Olivia sat quietly, hands folded in her lap.
“I ain’t saying you got to think it’s for sure. It could be from the shock of all
what happened out there,” Jettie said. “Women can stop bleeding for a lot longer
and for a lot less reason than what you been through. But if you are carrying a
child, a midwife or doctor ought to be able to tell by now. And you need to know
early on, case you want to do something about it.”
Olivia nodded in numb agreement.
“It might have to be a doctor,” Jettie said. “I don’t know no midwives ’round
here what don’t know every soul and devil in Five Rocks. Ain’t one a them I’d
trust not to flap her jaws about Old Man Killion’s girl.”
So a few days later Jettie hung a “Closed” sign on the door of the bakery and
rented a buggy. Olivia cowered inside her cloak and they drove two and a half
hours to Weaverton. There Jettie inquired in the general store and was referred to
Doctor Murdock, who saw patients at an office in his home. Jettie had given
Olivia a ring to put on her finger, telling her to turn it around, so the stone wouldn’t show. She told Olivia to call herself Mrs. Springer.
The door was opened by an older man with sloping shoulders, a round pot
belly, and thin wisps of hair. Wearing a sour expression, Doctor Murdock silently
led them back to his office and told Olivia to get up on the table behind a screen.
He examined her quickly, while Olivia all but bit through her bottom lip.
“You can get down now,” he said and went to the basin to wash his hands,
before seating himself behind his desk.
Olivia rearranged herself and came around the screen to seat herself on the
rickety chair next to Jettie’s.
“Well, congratulations, Mrs. Springer. You are definitely going to have a
baby. I’d guess the happy occasion will be in another seven and a half, eight months.”
Jettie reached over and squeezed Olivia’s hand, which remained limp in her
lap.
From the way the doctor was looking at her and the distaste with which he
had pronounced “Mrs. Springer” Olivia was sure he knew she was a girl who’d
gotten herself in trouble. He recited vague advice about getting enough rest and
not moving heavy furniture and seemed relieved when the two women quickly
rose to leave. Neither of them spoke as they climbed into the buggy. Jettie drove
out of town and then pulled to the side of the road. Olivia stared silently ahead.
“You best do your crying and cursing,” Jettie said. “Get it out of you now.”
“I just want to go home,” Olivia said. “I mean to your house. I just want to go
home.”
“Straight back to prison? No, that ain’t what we’re gonna do. Not on a day like today. Buggy’s paid for till evening. You’ll have enough days shut up in that
house. We’re gonna have us a nice drive and find some sinfully expensive place
to stop for lunch. Let someone wait on us for a change. Then we’ll take us a long
walk in the sunshine. Do you good.”
