“I did that? I poked you with the broom handle?”
“Yes.” Conner was still chuckling. “Our relationship at that time was not to a point of being able to explain it to you.”
“I’m sorry, Conner,” she said contritely. “I had no idea.”
“It was probably for the best.”
“Why do you say that?”
Conner had no trouble thinking back. “When I saw you in the kitchen that day, the only thing on my mind was telling you that I was back to marry you, and the sooner the better.”
“I wouldn’t have minded,” Reese confessed, and Conner took that as an invitation. He began to kiss her, but Reese was distracted.
“We’d better start thinking of names for the baby.”
“I can’t,” Conner barely got out, pretending that his voice was going.
“Is that right?” Reese was not fooled.
Conner touched his throat as though it would no longer work, and Reese, always delighted with him, laughed and slipped her arms around his neck. He was right: Names for the baby could wait.
Glossary
This glossary holds reminders from the first book, plus a few new ones. Enjoy!
Argand lamps: I’m sorry this entry didn’t make it into the first book. Ami Argand was born in Switzerland in 1755. In 1784, he patented an oil lamp with a circular wick. This wick allowed air to all parts of the flame and made for more efficient burning.
bank notes: coins were hard to come by at this time, so banks printed their own paper notes and folks used them for debts and purchases, treating them like real money.
bells: New England towns had their own system for announcing when someone died—nine bells for a man, six for a woman, and three for a child, and then a bell for each year the person was alive.
buttery: pronounced but’ry, it’s a room where dairy goods are worked into various products, cheese and butter making for example.
celebrating Christmas: the influence of the Puritans was still very strong at this time, and they were against the celebration of Christmas.
deep in his cups: drunk.
donsie: I’ve loved this word ever since I heard it on an I Love Lucy episode. I’m using it as Lucy did: slightly ill.
green: also called the center or common, it’s the middle of town—a grass area where homes and shops sit in a square or rectangle. I know of one in Connecticut that’s a mile long.
hard cider: fermented apple juice.
laying out: preparing a body for burial, usually done by family or neighbors.
meetinghouse: a building for public assembly, including the church on Sunday.
millpond: the pond of water that feeds the mill and is fed by spring thaw, or in the case of Tucker Mills, by a huge river that doesn’t run dry in summer.
parlor or sitting room: where people sat in the evening, entertained visitors, and unless the house was very large, ate their meals. The table in the kitchen was mostly for work and not for eating.
pins: straight pins were often used to hold dresses on. Buttonholes were a lot of work, and women avoided making them.
tea: also called snack—this was the evening meal, which used leftovers from dinner.
theocentric and theocentricity: I cover the meaning of this in the book, but this entry is to tell you that technically I shouldn’t be using it. My dictionary doesn’t list this word until 1886, but I needed it to make my point.
tin kitchen: made of bright tin plate, the tin kitchen is a small roaster that sits by the fireplace and is for meats and poultry.
whortleberry: a European blueberry that’s light bluish gray.
Books by Lori Wick
A Place Called Home Series
A Place Called Home
A Song for Silas
The Long Road Home
A Gathering of Memories
Whatever Tomorrow Brings
As Time Goes By
Sean Donovan
Donovan’s Daughter
Kensington Chronicles
The Hawk and the Jewel
Wings of the Morning
Who Brings Forth the Wind
The Knight and the Dove
Rocky Mountain Memories
Where the Wild Rose Blooms
Whispers of Moonlight
To Know Her by Name
Promise Me Tomorrow
The Yellow Rose Trilogy
Every Little Thing About You
A Texas Sky
City Girl
The Proposal
The Rescue
The Visitor
The Pursuit
The Tucker Mills Trilogy
Moonlight on the Millpond
Just Above a Whisper
Other Fiction
Sophie’s Heart
Beyond the Picket Fence
Pretense
The Princess
Bamboo & Lace
Every Storm