"What do you mean, give him up?"

"When she about seven months along, she start gettin' scared. She know she weren't gonna get no help from that brother of hers. She cry a lot about what to do. Dr. Jeffries told her he could find the baby a mama and daddy to raise him like their own. She say yes, do that."

"But then she couldn't go through with it," Victoria wondered aloud. She felt a lump in her throat. She felt compassion even for Leah, who had been the other woman in her husband's life, however briefly. The woman who had borne him a son he hadn't known about. Victoria couldn't really be angry at her, though. She had believed Heath when he said his mother hadn't known.

She certainly understood how a woman would fall in love with Tom, hope for a future with him, fell into his arms when neither of them meant for it to happen. She must have indeed been frightened to be an unwed mother. She remembered holding her own babies, including the one, another boy, she had lost just the year before Heath was born. She couldn't imagine having the strength to hand a baby to someone else to take away and never see him again.

"No, Miss Leah look at that baby and hold him, and she say no, she ain't gonna give him to no one. Dr. Jeffries told her it gonna be hard, for her and the boy. Told her boys a handful, they need fathers to keep 'em in line. Miss Rachel tell her the same thing, she only had girls, but she got friends with boys and know they a passel o' trouble. Miss Leah say she still can't do it, she can't give him up, she gonna bear that cross herself." Hannah shook her head.

"Miss Leah didn't know much at first, but she a natural mother. She held that little baby all the time. She hardly wanna put him down or let us hold him very long at first. And when she did put him down, that baby hardly have to make a peep before she pick him up. She say if he cryin', he needs his mama. She sing to him, talk to him like he grown and know what she talkin' about. She say there ain't no need to talk to a child like they don't know nothin.' And she read to that boy from the time he big enough to sit on her lap."

Hannah looked up as if from a reverie. "My goodness, I done forgot my manners. I ain't offered y'all nothin' to drink."

"Oh, it's all right, we're fine," Victoria said. "Thank you, though."

"How 'bout some tea? I already got a kettle on."

"Tea would be lovely," Victoria replied, understanding the need Hannah had to offer them refreshment.

Hannah chuckled to herself as she rose. She was back from the kitchen in a moment. "My boy, now, he ain't got no use for tea. He say why you gonna fetch wood to put in the stove to make somethin' that don't hardly taste like more 'n water." She laughed at the memory.

So did Jarrod and Victoria. "How old was he when he said that?" Jarrod asked.

"Oh, when he about eight or nine. He been keepin' the wood box full a long time by then. I give him a cup of tea one afternoon when he botherin' me about somethin,' then he all cheeky and tell me it a waste of time."

Jarrod couldn't help but laugh again. "It's funny because that just sounds like Heath. He can't stand a waste of time or money."

"He sho' can't," Hannah agreed. "He always like that. Askin' his mama why this, why that, just takes too much time." She poured tea for them all, but before handing Jarrod a cup, she smiled and asked him, "You want some or you like your brother and think it's silly?"

Jarrod smiled. "I don't mind it now and then. And Heath will humor Mother and Audra sometimes and have a cup with them."

"Audra is little sister, right?"

"Yes, she's a few years younger than Heath. They're very close."

"He love that little sister," Hannah told them. "He say she got lots of spunk, but she very sweet."

Victoria and Jarrod smiled. "That sounds like Audra," Jarrod agreed.

"Heath looks after Audra very well. He always wants to be sure she's safe." Victoria smiled at Hannah.

"He always like that too. He hardly ten years old and decide he man of the house, he gonna walk his mama somewhere if she need somethin', or let him fetch it for her. Same with Miss Rachel. Let me do it, he says. Says ladies don't need to be out gettin' stuff after dark, ain't no one gonna bother him and he be right back with whatever they want." Hannah smiled. "Ain't no use arguin' with that boy when he done made up his mind."

Jarrod and Victoria laughed and looked at each other. "I guess you know that hasn't changed," Jarrod said. "And I'm afraid that's a very Barkley characteristic."

"I reckoned he a lot like his daddy," Hannah said. "He ain't much like Miss Leah except a couple things, how she real smart with them books, and insistin' on doin' the right thing. That's it. Don't look like her, and sho more than she know what to do with."

