“A little bump?” Henry countered. “A bit bigger? Show it to her.” Kat obviously didn’t want to, and he added, “Your parents have seen it. She’s your sister,” he reminded her again. “Show it to her. She has a right to know.”

With an exasperated sigh, Kat rolled more onto her back, pulling up her dress with one hand while she pushed down the drawstring waist of her petticoat and drawers with the other to expose her belly. Amala was distracted for only a moment by the thought of Kat doing so in Henry’s presence. The evidence of their marital status was quickly sinking in, but Amala was more concerned by this bump she was about to see. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but she sucked in a sharp breath and very nearly let out an expletive that she knew no lady would ever utter. Low on the side of Kat’s pregnant belly, just above her hipbone, was a protrusion about the size of an orange but distorted in shape.

“What is it?” Amala demanded.

“It’s just . . . a bump,” Kat insisted. “I’ve had it for years. And it didn’t hurt at all until it started . . . getting bigger.”

Amala sensed Henry’s frustration rising, and something close to panic began to erupt inside of her. She waited to let him handle this, mostly because she didn’t know what to say. She wondered for a moment if he might express his anger toward Kat, and she felt momentarily caught between them. She could understand Henry’s anger over Kat’s apparent flippancy about something that was obviously serious, but she would never want her sister’s husband to be unkind to his wife. She reminded herself that—in spite of how long she’d been away—she should have known Henry better than to believe him capable of such a thing. She’d certainly seen him frustrated, and even angry, but she couldn’t fathom him being unkind.

Henry proved her right when he let out a long sigh and spoke to Kat gently. “Forgive my frustration, my darling; I’m just worried. We all are. And Amala needs to know what’s going on. Whatever you might believe, we know what the doctor has said, and we can’t pretend that the situation is otherwise.”

“I know this is difficult for you,” Kat said to Henry, “but nothing is more important right now than this baby, and that’s what I choose to think about.” She glanced at Amala and added, “You can tell her what she needs to know. I don’t want to hear it again.”