Her Secret Baby

by Christine Sterling

  It dawned on Elizabeth. The woman was pregnant. Was it Tom’s baby? And now all she could see was fire. “Who is this woman?” she yelled.

  Tom stared at her in surprise, while the woman seemed to pay no mind to her volume. “Oh, how impolite of me. My name is Samantha.” She held out her hand for Elizabeth, only Elizabeth just stared at it. Samantha chuckled awkwardly and let her hand retreat to her side. “I’ve heard so much about you from Tom. I was wondering when we were ever going to meet you.”

  Elizabeth looked at the woman and then back at Tom, who was just looking at the ground like a criminal. Because of his actions, Elizabeth could only think she was not meant to meet this woman. She turned back to Samantha as she cradled Madeline in her arms. “I’m Elizabeth, Tom’s wife. Did you know he was married?”

  Samantha smiled again, looking between Tom and Elizabeth. “Why, yes, it was discussed. He told me about you, when he was at the house-,” she started before Elizabeth interrupted.

  “And you think it’s becoming of a woman to be involved with a married man?”

  Samantha seemed to be taken aback by her question, as Tom started to remember he had a voice. “Now, Elizabeth, you don’t understand…”

  She turned to her husband. “I will be with you in a moment.” She turned back to Samantha. “As you can see, he already has someone. I don’t know what your plan is, missy, but this is incredibly embarrassing for you. I think you should just go.”

  Elizabeth felt so proud of herself. She never thought she could stand up for herself and she felt like she was floating. Until she looked over at Samantha’s face and saw her grin widening. She slapped Tom’s arm, who had his hand over his eyes in anguish. “Wow, what a girl! Tom, I have to say, I think I’m going to like her.”

  Elizabeth stepped back and looked at them. Samantha saw the confusion on her face and laughed again. “Oh, you are mistaken my dear. I’m not involved with Tom.” She heard Tom groan, to which Samantha giggled.

  Elizabeth felt mortified. “Oh, but,” she tried to form the words, but was only able to point towards Samantha’s stomach.

  Samantha looked down at her own stomach and back at Elizabeth. “Oh!” she said, as if it had just dawned on her that she was pointing at Samantha’s baby bump. “This is definitely not his child.” She rubbed her belly and turned her head to the side. “Though, one can never tell.”

  “Samantha!” Tom yelled.

  “Oh, you never let me have any fun.” Samantha sighed and moved towards Elizabeth. “My married name is Jenkins. I’m Seth’s wife.” When Elizabeth didn’t say anything in return, she looked over at Tom. “You didn’t tell her about us?”

  “Well, I was getting to that…”

  “Oh bother, no wonder she thought we were together. Don’t ever trust a man to do anything!” she said, rolling her eyes as she walked over and grabbed Elizabeth’s arm, pulling her away from Tom. “Seth and I live on the farm Tom’s been working on, and soon to be your new home. Seth and Tom are childhood friends, and this little one right here,” she said, rubbing her belly, “is Seth and my first child together.”

  Elizabeth felt so embarrassed; she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. “Oh, my word, I’m so sorry! It’s just there are so many women around him, I just jumped to conclusions.”

  She gave a sarcastic chuckle and looked back at Tom, who looked a mixture of relief and shock. “Yes, he does have that effect on women.” She turned around and grabbed Elizabeth’s hands. “But you have nothing to worry about with me. I am in no way interested in this man. He’s my husband’s best friend and I see him more like a big brother. In fact, I’m very glad you are married to him. I might have had slight reservations about you, but now that I see you in action, I have all the faith in the world you two were meant to find each other,” she ended with a wink.

  “Samantha!” someone yelled behind them. “You can’t dash off without telling me where you are going first,” said a man, who was jogging towards the group. “You’ll only worry me.”

  Samantha rolled her eyes. “I only walked a few feet away.” She leaned into Elizabeth and whispered “The bigger I get, the more he hovers. Remember that whenever you and Tom start to have some of your own.” Elizabeth felt her ears turning scarlet. Samantha didn’t seem to notice. “Seth, this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, this is my darling husband Seth. Apparently, Thomas here forgot to mention us,” she said, shooting Tom the dirtiest look.

