The Shaker Murders by Eleanor Kuhns

Author:Eleanor Kuhns [Eleanor Kuhns]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2018-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

‘We must talk about a name,’ Lydia said after a few seconds. Rees nodded, fighting to contain his emotions. He had not expected to react so powerfully.

‘Can I hold her? I want to hold her,’ Jerusha said, stretching out her arms. Rees turned his new daughter upright and brushed his lips across her soft, fine hair, unwilling to relinquish her. Lydia frowned at him. Exhaling with annoyed reluctance, he put the baby into Jerusha’s arms. She bent over the child, crooning wordlessly.

‘Come and sit by me,’ Lydia said to Rees, looking up at him and beaming. He lifted a chair down from the wall and pushed it up close. ‘I wanted to know if you’ve discovered anything new about Calvin,’ Lydia said, dropping her voice to a soft murmur. ‘I feel for that poor boy.’ Her voice thickened and she passed a hand over her eyes. ‘I’m sorry, I seem to cry so readily right now.’

‘That is entirely normal,’ Bernadette said as she washed her hands in the basin. She turned a warm smile on the new mother. ‘And it will last for a while, maybe even as much as a month or more.’ Lydia acknowledged the midwife with a nod and looked back at Rees.

He shook his head. ‘Nothing so far,’ he admitted.

‘I wonder if you shouldn’t speak to Brother Aaron again?’ Lydia said. ‘He knew Calvin best. I know it seems unbelievable, but Aaron treated the boy with kindness and patience. Maybe Calvin said or did something that Aaron doesn’t realize is important, but …’ Her voice trailed away as she looked at Rees.

‘I’ll do that,’ he said. ‘I find myself at a standstill. And while I can conceive of any number of reasons for the murder of a man, I can hardly imagine what kind of threat a disabled fourteen-year-old boy could offer. Even if he saw something, he could barely communicate.’ The burn of anger Rees always experienced when he thought of Calvin’s death swept through him. Calvin was an innocent.

‘I want to hold her.’ Simon’s voice rose into a shout. ‘I want a turn.’

‘Now, children,’ Rees said, jumping to his feet so hastily the chair fell over. He did not want to chance seeing the new baby dropped. But Bernadette had the situation well in hand. She pressed Simon into a chair and moved the baby from Jerusha’s arms to Simon’s.

‘She’s heavy,’ he remarked.

‘A good seven or eight pounds,’ Bernadette said, as proudly as though the child was her own.

‘I want another turn,’ Jerusha said.

‘You’ll have plenty of time to hold her,’ Esther said, speaking for the first time. She had pressed herself against the wall.

‘It’s time for all of you to leave and let your mother rest,’ Bernadette said.

‘Let them stay a few minutes longer,’ Lydia said. ‘I won’t see much of them for a day or two.’

‘Longer than that. Not until you’re strong enough to walk outside,’ Esther said. Her eyes went to Rees. ‘I doubt he will be given permission to visit again, and anyway he’ll have to leave when the Sisters begin returning.

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