A Secret in Her Father's House, A Pregnancy Neither Can Hide novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Sigrid's Pie

Sigrid took her through the back gate and into a kitchen that smelled of cinnamon.

She sat Alana down at a table covered in a yellow oilcloth and filled a kettle.

"Ginger tea," she said. "And saltines. Don't argue with me, I delivered babies for thirty-one years."

Alana did not argue.

She sat with her hands around the mug and her face burning, and the tea went down warm and settled her stomach.

Sigrid lowered herself into the opposite chair.

She was sixty-three, with white curls and freckled hands and a cardigan that had been washed so often it had gone soft.

"How many weeks?"

"I don't know. Five, maybe six."

"Have you seen anyone?"

"Not yet."

"You'll want to, by the end of the month." She took a saltine and snapped it in half. "Does he know?"

Alana looked up.

Sigrid's eyes were mild and direct.

"Which he?" Alana said carefully.

"Honey. I'm sixty-three. I've lived next to that house since before you could walk." Sigrid ate half the cracker. "Does he know?"

"Yes."

"What did he say?"

"He told me I'd stay."

Sigrid's mouth twitched.

"Of course he did."

"He apologized."

"That's more than I'd have bet on."

"You're not shocked."

"Oh, I'm shocked." Sigrid poured herself tea. "I was shocked in the laundry window. I'm shocked now. I'm also a retired nurse and a nosy neighbor, and neither one of those tells people what to do with their own lives."

She said it so mildly that Alana laughed, and the laugh turned wet in the middle.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I know what it looks like."

"I know what it looks like too." Sigrid pushed a box of tissues across the table. "I'm not going to tell you what it is. I'll tell you what it costs."

"Please."

"It costs everyone you love, one at a time." Sigrid's face stayed calm. "Your mother first, because she'll walk through that door in about a week, and Janice has never in her life missed a thing."

"She comes in nine days."

"Then she'll come in five. I'd get my story straight."

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