Chapter Seventy-Five Dottie
Chapter Seventy-Five
Dottie
Today is the day. Peggy is completely preoccupied.
I’ve managed to pack a small bag. I’ll grab my diaries and the money after Peggy goes to bed.
I think the baby must be getting close because Peggy has become a domestic demon. Last night she pulled all the corn and squash out of the garden and carried them into the house. Now the kitchen is covered in mason jars and she’s canning preserves.
She looks exhausted. Sometimes she stands there in the kitchen, stretches backward, and winces. I think she might be having contractions. Her skin is pale and she has big circles under her eyes.
She doesn’t try to hide her pregnancy, now that I know about it. An apron splashed with old raspberry stains covers her enormous belly, and her long, thick hair is piled in a bun.
I forced a smile, determined to pretend everything is normal. Or as normal as it can be when you’re living in a house with your husband’s pregnant mistress who is trying to poison you.
“Looks delicious,” I said when I entered the kitchen.
She shrugged. “My family didn’t have much money, but we had a huge garden. My mother made our fruits and vegetables last all through the winter by making preserves. I used to help her.”
She dabbed the sweat beading on her forehead with the back of her hand and reached for a crate of newly canned corn.
Something about her heaving that heavy crate of mason jars off the counter tugged at my heart.
“Let me carry that,” I said, grabbing the crate.
She’d stolen my husband and tried to poison me, but for some reason the idea of her lifting something heavy and having a miscarriage was more than I could bear. No one should go through that kind of pain. Even Peggy.
She gave me a shy smile and I felt a twinge of guilt. Was I wrong about her? Maybe she didn’t know foxglove was poisonous. Maybe she was just doing what Dickie told her to do.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’m putting them in the fallout shelter. It’s dark and cold down there . . . the perfect root cellar.”
I descended the steps to the basement as she followed behind me.