She had been in an in-between place, protected. He thought she was too weak still, and would have never said it out loud but ‘The baby died,’ she said, on the morning of the fifth day. ‘I don’t think it was ever going to stay. What did they do with it?’‘I don’t know.’‘Was it a boy?’‘Yes.’‘I knew it was a boy.’Her forehead was sweating. She was very pale.Hal was close to her. He couldn’t look at her face but dropped his head to avoid her.‘I’m sorry,’ he said.She slept after that.The next afternoon, Hal brought the girls in to see her. They overlooked him in their eagerness to get to her. He had been right; they were unsettled by his reappearance. Clara had asked him to bring her makeup in, too. They waited outside for her to brush her hair and put on red lipstick. Evelyn had sent a bed-jacket with him, made of Greek cotton.Hal kept the girls from climbing on the bed. Lottie tugged at her mother’s hand, jumping, while Meg stood close to her with her fingers in her mouth, listening.He watched them, guarding her jealously from their love.She fell asleep suddenly, and the girls were frightened.
