I looked back and forth between my two best friends. I knew that crying would scare the children, but at this moment, it's all I wanted to do. There was so much weighing on my decision; the fate of my life and many others. It was all too much, and my world started spinning. As I began to feel darkness encompassing me, I heard Neil and David both call out my name, and then everything was black.

Muffled shouting drew me from the depths of the darkness. I opened my eyes, wincing at the pain throbbing through my head, to see that I was in my room, safely tucked in my bed and in my warm nightgown. A lamp was lit across the room on my desk, casting a light glow across the room, battling the sun that was sinking below the mountain tops outside. The shouting captured my attention once again and I recognized Neil and David shouting, along with Miss Alice's occasional pleas to stop.

"You can't offer her what I can! You don't have faith in God!" David was saying. "Christy needs spiritual support as well as unconditional love, and I can give that to her."

Neil retorted with something I couldn't quite make out. This had to stop. I wouldn't have them fighting over me. It was ridiculous. I winced and moaned, pushing myself up. I must have fallen on something hard when I'd blacked out. I could feel the bruises on the right side of my body. I was pretty sure I'd hit my head too, with the way it was throbbing.

Shuffling over to the door and opening it, I stepped out into the hall to see Neil and David standing there, still shouting. Miss Alice was perched on the top step, watching them hopelessly. I wouldn't stand for this.

"Stop it!" I shouted, tears springing to my eyes. "Just stop! Please…"

Both men turned to me, their expressions turning to concern.

"Christy, you shouldn't be out of bed. You took a nasty fall and hit to your head," Neil was saying as he came toward me.

I stayed quiet, leaning weakly against the door frame. Neil picked me up off of my feet easily and carried me back to my bed, Alice and David right behind him. As he gently laid me back, he brushed my hair away from my forehead, looking at the knot there and frowning at it.

"That's a nasty bump. Grantland, would you have Ruby Mae get a cool cloth for her forehead? And maybe that tea…"

David looked reluctant to leave, but did as he was asked after Miss Alice gave him a pointed look. When he was gone, Alice looked to Neil.

"How does it look?"

Neil told me to look certain directions and then held the light closer to me, looking at my eyes. I winced and looked away.

"Alice, would you tell David to hurry with that cool cloth?"

Alice nodded and slipped from the room, with a concerned glance over her shoulder.

"Who finished class?" I ask, suddenly remembering the students I had left standing on the steps hours before.

"Rob Allen."

I nodded, knowing he had handled things well.

"Christy, how are you feeling?" Neil said, reaching up and running his fingers down the side of my face. "I should inspect you again."

Fear enveloped me. I was afraid he would discover my secret, and then there would be no going back.

"Go away," I said quietly, yanking back from his touch.

"Christy…"

"Go away, Neil! I don't want to see you."

Neil's face showed the sting of my words, but I didn't care. I needed him to get out before it was too late.

"Why don't you just go home to your wife and leave me alone?"

Neil swallowed the lump in his throat and slowly stood, thinking that Margaret was what was bothering me. "Christy… is there anything I can do?"

I shook my head and turned away. "Please just leave me alone."

Neil nodded and retreated.

"And tell David I don't want to talk to him either… I just want Miss Alice, please."

The door closed with a loud bang, resonating Neil's anger all over the mission house. Then I burst into tears and cried into my pillow. I couldn't do anything right anymore.

Miss Alice came up a few minutes later and immediately hurried toward me, pulling me into her arms as I continued to sob. "Oh, Christy…"

I sat up and buried my face in Miss Alice's shoulder. I knew I had to tell her. "I…I have something to tell you."

"I'm listening…"

"When Mr. Stone visited… he… he…"

"What, Christy? What did Mr. Stone do?"

"When I was showing him around one afternoon, he took me into the old cave on the McHone's mountain and he raped me."

Miss Alice yanked back, sorrow covering every feature of her body. She too had gone through something similar with Margaret's father. "Christy? Why didn't thee tell anyone?"

"I was so afraid. Oh, Miss Alice… I was so afraid."

Miss Alice hugged me tightly.

"Miss Alice….I'm going to have his baby."

