Heartwishes

  And then there was all that had come up about his friend Tris. If anyone had asked, Colin would have said that he wasn’t in the least bit jealous, so he was shocked by what had come out of his mouth. It was as though every word anyone had said about Gemma and Tris was screaming in his head.

  Colin was sure it was all untrue. Wasn’t it? In the next second, he had his cell phone out and was calling Tris.

  “Is there anything between you and Gemma?” Colin blurted out as soon as Tris answered. Even to himself he sounded belligerent and ready to start a fight.

  “What’s this about?” Tris asked.

  “I want an answer to my question.”

  Tris hesitated. “Is this rhetorical or do you want an honest answer?”

  Colin was silent.

  “Okay, I’ll tell you the truth,” Tris said. “There’s nothing between Gemma and me except friendship, but that’s not for lack of trying on my part.”

  What he was saying didn’t give Colin any peace. “Why did you drive Gemma home? Did you get her drunk?”

  “You know, if you and I weren’t friends I’d deck you for that one. I have to go. Don’t talk to me again until you’re human.”

  “And you stay away from Gemma!”

  “Colin, I mean this, if you two beak up, I’m going after her.” Tris hung up.

  24

  GEMMA BURIED HERSELF in work for an entire week. Twice she drove to a grocery in Williamsburg. She didn’t want to face Ellie and all the questions about where Colin was. Or worse, have to endure looks of pity because she’d been dumped by a man the town loved.

  During the week, she read constantly and made copious notes about the Fraziers’ ancestors. The family made their usual visits and were always pleasant and thoughtful. Shamus spent hours sitting with her, and she found that when he wanted to talk, he did. He brought a four-inch stack of college brochures and showed them to her and asked her opinion of where he should go to school.

  Gemma had three friends who taught at some of the schools, so she called and asked questions. They were able to eliminate four of the schools as unsuitable for Shamus.

  When he left, he kissed her on the cheek and said, “Welcome to the family.”

  When she’d been hired, she’d never expected to become part of the family. She hadn’t thought about it much, but she’d assumed that she’d meet some people in town, maybe even a man, and that would be her social life. Involvement with the Frazier family had not been part of her imaginings. But she’d been drawn in by them and now she couldn’t imagine life without them.

  Since she had no training partner, she didn’t work out once, and she was sure her muscles were turning to Jell-O.

  Joce e-mailed her to yet again say thanks for giving her a day of peace. Curious, Gemma wrote back and asked if she’d told anyone about the day they’d spent together. Joce wrote back,

  Are you kidding? I told everyone in town what a kind and generous person you are.

  Gemma looked at the screen and grimaced. “Everyone” meant that by now Colin knew she’d spent the day with Joce, changing diapers and scrubbing the kitchen sink, and not with Tris as he’d accused her. But he’d not apologized.

  For two days Gemma carried her phone with her everywhere she went and imagined telling Colin she might forgive him if he swore to never again be jealous. But he didn’t call.

  At 7 P.M. every evening, she threw up. For a solid hour, she fought nausea, and she learned to just lie down and be quiet until it subsided.

  It was nearly a week after Colin had made his accusations that Gemma woke up and said, “Enough!” She’d had all she could take of being miserable. She knew that what she needed to do was to take charge of her own life. She wasn’t going to waste any more of her time waiting for some man to rescue her.

  She went to the desk in the library and began to make a list of what she needed to do. The most important thing was that she was pregnant. Like it or not, together with the father or not, that was the way it was, and she needed to make plans.

  She knew that what Tris had said about the Frazier family helping her financially was right. She would never consider living off of them, but help would be appreciated.

  A big part of her wanted to run from Edilean and never look back, but she wasn’t naive enough to think that she could raise a child absolutely alone. She thought about going to her mother, but she’d be embarrassed by her daughter being an unwed mother. No child deserved that.

  No, it was better to stay in Edilean, where her child would have adoring grandparents, and where Gemma had met people who were becoming her friends.

