Annie's Song
Chapter 18 : There you go. Now blow."Annie expelled air with all the force she could muster. No

There you go. Now blow."

Annie expelled air with all the force she could muster. No sound came out, but evidently something else did. Alex jerked his head back, laughed, and wiped under one eye. "Not that hard, goose. You'll bust a vessel."

Annie bent her head to try again. This time, Alex reared back out of the way, his eyes alight with silent laughter. A giggle wormed its way up her throat. Forgetting to stifle the sound, she gulped it back at the last possible second, nearly strangling herself in the process.

His smile suddenly vanished. "You can laugh, Annie. It's not against the rules here. Laugh all you like."

She grew still, staring at him over the flute keys, all urge to giggle gone. He glanced upward. "We have very st.u.r.dy rafters.

I promise, the roof won't cave in. No one will get angry. I won't punish you. This is your home now. Anyone who complains about any noises you make can go whistle Dixie in a high wind, and at my invitation."

When she continued to stare at him incredulously, he shook his head. "Okay, fine. Don't laugh. Rome wasn't built in a day.

We'll work our way up to it." With a wink he added, "For tonight, we'll settle for your driving Maddy to distraction with off-key notes."

In the s.p.a.ce of an hour, Annie was doing exactly that.

Maddy appeared in the doorway, her hands clamped to the sides of her head. "Oh, Master Alex, have a pity!"

Alex laughed and waved her away. "Stuff some cotton in your ears. We're having fun."

Annie blew with all her might on the flute. The most beautiful noise in the world reverberated through her head.

She hauled in another breath and did it again. She felt the bed shaking and knew Alex was laughing. She drew her mouth from the instrument and smiled at him.

Brus.h.i.+ng away a tendril of hair at her temple, he smiled back. And then he took her totally by surprise by saying, "The flute is yours, Annie. You can play it all day tomorrow if you like. For tonight, though, maybe you'd better stop." He glanced toward Maddy, then turned back so Annie could read his lips as he spoke to her. "Before a certain housekeeper I know decides to scalp us both."

Annie lowered the flute to her lap and reverently stroked its keys. Alex had given her a wedding gift, after all, she thought.

Something no one else had ever even thought to give her.

Music ... Beautiful music, wrapped in magic.

Fifteen.

On his way downstairs the following morning, Alex encountered the maid, Yvonne, standing outside the nursery with a stack of freshly laundered sheets in her arms. Upon seeing her, he inclined his head and smiled.

"I take it your mistress is being a layabout again this morning?''

Yvonne shook her head. "No, Master Alex, she's up and about. She just isn't ready for her bed to be changed yet."

Since the door was ajar, Alex doubted that Annie was dressing. Curious, he poked his head around the doorframe to see Maddy standing in the center of the room, feet slightly parted, arms akimbo. Upon spying Alex at the door, she nodded in greeting.

"She's searchin' through the bedclothes again," she explained with a bewildered little shrug. "Every mornin'

without fail. It's becomin' a regular ritual."

Moving into the room, Alex said," Have you asked her what she's looking for?"

"Asked her?" Maddy shook her head. "No, I can't say as I have. It never occurred to me she could answer."

Pleased to have an excuse, any excuse, to linger, Alex settled his gaze on Annie, who was going through her rumpled bedding with great care. As he'd noticed once before, her nightgown, though modestly cut, was thin and nearly transparent with wear. He made a mental note to add nightclothes to the list of things he wanted made for her. Not that he had any objection to sheer nightgowns. Far from it.

He was smiling with masculine appreciation by the time he drew up beside her. She gave a start when she spotted him and ceased patting the bedcovers.

He gestured at her bed. "What are you searching for, Annie?

Maybe Maddy and I can help you look."

She drew her finely arched brows together, clearly unsettled, not only by his question, but by the fact that he expected an answer. Alex sighed. Patience had never been one of his virtues, but, since marrying Annie, he was beginning to see that it was one he needed to acquire. For fourteen years, she had been forced to follow strict rules, never making any sound or any attempt to communicate. He couldn't, in all fairness, expect her to change overnight.

"Answer my question, Annie, as best you can. No one here is going to punish you, I promise."

She looked none too certain of that. Alex hated to press her, but he knew it was either that or allow her to continue as she was.

"What are you looking for?" he asked again, a.s.suming a stern expression that he hoped would encourage her to reply without frightening her half to death.

She plucked nervously at the bodice of her nightgown, which drew his attention from her face to her chest. At the sight he beheld, he clenched his teeth and jerked his gaze back to hers. Amazingly, she seemed totally unaware that his interest had momentarily strayed.

After what Douglas had done to her, he found her navete more than a little incredible. But, then, he was looking at things from his perspective, not hers. Obviously, Douglas's violent attack on her had been just that, violent. No preliminary flirtation or attraction, only terror and pain, which had taught her to be wary of men, but had left her with little, if any, understanding of carnal pleasure or what led up to it.

Gazing down at her, Alex felt like the proverbial wolf stalking a helpless lamb.

His thoughts were snapped back into line by a movement of Annie's lips, which, because of his musings, he nearly missed.

Fixing his attention on her mouth, he said, "Say it again, Annie.

Slowly, so I can follow you. I'm not nearly as good at lipreading as you are, I'm afraid."

