EPILOGUE

On a hot Tuesday in late July, Emily tried to approach Victoria several times but Victoria was preoccupied with a family legal issue. Emily waited for the proper moment.

The following day at breakfast, after the men had left for their various pursuits, Emily remained at the table with Victoria.

"Emily," said her mother-in-law, "I have the distinct impression that you would like to speak with me."

Emily opened her mouth to speak but no words came out.

"Emily," Victoria said, "If you don't tell me, I can't help you." Victoria prayed there were no problems between Nick and Emily. She had a strict hands-off policy regarding her children's marriages and if there were a problem, Nick and Emily would have to work it out themselves.

"I think I might be," Emily hesitated, and whispered almost inaudibly, "in a delicate condition.". She had dismissed the signs initially, attributing some to the full and regular meals at the house and others to frank exhaustion from sharing a bed with Nick Barkley.

Victoria was very good at containing her shock and she did so now. She sat quiet for a moment, then cleared her throat.

"Oh?" she said, "And how long since . . . "

"Since two weeks before the wedding," Emily replied.

"Emily!" she said, her shock showing now, "That's four - that's over four months!"

"I know! And I've never missed a month before, not ever." Emily looked very worried.

A realization was growing in Victoria's mind and she chided herself for not having thought of it before. A girl growing up without a mother and only brothers has little opportunity to learn the facts of life from a woman's perspective, if at all. Also, she was only eighteen when she married.

"Emily, who said that you can't have children?"

"Well, I was married for four years," she said and she thought that made it pretty obvious she couldn't have children.

"Yes, but who told you?"

"Well, no one," she said, then remembered, "I guess Sam did."

"I see," Victoria was starting to get excited at the possibility now presented, "Your twenty three year old husband informed his motherless eighteen year old bride that she was the reason they didn't have children?"

"Well, yes, I guess that's right." Emily remained mystified but had already started to harbor a growing suspicion about her previous marriage.

Victoria folded her hands in her lap, looked down thoughtfully, and smiled. She was a little surprised at Emily's lack of knowledge, though she understood why the young woman didn't know. She also knew Emily had a tendency to take on responsibilities and faults that were not rightly hers.

"Emily, you do know it takes two people, a man and a woman, yes?"

Emily blushed a deep scarlet and nodded her head. She now knew that Victoria shared the suspicion she didn't dare believe, not without confirmation.

"What I'm trying to say is, maybe Sam was the one who couldn't have children, not you."

The color drained from Emily's face and Victoria thought her daughter-in-law was going to fall out of her chair in a dead faint but she didn't.

The two women took the buggy into town that morning to pay a visit to Dr. Merar. Victoria asked if Emily had shared her suspicions with Nick.

"Oh, Good Heavens, no!" she said and they laughed.

Emily was mortified to be discussing such personal things with a man but understood the doctor might have the answers. First, though, he asked her some very specific questions about her body. Next, he pushed his hand into various places on her abdomen. He tried to listen to her abdomen with his stethoscope but said it might still be too early.

When he stood back up and put his stethoscope away, he said, "Emily, there are a lot of things I don't know but there are two things I do know with absolute certainty: One, it takes two people to create a baby, and Two," he pointed at her abdomen, "That is a baby."

Victoria could barely contain her joy and Emily was alternately stunned, frightened, and very excited by the news. She was also embarrassed by her own naivete. They shared a celebratory lunch at a restaurant and bought some fabric to alter Emily's dresses. They talked about various ways Emily could tell Nick.

But telling Nick about the pregnancy was the easy part.

She told him she had seen Dr. Merar that morning; he asked if she was all right, and she told him she was with child. It was as simple as that. But then she had to explain about the assumptions she had made. And that was the hardest part. Nick, however, was too busy being proud of his own virility to make an issue of his wife's all too common understanding about conception.

~O~

Heath and Sarah were married in October at the courthouse in Stockton with only family present. They, too, honeymooned at the family's mountain lodge and witnessed the first mountain snowfall of the season.

~O~

Christmas saw a very full house at the Barkley Ranch. Audra and Carl came for the holiday, with Audra barely showing though she was due in April. If Heath and Sarah had any such news, they didn't share it. Victoria presided over the Christmas dinner, pleased and proud of her growing family, and hoping Jarrod would soon bring a wife to the table, as well; the table that was covered with hand-made Honiton lace.

A few days after Christmas, Nick woke at his usual early hour to find Emily sitting up In a chair next to the bed, holding her belly and wincing.

"How long have you been sitting there and why didn't you wake me?" he asked, scolding.

"A few hours and I'm not having it right this minute. Everyone who can sleep should sleep," was her response.

Despite her protestations, he woke the entire household and sent a hand to fetch Dr. Merar.

Heath and Sarah came to the house: Sarah to sit with Emily and help as needed and Heath to try and distract Nick while they all waited. And waited. As the hours ticked by, Nick became edgier and unable to stand still. This was a new patience he found especially difficult to practice.

By late afternoon, Jarrod and Heath were purposely losing to Nick at billiards to keep him occupied. And then, even from The Billiards Room that unmistakable sound could be heard and Nick was already at the top of the stairs when the good doctor emerged from the room.

Not only could Emily have children, she did so very well. She came through labor without complication, and Dr. Merar got to boast that he was now physician to three generations of Barkleys: this first member of the third generation being Thomas Andrew Barkley, weighing in a respectable seven pounds and some ounces.

"With lungs like his father's," said Emily.

Nick was right when he pushed Emily and he was right again: It was indeed a very interesting year at the Barkley Ranch.