she gently pressed on the accelerator and very slowly let up on the clutch. The gear caught, hopping only a little before the front wheels moved forward.
Olivia looked in shock at Sadie before she grinned broadly. “I did it.”
“You sure did.”
“Why won’t the car go any faster?”
“Because we’re only in slowest gear. We need to shift again.”
“Can’t we stay in first?”
“You can walk faster than you can drive in first gear.”
Olivia put her hand on the gearshift. “I’m ready.”
Sadie laughed. “You ain’t facing down a mountain lion. It’ll be okay.”
Again, the clutch went in, the gear shifted with just a little bit of choppiness, and soon the two were picking up speed. By the time they had reached the main house, they had been through the first three gears.
Mrs. Fritz came out on the porch, smiling and nodding as Olivia drove around the circular driveway and brought the car around to the barn. She shut off the engine and climbed out, her chest puffed out as if she had slain a beast.
Sadie glanced toward Mrs. Fritz, who offered a slight nod of approval before she vanished back into the house. “That was really good, Miss Olivia.”
“Can we do it again?” Olivia asked. “Next time I’d like to drive on the roads.”
“Dr. Carter is sure to find out if you go out on the roads.”
“Maybe, but better to ask for forgiveness than get permission.”
“Did your mother tell you that too?”
“Yes she did.”
Olivia lay curled next to Edward, drawing comfort from his warmth, as she had since the first night they had slept together.
That night had been a scandalous three weeks after he had pulled her from the carnage. She had been home, alone in the dark, listening to the distant rumble of heavy bombers flying over the city. The room had suddenly felt painfully small, and she had risen and dressed in the dark.
Since the war and its bombing had begun, London residents had grown accustomed to living and moving in the dark. She’d made her way to his tiny apartment and knocked on his door. When he opened it and saw her bathed in shadows, he did not say a word or move a muscle. She was the one who stepped toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Their kisses were never tentative when they were in London. They had always held pent-up passion that had come from the stress of war.
Olivia thought she knew Edward. She had followed this brave man to America, knowing she was driven by her love and fear. Love for him and their unborn child but also fear of the bombs in the darkness. And when she had lost the child she was carrying on the voyage to America, he had cared for her with such tenderness. “There will be more babies,” he had whispered.
But in the last week since Olivia had seen how he had dismissed the suffering of that woman, she’d wondered.
She quietly slipped out from under the covers and put on her slippers. Moving carefully to avoid the floorboards that creaked, she left the bedroom and made her way down the stairs. She put on her coat and walked down the cobblestone pathway toward the greenhouse. The plants had begun to arrive; she, with Sadie’s help, would soon arrange them in the glistening space, filling the greenhouse with green, white, purple, and red blossoms.
She opened the door, greeted by the fragrant scents and the warmer air. Carefully she closed the door and crossed to the small sofa in the center. She curled up on the soft cushions and, hugging the folds of her coat close, stared up through the glass ceiling toward the clear night sky. When she was younger, she had known the constellations so well, and when the bombings had begun, plunging the city into darkness, she had become reacquainted with the stars.
Tonight, her guides were a waxing moon near the constellation Lynx and, to the east, Cassiopeia. Her hands slid to her belly, and she sat as still as she could, trying to calm her fear so that the baby growing inside her would flutter and move, reminding her he was going to be all right. “Just a small kick, my boy,” she whispered. “And then you can get back to sleep.”
Olivia had realized she was expecting again the day she and Sadie had driven to Lynchburg to see Edward. That had been part of her reason for going. She had wanted to share herself with him