Grace: A Christmas Sisters of the Heart Novel by Shelley Shepard Gray Page B

doctor or are you going to use a midwife?”
    “I have a doctor.”
    “Well, what did he say?”
    “It’s a woman …”
    Katie put a hand on her hip and waited.
    And waited.
    Actually, all of them stared at her, wanting answers. And Melody couldn’t really blame their curiosity, after all. Here Anna had just shared how she’d been held at gunpoint!
    But Melody wasn’t used to sharing. Nor was she used to talking about anything to do with the baby. As she struggled to tell them something, anything that wouldn’treduce her to tears, she could feel the blood leave her face. “I didn’t ask my doctor’s permission.”
    “What about your husband?”
    Melody reached out to the counter for support as her world tilted. Oh, but she was afraid she was going to pass out again. “I don’t have one.”
    All four women’s eyes widened. Just as quickly, Katie closed them again. “Oh,” she mumbled.
    Just like her extended family in Kentucky, they were shocked.
    Of course they were—her situation was shocking.
    But carrying the burden alone for nine months was taking its toll. Melody’s knees felt locked. She shook a foot slightly, hoping to regain some circulation. Anything to enable her to slink out of the room.
    How had this happened? She’d gone from feeling happy to embarrassed in seconds. Now the room felt claustrophobic. Too hot. A wave of dizziness intensified, making her head spin.
    As she gripped the counter, Melody chided herself again. Oh, but she should have known better. She should have made up a story. Told them her husband left her. Or he died. Something. Anything.
    Anything other than her truth.
    But she’d known that those lies wouldn’t make her feel any better, and she would just be letting herself open to more prying questions. “I think I’ll go lie down now.”
    Winnie trotted over and reached for her arm. “Wait, Melody. Please, don’t go—”
    “I—I must.”
    “Then I will walk you.”
    But just as Winnie was about to wrap a comforting arm around her shoulders, the situation became too much to bear. With a jerk, she avoided Winnie’s hand and turned to the right. Quickly she raced down the hall. If she was quick enough, she could be in her room before the tears came. If she kept her mind on her steps, she would be in her room before she did something really stupid. Before she turned back around and told the women about getting attacked one evening on the way home from work.
    Before she told them about how scared she’d been when the elderly couple found her, and then called the police.
    How foreign the hospital had felt. How bruised and battered her body had been. How shamed she’d felt. For months.
    As she climbed into the soft bed, the icy sheets caused her teeth to chatter. Soon enough she knew her body’s heat combined with the down would warm her well and good. But at the moment she felt as cold as if she’d been exiled to the farthest reaches of the arctic.
    Only far, far more alone.
    The moment Melody disappeared, Anna glared at her. “Wow, Katie. Way to go.”
    “What?”
    “You know what, daughter. Fact is, I am ashamed of you,” her mother whispered. “Your prying questions were terribly rude. That girl’s business is none of our concern.”
    Katie flinched. Oh, but she hated being admonished by her mother. “Mother, you know very well I didn’t mean to make her cry. All I was doing was asking questions.”
    Winnie cleared her throat. “A whole lot of questions.”
    “I wasn’t that bad.”
    Anna and Winnie exchanged glances. “Oh, I think you were,” Winnie said.
    But even as she tried to defend herself, Katie knew she wasn’t quite being honest. She had grown up with guests in the house—Amish and English. They’d all come from different walks of life, too.
    Some of the couples who came weren’t married, and hadn’t even pretended to be. Others did things she thought strange.
    But early on, her parents had taught her not to judge. To maintain a