"Hey there, darlin’, the worst is over," Will murmured. "Get y’ warm in a minute." He surprised himself by delighting in this first monologue to the infant. A person couldn’t not talk to somethin’ sweet as this, he realized.

Will carefully tended her cord, applying alcohol, and a cotton bandage, then Vaseline against her stomach before tying the bandage down and diapering her for the first time. She recoiled like a spring every time he tried to maneuver his hand into position for pinning. The boys giggled. She retracted her arms while he tried to feed them into her tiny undershirt and kimono. The boys giggled some more. When Will reached for one pink bootee, Donald Wade was proudly waiting to hand it to him.

"Thanks, kemo sabe," Will said, and tied the bootee on a skinny ankle. Thomas was waiting to hand him the other.

"Thanks, Thomas," he said, roughing the boy’s hair.

When the baby was ready to present to her mother, Will picked her up carefully. "Now your mother wants to see her, and in about fifteen minutes or so she’ll want to see you, so you both wash your hands and comb your hair and wait in your room. I’ll call you when she’s ready, okay?"

Pausing before the closed bedroom door, Will studied the baby who stared at him with unfocused eyes. She lay still, silent, her fists closed like rosebuds, her hair fine as cobwebs. He shut his eyes and kissed her forehead. She smelled better than anything else in the world. Better than sizzling bacon. Better than baking bread. Better than fresh air.

"You’re somethin’ precious," he whispered, feeling his heart swell with love so unexpected it made his eyes sting. "I think you’n me are gonna git along just fine."

Then he nudged the bedroom door open, stepped inside and closed it with his back.

Elly lay slumbering. She looked haggard and exhausted.

"Elly-honey?"

She opened her eyes and saw him standing with the baby in his arms, his shirt damp in spots, the sleeves rolled to the elbow, his hair messy and a soft smile on his lips.

"Will," she breathed, smiling, holding out an arm.

"Here she is. And more presentable now." He placed the bundle in Elly’s arm and watched her tuck the blanket away from the baby’s chin for a better look. Within him sprang a wellspring of emotion. Love for the woman, welcome for the baby, and in a corner of his soul, the lonely plaint of a man who would always wonder if his own mother had ever held him that way, smiled at him with such sweetness, explored his face with a fingertip and kissed his forehead with the reverence that brought a choking sensation as he looked on.

Probably not. He knelt beside the bed and folded aside the opposite edge of the soft flannel receiving blanket. Probably not. But he’d make up for it by watching Elly lavish this precious one with the love he’d never known.

"Oh, Will, isn’t she pretty?"

"She sure is. Just like you."

Elly lifted her gaze and let it drop as the baby’s fist closed around her little finger. "Oh, I’m not pretty, Will."

"I always thought you were."

The baby’s other hand took Will’s finger. Linked by her, the man and wife shared an interlude of closeness. Reluctantly, Will ended it.

"I’d better tend to you now, don’t you think? Get you washed, and in some clean clothes."

Elly regretfully relinquished the baby, and Will laid her in the basket. Kneeling beside it on one knee, he adjusted the pink shawl around her tiny form, touched her hair with a fingertip and murmured, "Sleep now, precious one."

He rose to find Elly’s eyes on him and experienced a brief stab of self-consciousness. He was a man who’d had to learn how to talk to the boys, who’d taken weeks to feel comfortable with them. Yet here he was, after less than an hour, murmuring soft things to the baby girl who couldn’t even understand. His thumbs went to his rear pockets in the unconscious gesture that said Will Parker was out of his depth.

"I put her on her stomach like you said." Deep love softened Elly’s smile while he stood fidgeting. "I-I’ll get your bathwater and-and be right back," he sputtered.

"I love you, Will," she said. She knew the look well, the pacified one that overcame him when things got too perfect for him to contain. She knew the stance, the thumbs-in-the-pocket, still-as-a-shadow suppression that said things were working inside him, good things he sometimes failed yet to believe. That was when she wanted him close enough to touch.

"Come here first." He approached but stood a safe distance, as if touching the bed would damage her. "Here, beside me."

He sat gingerly on the edge of the mattress and she had to reach up and pull him down before she could give the hug she knew he needed.

"You done good, Will. You done so good."

"I’ll hurt you, Elly, layin’ on you this way."

"Never."

Suddenly they were hugging fiercely. He turned his face against her ear. "Jesus, she’s so beautiful."