Alice froze and then also started crying at the news, her hands going to my face and cradling it. I melted in her arms, desperately needing someone to hold me and Alice kissed the side of my head in a motherly way. "I'm so sorry, Christy. But thee has to believe that this happened for a reason. God's plan…"

"I know… but it hurts so much. My life is over."

"No, Christy… I felt that way when I found out I was expecting Margaret. But my life was only beginning, Christy."

I sighed. "Neither David or Neil will want me. No man will ever want me."

"I think they will fight over thee now, more than ever before."

I had to laugh. She pulled back and brushed away a few tears, smiling faintly.

"Miss Alice? Am I going to be okay? Am I going to be a good mother?"

Alice looked at me with motherly love and smoothed back my hair. "Thee will do fine, Miss Huddleston."

I smiled as Alice placed a kiss to my hair. How strange it was that I had more of a mother-daughter relationship with Miss Alice than my own mother. "When should I tell Neil and David?"

"That's up to thee to decide."

"Then I'm doing it now before I lose my courage."

I stood up, straightened my shoulders, and headed toward the door, Miss Alice right behind me. Neil and David were out on the porch having a quiet disagreement again. When they saw my pale face they both stopped and looked at me.

"Neil, David, I have something to tell you and I need to say it before I lose my nerve."

I felt a few tears slip down my face and David stepped toward me, wrapping his arm around me and leading me to a chair.

"What is it, Christy?" He was knelt in front of me, his hand holding mine.

I looked into his blue, loving eyes, and sighed. "Mr. Stone…"

"What about him?" Neil asked, his voice already gravelly at the name of the man that had caused so many problems.

"He… I was showing him around the McHone's and Timmons' mountain and he drug me into a cave and he raped me."

"He raped you!" Neil exploded.

"I tried to stop him, but he… he…"

"Oh…Christy…" David consoled pulling me close to him and hugging me as I cried. "Shh… It's alright."

Neil stood there, obviously fuming at the thought of me being raped by that disgusting, smug man.

"No….it isn't alright. David… I'm going to have a baby," I barely got it out without crying again. Miss Alice placed her hand to my shoulder in support as David yanked back and stared at me with wide, tear-filled eyes.

"Oh dear God…" David choked out.

"God? Your God allowed this to happen to her!" Neil boomed at David.

David stood and spun around to face him. "Do not speak to me about something you do not believe in!"

"Stop!" I shouted, tears coming harder as I stood to my feet. "Just please don't fight. I need both of you right now."

Both men turned toward me, apologizing as I shakily lowered my exhausted body into the chair again before I passed out. I looked down at my lap, not able to look at them.

"I apologize to both of you for not telling you sooner. I didn't know what to do… I was afraid."

Neil's fury was extremely evident. "That sick bastard…"

"Neil McNeil," Alice scolded. "Such language will not be tolerated at this mission."

Neil brooded and turned away, arms crossed in front of him as his eyes bore holes into the schoolhouse. I looked between both David and Neil, my world spinning again. I stumbled as I stood, feeling the need to get back inside and Alice wrapped her arm around my waist, holding me tightly.

"Thee are not well, Christy. Let's get thee back inside."

I weakly let the older woman lead me inside. She sat me in the rocker by the fire and both Neil and David came in, agreeing to have an adult conversation.

"Christy… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have allowed you two to be alone together. I never trusted him," David said.

"I don't want to dwell on the past, David. I have too much to think about now to think about what might have been changed."

"Do your parents know?"

"No. Mama will want me to come home, but I can't go back there…not when I know that Mr. Stone is in the same town. I can't risk him knowing about the baby."

David put his head in his hands and Neil paced the floor. Alice kept her eyes on me.

"So you're going to stay?" Neil asked. "You're going to stay here?"

I nodded. "Yes. I'm not going to leave the Cove."

"The conditions here for childbearing are…"

"I know, Neil."

"We will all do our best to provide the best environment for Christy that we can," Alice said.

"Christy… you should tell your parents," David said. "I'll talk to them if I have to, to convince them that you should stay here. But you should tell them."

"I agree with David," Miss Alice said.

"My mother will want to come."

"The Mission will accommodate both her and thy father," Miss Alice said.

"I wonder if your family doctor will come along this time," Neil mumbled from where he was poking around in the fire with the metal fire pick.

"Oh, I hope not," I said, scrunching up my nose at the thought. "I'll tell mother not to bring him."