her later in life. But . . . was she actually adopted?”
Vicky’s gaze flickered with surprise, two spots of color rising in her cheeks. “I’m sorry?” she asked, her voice cracking. “Whatever gave you that idea?”
Scarlett came closer, watching Vicky’s face. “Millie looks very much like someone I once knew. The body they found in the woods two days ago, Kandace Thompson? She delivered a baby before she died.” She paused, her voice lowering to a mere whisper. “I’m wondering if that baby was Millie.”
Vicky let out a small gasp, sinking down into the pew. Scarlett’s heartbeat quickened as she came around the bench to sit next to the woman.
Vicky gripped the back of the pew in front of her. For several weighty moments, she stared up at Christ, hanging on the crucifix at the front of the church. “We tried so hard to have a baby,” she finally whispered brokenly.
Scarlett stilled, a silent moan rising inside. She’d been right. Oh, Kandi, oh my God, what happened?
“Year after year after year. I wondered what I was being punished for.” She looked down, her hands twisting in her lap. “Then one winter this tiny baby was left on our porch, the umbilical cord still attached.” She looked at Scarlett, tears glittering in her eyes. “Like an answer to our prayers.” She looked down again, her voice growing stronger. “I knew it belonged to one of those girls. It must. And I knew what happened to children born at Lilith House. But that tiny, tiny baby, she appeared perfect. No mark of sin.”
Horror settled in Scarlett’s stomach, Camden’s story rushing through her mind.
“Someone had taken her from there, they’d left her on our doorstep rather than leaving her in the woods or keeping her hidden behind its walls.”
Scarlett fisted her hands, her nails digging into the tender flesh of her palms. They’d known. They’d all known.
“I stayed in for months and when I came out, I had the baby. She was still so very small. No one doubted she was a newborn. I told them all we were too nervous to tell of my pregnancy after our many losses. My husband went along with it, God rest his soul.” She did the sign of the cross. “He was a decent man.”
Scarlett’s mind raced, and acid burned her throat. That phrase . . . he was a decent man. She’d heard it before in connection with Mr. Schmidt. She’d read it in Narcisa’s letter: Mr. Schmidt tried to save my baby. He has a spark of decency in him, but the others are too powerful.
Had Narcisa, once a midwife, delivered Kandi’s baby as she lay dying? And then—very old herself and unable to care for a newborn—delivered it to the one decent person she knew of in Farrow? A small sound came up Scarlett’s throat, born of shock and horror. “Narcisa,” Scarlett breathed.
Vicky’s gaze darted to her and then away. “I suspect, yes. I’d secretly bought oils and herbs for fertility from her. The church wouldn’t have supported that sort of medicine, but I did it anyway. I was desperate, so I sinned.” The last words emerged as a mere croak, her cheeks coloring in shame.
“We have to tell, Vicky.” She reached out, putting her hand on hers where it rested on the pew. Her skin was cold and papery. “Millie, she has family, people who deserve to know she exists.” That Kandace lived on in the eyes of her child.
Vicky looked down where Scarlett’s hand covered hers. “Yes. They should know. Amelia’s people. I’m sick.” She looked back up, her eyes on Christ again. “I have cancer. Perhaps I’ve been punished after all. Perhaps we all have.”
A noise sounded and Scarlett looked up to see Sister Madge standing near a side door. Her expression was somber, eyes filled with sadness as she looked at Vicky. “I told her,” she said to Sister Madge.
The old nun approached, such blatant sorrow in her eyes that Scarlett’s chest squeezed. “Yes, dear. You had to. You saved that little girl. You did right by her, and now you must do right by her again. We all must repent for the roles we played.”
Scarlett watched the nun, a breath of relief ghosting from her lips. Although her overwhelming emotion at the moment was shock, she also felt a modicum of breathless triumph. Hope. Millie, Kandi’s daughter, could very well be the key to bringing the truth to light. And that truth involved Camden.