They had, indeed, gone to lunch together at the café the day Dwight had gotten the job with Attorney Mincer, and he’d played the attentive husband to the hilt, although in reality he couldn’t have pinned down what was truth and what was acting, as his heart warmed and softened more toward Mary with every passing day. Walking along the street, he had held her close with his hand warmly covering hers as it rested on his arm. Then at the eatery, he had kept her amused all during lunch, regaling her with flubs and silly mistakes he had made that morning at work—although he suspected she knew he was exaggerating each one just to make her giggle. She had admitted, shyly, that it was the first time she had been on an outing with a man, as her father had never allowed her to court, and she found that she very much enjoyed this thing Charise had called romance. With each new piece of information he learned about her, his heart leaned closer and closer her way.
That night, Dwight had retrieved clean clothing from her room and made sure he had everything he needed for the morning before they had bid one another goodnight. He had bent to kiss her on the cheek, lingering before he pulled back. Her warmth and clean scrubbed scent had enveloped him in a wonderful sort of haze, and he had spent the rest of the night dreaming of her.
After that first morning when Dwight had found himself standing in her room in his unmentionables when she had awakened, it hadn’t happened again. He had made it a point to find out Wanda Mae’s schedule, discovering that she always came over at 7:00 on the dot to begin breakfast, so he made sure he was up and dressed before then with the library tidied, and his bedclothes neatly folded and placed outside Mary’s door.
Since he was already up and his day started, he had taken to making sure Wanda had enough wood for the cook stove, thereby striking up a friendship between himself and the housekeeper. He’d told Mary that Wanda had shown him how to make biscuits one morning, although his efforts had been less than stellar. If Wanda questioned him as to why he was down in the kitchen and not up in the room with his wife, he confided that Mary wasn’t sleeping well and needed her rest.
Each day thereafter, he found ways to help Mary with anything and everything that she needed, and even escorted her to her jobs. During the month that passed, another big change happened—Mary’s figure started to alter in very noticeable ways, namely her belly. By the end of the first week of September, everyone who saw her on the street knew that she was expecting. Somehow, that fact made him draw closer to her, with the unexpected result of him feeling decidedly… husbandly.
The days floated along like the slowly meandering Missouri River and finally the time came for his mother and sisters to return to Louisville with Elvira and her brood. After a month of dealing with the rapscallions’ daily antics of mischief and mayhem, suffice it to say, every resident of Brownville would be relieved to see the engine of the train backing down the spur as it made its return trip to Nebraska City—with the Fettermans inside. Dwight felt sorry for his mother and Olivia, as they would have to contend with the brats for over six hundred miles of track going back to Louisville. Things would be tight for the family back home while he remained in Brownville, but he was determined to wire home as much money as he could to help make ends meet.
On his family’s last night in Nebraska, however, Dwight was pleasantly surprised and relieved when Doc Reeves admitted to Pearl, and to all within hearing distance, that he had grown fond of her and the children—more than fond—and asked that she consider extending her stay indefinitely, with the possibility of a union between them.
Dwight had seen the look in his mother’s eyes each time she gazed in the doctor’s direction, and he had a good idea what she would decide, even before the “Yes!” had left her lips. He hadn’t seen such joy on her face since the day before his father had died, and he couldn’t have been happier for her. Rising from his chair at the table, he had made his way around to hers and had drawn her up into his arms for a congratulatory hug. That had broken the shock of the announcement and all of the others then flocked to do the same. It had been an extraordinary night.
There had been a wild goodbye scene at the depot when they helped the beleaguered Elvira ramrod her youngsters onto the train. How she would manage them alone, Dwight couldn’t imagine.
The following Monday morning, after a restful weekend, the twins were excited about their first day in one of Brownville’s schools and were still upstairs with Olivia who was helping them get ready. They hadn’t come down for breakfast yet. Dwight, along with Doc, Mary, and Pearl had just started eating.
Hearing raised voices drifting down from above, Dwight looked up from the law book he was reading, his fork poised over his plate of biscuits and sausage gravy, and shot a grin toward his mother. Things were feeling normal again—the twins were causing a ruckus.
Suddenly, a frantic knock sounded at the front door.
Three sets of eyes immediately went to Doc. He grabbed his napkin, wiping his mouth as he rose from his chair mumbling, “Sounds like the knock of a medical emergency.” He moved quickly to answer it as Mary and Pearl exchanged looks and then followed.
After
