“I’ve skipped two periods, I’m pregnant. Or I’m ill, which would be worse. Let’s gather up the laundry and tell them.
“Uh, since you don’t look it-and I do; I’ve been careful not to undress around Mother-since you don’t, let’s hold that back and use it as a whammy if things get sticky.”
“If you like. Karen, why not tell Hugh first? Then let him tell your mother.”
Karen looked relieved. “You think that’s all right?”
“Hugh would rather hear it with your mother not around. Now go find him and tell him. I’ll hang the clothes.”
“All right, I will!”
“And quit worrying. We’ll have our babies and won’t have any trouble and we’ll raise them together and it’ll be fun. We’ll be happy.”
Karen’s eyes lit up. “And you’ll have a girl and I’ll have a boy and we’ll marry them and be grandmothers together!”
“That sounds more like Karen.” Barbara kissed her. “Run tell Hugh.”
Karen found Hugh bricking up the kiln; she told him that she would like a private talk.
“All right,” he agreed. “Let me tell Joe to get this fired up. I should inspect the ditch. Come along and talk?”
He gave her a shovel, carried a rifle. “Now what’s on your mind, baby girl?”
“Let’s get farther away.” They walked a meandering distance. Hugh stopped, exchanged rifle for shovel, and built up a stretch of wall.
“Daddy? Perhaps you’ve noticed a shortage of men?”
“No. Three men and three women. The usual division.”
“Perhaps I should say ‘eligible bachelors.’”
“Then say it.”
“All right, I’ve said it. I need advice. Which is worse? Incest? Or miscegenation? Or should I be an old maid?”
He placed another shovelful, tamped it. “I would not urge you to be an old maid.”
“That settles that, I feel the same way. How do you size up those other fates?”
“Incest,” he answered, “is a bad idea, usually.”
“Which leaves just one thing.”
“Wait. I said, ‘Usually.’” He stared at the shovel. “This is not a problem I ever expected-but we are facing many new problems. Brother-and-sister marriages are not uncommon in history. They are not necessarily bad.” He frowned. “But there is Barbara. You might have to accept a polygamous household.”
“Hold it, Daddy. ‘Incest’ isn’t just brothers.”
He stared at her. “You’ve managed to startle me, Karen.”
“Shocked you, you mean.”
“No. ‘Startled.’ Were you seriously suggesting what you implied?”
“Daddy,” she said soberly, “it’s one subject I can’t joke about. If I had to choose between you and Duke-as a husband, I mean-I’d take you and no two ways about it.”
Hugh mopped his forehead. “Karen, such a statement can be honored only by taking it seriously-”
“I’m serious!”
“And I so take it. Do I understand that you have eliminated Joseph? Or have you considered him?”
“Certainly I have.”
“Well?”
“How could I avoid it, Daddy? Joe is nice. But he’s just a boy, even though he’s older than I am. If I said, ‘Boo!’ he would jump out of his skin. No.”
“Does his skin have something to do with your choice?”
“Daddy, you tempt me to spit in your face. I’m not Mother!”
“I wanted to be sure. Karen, you know that color does not matter to me. I want to know other things about a man. Is his word good? Does he meet his obligations? Does he do honest work? Is he brave? Will he stand up and be counted? Joe is very much a man by all standards that interest me. I think you are being hasty.”
He sighed. “If we were in Mountain Springs, I would not urge you to marry any Negro. The pressures are too great; such a marriage is almost always a tragedy. But those barbaric factors do not obtain here. I urge that you give Joe serious thought.”
“Daddy, don’t you think I have? I may marry Joe. But I wanted you to know that if I had my choice, out of you three I would pick you.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank me, hell! I’m a woman and you are the man I would most like to. And a fat lot of good it will do me-and you know why. Mother.”