XXXVII

"Thank you so much for coming to help me, Jean. I was at the end of my rope!" Abigail lamented.

Jean moved about the kitchen in the Harris house making tea. "I'm happy to help," she replied, giving a gentle smile to the younger woman.

Abigail had called Jean first thing in the morning on Saturday, when Jean had barely finished her breakfast. Jean answered the telephone to the sounds of sobbing from her friend. Jean had rushed right over immediately.

It turned out that Abigail was pregnant, and she was having a lot of trouble coping. Her husband, Archie, had been working more and more shifts in order to help support their growing family. They'd only been married for thirteen months, and Abigail had only just started becoming comfortable in her role as a wife. Now, she'd be a mother by Queen's Birthday. Having Archie busy with work and having Mrs. Harris, her mother-in-law, taken ill and unable to help anymore, Abigail was all on her own. The morning sickness was debilitating, and the rest of the house was falling apart because she couldn't manage to get anything done without having to vomit.

When Jean arrived, she helped get Abigail cleaned up and dressed in something slightly more comfortable. She'd been wearing a very smart outfit which surely made her feel better about herself, but the cut of the skirt was too tight and her girdle was doing far more harm than good. Jean was able to find a looser-fitting dress to wear to help keep her cool in the summer heat and not put too much pressure on her slowly growing belly.

After that, Abigail was feeling better but still mildly nauseous. For that, Jean imparted some old home remedies she'd used when she was pregnant. "My first pregnancy wasn't bad, actually, but it was awful with my boys." She skated over the fact that the first pregnancy had not ended with a child. That wasn't something to discuss now, not with a newly pregnant young woman. No need to frighten her, after all. That pregnancy had been extremely easy until the miscarriage. Being sick for six of nine months with Christopher Junior and then for the whole nine months with Jack had actually brought her some comfort. Those pregnancies had been difficult, but they were different than the one that had ended so tragically. And in the end, Jean had given birth to two perfectly healthy baby boys.

"What did you do to keep from being miserable all the time?" Abigail asked, begging for any kind of help she could get.

And so Jean went about making tea. She cleaned up the kitchen, just to give Abigail some help, and when the kettle went off, she showed Abigail exactly what to do. "Peppermint tea should help settle your stomach, and strong, fresh lemon."

"Lemon in peppermint tea?" Abigail asked dubiously.

"Either of them work, but I for me they worked best together. The other thing that helps is fresh air. So why don't we take our tea out to the garden and we can sit for a while out there," Jean suggested.

That nearly brought Abigail to tears again. "Oh Jean, I haven't been able to do all the things you've taught me in the garden, and I'm afraid it's all a mess!"

"That's alright. Nothing a little attention and effort can't solve. And it'll be there for you when you're able," she soothed.

The two made their way to the garden. It actually wasn't as awful as Jean had feared. There were some overgrown weeds and a few dead flowers, but all in all, it was a perfectly fine garden that had just suffered a little bit of neglect.

Jean considered offering to fix it up for Abigail sometime over the next few days, as it would only take her a day to do it on her own and she wasn't as busy with Lucien anymore while Bishop Lascelles was in town, but she decided against it. This was the Harris house, not the Beazley house. Jean had no claim or responsibility here. If Abigail asked for her help, Jean would assist. But it was not her place to butt in and take over, even under the guise of helping.

"This tea is actually nicer than I expected," Abigail said. "I didn't think the peppermint would go well with the lemon, but it's perfectly fine."

"And is your stomach settling at all?"

Abigail nodded. "I feel like all of me is settling now. I don't think I realized how lonely I was, actually, being here all by myself all day every day. My neighbors are all busy with their own families, and I don't want to impose. And I just don't want anyone to think less of me that I can't do all of this on my own."

"No one can do everything on their own. When I first got married and when I was pregnant, I had my mother and my sister and my neighbors all helping me. And now you have me," Jean told her.

"You're so kind, Jean."

"I'm glad to help," she replied humbly.

Abigail took another soothing sip of tea. "You seem different than when I last saw you, though," she noted.

Jean wasn't sure how to take that. "Do I?"

"Yes," Abigail responded with a smile. "You have always been so nice and helpful ever since we met at the florist's that day. But now you're…I don't know…different. Lighter somehow. Happier."

Well, that was certainly true. She was happier.

Abigail continued, "I don't think I realized that you maybe weren't happy before. But I can see now that you are. Has something changed?"

Jean was not entirely sure how to answer that, so she chose her words carefully. "I am happier, certainly. When we met, I'd only been living in town a few weeks. I didn't really know anyone, and I was just starting in my work at St. Catherine's. It's taken a while for me to find my place. It's really difficult to start your life over somewhere new all on your own. At least it was for me. I lived in the same town all my life, you see. I was born on my parents' farm and I lived there till I moved two miles down the road to the farm my husband and I owned, and I was there until after my husband died and I couldn't keep it anymore. My sons and I moved in with my sister in town, and then when my boys left home, I became a live-in housekeeper. All in that same town."

"But now you're settled here and you'll stay, won't you?" Abigail asked hopefully.

"Yes, I'll stay. I have a life here that's all my own. I love my house and the new friends I've made. I'm very happy here, Abigail, and I have no intention on leaving." She reached over and took the younger woman's hand. "Besides, I can't wait to meet your little one."

Abigail beamed with joy, placing her free hand over her barely visible bump. "I can't wait either. I didn't think I'd be having a baby so soon, and half the time I'm still terrified that I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm just so excited to be a mum."

"It's the hardest thing in the world," Jean said, "because you cease to be yourself and you're just someone else's mother for a very long time. I loved taking care of my boys and being able to teach them and protect them. I sometimes worry I wasn't as successful as I'd wanted to be, but we had each other and we did alright. The difficulty really came after they left and I had to figure out how to be myself again and not just their mother. But really, Abigail, I think you'll find that being a mother is the best time in your life. And I have a feeling you'll be wonderful at it."

Tears fell down Abigail's face. Those pregnancy hormones were really getting her, poor thing. "Thank you, Jean," she said as her voice hitched.

"Shh, don't cry. Just drink your tea and calm down," Jean advised.

The two women sat together quietly for a little while. Jean reflected on what she'd told Abigail, about how happy she'd come to be in this town. And she had. So much of it, of course, had to do with falling in love with Lucien and getting to be with him, despite the severe limits of their circumstances. It couldn't last forever, of course. But for now, everything was quite good. She had friends and she had a position working to help Lucien in the church that she liked very much. And, of course, she absolutely loved her house. She wished that Lucien could spend more time with her there, since it was so wonderful to make love to him in her bed after she'd gotten over the flu just after Christmas. But of course they could not risk that, having him be seen coming and going too much. They already had been noticed for their closeness at St. Catherine's by Mrs. Williams and who knows who else. They'd maintained decorum in the church, aside from a few stolen kisses and Lucien stealing her knickers in his office. Otherwise, their romance was confined to the rectory.

Yes, things were going along just fine. Jean was happy. She knew she was. Things were not perfect, but she was happy for now, and that was what she would hold onto.