what time of the day or how soon after we had just eaten.
“I want to know the exact moment you feel our little boy kick inside you,” she told me. “No matter when, even in the middle of the night. Just come to my door and knock, okay?”
“Yes, of course,” I said.
And when it happened close to my fifth month, I did exactly that so she could put her hand on my stomach and feel him, too. Maybe I was imagining it, but sometimes during the day, I would catch her putting her hand on her imitation stomach and smiling as if she actually could feel her son introducing himself.
Meanwhile, practically every day since Dr. Davenport and Samantha learned that their baby was a boy, she was working on the room that would become the nursery. She had taken over the bedroom next to hers, and, with Elizabeth Davenport’s frowns of disapproval practically floating around Wyndemere, Samantha had all the furniture removed and placed in the attic for storage. She was going to replace everything. I think to keep her occupied and give me as well as the servants and Dr. Bliskin some relief, Dr. Davenport gave her carte blanche to decide every aspect of the room’s decor and furnishings. It did keep her busy visiting furniture showrooms and meeting with flooring and wallpaper salespeople, and the more people saw her in what looked clearly to be pregnancy, the happier she was.
However, it was a particularly difficult time for me, because when the laborers were brought in to carpet the floor and wallpaper the room, as well as change lighting fixtures, I was confined to my room so that no outsider would see me. Once they left for the day, Samantha came running to open my door. I felt like I was being released from a prison cell, solitary confinement, although my beautiful bedroom would hardly qualify as such.
Periodically, she would lead me by the hand to the nursery and review the changes and additions with me. As soon as the furniture she had chosen was delivered and the deliverymen had left, she wanted my opinion. Having had no experience with nurseries or designing and decorating a room, I offered only compliments. Almost every time I had been in there with her, she’d asked me the same question when we left.
“You’d want your baby to be in that nursery, wouldn’t you?”
I could feel the underlying flow of insecurity. After all, no matter how she pretended or how literally she imitated me, she still knew she wasn’t the one carrying the child who would live in this mansion. Until the day I delivered, what I saw, felt, and heard was very important to her. She thought that might affect her child, even though Dr. Bliskin had assured her that nothing from my DNA would become part of the baby in my womb. She told me that often, but not meanly. She was simply looking for confirmation.
“Of course, he knows all about that,” I said. “I’m sure that’s right.”
She had brought Dr. Bliskin as well as Mrs. Marlene to the nursery to see what she was doing, where she had placed the cradle in relation to the windows, and the hypoallergenic materials she had chosen for the curtains, the carpet, and even the new wallpaper.
As far as I knew, Elizabeth Davenport had yet to look at any of the changes and additions. There was no doubt that she didn’t approve of the in vitro method. That got me wondering how she would react to the birth of her grandson. Would she accept him or think of him as something freakish? I was curious, but I never dared ask. Samantha seemed quite disinterested in her mother-in-law’s feelings about it, anyway, but I could imagine Dr. Davenport being somewhat upset about his mother’s attitude. I was sure he was trying to get her to accept what they were doing. Like those of so many older people I had known, especially my father, her beliefs and feelings were cemented in who she was and who she would always be.
As my due date drew closer, it was sweet to watch how excited Dr. Davenport and Samantha were becoming. In the short time I had been at Wyndemere, I had seen how devoted he was to her, but during these months, he seemed to adore her to the point of worship. Once he was home, he was at her side constantly. I was aware that he was