Maggie was full of despair, despair she felt honor bound to hide. “No, I wouldn’t,” she answered stiffly. “But I do have business in Brisbane.”

Reeve arched one dark eyebrow. “What kind of business?” he asked, his tone rife with suspicion. Maggie couldn’t think why he never trusted her not to get into mischief the moment he turned his back.

She lifted her chin. “I’m going to speak to the people at the orphanage where Elisabeth was found. I want to know why she’s silent so much of the time.”

Reeve let out a sigh. “Good luck, Yank. The best detectives in the country weren’t able to find that out. Leave it alone, Maggie—she was probably upset because her mother abandoned her.”

Maggie had to admit that his theory was entirely possible. After all, being left was a small child’s greatest fear. “What do you suppose she was like?” she mused in a faraway voice. “Elisabeth’s mother, I mean.”

His wide shoulders lifted in a shrug. “When and if I find Jamie, maybe I’ll ask him. We’ll set out for Brisbane in a couple of days, Maggie, and you and Cora and Elisabeth can travel on to Sydney from there.”

Maggie stomped one foot. “No! Reeve McKenna, I’m your wife and I have every right—”

He laid one finger over her lips, silencing her, and shook his head.

In a sudden fury of indignation, Maggie knotted her hands into fists and batted impotently at Reeve’s chest. A sob escaped her, ragged and hoarse, and he lifted her into his arms. Sinking onto the side of the bed, Reeve held Maggie in his lap like a shattered child.

She wept in earnest.

To Maggie’s huge annoyance, Reeve chuckled, and his hand entangled itself in her hair as he held her against his chest in an effort to comfort her. “There now, Yank, it’s all about that baby growing inside you, isn’t it? Makes you pettish.”

“The baby’s got nothing to do with it, you lout!” Maggie wailed. She sniffled noisily. “It’s your leaving, though I can’t th-think why I’m not overjoyed to be r-rid of you!”

Reeve laughed and kissed her forehead. “Maybe you will be once I’m gone and you have the run of every shop in Sydney Town. You can see that friend of yours too—what’s her name again?”

“Tansy,” Maggie answered grudgingly. She’d wanted her friend to come and live at Seven Sisters, but Tansy had refused because it would have meant leaving her intended. Acting on a mischievous hunch, she added, “I think I’d rather stay right here at home.”

Reeve went rigid so suddenly that Maggie was nearly flung off his lap. “With Duncan Kirk living a stone’s throw away? Not on your life, Yank.”