Page 34

T wenty- T hree

Zane prowled the office like a caged cougar. Restless, prone to snarling, and dangerous for anyone who might try and stop him or even draw his attention.

“I can’t believe I’m not allowed to stay with my wife while she brings our child into the world.”

Tilda closed her eyes, hardly able to listen to the man say the same thing over and over.

“There was some mention of you ... um, fainting. I believe Ellie’s words were that she didn’t have time to tend to you and your wife at the same time.

They dragged you, unconscious, into the hall.

Brody called down for us to fetch you, then slammed the door on you.

I heard him propping a chair under the doorknob so you couldn’t get back in. ”

“I didn’t faint, for heaven’s sake. Men don’t faint.”

“Swooned?” Josh suggested.

“Vapors is what I’d call it.” Cord snickered quietly.

“I passed out for a few seconds. It was a little upsetting is all.”

“They shoved you into the hall, laid out like a corpse.” Lock had joined them and now sat on the floor with a sleeping Caroline in his arms.

Cord had come to sit beside him and offered to take a turn holding her.

Lock handed the little girl over. “We should probably carry her up to bed soon.”

Thayne shook his head. “Aunt Annie said there might be some hollering before the baby comes.”

Zane, who was pacing, stopped, then sat down suddenly. Everyone watched him.

“I say if he gets another fit of the vapors, we let him drop to the floor and leave him there to sleep,” Josh said as he eyed Zane, whose face had gone white. Yet the word vapors seemed to get his gumption up.

The telegraph started tapping. No one bothered to check it.

They’d sent a wire to Michelle’s family, who stayed in a mansion on top of their own mountain through the logging season.

It was a short telegraph since none of them were much on Morse code.

Mayhew had used the written-out code Michelle left by the telegraph machine and had taken forever to tap out the message: michelle in labor .

A storm of writing had come back.

Michelle did the most work with the telegraph machine. The rest of them could neither read the incoming messages nor respond with their own. Mayhew did manage to write the message a second time.

Michelle came from a family of genius women, or so Tilda had been told. Everyone claimed they were rational women who knew how to think things through. Tilda hoped they figured out Michelle wasn’t available to respond and didn’t panic.

Josh said quietly, “Michelle’s ma and her two married sisters are all up on the mountaintop, where their small army of lumberjacks are working.

They’ve got a mansion there, another one in San Francisco where they live during the winter.

They often come for a visit in cold weather.

Or we go into town to see them. They’ll probably come and stay here for a time when logging shuts down for the season.

Laura, Michelle’s younger sister, had a baby girl two months ago while Michelle and Zane were up there.

Jilly, the middle sister, is expecting.”

A door opened upstairs, followed by the sound of footsteps, giving Zane enough energy to get to his feet. Annie came down with a bundle in her arms. She looked at Zane, who rushed over to her. “It’s a girl.”

He pulled the blanket aside to look at the little one, who squalled and waved her arms wildly. A smile that was pure glory broke out on Zane’s face. He looked up at Annie. “How’s Michelle?”

Annie smiled back, and a single tear ran down her face. “She’s absolutely perfect. Brody said to give him just a few more minutes with her before you come upstairs.”

“Was it like this for you when Caroline was born, the miracle of it all?”

A second tear rolled down Annie’s face as she nodded. “It’s wonderful beyond belief, Zane. A baby is a miracle right up there with the parting of the Red Sea.”

The others quickly moved to see the baby for the first time.

“C-can I hold her?” Zane touched one of the little waving hands with one of his work-roughened fingers.

“You know how to hold a newborn. You were around often enough when Caroline was born.” Annie glanced at her own daughter. Her eyes widened in surprise to see her sleeping in Cord’s arms. “Thank you for watching over her.”

“My pleasure, Annie.” Their gazes met for a second too long before Cord looked down at Caroline, and Annie looked back at her bundle.

She eased the newborn into Zane’s arms. She was vigilant until she was sure Zane had a good hold. Then she stepped back.

“Zane, come on up. Michelle’s ready to have company now,” Ellie called from the top of the stairs. “Bring the baby.”

“Have you named her yet?” Annie asked. She rested one hand on Zane’s back, the other on his arm as she leaned in and smiled at the baby.

“Not yet. We decided we wanted to meet her first.”

“This reminds me so much of when Caroline was born. There is no more precious, sacred moment than when you welcome your child into the world.” She gave Zane a kiss on the cheek, then patted his back. “Go on up.”

Zane smiled and headed up the stairs with the baby.

“We can risk putting Caroline to bed now.” Annie went to Cord and reached for her daughter.

Cord seemed reluctant to let the little girl go. “She’s an armful. I’ll carry her upstairs for you.”

Annie stepped back but with some hesitation, as if she didn’t know whether to go forward or back. “Thank you,” she finally said.

Cord followed her upstairs to the room where Caroline slept with Annie.

Tilda watched them ascend.

Annie adjusted the bandage left from Cord banging his head on that shield. “I should check this for you.”

Tilda couldn’t hear Cord’s response.

Ellie had gone into the room with Zane, but moments after Cord and Annie had gone past the door, Ellie came out and Brody followed, rolling his sleeves down.

When they reached the bottom of the steps, Brody studied the group crowded around him. “Michelle is fine.”

“We sent a telegram to her family.” Josh clapped Brody on the back. “They wrote back, but none of us know Morse code. We didn’t think we should pester Michelle.”

Ellie, her eyes shining from what she’d just witnessed, said, “Good because she’d’ve probably come right on down here and spent time conversing with her family. She handled having a baby well and could probably have managed it.”

Brody looked at Thayne and Lock. “Ellie and I are going home to the doctor’s office. You boys want to come and sleep there?”

His brothers nodded.

“Holler if there’s anything you need help with.” The MacKenzie family left.

Cord, from the top of the steps, said, “I’m going to get a few hours’ sleep. You ready to come up, Grandpa?”

Mayhew nodded, tired but with a smile on his face. Even an old curmudgeon like him could get his heart softened by a new baby.

Annie had stayed in her room with Caroline.

That left Tilda and Josh alone. He took her hand. “Let’s go to bed.”

A shiver of pleasure raced down Tilda’s backbone. She’d watched everyone else enjoy the sight of a new baby, but just now she realized she had a dreamy smile on her own face. “You know, Josh. We could have our own baby before long.”

Josh slid an arm around her waist and tugged her toward the housekeeper’s apartment. “That’s an idea that warms me all the way to my soul, Mrs. Hart.”

As they headed back, Tilda set aside thoughts of the baby and of her Cabril family and their possible connection to Captain Cabrillo.

Her thoughts just now were only of Josh and the surprising realization that having a baby would be pure wonder, something she wanted even though she’d never considered having a family of her own.

The day had started out so lovely, awakening in her husband’s arms.

Then the new clothes, then finding Ben and the fight and having him arrested. For all that bedlam, they’d finished the day with a tiny miracle.