  Seth whistled. “Someone is in trouble,” he said, as he patted Tom on the back. He held out his hand and Elizabeth shook it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “You are so beautiful,” Samantha said, looking at her from head to toe. Elizabeth felt very self-conscious. “Isn’t she beautiful, Seth?”

  Seth laughed awkwardly. “Yes, Sam. Tom is very fortunate,” he said, wiping sweat off his forehead.

  “Oh, is this your daughter? Can I see her?” Samantha asked, before taking the cloth away from Madeline’s face. Big brown eyes stared up at Samantha as she squealed. “Oh, she is so lovely! I bet she’s going to be such a beauty, like her mother.”

  It took a few moments before Elizabeth realized Samantha was referring to her. She reminded herself to remember she had to play the part of the baby’s mother now. “Well, thank you.”

  Tom seemed to take this as a sign to leave. “I’m sorry to go, but Elizabeth and I have some things to take care of before we head down tonight,” he said, grasping Elizabeth’s arm and dragging her back to the horse so he could pick up the cargo.

  Seth seemed to take the hint, as Samantha started to pout. “Yes, it seems we have to go home too. I have a few chores to get done before sundown and Samantha has to get supper ready, especially if we are expecting a few more mouths to feed.” He slipped his arms around his wife’s waist, leading her away.

  “It was so nice to meet you Elizabeth! I’m excited for us to get to know each other better,” she said, before she and Seth turned back and walked away.

  Madeline started to fuss a bit, so she held her closer to her chest. Tom had the bags at his sides and eyed Elizabeth with a note of anger. “Why did you come yelling at her? And I thought I told you to stay in the room!”

  Elizabeth shrugged innocently. “I’m sorry. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, so I wanted to go out for some fresh air and then I saw you with her. I can’t tell you what came over me, before I knew it I was already here and I was yelling.”

  Tom sighed. “You can’t go around yelling at woman who come up to me like that. It’s not becoming of a lady.”

  Elizabeth couldn’t believe her husband. “Well, you need to be more honest with me.”

  “What?” Tom asked.

  “Had you told me about her, about them, I wouldn’t have reacted in that way.” When she felt Madeline calming down, she held her still in the cradle of her arms. “If this is going to be a partnership, I need you to treat me as an equal and be honest with me.”

  Tom looked at her for a moment, as if he was mulling around her request. He sighed. “You are right, I need to be more honest with you.”

  Elizabeth felt she had won an important battle. “Ok,” she said, as they both walked toward the hotel, “tell me more about this farm and when we are finally going to move in.”

  Elizabeth was so exhausted from the day, all she wanted to do was collapse into a bed. After the less than stellar first encounter with the Jenkins, Tom had Elizabeth pack everything in their hotel room and loaded the horse to travel back to the farm. It was rather awkward at first, with Elizabeth riding in front of Tom and her holding Madeline in her arms, but they made it. The farm was exactly as she had imagined it; wide and open, just like she had seen in picture books of farms back home. She had never been on one but had always hoped one day she would visit one.

  When they arrived, Samantha was already in the kitchen and she was especially thrilled Elizabeth was there. Samantha was making a dish she said was soup but looked more like mud, so after Elizabeth had t
ucked Madeline in for a nice nap, she went to task at salvaging their dinner. She gave Samantha a few pointers and added some spices. Soon, the odd liquid looked more like soup. Samantha was so thrilled with the results, she almost hugged Elizabeth to death.

  The reaction reminded her of Mary and made her realize how much she missed female companionship. Samantha seemed to not take her outburst to heart; in fact, Samantha could not stop complimenting her on what Samantha deemed as her “strong willed heart.” She had exclaimed how Tom had been in and out of relationships with any old girl, most of which could not string two words together. According to Samantha, Elizabeth was exactly what Tom needed.

