of her pregnancy. Elaine had felt so isolated.
Her grandmother made it very clear that Elaine had a bright future, but it did not include a baby. Olivia also forbade Elaine to mention the baby to her grandfather. When Libby was eight days old, Elaine had been moved into the apartment she would inhabit during law school.
Elaine looked in the mirror, wondering how Libby would accept the truth. When her own parents had died and her world had turned upside down, she had been so angry. It had taken her years to let go. Libby too had that fire in her eyes.
“You need to tell her everything,” Ted said.
“I want her to get to know us a little bit before I tell her the entire unvarnished truth. One bombshell at a time.”
There was a long pause. “Don’t wait too long, Elaine.”
“I won’t.” Her stomach twisted in knots, and she wondered how she would find the right words under these circumstances.
“I love you.”
“I love you,” she said warmly.
“It will be okay.”
“I hope so.”
She hung up and stared into her mirror for a long time. Ted was optimistic by nature, and she loved that about him. But sometimes life simply did not work out as planned.
CHAPTER TWENTY
SADIE
Saturday, October 3, 1942
Bluestone, Virginia
Sadie tried to pretend that night months ago in Malcolm’s car never happened. It was easy enough during the days when she was busy doing piecework involving sewing dresses and mending torn sleeves. Or even pulling weeds in the garden and then canning. She always kept busy to quiet her mind.
In the evenings, she and her mother listened to the radio, paying close attention to the news on the war. Johnny had left Norfolk, Virginia, on a transport ship in early September, and it had taken two weeks to cross the Atlantic. He said he had never heard about seasickness but sure was an expert now.
He was in southern England and was living in a camp full of soldiers. He said he’d been lucky to get a tent that he split with three other men. They shared a small heater, which came in handy, as England was normally wet and chilly.
Johnny had worked on the heavy bombers, repairing the damage inflicted by German Luftwaffe and flak from antiaircraft guns. He counted planes each morning as they took off with a crew of ten men and flew south. They were bombing enemy targets mostly within occupied France. He always made it a point to count them as they returned. Most days, half the planes did not return.
More and more boys from the valley had signed up for the army and had left town. The war brought more piecework, as boys preparing to ship overseas needed uniforms hemmed, waistbands taken in, and rank sewn on. Each time Sadie got a uniform to work on, she thought about Johnny.
Sadie read Johnny’s letters over and over to her mother, and as she did, her mother’s needle would stop sliding in and out of the fabric while she listened. Her mother hoarded each word as if it were gold and never tired of hearing what Johnny had said. There was still no word from Danny, but there had also been no telegram from the army saying he was dead or missing.
There had been no contact from Olivia Carter and, more importantly, no word from the sheriff. She thought about Olivia a lot, knowing she was hurting over the loss of her child. Sadie understood that dropping by Woodmont was not an option, but she had hoped to see her when in town buying supplies.
Sadie was nurturing that hope as she parked the old truck in front of the mercantile store and carried in a crate of tomatoes. This was the last of the season and the best she had to offer. The last of the bruised and overripe tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash would all be canned in the coming days.
She passed by a truck and noticed a young woman was sitting inside. As Sadie hefted her crate and shifted the weight off a splinter digging into her palm, she looked at the woman. Bright, wild green eyes that all but overtook the small pale face stared at her. Sadie paused and returned the woman’s gaze, realizing suddenly she was the girl from the hospital in Lynchburg.
Sadie’s heart beat faster as she took a step closer to the truck. She had thought a lot about this girl over the last few months, wondering if she had survived whatever had