The ledgers were piled high and he rubbed his eyes as he opened the next one. The numbers were all beginning to blur together and he had to keep a small tally of the figures on a scrap of paper near his right hand.
"Robert?" It was Cora, but he couldn't stop now. Not in the middle of counting. He held up a hand to her behind him, and she waited. He wrote down the last number and pulled the next ledger onto the desktop.
"Robert?"
He hummed in feign attention, but he studied the next column of numbers instead, his back still to her.
He could faintly hear her take one step closer and swallow in the quiet of the library.
"Robert, I think I'm pregnant."
Blank. His mind went totally blank and he held his pen still in his hand, his eyes resting on the numbers that now made no sense to him. He turned slowly in his chair to see her. She stood there, in her navy dress, her hands by her side.
"Wh-what?"
"I think I'm pregnant," she repeated. When he did not respond and only stared at her, his mouth agape, she began to pour out an explanation. "I'm more than a month overdue for…well…and, and the smell of eggs makes my stomach turn, and I've been so tired, and…well now…I've, I've just been sick."
He studied her, not knowing what to say, so he just opened and closed his mouth.
"I think I'm pregnant," she said again, but now with a smile that grew and grew. "I'm…I'm pregnant."
He didn't even realize until he was holding her in his arms that he had stood up. He was laughing, kissing her, holding her face in her hands. "Oh my darling. My sweet Cora."
She was nodding, tears shimmering in her sparkling eyes. "We should summon the doctor, of course, but…but I'm sure of it. Robert. I'm pregnant."
His cheeks felt sore from how zealously he smiled. His heart wouldn't still. He wanted to lift her and spin her around, but found that he suddenly had the urge to wrap her up in silken linens and pamper her.
"We're having a baby," his voice sounded strange, the joy in his chest bubbling to the surface. "My darling, a baby."
She laughed out loud and he pulled her to him again, tightly, and blinked away the tears he felt brimming his eyes. "A baby. A baby."