  The four of them sat down to a nice supper and Elizabeth couldn’t believe her luck. She loved talking to Seth and Samantha and saw how much Tom cared about them. His eyes would light up in their conversations, and it was the most animated she had ever seen him. Elizabeth was especially impressed with Seth and Samantha’s love for each other. There was such an electricity around them and they looked at each other with so much love it was hard not to be envious of them. It was a look she had always wanted to have.

  But as she stared at her husband ahead of her, trudging up to their new home on the outskirts of the farm, she couldn’t help but feel a longing. Would her husband ever look at her in that way?

  When they got to the door, Tom opened it, putting their bags to the side and giving Elizabeth a wide berth as she was carrying a sleeping Madeline in her basket. “Welcome home!” Tom said, with delight in his voice.

  Elizabeth entered, looking around the small room. It was not like she had expected it to be. When she walked into Seth and Samantha’s house, she was greeted by a lovely little home. She had praised it during the meal, to which Samantha laughed and exclaimed how it didn’t really look like this. She relayed the story of how she first entered the home, she was disappointed in its appearance, as it was the complete opposite of what she was used to at home. It took her a bit to get used to, but much of why she became content with her surroundings was because it was the house where she fell in love with Seth and they started to build their lives together. To her, that little house turned into home.

  This house though, resembled more of a shack. The wood planks were uneven and looked weathered. There were nails protruding from planks here and there and a smell of mildew wafted from the cold breeze coming from between the wood pieces, making her shiver. Tom walked to stand next to her. “What do you think?”

  Elizabeth didn’t know what to think and she most certainly didn’t know what to say. “I can’t really form the words really,” she finally added, when the silence became too much, and Tom’s face started to fall, “I will say it is definitely something.”

  Tom smiled triumphantly. “It’s a bit of a work in progress, but it will do for now. I cleaned before you came.”

  Elizabeth looked down and around again. There were piles of clothes in one corner and dust and spider webs clumped in the other corner of the room. This was clean? This would never pass for a clean room at all. But she looked over at her husband, who was still smiling as he was rambling on about the house. She was overcome with joy at how much he cared she was settling in, so she decided this once, she would ignore the surroundings and humor her husband.

  “What will happen in the next couple of days?” Elizabeth asked, after she had settled Madeline down for the night and had put away some of her clothes into a small chest in front of their bed.

  Tom was looking over some papers in the corner on a desk; he looked up at her with a quizzical look. “I don’t understand your question?”

  “I mean, what am I supposed to do the next couple of days? You had said I was going to be helping around the farm, but I really don’t know where to start.”

  “Well, I guess you can start with learning how to cook and clean,” Tom started to say, looking around the room.

  “Actually, I already know how to cook and clean. It was a part of my job as a governess.”

  “Really? Then maybe we should have you teach Samantha some things,” he chuckled, setting the papers down on the desk.

  The laugh was infectious, and Elizabeth joined him. “Yes, it’s very strange. I thought all women were taught how to cook and clean.”

  “Well, Samantha is a different kind of woman. She was born into money, so she never really had to learn any of that. And when she got married the first time, they had maids who did everything for them; she didn’t have to worry about a thing.”

  Elizabeth thought of Mistress Grayson. For what she knew of the woman, the Mistress was still skilled in cooking and chores, although she cared not to do them. And as far as she knew, every other socialite she had met knew the basics of cooking. Even her aunt was very aware of how to take care of a family. “That is so strange though,” Elizabeth continued, sitting on the bed. “I have only met one other woman who struggled with home skills. I thought there were few around.”

  Tom tipped his hat back and stretched in his chair. His long legs shot out and he stretched his torso. Elizabeth couldn’t help but stare. He was so muscular, and Elizabeth could feel her stomach bottoming out. It was a feeling she had never experienced before, and it scared her. Before Tom could catch her gawking, she turned quickly, staring at the wall to her right.

  “I think it probably has to do with her mother dying so young. She didn’t really have a motherly figure around.”

