Page from a Tennessee Journal (AmazonEncore Edition)

told him he had just brought her back from some distant place. Alex closed the space between them and touched her shoulder. He was surprised when she jumped.
    “You’re cold and it’s about to snow.” He began rubbing her shoulders to warm her.
    Alex felt her body stiffen like their first days together. He frowned and pulled her to him in a tight embrace. Her arms hung at her sides.
    “Is your Aunt Becky sick?”
    She trembled in his arms again.
    “No. Not sick.” Her words muffled into his shoulder.
    Alex led her into the barn and away from the draft y door. They stopped in front of the cows still chewing on their hay.
    “Let’s warm you up.” He slid his hand to the middle button on her coat and slipped it open.
    Alex laid his hand across her midsection. He felt her stiffen again. Annalaura’s eyes stared at the barn floor. The beginnings of concern set up in his mind. Despite this morning’s passion, Laura was keeping something from him. He rubbed his hand slowly around her belly.
    “Are you sure there’s no baby in there?”
    Her head jerked up to face his before she turned around to stare at the feeding cows, but not before he glimpsed her look of panic.
    “Laura?” He waited for an answer.
    “No. Ain’t no baby.”
    “Let’s go upstairs.” She was keeping the truth from him, but why? He pulled her toward the ladder. “I’m gonna get me a good look at your belly in the daylight. I’m gonna take off your clothes.” Alex felt her feet dig into the barn floor like she was one of the planting mules.
    “No,” Laura almost shouted at him.
    Startled, and with one hand on the ladder rail, he stopped and turned toward her. With those amber eyes opened wider than he’d ever seen them, he knew she couldn’t miss the look of puzzlement on his face.
    “What?” Alex hadn’t meant his question to sound as harsh as it did.
    Laura began a frantic shake of her head. “I mean…my children…you can’t…sorry.” Laura’s skin was a beautiful chestnut brown, but it always had red undertones. Right now, her face looked like a ripe cherry. “Tonight. Please do it tonight. It’s only afternoon. My children will see.”
    To his ears, her voice carried the sound of fear. A new sensation of worry rushed at him.
    “I’ll send them downstairs. Won’t take but thirty minutes. I need a good look.” He tightened his grip on her arm and started up the ladder.
    “Mr. Alex, please wait. I’ll tell you.”
    Laura hadn’t addressed him with such formality since early October. In this fresh wave of surprise, he released her arm and she scurried around the ladder. He followed. Annalaura stood with her back to the pile of hay. Even though her head was down, Alex could see the tears falling. His own heart quickened.
    “Tell it, then.” He could barely catch his breath as he watched Laura slowly lift her face to his.
    “Yes, suh. There is a baby.” She stood with her eyes closed, her hands fisted at her side, just like those first days in September.
    Alex wanted to smile his pleasure at news of a baby, but that strange look on Laura’s face stopped any budding pride from building within him. He watched her swallow two, three times before her eyes slowly opened.
    “Mr. Alex, suh, I has to tell you the truth.”
    He heard her words, but the pounding in his chest, loud as hailstones during a bad downpour, drowned out their meaning.
    “If you’ve got a baby in there, Laura, why didn’t you tell me before?” He placed his hands to her shoulders to steady her.
    “Because I know you is goin’ to kill me.” She swayed under his hands.
    Alex shook his head trying to let some understanding enter his mind. No words came from his mouth.
    “This baby, suh, ain’t yours. It’s the hired man’s from harvest time.” Her eyes clamped shut.
    “The hired man?” He could feel her tense for the first blow she knew was coming. “You talkin’ about Isaiah?”
    “Yes, suh. Isaiah Harris. He this baby’s daddy.”
    Alex watched Laura reach down deep to get the breath to whisper out the name. Her hands lifted to her belly as though she thought he would send a blow in that direction first.
    For long seconds, Alex couldn’t find the words to speak. He remembered Isaiah Harris perfectly. The tan-skinned man had come to his place in early September to ask for a harvest job. He, Alex, Laura, Cleveland, Doug, and little Lottie had all worked fourteen-hour days to bring in the tobacco. Even Henry had helped by