Sweet Annie Part 27

She nodded against his neck.

"I have the list we made," he said, pulling a sc.r.a.p of paper from his pocket. "Shall we make our purchases?"

"I want something special for Diana's baby. And there's something else I want," she told him. "A gift I want to give my mother, and I think I remember where to find it."

"Okay. Let's shop and then have a nice lunch at the hotel."

Luke drove the wagon, laden with packages and supplies, home through swirling flakes of snow. A pristine white layer covered the ground around their house, the cottonwoods blanketed in the sound-absorbing fluff, the aspens still bright yellow in contrast. "Isn't it beautiful?" Annie asked, in awe.

The sound of the horses' hooves and the creak of the wagon seemed loud in the peaceful winter air. The horses blew great gusts of white through their nostrils as they trudged into the yard. "Can you get the fire going while I put up the horses and fork down some hay?"

"Of course. Help me down and I'll carry packages."

She prepared a light supper since they'd eaten a big meal in town. Luke brought harnesses in to repair while they enjoyed the warmth of the fire. In the weeks that followed, Annie used her evenings to work on gifts for Christmas, and had completed something for nearly every member of the family, amazing Luke with her speed and skill.

Something had begun to bother her, and it wasn't until she made a trip into town and called on Glenda while the girls were in school that the puzzle came into place in her mind.

That evening Luke sat at the table with a cup of coffee and the ledger books that held his records of the stock while Annie finished the dishes and started a pot of beans soaking for the next day.

Stomach fluttering, she studied Luke bent over the pages in concentration. She loved watching him, loved spending their evenings together, and appreciated that they didn't have to keep a constant flow of conversation going to be comfortable with each other's company. Annie practiced the words in her mind.

"Luke?" she began.

"Hmm?"

"I have something to tell you."

"Okay."

"You might want to look at me when I say it."

He raised his head and set the pencil down, turning his full attention on her. "Okay."

She brushed her hands over her skirt nervously. "I know we haven't been married very long, barely two months, and we enjoy our time alone together..."

He raised a brow in curiosity.

"I hope you're going to be happy about this..."

"We won't know until you tell me."

"Yes. Well." She cleared her throat. Thinking better of her position at the side of the table, she stepped closer, right up in front of him.

"Annie, this is very mysterious," he said with a grin. "What is this secret?"

"It's not a secret, really. It's something I only learned today."

"In town? What is it?"

She took a deep breath. "I'm going to have a baby."

Chapter Fifteen.

There, she'd said it. Her ears hummed with the rush of nerves, waiting for his reaction.

He stared at her, his blue eyes wide and unblinking.

"I haven't had a monthly since we were married, and I talked to Glenda today, and she asked me a few questions. I went to Dr. Martin's office and he confirmed that there's a baby inside me. Isn't that amazing?"

He laid down his pencil.

"Are you happy?" she asked, hopefully.

"My G.o.d, Annie," he said, rising from the chair. He placed his hands on her upper arms and stared into her eyes. A smile broke across his handsome features and he hugged her against him. "Of course, I'm happy!"

He spun her around in a circle, then held her close to his heart. Annie clung to him and allowed her pleasure to flow through her mind and fill her already bursting heart.

Luke pushed her away far enough to gently kiss her lips. "I'm very happy, Annie. I love you. What more could a man ask for?"

"I wonder-do you think I'll be able to take care of him the way he'll need to be taken care of? The doctor didn't seem to think I would have any problems physically. He said I'm healthy and everything's normal. But I suppose I could see a doctor in Fort Parker."

"I have no doubt that you're healthy and normal," Luke a.s.sured her firmly. "But if you want to see another doctor, I want you to do whatever you're comfortable with. You'll be able to take care of a baby. Why wouldn't you? What have I told you a hundred times?"

"I know, I know, but this is...well it's a little scary."

He hugged her again. "There's nothing to be afraid of. We're together, you and I. It has never mattered to us what people said or thought or that they doubted. We found each other and we've made a marriage and a life together. This is part of that. A very wonderful part of that. Don't let doubts spoil it."

"Oh, Luke, sometimes I don't know how I could be any happier or how my life could be any better, but it just keeps getting more and more full."

"I know," he said, his voice low and husky with emotion. "I know, Annie." He touched her face with tenderness, gazing into her eyes as if she were the most precious thing on earth. He had so much love to give, and he was incredibly generous with himself. He would be a wonderful father. How had she been so fortunate?

Still, she had so many doubts. "I've been remembering all the times I wasn't allowed to hold Will when he was a baby, as though they didn't trust me with him."

"If I've learned anything about your father and brother," Luke said, "it's that you are their main concern. If they didn't allow you to hold him it was because they worried for your sake, not the baby's. Just like they don't trust me to care for you properly. It's you they care about. Even if their thinkin' has been wrong in the past, they're coming around."

"I've never even held a baby!"

"You'll know how to hold our baby when he gets here. Annie, I'm so proud of you-of both of us." He chuckled. "But you. You are the perfect wife and you'll be a perfect mother."

"I hope so," she said on a sigh. "Are we going to tell my family?"

"About the baby?" He blinked. "Would you let them think you're bakin' too many apple pies? They'll notice eventually."

She laughed. "I'm silly, aren't I?"

"You're silly, but I love you just the way you are."