  Elizabeth frowned and thought back to her own life. She could sympathize with Samantha’s predicament; she herself losing both her parents at such an early age. She never thought how lucky she was to have her Aunt Anne take her in and raise her; she always felt cheated because she missed out on having the conventional family. But looking at Samantha and how she expressed how much she wanted to be a mother for her unborn child, she realized how lucky she was to have a woman role model in her life. “I can relate,” she said, turning towards Tom who was looking at her with curiosity. “I too lost my parents when I was younger.”

  Tom got up and walked over to Elizabeth quickly, sitting next to her on the bed. He grabbed her hands and stared into her eyes. “Oh no, I’m sorry. When did it happen?”

  Elizabeth looked away, trying to keep her eyes dry. “When I was ten years old. It was a horrible accident.” She didn’t dwell on a bigger explanation because thinking about it just made her heart hurt. “Then I went to live with my aunt in Georgia. She raised me. I always thought I was so unlucky with what I got, but now as I look back, I was rather lucky. I shouldn’t have thought those things and took what I had for granted.”

  She thought about her aunt and her stomach flipped. How she missed her so much. She regretted any awful thought she had had those first couple of years, when she was angry at the world for dealing her this hand at life. What she would give to have Anne back; she would give anything, just to see her for a few moments more.

  As she felt herself teetering against a massive storm of tears, she drew comfort from Tom’s hands. His fingers were rubbing her palms back and forth, calming her when all her body wanted to do was explode with sadness. “You miss your aunt?”

  She looked at Tom, wondering to herself if she could trust him with the information of her aunt’s passing. She wasn’t sure she would able to tell the story of her aunt’s death without mentioning Madeline was not hers. “Yes, terribly.”

  Tom seemed like he wanted to ask more of her, but he refrained from asking, only drawing circles on the backs of her hands. “You must be very lonely. I’m sorry I kept you in that hotel room by yourself.”

  Elizabeth laughed and wiped a few stray tears from her cheeks. “It’s not your fault, you did only what you thought was right. I wasn’t so lonely, I had Madeline with me.” She smiled towards the little baby. “She’s my entire world now.”

  Tom withdrew his hands from her. “I know what I said before, but I do think we could have a good life together. Even if we don’t love each other, we can still be a good family. And I promise you, I will car
e for Madeline as my own.”

  As Tom got up from the bed, Elizabeth felt her heart flutter. “Tomorrow, I think I’ll show you how to plant and tend to the fields. We’ll start slow and work our way through chores so you are learning as much as you can. Would you like that?” When Elizabeth nodded, he smiled. “Good. Get some rest, because you are in for a big day tomorrow.”

  As Elizabeth crawled into bed, she couldn’t help but think about what Tom said. As much as he kept saying she shouldn’t fall in love with him, it was hard not to with all his words and actions towards her. She knew she was in trouble, as she could feel him slipping deep into her heart.

  Chapter 9

  Harold was raging again in the kitchen, looking for another bottle of alcohol. Where are they? He couldn’t remember where they were kept in the house. He looked in all the cupboards, dishes and pots strewn around the floor. Where did his no-good wife keep them? He knew she had hid them somewhere, but now with her dead and the help gone, he was alone. “Where the hell is it at?” he screamed, to no one in particular.

  He stomped out of the kitchen and collapsed into a chair in the sitting room. With his wife gone, he had spent his days drinking and sleeping and then drinking some more. At night, he went out, gambled, and bought the affections of pretty ladies, until he started to run low of money. Soon, he had nothing except this house with ghosts in it.

  He looked around, staring at the light fixtures decorating the walls. Those were her designs, her touches around the house. They followed him, like she was following him, whispering in his ear about all his misdeeds. He would be lying if he said he hadn’t cared for her. In the beginning, he thought she was one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen; she spoke out of turn at times, but it was nothing to be worried about. In the beginning he genuinely wanted her. But he was an inherently greedy man and once he found out what she was worth he wanted her even more. He put on a show to trick her right into his open hands. And it worked. And they were happy for a while.