want you taking a fall the first day here—I need paying patients, not my own family.”
As Michelle started toward the path that would take her down to the cove, her father’s words rang in her head: I don’t want you taking a fall . But why should she? She had never fallen in her life. Then it came to her. It was that boy. Her father was still thinking about that boy. But that hadn’t been his fault, and even if it had, it didn’t have anything to do with her. Happily, she started down the trail.
Cal waited until Michelle was out of sight, then took his wife in his arms and kissed her. A moment later, when he had released her, June peered up into his face with a quizzical look.
“What was that all about?”
“Nothing in particular, and everything in general,” Cal said. “I’m just happy to be here, happy to be married to you, happy to have Michelle for a daughter, and happy to have whatever this is on the way.” He patted June’s belly affectionately. “But I do wish,” headded, “that you’d be a little more careful about what you do. Let’s not have anything happen to you or the baby.”
“I’m being good,” June replied. “I’ll have you know that in the name of propriety, I didn’t get into that barrel to tamp the trash down.”
Cal groaned. “That’s supposed to make me happy?”
“Oh, stop worrying. I’m going to be fine, and the baby’s going to be fine. In fact, the only one I worry about is Michelle.”
“Michelle?”
June nodded. “I just wonder how the baby’s going to affect her. I mean, she’s had all our attention for so long, don’t you think she might resent the competition?”
“Any other child might, I suppose,” Cal mused. “But not Michelle. She’s the most repulsively well-adjusted child I know. It must be genetic—Lord knows it can’t be the home we’ve provided.”
“Oh, stop it,” June protested, a hint of seriousness hiding behind her bantering tone. “You’re too hard on yourself. You always have been.” Then the banter was dropped, and her voice grew quiet. “I’m just afraid she might feel threatened by a natural child. It wouldn’t be unusual, you know.”
Cal sat heavily on the stool, and crossed his arms over his chest in a manner that June associated with his talking to a patient.
“Now look,” he said. “Michelle takes things in stride. My God, just look at the way she’s reacted to moving out here. Any other kid would have squawked like hell, threatened to run away, done all kinds of things. But not Michelle. For her, it’s just a new adventure.”
“So?”
“So that’s the way it’ll be with the baby. Just a new member of the family to get to know, and take care of, and enjoy. She’s just the right age to become a babysitter. If I know Michelle, she’ll take over the mothering, and leave you to your painting.”
June smiled, feeling a little better. “I reserve the right to mother my own child. Michelle can wait till she has one of her own.”
Suddenly her eyes fell to the strange stain on the floor, and she frowned. “What do you suppose it is?” she asked Cal as his gaze followed her own.
“Blood,” he said cheerfully. “Just as Michelle said.”
“Oh, Cal, be serious,” June said. “It isn’t blood, and you know it.”
“Then what are you worried about?”
“I’d just like to know what it is, so I’ll know what to use to get it off,” June said.
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” Cal offered. “I’ll see what I can do with a putty knife, and then we’ll try some turpentine. Chances are it’s just paint, and turpentine will cut right through it.”
“Do you have a putty knife?” June asked anxiously.
“On me? Not a chance. But there’s one in with the tools, if I ever find them.”
“Let’s go find them,” June said decisively.
“Now?”
“Right now.”
Deciding that the best thing to do was to humor his pregnant wife, Cal followed as June led him into the house. Confronted