Annie grew still and silent in his arms, thinking. "Do you suppose that's what's wrong with my mother? She loved me the way I was, and she can't accept me now?" She inspected his expression. "Would you still love me if I changed?"

He stroked her shoulder through her shirtwaist. "You can't always figure everything out," he told her calmly. "Don't upset yourself tryin'."

She knew he was right. She gave too much thought and concern to her mother's rejection. She couldn't go back to being that girl, and if her mother couldn't accept that, Annie would have to build a life without her. But it would hurt.

In the days that followed, she concentrated on thinking about the good things that were happening, loving her husband, planning for their baby.

Annie antic.i.p.ated Christmas like a little child. She finished two linen shirts for Luke, using his one good shirt as a pattern, and bought him a box of writing stationery and an ink pen. She hid those gifts in the bottom of one of her trunks and wondered if he had something hidden for her.

On Christmas Eve she left a pot of savory stew bubbling on the stove and bundled up, wearing a pair of his boots that she practically walked out of with every step in the foot-high snow, and accompanied him to select a tree from the hillside behind their house.

The tree they selected was too big, because they didn't have any ornaments, but they both loved the size and the shape, so he set it up in the corner of the room and Annie popped popcorn and strung it until her fingers were sore from threading the needle.

They ate the stew and thick slices of b.u.t.tered bread on the floor in front of the fire. Annie cleaned up the dishes and rejoined him.

"It smells wonderful." She inhaled the heavy fragrance of their first tree. "Next year we'll have ornaments."

"Next year we'll have a baby," he replied softly.

The wonder of it still amazed her. She leaned against him with a sigh. "What shall we name him? What was your father's name?"

"John."

"John's a good name."

"What if it's a girl?"

"Mmm. Johanna?"

"People might call her Jo."

They discussed names until they agreed they didn't know what they wanted to name their baby and laughed, because they had so much time to think about it.

Annie went to her trunk and returned with her gifts for Luke which she'd wrapped in tissue paper and ribbon. Luke retrieved a small package from his coat pocket and handed it to her. "Mine isn't as pretty," he said.

Annie accepted the gift wrapped in brown paper and string and thought it was beautiful.

Luke opened his shirts and ran his fingers over the delicate st.i.tches in amazement. He got up, slipped out of his flannel shirt and shrugged into his new one. He stroked the sleeve. "I've never had shirts so nice. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"I'll wear one to dinner tomorrow."

She held up his other package. "Open this one now."

He unwrapped the stationery, ink and pen. "Thank you."

"A businessman should have nice paper on which to write his customers."

"You want me to write their bills on this nice paper?"

She nodded. "It's professional. Soon we'll have letterhead printed for you."

"Sounds pretty fancy," he said with a smile.

He leaned against her and kissed her lips. Annie closed her eyes, but pulled back. "Shall I open mine?"

"Unless you don't wanna know what it is."

"I do!" She pulled the string away and peeled back the brown paper. Inside was a red satin box with gold braid trim and a ta.s.sel. Annie opened it to discover a pair of jade earbobs and a matching bracelet on the ivory lining.

"I picked those because you look so pretty in green," he said. "I didn't think you had any."

"I don't, I mean, I didn't." Come to think of it she didn't have more than a simple gold locket besides the pearls her father had given her. "I'll wear my green dress for you tomorrow."

He kissed her again and this time she laid her gifts aside to enjoy his loving attention. No gift could ever be as wonderful as the gift of his love. His accepting, undemanding love.

They fell asleep in their bed that night with the scent of evergreen rich and heavy in the house, the joy of love full in their hearts, and Luke's hand resting protectively over her stomach.

The following morning Luke showed Annie how to warm bricks on the stove. He wrapped them in a horse blanket and placed them on the floor of the buggy for her feet.

A light snow fell as they rode to Copper Creek, the back seat of the buggy filled with packages and Annie's pies.

"Annie, I'd like to stop by my Uncle Gil's, too," Luke told her. "He'll be all alone this year."

"Of course!" she said quickly, wishing things were more comfortable between their families, so that Gil could have been invited to the Sweet.w.a.ter home.

"Which one of us is going to tell them?" Luke asked.

She didn't have to wonder what he referred to. "I have no idea of the proper etiquette on this subject. It's always been Burdell who has told our family. Maybe that's proper. Or maybe that was just because it's his family. Oh, well, it won't matter. Mother will have a conniption fit in any case." Suddenly, she grabbed his coat sleeve. "They can't do anything, can they? They can't try to take this baby away!"

"Annie, of course not. This is our baby-yours and mine-don't be ridiculous. No one is going to try such a thing."

"You don't know them, Luke. They think I'm helpless!"

"Not any longer. You've shown them differently. Change your thinking, woman."

"You're right. Of course, you're right." She released his arm and rode the rest of the way more calmly.

Luke delivered her and their packages and desserts into her parents' home and took the horse and buggy to the livery where they'd be protected from the weather, then returned on foot.

He knocked and cleaned his boots on the porch. Diana opened the door with a warm smile. "Merry Christmas!" She hung his coat and hat on the hall tree. "Everyone is in here," she said, leading the way to the parlor where the Renlows had already joined the Sweet.w.a.ters.

An enormous tree had been decorated with gla.s.s ornaments and beads and brightly feathered silk birds. Lit candles balanced on the branches, creating a warm glow in the room. Luke had never seen anything like it, and experienced a twinge of shame over the bare tree in their home.