Heavenstone 01 - The Heavenstone Secrets
about it forever. As I told you, until then, I’ll stay with Semantha here in the house, and she won’t be seen by anyone. No one will see me, either.”
“What does that do for us?” he asked skeptically.
Cassie actually smiled.“We can tell people it’s my baby,” she said.
Even I gasped with surprise
“Your baby?”
“Many women don’t show until the late months. You didn’t realize Semantha was pregnant. The same thing could easily be true for me.”
“But why—”
“I’m not rushing back to school, and I’m much, much stronger than Semantha. I can carry the burden of having given birth. Semantha, as Mother often said, is much more fragile than I am. You know it’s true. So, she gives birth. No one knows about it, and very soon afterward, we enroll her in the private school.”
“What about the baby?”
“The baby has Heavenstone blood in him. He belongs with us. I’ll care for him as well as any mother could. He is, despite everything, your grandson, Daddy.”
“But your own life, your future …”
“Is here, with you, with our business. It alwayshas been. I just didn’t realize it as clearly as I do now, thanks to Semantha,” she said, nodding at me.
“I don’t know,” he said, but I could feel the resistance lowering in his voice. He turned to me. “What about the father of this child? Who is he?”
“What difference does that make now, Daddy?” Cassie quickly responded. “If we involve him or another family, we’ll defeat ourselves. The truth is that the boy involved doesn’t even know Semantha is pregnant.”
“Really?” he asked me.
I couldn’t answer. I just looked at him.
“I don’t know,” he said. “He should bear some responsibility here. He—”
“We don’t know who he is,” Cassie added quickly.
“What?”
“There was more than one,” she said, “in a very close period of time.”
He looked at me sharply. Despite my new size, I felt as if I were shrinking beneath his outraged and disgusted gaze. He got up quickly. “I’m sick about this,” he said.
“Of course you are,” Cassie said. “Semantha is sorrier about that than anything. That’s why she insisted we keep this from you so long.”
I know my mouth fell open. I had insisted?
“Well … I still wish you hadn’t, Semantha,” he said, looking back at me. “I can trust Dr. Moffet. I’ll speak with him about this and see what he recommends. I’m sure I can get him to deliver the child here in the house.”
“If you’re absolutely confident about that, then speak to him. But if there is even the slightest doubt, Daddy—”
“Enough! I think I know whom to talk to and whom not to, Cassie.”
“Okay, Daddy. I’m sorry. I’m just trying to be extra careful now.”
“Now? Seems to me being careful should have been something prominent at least seven months ago,” he said, and left my bedroom.
It was as if he had taken all of the air out with him.
Cassie, on the other hand, wore a big, happy smile. “See?” she said. “It will all work out just as I planned.”
She came to the bed and put her hand gently on my stomach.
“I want to feel him move,” she said, and exploded with happiness when she did. “He’s coming, our Asa is coming. I’ll go down and prepare a dinner platter for you. Just rest,” she said. “You’re not to do any work anymore, either, Semantha. You’re not going to be like Mother and lose this baby.”
“He is so angry at me, Cassie. He’s so upset.”
“He’s going to get over it, Semantha. You’ll see. He’s on his way to forgiving you. I wouldn’t stand for any other conclusion. Trust me.”
She smiled, then turned and left me.
Trust her?
How could I ever trust her again?
But then, what choice did I have now?
When she returned nearly a half-hour later with my dinner tray, she was even happier.
“We talked some more, and I persuaded him not to go to Dr. Moffet. I told him I had located a very experienced midwife and already had contracted with her.”
“Have you?”
“Yes.”
“How could you be so sure he would agree to that?”
“Do I know him better than anyone could, better than even Mother knew him?”
She fixed my pillows and brought over the bed table I hadn’t used since I was eight and had a terrible ear infection.
“Her name is Mrs. Chapman, and she’ll be here to see you soon. Don’t worry about eating too much anymore,” she added, nodding at the big piece of chocolate fudge cake.
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