Olivia opened her mouth, but no words formed in her brain.
“I gotta guess you’re in some kind of trouble. And there’s only one kind a trouble I can imagine a girl like you choosing a woman like me to tell about. Is
that the kind of trouble you’re in?”
Chapter Forty
Olivia answered Mrs. Place’s question in a tiny voice. “I don’t know.”
“Well, at least you’re consistent.” Mrs. Place smiled. “You don’t seem to
know much of anything.”
Olivia took no offense; she knew the teasing was intended to lighten the
mood rather than be hurtful. Still, she seemed unable to reply.
Mrs. Place waited a long moment before asking, “When’d you last get the
curse?”
“My monthly visitor should have come two days ago. Maybe three,” Olivia
said, looking away.
“Oh, Honey, three days ain’t nothing to fret about.” Mrs. Place leaned back.
“Sometimes it can be weeks late for no good reason. No good reason at all. Tell
you one thing – worrying about not getting it is the best way to make sure you
don’t. You been to see a doctor?”
“No.”
“Just as well. Takes time for them to tell. So you left the might-be-a-father out
there in Michigan?”
Olivia opened her mouth to say, “I don’t know,” but switched to “Yes.”
“You didn’t think he’d do right by you?” Mrs. Place asked.
“It wasn’t anything like that,” Olivia whispered.
Mrs. Place waited a long moment before asking, “You feeling inclined to tell
me what it was like?”
“It wasn’t a romance. It was … you see we had these neighbors …”
“We?”
“Me and Mourning. You know, Mourning Free?”
“Well, sure I know him. I live in Five Rocks, don’t I? Heard he found himself
some relatives, went to stay with ’em. You don’t look much like no long-lost cousin of his.”
Olivia shook her head. “He made that up. Truth is, I talked him into going to
Michigan with me, as a hired hand to work the farm I inherited from my Uncle
Scruggs. But we wanted to keep that a secret.”
“You don’t mean that you ... with Mourning Free . . .” Mrs. Place’s eyes
opened wide.
“No,” Olivia exclaimed. “No, not Mourning. Mourning would never do
anything like that. It wasn’t him. But, see, that’s the reason we didn’t want to tell
anyone he was going with me, so they wouldn’t get the wrong idea, like you just
did.”
“So there warn’t nothing between the two of you?”