  The first thing Gemma needed was a real job, one that paid more than twenty-five grand a year. To get that, she needed to write her dissertation and get her Ph.D.

  It took her less than an hour to compose a letter to her adviser. She listed six topics as possible subject matter for her dissertation, and asked for approval for one of them so she could get started.

  Her best proposal was to write about women in medicine in the 1840s in rural Virginia. Tris had told her that his family had an enormous number of family documents that she was welcome to see. Historically, the Aldredges had been mostly doctors, and Gemma had found some really interesting information about them in the Frazier papers. The first doctor in their family was a Matthew Aldredge, and he sewed his own scalp back together. She thought that would be a dramatic beginning to her paper.

  After she sent that letter off, she wrote four more to professors, asking if they knew anyone at William and Mary College who she could talk to about a possible teaching position there.

  The only thing she didn’t know how to solve was Colin. She feared that when she saw him again she might come apart, but she vowed that she wouldn’t. They’d had a brief affair, it was over now, and she needed to—she hated the phrase, but it was appropriate—move on with her life.

  By the weekend, she felt better. She got up early and drove into Williamsburg to find a gym. Using the key Mike had given her to his gym and risking running into Colin was more than she could take. She spent thirty minutes on a bike, forty-five with light weights, then put on her gloves and hit a bag for twenty minutes. She was a little worried about kicking, considering what was growing inside her, so she skipped that.

  She showered at the gym, put on clean clothes, and for the first time in days felt good.

  The next task she set for herself was to face Edilean and its pity. She wasn’t ready to see Ellie and have to answer questions, so she parked downtown and went to the square. She’d seen a shop there that had held no interest for her, but it did now.

  It was an elegant little boutique called Yesterday and it was on the other side of the square from Colin’s office. When Gemma opened the door, an old-fashioned bell jangled. All the fixtures in the store, the wall shelves and the big glass case at the end, were old, taken from buildings of an earlier era. The mahogany woodwork was suitable because it held the prettiest, most old-fashioned baby clothes Gemma had ever seen. They were of the softest cotton, with what looked to be hand embroidery on them.

  Behind the counter was a tall, delicately pretty woman, probably in her forties. Smiling, she came to the front. “You’re a friend of Mrs. Newland, aren’t you?”

  Gemma had to think about who that was. “Sara,” she said. “Yes, I am a friend of hers.” Just the thought made Gemma stand up straighter. To belong, she thought. That’s what she’d wanted and what she was getting.

  “Dear Sara,” the woman said. “She’s one of my best customers. In fact, she called and ordered a matching outfit for each one of the many sets she’d already bought. I’m Olivia Wingate and how may I help you?”

  Gemma almost blurted out that she was going to have a baby, but she couldn’t allow herself that pleasure. Instead, she gave the first lie she could think of. “My sister is expecting her third child and I’d like to get her something different than the usual clothes.”

  “You have come to the right place. How much
do you know about heirloom sewing?”

  “Nothing whatever.”

  “Would you like to just choose an outfit, or do you want to learn about how it was made?”

  “Learn is my favorite word in any language,” Gemma said and put her handbag on the glass counter. “I’m all ears.”

  An hour later she left the shop with three breathtakingly beautiful baby outfits, each one wrapped in tissue paper, and carefully slipped inside a lavender-colored bag with YESTERDAY printed in blue. Her mind was full of new words, such as entredeux, wing-needle, pintucking, and bullion roses, but most of all, the idea that she really and truly was going to have a baby was finally sinking in.

  For the first time, she thought of the prospect not as a burden and of work that had to be done, but as a joy. She very much liked her nieces, and she’d enjoyed playing with Joce’s children and they were beginning to know her. And Gemma looked forward to seeing Sara’s new babies.

  At the thought of Sara’s newborns, Gemma realized she should get Sara a gift, and she knew just what she wanted. She’d seen two blue shorts sets, perfect for little boys. Mike would probably like a couple of T-shirts with the Ringside logo on them, but there were too many female hormones raging inside Gemma to consider that.

