Meant-To-Be Baby. Lois Richer

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СКАЧАТЬ Though she ducked, Victoria couldn’t avoid Margaret’s palm on her forehead. “You don’t feel warm.”

      “I’m fine. Just lethargic. I think I need to rest.” Victoria set a glass of milk in front of Mikey, smiled and ruffled his hair.

      “Perhaps you shouldn’t have gone for such a long walk this morning then, dear.” Tillie sat, placed her napkin in her lap and bowed her head. Silence fell as she said grace aloud. Then she looked directly at Victoria. “I’m sure you’ll feel better once the service begins.”

      Ben smothered his smile when Victoria exhaled. Weak, timid old ladies? Hardly.

      “You’ll come along, too, Ben.” Margaret nodded at his start of surprise. “You can sit in the front seat of the car. There’s plenty of legroom.”

      Thus, when breakfast ended and the kitchen was restored to order, they all attended the local church. Inside the white-steepled structure, Ben silently commiserated with Victoria’s reluctant presence, while obediently sitting where indicated, next to the ladies. Victoria was dispatched to escort Mikey to the children’s service upstairs. When she didn’t slide onto the pew next to him until the congregation was well into the first hymn, he knew she’d taken her time returning. She managed a smile when the pastor welcomed her back and nodded at those who turned to glance at her.

      But Ben knew Victoria longed to be anywhere but here. In fact, during the minister’s sermon on the love of God, he happened to glance at her down-bent head and saw her dab at her eyes several times, accompanied by a sniff.

      Strong, capable Victoria was crying. Why did that make him feel so helpless? Why did he want to comfort her? She wasn’t his responsibility and yet this plucky woman’s distress tugged at his heartstrings. He intrinsically knew that she’d lost at love, that what she’d hoped for had not come to fruition and that, besides leaving her job, she’d left behind the guy who held her heart. The guy who was the father of her child. Yet, as far as Ben knew, she’d still told Tillie and Margaret nothing. Why?

      As they rose to sing the closing hymn, Ben glanced at his hosts. Couldn’t these usually astute ladies see that something was wrong? That the young woman they’d raised was desperately unhappy?

      But as they chatted with friends in the foyer, on the ride home and all through lunch, Tillie and Margaret seemed oblivious to Victoria’s distress. They giggled at Mikey’s knock-knock jokes as if all was well.

      When the two seniors finally left for an afternoon nap and Mikey was engaged in a Disney movie on television, Ben couldn’t remain silent any longer.

      “Why don’t you tell your aunts you’re pregnant, Victoria?” he asked baldly, hating the way she winced at the word.

      “How do you know—it isn’t—you don’t understand.” She shoved a handful of dark hair away from her face and picked at invisible threads on her jeans.

      “What’s to understand? You’re going to have a baby.” Ben shrugged. “You’re not the first single woman to do that and you won’t be the last. Life happens.”

      “Unmarried motherhood doesn’t happen to girls Tillie and Margaret taught to revere God and keep His principles,” she shot back, her voice shaky. “That’s sin.”

      “I haven’t been a Christian very long,” Ben said, frowning at her. “But it seems to me that even David, a man after God’s own heart, sinned. And God forgave him.”

      Her lack of response made him wonder if Victoria had even heard him. With her arms wrapped around her waist, she rocked slightly back and forth, her white face pinched with sadness and stained with tears. Beautiful but heartbreaking. And sort of remote.

      “Victoria?” He touched her shoulder. “What about the baby’s father?”

      “He doesn’t want me or the baby.”

      “Are you sure?” Ben found himself curious—too curious—about that answer.

      “He doesn’t want a child in his life. It would wreck his plan, weigh him down with responsibility for someone other than himself.” She gave a tiny huff of laughter. “It took me five years and a ghastly mistake, but the one thing I finally realized about Derek is that he always ducks responsibility. He doesn’t have the ability to see beyond his own needs.”

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