'e,' replied Thomas with a smile. Elizabeth and the customer looked at him with a puzzled look. 'You said 'she', boot it is a boy,' Thomas assured them.
Elizabeth smiled and offered to help the next customer. Thomas enjoyed having Elizabeth working beside him in the bakery. For years he had worked alone, but now it was wonderful to have someone to talk to and someone to help with the baking. But, making it more wonderful still, his partner was his wife. He loved watching her serve the customers. She was so friendly and she easily endeared customers to her. He had noticed that business had picked up since she was with him.
Thomas came up behind her, wrapped his arms around Elizabeth and said, 'Me luv, I must take sume wheat to the miller. Will you be okay while I am gone?'
'Aye, me luv,' replied Elizabeth as she turned around in his arms and hugged him around the neck. 'I will be fine.'
Thomas left the bakery with a load of wheat in the wagon and started toward the miller's. As he walked beside the ox, he started thinking about Elizabeth and the comments by the customer. 'If Elizabeth gets much bigger, I will nay be able to wrap me arms around 'er. The baby must be very large indeed.' As he thought about the comment that the customer made though, he became more troubled. He remembered that he knew nothing of Elizabeth prior to the short while before they married. 'Who was she really?' he wondered, and, 'Culd this baby possibly nay be me own?' 'Did I marry in haste?'
The thoughts troubled him greatly and he couldn't rid himself of them. When he returned from the miller's, Elizabeth noticed a change in his mood. His mood was dark and unhappy. That was not like him. Elizabeth approached him from behind and put her arms around him.
'Whot is it, me luv? You do nay seem 'appy,' said Elizabeth.
Thomas pulled away from her and walked to an oven to put more wood inside. Elizabeth was sure that he had done so to get away from her embrace and it troubled her. She remembered no so long before when she still recoiled from his touch and now she felt rejected. The rejection pained her and caused her to consider the pain that she must have once caused Thomas.
'It is nuthing, I am fine,' replied Thomas without looking at her.
'You do nay seem fine, me luv,' Elizabeth patiently replied.
Thomas went about his work without speaking, a customer came into the shoppe and Elizabeth went to help her.
They didn't speak the rest of the day or the next day. Elizabeth noticed also that Thomas was no longer touching her and it hurt her deeply. For the first time in months, she found herself thinking of Richard and it troubled her. 'Why am I thinking of a deed man?' she thought to herself, 'Thomas is me 'usband.' The thoughts of Richard troubled her and she started to withdraw from Thomas.
Elizabeth didn't know what to do. She knew that she didn't want to speak with her mother about it, and she really had no close friends outside of Thomas. 'Besides,' she thought, 'it wuld nay be right to speak with a friend aboot me troubles with me 'usband.' So, she did the only other thing that she could think of, she went to the church to pray.
When she left the bakery without telling Thomas where she was going, he became suspicious. She had always told him where she was going before. After she left, he quickly closed the shoppe and followed her. It didn't take long for him to realize where she was going. After she entered the church, he crept into the back and watched as she knelt to pray. He then felt guilty for thinking ill of her for this secret errand and he quietly left the church and returned to the shoppe.
As Elizabeth knelt in the church, she felt that she hadn't been as good a wife as she should have been. The struggles of a pregnancy had distracted her. She felt guilty for thinking of Richard.
'Dear God,' she prayed, 'please forgive me for thinking of sumeone other than me 'usband. Please grant me the power to luv Thomas despite his un'appiness. 'e is a gud man. 'e works 'ard and cares for me well. I know that 'e will be a gud father. Please sof'en 'is 'eart and lift 'is mood. I