be great for her. We’re all so relieved.”
“I’ll enjoy living here.”
“How would you like a tour? Outside, I mean. It’s a little chaotic to show you much about the house, but I need to stretch my legs. Mom and Cissy will keep an eye on Reese, but I can guarantee she’ll sleep at least an hour.”
Evening was on its way, but the temperature was in the high eighties, at least, and Elisa needed to stretch. She followed Tessa outside, taking a quick breath when the wall of heat and humidity hit her on the third step of the porch. “Your family has lived here a long time?”
“For generations. There were Stoneburners and Lichliters all over the area until World War II. Gram lost nearly everybody to the fighting or the aftermath or the economy. Her husband was killed at Pearl Harbor. He was a distant cousin of the Claibornes, so he had roots here, too. Gram raised my mother alone.”
Elisa was never surprised at the sadness people could recount. “It must have been hard to keep the farm.”
“That’s why she’s so stubborn, and why she doesn’t waste time on tact. She never had time for anything but plain speaking and doing what she knew was right. Whether it was or not.”
Elisa laughed softly. “We’ll get along. Most of my life I’ve been surrounded by people who were sure they were right.”
“Were they? Right?”
Elisa sobered. “Too often for their own good.”
Tessa remained silent, as if inviting Elisa to share. But she had already shared more than she was comfortable with. She changed the conversation’s direction. “All this land belongs to Helen?”
“Yes. She leases chunks to local farmers, some for corn, some for cattle.” Tessa pointed out boundaries in the distance and the locations of fields. “There are more farms to the west and south of us, and about fifty acres of woods and fields over toward the river that someone’s bound to build on someday. Let’s go this way and I’ll show you the pond. Last summer we were afraid it would dry up, but all the rain this year has filled it again.”
They passed a fenced-in area with something that looked a little like a gypsy’s wagon. It was surrounded by chickens pecking in the grass, chickens of different colors and sizes.
“The chickens are Gram’s weakness,” Tessa said. “And that’s a portable chicken coop in the center. When they’ve pecked up every weed and bug inside the fence, we hitch it up to the tractor and move it to another spot, stake out the fence again and let them have at it.”
“Ingenious.”
“Gram never kept a pet. But you’ll find she comes out here and talks to the chickens two or three times a day, then makes sure all the barn cats are fed. You won’t have to do a thing for any of them. And you’ll have all the eggs you can possibly eat. I don’t seem to be able to get enough of them now that I’m pregnant.”
Elisa had been looking for an opening and jumped right in. “How are you feeling? Have you had any more dizziness?”
“No, and I wanted to thank you again for all your help the other day.”
“I did very little.”
“I called my doctor and made an appointment for tomorrow. But he said exactly what you did. Since I don’t have any other symptoms, it doesn’t sound like there’s much to worry about. And my husband’s getting a ride up here tonight to drive me home, so I won’t have to sit behind the steering wheel for any length of time.”
“Good. You’ll feel better when you know for certain. There are enough things to worry about, yes?”
They had reached a pond, perhaps half an acre in size. Reeds grew at the edges, and Canada geese patrolled the opposite shore under giant weeping willows.
“Oh, isn’t this lovely?” Elisa was entranced. “I can see where I’ll be spending time every day.”
“I lived with Gram last summer, and I came out to the pond whenever I needed time to think. I also picked a million blackberries. There’s a creek in that direction with blackberries and wine berries all along the edges.” She pointed. “But it’s late in the season. You won’t find too many now. You can wade, though. Just watch out for snakes.”
“Sam said you and your mother were here to fix up the house?”
“We carried out tons of Gram’s ‘collectibles.’ Like newspapers and rags and bottles. She’s pretty good these days, but you’ll need to watch her.”
“I’ve been warned.”
“It was a good summer. We’re closer. We met Cissy for the first time and got to know her, too.”
“She’s a lovely girl. Young to have a baby, at least in this country.”
“Not in yours?”
“We have many young women marrying and giving birth well before they should. Our maternal health statistics are not good.”
“I’m on the other end of the spectrum.”
“For a first baby, yes.”
“This isn’t my first.”
From Tessa’s tone, Elisa realized there was more to that simple statement than Tessa was saying. “I’m sorry. I’m not sure why I assumed that. You have other children?”
Tessa didn’t answer right away. Elisa was sure now that she had walked into something without knowing it.
“I had a daughter,” Tessa said at last. “Kayley. She would have been nine this year. She was killed by a drunk driver.”
Elisa didn’t know what to say. She just put a hand on Tessa’s shoulder.
Tessa seemed to welcome her touch. “I was sure I’d never want another child.”
“But you decided to take a chance.”
“I have to thank Reese. When Cissy brought her home from the hospital, I looked into that tiny face, and Reese stared right back at me. It’s a long story how I got there, but I realized I was ready to try again, and I needed to do it soon. I was lucky. I got pregnant two months later.”
Elisa squeezed Tessa’s shoulder before she dropped her hand. “I know it must have taken courage.”
“For the most part I’m doing okay. I think most of us are blissfully ignorant about what can happen when we decide to have a child. On some level we understand risk. We just never think those things will happen to us. But since I know they can and do, I’m too aware of every little thing.”
“Like the dizziness? That wasn’t a little thing. It was something I—” Elisa changed direction. “Something I’m sure your doctor wanted you to report. I’ll bet he told you that when you called. Yes?”
“He did.”
“Of course, it won’t be the same for you as it might be for a young
