John liked Martha but he wasn't sure if he wanted to marry her or not. Not that he had much of a choice not now she was pregnant. He could run away, but if he did that no one in his family would talk to him again.
Any man that walked out on his child was worthless at least that's what his Aunt Polly had always told him.
It wasn't just losing his family that stopped him leaving it was also the fact that it would be Martha who got called a "Whore," even though she wasn't.
It would be his unborn child that would be called a "Bastard,".
But there would be no word for him the man that got Martha pregnant and decided to leave and not come back.
Actually, there was a word, but no one ever used it for the man who wasn't decent enough to stay, it was "Coward,".
And John Shelby was many things, but a coward wasn't one of them.