Baby Makes a Match

“We can manage,” Garrett insisted. He clasped a hand onto Bethany’s shoulder. “She doesn’t have anywhere else to go, ma’am.”

Two new heads popped up then, and two more pairs of amber eyes turned Bethany’s way. Another woman rose from another wing chair. She turned fully to face them, her manner almost regal. Despite her leaner, paler face, she looked very like Magnolia, her silver hair coiled in a heavy, figure-eight chignon at the nape of her neck. Her collarless tan suit called attention to the strand of pearls at her throat, and she held in one hand a pair of gold-rimmed half-glasses.

The third sister wore a flutter of rainbow organza. Plumper than the other two, she wore her stark white hair in short, fluffy curls with a big, floppy, soft pink bow tied atop her head and a pair of large, brightly colored organza butterflies affixed to her earlobes. It was all Bethany could do not to laugh with delight.

Tearing her gaze away from the butterfly lady, Bethany looked to Magnolia.

“My sisters,” she said. “Miss Odelia Mae Chatam and Miss Hypatia Kay Chatam.” Bethany nodded at each in turn.

“Sisters,” Magnolia said, “I have the privilege of introducing Garrett’s sister, Bethany…” Her voice trailed off.

The moment of truth had arrived, the moment when they would know what a fool she had been. Would they look down on her? Would they judge? She gulped and lifted her chin.

“Bethany Sue. Bethany Sue Willows.”

Not a Mrs. Nor a miss. Just Bethany Sue Willows. And more pain and shame than she knew how to bear.

Chapter Three

The sisters traded looks.

“Ms. Willows,” Hypatia said, inclining her head. “Welcome to Chatam House.”

Bethany nearly collapsed with relief. “Thank you, but won’t you please call me Bethany?”

Hypatia Chatam smiled serenely. “Thank you. Given names are always easier with three Miss Chatams about.” She beckoned them closer with a wave of one hand, saying, “Join us, please.”

Magnolia crossed over and took a seat next to Odelia on an elaborately carved settee upholstered in a lush floral damask. Hypatia returned to the gold-striped wingback and nodded Bethany toward its twin. Garrett stood beside her, his arm stretched across the chair back.

“When is the baby due?” Odelia warbled eagerly, butterflies dancing.

“Eighteenth of October,” Bethany answered cautiously.

“So,” Magnolia said to her sisters, “the master suite, do you think?”

“What?” Garrett exclaimed. “No, no, that’s not necessary.”

They blithely ignored him.

“Hmm, yes, I think that would be best,” Hypatia mused.

Odelia clapped her hands again. “Room for the two of you and the baby!”

Without warning, Bethany burst into tears. “I’m sorry! Garrett said you were kind, but I never dreamed…I never expected…”

“Now, now,” Hypatia said calmly.

“It has become clear to us,” Magnolia put in, “that the good Lord has ordained Chatam House as a place of sanctuary for those in need. We are only following His dictates, dear.”

“And babies are such fun!” Odelia chirruped.

Bethany laughed, blinking away her tears. “I don’t know how to thank you. I promise I won’t abuse your hospitality. I intend to look for a job right away.”

“Is that wise in your condition?” Odelia worried aloud.

“I was working until I came here,” Bethany told her staunchly. “I can certainly continue.”

“That might not be so easy,” Garrett warned. “It’s one thing to continue working at a job after you become pregnant. It’s another to get someone to hire you when you’re almost six months along.”

“Well, it’s a matter for prayer,” Hypatia said in a tone that clearly indicated the subject was closed for the moment. “Bethany, I’m sure you’d like to freshen up before dinner. Garrett, will you show her the retiring room, then ask Carol to set two extra places at the dining table.”

Garrett nodded. “I’ll get your bags in, too, sis.”

“Chester will help you both settle into your new space later,” Hypatia decreed.

“Father would be so tickled, don’t you think?” Odelia said as Bethany rose and hurried from the room at Garrett’s side.

“The master suite was old Mr. Chatam’s room,” Garrett whispered to Bethany. “He died at the age of ninety-two in nineteen-ninety-nine, and they still speak as if it was yesterday.”

“I don’t care if they set a place for him at the dinner table!” Bethany whispered back. “They’re not that eccentric, and they’re sharp as razors, believe me.”

“Oh, Garrett,” Bethany cried, laying her head on his shoulder, “I’m so glad I came!”

Maybe, she told herself, the Willows family was finally going to come right.

“Well, my dears,” Hypatia said, keeping her voice low, “it looks as though we’re going to have a full house.”

Magnolia nodded, oddly satisfied. She’d known Garrett as a child. After his father had died, Garrett had come around occasionally asking to mow the yard. She’d let him mow for an hour or so, paid him and sent him on his way. After his mother had remarried, he’d started showing up with bruises, but he would never answer Magnolia’s questions about how he’d obtained them. She’d heard rumors, but once she’d asked outright if his stepfather had hit him, Garrett had stopped visiting. Later, when she’d learned that Mrs. Benjamin had been hospitalized and Garrett had assaulted his stepfather, she’d expected the boy to get off with a reprimand. Instead, he’d gone to prison. She had always considered that a grave miscarriage of justice, so when he had approached her in the yard just over two months ago, Magnolia had hired him on the spot. Garrett had quickly become a household favorite. Now, his pregnant sister, Bethany, had come to them. Magnolia definitely felt the hand of God at work.

“Even with Chandler here,” she said, “I don’t see what else we could have done.”

“Oh, of course Bethany has to stay!” Odelia gushed. She bit her lip. “But I know I heard Kaylie say that Garrett’s sister was married.”

Hypatia nodded. “Yes. I recall the same thing.”

“Perhaps they’ve divorced,” Magnolia suggested.

“Perhaps,” Hypatia murmured. “I confess to some curiosity, but all will undoubtedly become clear in time.”

“What God wishes us to know, He will reveal,” Magnolia added with a nod.

“I’m more concerned about Chandler, frankly,” Hypatia went on.

Magnolia, too, was concerned about their nephew. They had hoped at first that his moving in here had signaled a compromise of sorts with his father, who disapproved of both Chandler’s occupation and his partner, Kreger, but something else was obviously afoot, and Chandler hadn’t seemed to know what that was.

“We’ve prayed a long time for him to make certain things right in his life,” Magnolia pointed out. “Maybe the good Lord is forcing his hand a bit.”

“True,” Hypatia agreed.