The Gift of a Child. Laura Abbot

take her hand and tell her all would be well. He didn’t know that, and even if he did, he hadn’t the right.

      They passed a few moments in silence while Seth struggled for a conversation topic. He finally spoke. “I understand from Caleb that your Aunt Lavinia will be arriving shortly.”

      The minute he saw Rose’s shoulders droop, he knew he should have come up with some other opening. “You don’t seem happy with the prospect.”

      Rose, usually so calm, almost serene, worried the buttons on her shirtwaist with her fingers. “Lily is pleased, but my memories of my aunt make me...” she hesitated “...apprehensive.”

      “How so?”

      Rose levered herself up from her chair and paced the room as she answered his question. “She is a grand lady, Seth. Her life has been so different from ours, from my mother’s.” She straightened an antimacassar on the back of the settee. “She has never known want. Her house is the stuff of fairy tales. The time Lily spent in St. Louis accustomed her to Lavinia’s ways, but I have little idea of what is motivating her to come.”

      Sensing there was still more Rose needed to say, Seth waited. She made another circuit of the room before returning to her seat. Taking a deep breath, she looked him straight in the eye, and in a hushed voice said, “Seth, I’m scared.”

      “Tell me about it.” He clenched his hands in his lap, feeling out of his depth with female confession.

      “It’s Alf. I can handle whatever opinion Aunt Lavinia may form of me, but I’m terrified she will reject Alf. After all, he is of mixed parentage, and as several people in town take pains to point out, I am an unmarried mother. Neither of those circumstances, I’m sure, would meet the standards of high society.”