  As she turned back toward the shop, she came face-to-face with Colin. Her first reaction was to smile. She’d missed him very much and she so wanted to share her news about the baby.

  In the next second, his accusations rang in her head, and her smile faded.

  “Gemma . . .” he said, reaching out his hand to her.

  She stepped back and made herself smile. “How are you?” she asked as brightly as she could manage. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

  “Gemma, could we go somewhere and talk about things?”

  If he’d said this to her a few days before, she would have said yes, but not now. “I have so many errands to run and I need to get back to the guesthouse. We’ll have to talk some other time.” She turned toward her car.

  “Did you hear what happened to Mike?” he asked.

  She didn’t want to look back, but she couldn’t stop herself. Me and my curiosity! she thought. “What about him?”

  The seriousness left Colin and he smiled at her. “I only tell gossip over food.”

  “I’m not hungry,” Gemma said and took a step to the curb. “If you didn’t hear about Mike, then I guess Joce didn’t tell you about Luke. Oh! But that’s right, only a few of us know. It looks like your Heartwishes Stone is working.”

  “Damn!” she said aloud as she looked back at him. Curiosity was an addiction, like a drug. She had to know what he was talking about. “Where?” she asked, her teeth clamped together.

  She hated his knowing little smile as he led her to a sandwich and smoothie shop around the corner.

  “What can I get for you, sheriff?” asked the pretty young woman behind the counter.

  “The usual, Jillian, and Gemma will have whatever you can make with lots of raspberries in it.”

  “I’ll take the mango drink,” she said. “I’ve given up raspberries. Forever,” she added.

  He led her to the back of the shop. As with many stores in Edilean, this one was quite narrow but extended back for the full block. There were no other customers, so they were alone as they sat down in a small booth.

  “How have you been?” Colin asked.

  “Great,” she said. “And you?”

  “Missing you,” he said softly as he reached out to take her hand, but she moved it away. “Gemma, there are things I can’t tell you, but I—”

  “In that case, I have work to do,” she said as she started out of the booth.

  The young woman came with their drinks, blocking Gemma’s exit. “Is everything all right?” she asked.

  Gemma knew that whatever she said in front of the girl would soon be all over Edilean. “Everything is just fine.” She sat back down.

  The girl put the drinks on the table and left.

  “All right,” Colin said with a sigh. “Let’s leave things as they are. There was another robbery.”

  “Oh?” she said and wanted to ask questions, but didn’t. She gave her attention to her drink.

  Colin lowered his voice. “We’ve kept this one from the town, but it’s the same MO. There was a ten-year-old girl living there, and a sprig of willow tied with a pink silk ribbon was left behind.” He paused. “Gemma, I can’t thank you enough for spotting that in the photos. It was because of you that I knew what to look for in this new robbery.”

  She kept looking at her drink and didn’t meet his eyes. “Tell me about Luke and Mike.”

  “Oh yeah,” Colin said. “I guess you heard about Sara having twins, just what she wished for.”

  “Of course. Joce told me and so did Tris.”

  As she said the name, she watched him, and saw the hurt in his eyes. It looked as though he really did believe there was something between her and Dr. Tris. Yeah, she thought. Prenatal vitamins. “I was just in that little shop Yesterday, buying baby clothes for my sister, and I realized I’d forgotten about Sara. Think she’d like some little blue rompers for her boys?”

  “She’d love them,” Colin said, “and it’s nice of you to think of her. She—”

  “And then there’s Joce. It’s a little late, but I thought I might get her babies something. In fact . . .” She reached into her shopping bag and withdrew one of the outfits she’d bought and spread it out on top of the tissue paper on the table. She’d been told it was a day gown, suitable for a boy or girl, made of Swiss batiste, and trimmed with tiny, hand-embroidered honeybees.

  “Isn’t it pretty?” Gemma said.

  Colin touched the hem of it. “Very nice. Mrs. Wingate has lots of these things. She lives out near Tris and—” The mention of the name made Colin stop talking—and she realized that no matter how unhappy she was, he was worse. Maybe that should have cheered her up, but it didn’t.

