The Baby Bequest. Lyn Cote

lady’s arms.

      “I take it that you may be interested in doing that?” the schoolteacher asked.

      “Yes, miss. I could take care of two as well as one.”

      “May I visit your home tomorrow after supper and discuss it then?”

      “Yes, yes, please come.” The woman gave directions to her homestead, which lay about a mile and a half north of town. They bid her good-night and she hurried away in the lowering light of day.

      “Well, I hope this will solve the problem of William’s care during the schooldays.”

      Her single-mindedness scraped Kurt’s calm veneer. “You think still they will let you keep the child?”

      She had mounted the step and now turned toward him. “Perhaps you are one of those who think a woman who does not wish to marry cannot love a child, and is unnatural. That is the common wisdom.”

      Her cold words, especially the final ones, startled him. “No. That is foolish.”

      Her face softened. “Thank you, Mr. Lang.”

      He tried to figure out why anybody would think that. Then her words played again in his head. “You do not wish to marry?”

      “No, I don’t wish to marry.”

      Her attitude left him dumbfounded. “I thought every woman wished to marry.”

      She shook her head, one corner of her mouth lifting. “No, not every woman. Good night, Mr. Lang. I’ll see you Tuesday evening.”

      “Guten nacht,” he said, lapsing into German without meaning to. He turned the pony cart around and headed toward the Stewards’ to return it. Thoughts about Miss Thurston and William chased each other around in his mind. Very simply, he hated the thought of seeing her disappointed. What if she became more deeply attached to William and the town forced her to give the child away in the end?

      Why wouldn’t she face the fact that the town would not let her keep William? He wouldn’t press her about this, but in fact, the town shouldn’t let her keep him. The question wasn’t whether Miss Thurston was capable of rearing the child. But didn’t he know that raising a child alone was difficult, lonely, worrying? Didn’t he know it better than anyone here?