst of making supper, and she'd had to run to the shed twice in the past hour.

It was a time of new beginnings, and for the past week, Annie had been fairly certain she was pregnant.

It had taken her a while to figure out what was wrong with her. What had confused her was that Elinora had written that the natural order of such things was to be sick in the morning and miss her monthly.

Instead, Annie had been fine every morning and miserably sick in the afternoons. Her monthly came for a day and went away, came for another and went away, in fits and starts.

She was going to have to tell Noah. Her hands knotted into fists. How would he react when he found out?

The thought of telling him weighed heavily on her. Not that she feared his temper, although she knew he had one. She’d seen him furiously angry at times, when a renegade wolf killed one of the best milk cows, and when the Medicine Hat Times reported some new insanity the politicians had decreed law.

She’d also witnessed the gentleness in him, with a sick newborn calf, and always with her sister. From the very first, he’d made a real effort to learn Bets’s sign language. And with his father, Noah was unfailingly thoughtful and kind.

Annie knew also the depths of his passion and the intensity of his loving; not once had he taken her without thought of her pleasure. Indeed, he’d taught her to want him, to need as terribly as he that physical joining.

But he’d been most deliberate about preventing babies. Without ever saying a word, he made it clear each time they loved that he absolutely didn’t want a child with her.

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