Dorothy Garlock Read Online Free PDF Page B

baby either, for that matter. What did she plan to wrap the baby in?” Ana demanded, her voice quivering with rage. “Or did she plan to let it lie here and die?”
    “Get what she needs, Esther.”
    “Owen! No! The stain will be forever on our mother’s bedsheets!” Esther’s voice was a horrified screech, her thin mouth worked even after she had finished speaking.
    “Who in hell cares about the stains on the sheets?” Ana’s voice was even louder than Esther’s. “This woman is crazy. Can’t you see that?”
    Ana stood, drew off her suit jacket, rolled the sleeves of her blouse up above her elbows, and unfastened two buttons at the neck of her blouse. She looked pleadingly at the big man with the puzzled look on his face.
    “Well, I never!” Esther gasped. “Flaunting yourself in front of my brother in the very room where his wife is giving birth! That shows what kind of a loose, ungodly woman you are. A woman who swears is a disciple of Satan. It says so right in the Bible.”
    The last of her words were drowned out by Harriet’s bellow. When the pain rolled away, the girl opened her eyes and stared at Ana.
    “M-mama? Is it you? Am I . . . dreamin’?”
    “No, darling. You’re not dreaming.”
    “Don’t go!”
    “I’m staying right here with you. You’ll have your baby soon now.”
    “Mama, I’m so . . . sorry—”
    “Shhh . . . It’s all right—” Ana placed her hand on the girl’s swollen abdomen. “How long has she been in labor?” she demanded of Esther.
    “How do I know? Ask her.”
    “M-mama . . . don’t go. Don’t let Esther run you off,” Harriet said frantically, holding tightly to Ana’s hands. Tears rolled from the corners of her fearful eyes. She rocked on the bed and moaned like a wounded animal.
    “Don’t worry, honey. That old black crow doesn’t scare me at all.”
    Ana’s words seemed to comfort Harriet as she closed her eyes against the pain. Ana lifted her head and glared at Owen, surprised to see the look of concern on his face. Their eyes met. Ana made no attempt to hide her contempt for a man who would abandon his wife and allow her to be treated in such a manner by a woman who was obviously demented.
    “Mr. Jamison,” she said bitingly, “do you put clean straw in the stalls when your animals give birth? How many of those born in the manure live?”
    His eyes searched Ana’s face. He was having difficulty thinking of her as Harriet’s stepmother, and he was shocked by Esther’s treatment of the girl. He knew his sister didn’t like Harriet, thinking she had enticed him to marry her on the day he met her in Lansing. She had told him again and again the girl was lazy, shiftless and ungodly. He knew that Esther would resent any woman coming into this house, but to treat her like this—
    “Get the sheets, Esther. Plenty of them,” he said briskly. “I’ll fire up the stove and put on the water.”
    “I’ll not stay and see our mother’s things desecrated,” Esther said heatedly, her dark eyes flashing hatred at Ana. The two spots of red on her cheekbones were the only color in her face.
    “The child is a Jamison, Esther,” Owen said on his way to the door.
    “If you insist that I do this, I’ll leave, never to return,” she threatened.
    “Do what you have to do,” he answered with a bite in his voice, “but get the sheets or whatever else she needs. The damn sheets will wash!”
    “See what you’ve done,” Esther said as Owen’s footsteps faded down the hallway. “See what you and that
slut
have done!”
    Ana didn’t know what she meant and didn’t care. She ignored her, and the woman went out, slamming the door behind her. Ana eased the filthy nightdress up and over Harriet’s head. Her arms were painfully thin, but her feet and legs were so swollen it looked as if the skin would break. What was the most frightening for Ana was that Harriet’s stomach was oddly shaped. The bulge was low, but high and lumpy on one side. Ana had