Chapter 10
THE BLEEDING came with strong cramps, and Johanna stayed in the cabin for a day. Master Deim and Julianna came to see her because they were worried. At their subtle hints that she was with child, she could only laugh. If only. She didn’t understand why this happened. She thought they did everything right.
Loesie was not helpful when she said, “Didn’t happen for Annette’s ma until she’d been married three years. Never happened to her since. They got Annette, which must have been a mistake, because she was much too pretty for the farm.”
Annette was Loesie’s neighbour. Loesie’s mother, of course, had been with child after a dalliance with a foreign visitor.
There were women who never had children, but Johanna was determined not to have that happen to her.
“I’m going into town,