  Gemma put the gown back in the paper and into the bag, then took a deep drink of her smoothie. “I really need to go. I’m setting up interviews at some universities and I need to find out about them. As soon as I get approval on my subject matter, I’m going to be working on my dissertation in the evenings.”

  Colin watched her gather her bags. “Wait! I haven’t told you about Luke and Mike.”

  “That’s all right. I’ll get Joce to tell me, or I’ll call Sara. Anyway, I need to get Sara’s Florida address so I can send her my gift.”

  “They’re moving back here.”

  “How wonderful!” Gemma said as she stood up. “It was so nice talking to you.” With a smile, she left and hurried around the corner to enter the heirloom sewing shop.

  “Did you forget something?” Mrs. Wingate asked as soon as Gemma was inside.

  To Gemma’s absolute horror, she burst into tears.

  “Oh, my goodness,” Mrs. Wingate said as she hurried forward and helped Gemma to a chair. She took her bags from her and gave her a tissue from a box on the counter.

  “I don’t usually cry,” Gemma said, “but lately I haven’t been able to stop.”

  “Excessive hormones will do that,” Mrs. Wingate said.

  “I don’t have—” Gemma began but glanced at the woman. “How did you know?”

  “I opened this shop right after my husband passed away, and you can’t imagine all that I’ve seen. So many young women come in here pretending to be looking for a gift for a relative, but they’ve really just found out about the baby they’re carrying, and they want someone to talk to.”

  “What do you do with them?”

  “First, I listen, then I send them to an Aldredge. Is young Tristan . . . ?”

  “The father?” Gemma asked. “No.”

  “Ahhh,” Mrs. Wingate said. “Have you told our sheriff yet?”

  “Hell will freeze over before I—” Gemma took a breath. “I mean, no I haven’t. We had an argument and he . . .” She shrugged.

  “I understand,?
?? Mrs. Wingate said, “and you can rest assured that I’ll tell no one. Although, dear, you do know that you can’t hide the coming event for too long.”

  “Especially since twins seem to infest this town.”

  Mrs. Wingate smiled. “They do, don’t they? In fact, just this morning one of the women who sews for me finished some outfits for twin boys. I have a feeling that dear Sara’s good fortune will send several people to my shop to purchase gifts for her.”

  Gemma gave a sniff and smiled back. “It was good business of you to think of that.”

  “I have to think ahead. I’m trying to survive in a world of mass production. Now, come with me and I’ll show you some different items.”

  “Do you have a restroom?”

  “I have to have one when so many enceinte ladies like yourself visit me. Right through there.”

  Gemma smiled at the use of the French word. Her grandmother thought pregnant was a vulgar word and that no one with a respectable upbringing would use it.

  When Gemma returned, Mrs. Wingate had spread some of the prettiest clothes she’d ever seen across the counter, and she got another lesson, this one in storybook smocking. When Gemma said that Mike would like some martial arts guys on his son’s play suits, Mrs. Wingate opened a laptop, logged on, and Gemma chose some photos that Mrs. Wingate said were suitable.

  “I’ll have two outfits ready by the end of the week,” she said. “Why don’t you come back then and we’ll talk about . . . everything?”

  When Gemma left the shop she felt much better, so good in fact that she’d added a fourth outfit for the baby she was going to have. Mrs. Wingate was certainly an excellent saleswoman!

  As soon as Gemma got to her computer, she e-mailed Joce and asked what was going on with Mike and Luke. Joce wrote back,

  Sorry I didn’t tell you, but it’s been chaos around here. Luke had an offer of a movie deal. Brad Pitt wants to play Thomas Canon. And I can’t believe no one told you about Mike. He was in a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale and recognized some guy who was wanted for the murder of four young women. Mike brought him in and they found another woman tied up in the creep’s house. Mike saved her life! As a reward, he’s being allowed to take early retirement with a full pension. He and Sara and the boys will be moving back here permanently at the end of the summer.