"I know. It’s a miracle, ain’t it?"

"I never knew I’d feel that way when I held her the first time. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t mine. It was as if she really was."

"I know. You can love her all you want, Will, and we’ll pretend that she is. A year from now she’ll be callin’ you Daddy."

He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his mouth to Elly’s temple, then forced himself to sit up. "I best get that warm water now, little mother. The boys are waitin’ to come in and see you."

With a soft cloth and the baby’s soap, he sponged Elly’s tired limbs and sore flesh. Of the comfrey he fashioned a poultice, laid it on her torn skin and secured it with a cotton pledget and her plain cotton undergarments. He helped her don a clean white brassiere, clasping it for her before holding a fresh nightgown and watching her slip it on. He changed the bed and lifted Elly back into it before carrying out the soiled sheets to soak and finally going to fetch the boys, who’d waited in their rooms with the mysterious docility lent to children by solemn occasions.

"Ready?"

They nodded silently. Will hid a smile: Donald Wade had combed his own and Thomas’s hair, slicking it down with water until both heads looked flat as wheat in a cyclone.

"Your mother’s waiting."

They paused inside their mother’s bedroom door, holding Will’s hands, glancing up at him questioningly.

"Go on then, but don’t bounce on the bed."

They perched one on each side of Elly, studying her as if she’d turned into a character from one of her own fables, someone magical and shining.

"Hi," she said, taking their hands.

They stared as if mute.

"Did you see your li’l sister?"

"We hepped Wiw give her a baff."

"And we helped him dress ’er."

"I know. Will told me. He said you both done good." They smiled, proud. "Would you like to see her again?"

They nodded like horses making a harness jingle. Elly told Will, "Bring her here, honey."

She was asleep. When he laid her in the crook of Elly’s arm her fist went to her mouth and she sucked hard enough to make noise. The boys laughed and Will knelt beside the bed, leaning forward on his elbows. For minutes they all studied the baby while awe stole their voices.

At last Elly asked, "What should we name her?" She glanced up. "You know a pretty name, Will?" But his mind went blank. "How ’bout you, Donald Wade, what do you wanna call her?"

Donald Wade had no more notion than Will.

"You got a name, Thomas?"

Of course he didn’t. She’d asked him out of courtesy, so he wouldn’t feel left out. Touching the baby’s hair with a knuckle, Elly said, "I been thinkin’ about Lizzy. What you all think o’ that?"

"Lizzy?" Donald Wade scrunched up his nose.

"Lizzy the lizard?" Thomas put in.

They all laughed. "Now, where’d you get that?"

Donald Wade reminded her, "From the story you told us about how the lizard got bumps."

"Oh…" She continued fondling the fine black hair on the baby’s head. "No, this one’ll just be Lizzy. Elizabeth Parker, I think."

Will’s eyes shot to Elly’s. "Parker?"

"Well, you delivered her, didn’t you? Man deserves some credit for a thing like that."

Lord, in a minute he was gonna burst. This woman would give him everything. Everything, before she was through! He reached for the baby’s head and stroked her temple with the back of a finger. Lizzy, he thought. Lizzy P. You’n me gonna be buddies, darlin’.He stretched one hand to Elly’s hair, and circled Donald Wade’s rump with his free arm and touched Thomas’s leg, on the far side of Elly. And he smiled at Lizzy P. and thought, Heaven’s got nothin’ on being the husband of Eleanor Dinsmore.

Chapter 14

Will’s smile announced the news to Miss Beasley even before his words. "She had a girl."

"And you delivered her."

He shrugged and quirked his head at an angle. "It wasn’t so hard after all."

"Don’t be so humble, Mr. Parker. I would collapse in fright if I had to deliver a baby. It went all right?"

"Perfect. Started yesterday around noon and ended around three-thirty. Her name’s Lizzy."

"Lizzy. Very fetching."

"Lizzy P."

"Lizzy P." She cocked an eyebrow.

"Yes’m." He fairly twitched with excitement, a rare thing.

"And what is the P for?"

"Parker. Feature that-she named that little girl after me. After a no-count drifter who doesn’t even know where he got that name. Wait’ll you see her, Miss Beasley, she’s got hair black as coal and fingernails so small you can hardly find ’em. I never saw a baby up close before! She’s incredible."

Miss Beasley beamed, hiding a swift pang of regret for the child she’d never had, the husband who’d never rejoiced over it.