Victoria was curious. "You said he doesn't look like her. What did she look like? I remember you telling me she was pretty."

"Miss Leah was beautiful," Hannah said. "She 'bout exact same size as you, Miz Barkley. Her hair gold like the color of honey, not red but not blonde. Real long, down her back when she let it down, and not real curly but not straight. She pin it up but some always come loose and curl around her face. She have big hazel eyes and long eyelashes. But the prettiest thing about Miss Leah was her smile. Her smile light up her whole face."

"Hannah," Victoria said, trying to find the right words, "Do you know why Leah didn't tell Heath's father about him?"

"I ain't totally sure, Miz Barkley," Hannah said. "She and Miss Rachel fuss a good bit about it. Miss Rachel say she should. Say his daddy need to take care of that boy. Miss Leah say she not gonna mess with a married man, not gonna bother him or his family. Say she don't got the right to that. Miss Rachel say yes she do, that baby give her the right. Miss Leah real stubborn, say she just not gonna do that, he ain't never gonna know. Say that baby her problem. Lawd have mercy, she stubborn."

"It was just that she didn't think it was right?"

"Yes ma'am, she say it ain't right, and she ain't gonna do it. Miss Leah make her mind up about somethin' bein' right, ain't no changing it. That's one way her boy just like her."

Victoria and Jarrod exchanged glances. They already knew this to be true of Heath, that he would do what he thought was right, come hell or high water.

"Miss Leah absolutely hate not bein' proper to other people. She from one of the finest families in Charleston. Had a fancy house. She could see the ocean from her house. She remembers her mammy taking her outside to walk right by the sea when she a little girl. Her mama was a grand lady. Her daddy grew up on his daddy's rice plantation. They fancy too.

Now, Miss Leah don't think that make her any better than anyone else. She say it ain't important, it's how people act that's important. She say plenty of them fancy families the worst people she ever known. But Miss Leah very particular about this ain't proper, that ain't, this right, that not. And she say just because she done fell, ain't no need to drag a family down with her, that ain't proper, and it ain't happenin'."

"But Rachel tried to tell her otherwise?"

"Oh, Miss Rachel tried. She say that boy's daddy have a ranch, ain't no such thing as too many boys on a ranch. But Miss Leah still wouldn't hear of it. I think part of it was she don't want him to take her boy from her. She love him, she want to keep him. She didn't understand how hard it gonna be. She think people just gonna blame her, not her boy. She said she could live with that."

"But that wasn't how it was," Jarrod said softly.

"No, it weren't a lot of the time," Hannah said sadly. "When he real small, he so cute, so sweet, such a good baby, Miss Leah think it gonna stay like that. Nobody bother her then. Some ladies give her ugly looks, and some men think they got the right to look her up and down, but she say she gotta live with that.

She say she can laugh or cry, and she gonna laugh instead. Miss Leah real spunky back then. She said she don't need nobody else, no man, just me and Miss Rachel, we three peas in a pod. Miss Leah just don't know what comin', her hands full with that boy when he bigger and people start bein' ugly. That's what broke Miss Leah, people bein' ugly to Heath and him bein' so upset about not havin' a daddy."

Victoria found tears on her cheeks. Jarrod looked solemn. They had some idea of what this had been like for Heath, they could tell from the look in his eyes sometimes, though he said almost nothing about it. And as a mother, Victoria knew it would have broken her heart too.

"Miz Barkley, I sure don't mean to make you cry. You such a nice lady, you so good to Heath. He be real upset if I done make you sad. He don't want you to be sad."

Victoria choked back a sob. How like Heath. "Oh, Hannah, you haven't made me sad. Not at all. I want to know these things. Everything you tell me helps me understand Heath a little more, why he is who he is. It's a sad situation. The world can be a sad place. But I want you to tell me."

"You sure, Miz Barkley? Cause I don't want my sweet boy comin' here fussin' at me. He never mean, even when he mad, but he give me them eyes, and seein' them eyes all sad tear me up. Or he look at me like why you done that, Hannah, and I know he mad even if he don't say so."

"I understand," Victoria said gently. How she knew what Hannah meant, the sadness in Heath's eyes. She couldn't bear it either. "Jarrod and I probably aren't going to share with him that we've been here. It might upset him. None of us want that. But it helps me to know."