benefit, for Tess’s benefit or for his own benefit, he honestly wasn’t sure. “You must have gotten your wires crossed somewhere, Abigail. Tess Monahan isn’t that kind of girl.”
In response Abigail chuckled, and Will couldn’t help but think that there was something almost triumphant in the sound. “She is now,” Abigail said. “I saw her myself this morning at the teachers’ brunch. She was sick as a dog.”
Will shook his head in denial. “Tess has never been sick a day in her life.”
“I know. That’s what I said. The only thing that could make her this sick is morning sickness. Sister Angelina saw her barfing in the girls’ rest room, too.”
Will shrugged it off. “Oh, big deal. So Tess has the flu.” But even he had trouble believing it. “That doesn’t mean she’s pregnant.”
“There’s more,” Abigail said.
Yeah, Will would just bet there was. “Like what?”
Abigail took a few steps closer—carefully avoiding the spilled casserole—as if wanting to pull him physically into her conspiracy. “Well, for instance, about two months ago, Dolores Snarker was up in Bloomington, and she saw Tess at a Motel Six.”
Will somehow refrained from rolling his eyes. “So? A lot of people stay at motels, Abigail. And believe it or not, most of them don’t get pregnant.”
“Yeah, but Dolores saw Tess go into her room one night with a man.”
This Will found hard to believe. He also found it hard to digest, because his stomach pitched at hearing the revelation. But even if it was true that Tess had been with a man—Oh, God—it didn’t mean she was pregnant. It made him feel a little sick—all right, it made him feel a lot sick—but it didn’t mean Tess was pregnant. Probably. Then again, she was pretty naive, he reminded himself. She might not take the proper precautions if she found herself in that kind of situation. She was so trusting.
“That’s not proof of anything, Abigail,” he said, in spite of his misgivings.
But Abigail ignored his objection. “And,” she continued, “my aunt who works for Dr. Schwartz, the OB-GYN? She said Tess had an appointment last month.”
Will felt himself blushing at the mention of a…of a…of one of those…doctors…but, again, it wasn’t conclusive proof of anything. “It’s my understanding,” he said, “that women go see the…the…” He growled under his breath. “That women have appointments like that every year.”
“Ah, but it was Tess’s second visit in two months,” Abigail told him.
“Yeah, but still…” Will objected. Though not quite as strenuously as before.
“And,” Abigail continued happily, “Tess was in Bonnie’s Baby Boutique a couple of weeks ago, and Bonnie herself said Tess bought almost a hundred dollars worth of baby clothes and stuff.”
“It was probably a gift,” Will pointed out, though it was unlikely. Nobody in Marigold who was close to Tess was pregnant.
“That’s some gift,” Abigail replied dubiously.
“Tess is a generous person,” Will countered.
But his objections now were halfhearted, at best. There sure did seem to be an awful lot of evidence against Tess. And although gossiping was a pretty stable pastime in Marigold, hardly anyone could dispute that what went around almost always turned out to be true. Marigoldians might be rumormongers, but they were generally pretty good about keeping their facts straight. Even Will, who avoided the rumor mill, knew that.
Abigail stepped back again. “Well, nuns don’t lie,” she said, “and I heard about Tess’s condition from both Sister Mary Joseph and Sister Margarite. She’s pregnant, Will. And all of us are just dying to know who the father is. Susan Gibbs said she heard Tess say herself that it was a one-night stand.”
“What?”
Again, much to Will’s dismay, the outcry came not from under the ’Vette, but from the depths of his own dismay. Tess Monahan pregnant. And by some jerk who’d loved her and left her in one night. He could scarcely believe it.
But rumor, at least in Marigold, Indiana, didn’t lie. Tess Monahan was going to have a baby. And Will Darrow had no idea what to do.
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