She glanced nervously at Maddy. Then she mouthed her reply again. When he couldn't read her lips, his heart sank a little. This wasn't going to be as easy as he had hoped.

Lipreading, which seemed to come naturally to her, was, for him, nearly an impossible feat. She said the words again, this time with exaggerated lip and tongue movements. He was still at a loss.

"Have you ever seen people play charades?" he asked.

She thought for a moment, then nodded with unmistakable reluctance. Alex guessed that she had come by her knowledge of parlor games by spying on her parents when they had guests.

Evidently, that had been yet another forbidden activity in the Trimble home, one for which she would have been punished if caught.

"Good. Then act out the words you're trying to say. Give me some clues."

Forehead pleated in a frown, she gazed thoughtfully into s.p.a.ce for a moment. Then she brightened and held up a small hand, forming a circle with her thumb and forefinger.

"A bracelet!" Alex tried. "You're looking for a bracelet?"

She shook her head. Forming the circle again, she traced its shape with a fingertip, calling his attention to the fact that it was more oval than round. Alex stroked his chin. "A pendant?"

She made a moue with her lips and rolled her eyes, clearly frustrated at his dimwittedness. Pleased that she had dared reveal displeasure with him, even in so slight a way, he chuckled. "I know I'm slow. Be patient with me, hmm? After all, we've only just started, and if nothing else, we're having fun. We can do this. It'll just take some practice."

"A locket!" Maddy suggested. Annie gave her head another shake. Then, looking absolutely adorable with her dark hair in disarray and a disgruntled expression on her face, she put her hands on her hips. After nibbling on the inside of her lip for a second, she seemed struck by sudden inspiration. Stepping back from Alex so she had a little room, she made a great show of pretending she held something in one hand. When he nodded his understanding, she pretended to tap the object against an imaginary surface, then break it in half.

Something about the gestures seemed very familiar, and Alex knew he should recognize them. At his blank look, Annie sighed. Then she tucked her hands under her arms and began to flap her elbows.

Alex hadn't a clue what the h.e.l.l she was doing, but wanting to encourage her, he cried, "Very good, Annie. That's the spirit."

Her smile deepened, flas.h.i.+ng dimples in her cheeks that he hadn't, until that moment, realized were there. Then, stretching her neck and bending her knees slightly, she began to walk in circles, still flapping her elbows.

So excited that he was almost yelling, Alex said, "A chicken!"

She nodded emphatically.

"A chicken, Maddy! She's looking for a chicken!" Plainly baffled, the plump housekeeper nodded. "Of course! A chicken. I don't know why I didn't think of it."

Annie gave her head a vehement shake. "Not a chicken,"

Alex amended. She held up her hand and made another circle with her thumb and forefinger.

"An egg!" Maddy fairly shrieked. "Crackin' an egg! Yes!"

She clapped her hands. "That's what she was doin', Master Alex, crackin' a bloomin' egg!"

Annie nodded excitedly, then folded her arms over her waist, one small hand curled protectively over her swollen stomach.

"An egg?" Alex threw a nonplussed glance at Maddy. "An egg, Annie? In your bed?" She nodded again.

"I see," Alex said, only, of course, he didn't see at all.

His confusion must have shown on his face because Annie pointed to her abdomen, made another egg-shaped circle with her fingers, and then made a sweeping motion from her waist to the floor.

"Holy Mother, pray fer us."

Alex turned a bewildered look on Maddy. "I'm not following.''

Maddy looked mildly horrified. "An egg, don't ye see? The baby! The la.s.s thinks-oh, dear G.o.d. She thinks she's goin' to lay an egg!"

"What?"

At Alex's appalled expression, Annie's eyes went even rounder than normal, and she retreated a step. Striving to regain his composure, which was no easy task, Alex s.h.i.+fted his gaze to the bed. Remembering how carefully he had seen her searching through the covers, he squeezed his eyes closed.

"Oh, dear," Maddy repeated softly. "The poor wee la.s.s."

Alex opened his eyes and hauled in a bracing breath. "Now, Maddy. There's little point in making mountains out of molehills. Annie isn't the first young woman to have reached adulthood without a clear understanding of certain biological functions. It's a simple matter of addressing her ignorance.

She's very good at lipreading."

"A simple matter, yes."

Alex smiled and started to leave the room, patting Maddy's arm as he walked by her. "After you girls have finished with your talk, why don't you join me downstairs for breakfast."

Maddy caught the sleeve of his s.h.i.+rt and brought him reeling to a stop. "Oh, no, ye don't! This is yer molehill to tend, not mine.''

Alex patted her arm again. "Come now, Maddy. Don't be a faintheart. If I could explain if to her, you know I would. But a subject of this nature is too delicate for a man to address."

Maddy shot him a look that could have pulverized rock.

"Ye're the la.s.s's husband, and therefore 'tis yer duty, not mine.

If ye'll recall, I was never married. What I know about such things could fit in a thimble."

"You surely have a grasp of the rudiments."

"Rudiments? Leave this room, and I'll settle the matter by lookin' in yon bedcovers for an egg, mark me words."

"You wouldn't'!"

"I would."

Alex narrowed an eye at her. "Maddy, someone has to explain the facts of life to the girl, and it certainly can't be me.

We can't let her continue to believe she's about to lay an egg, for Christ's sake. It's-well, it's-" He broke off for lack of a word. Finally, he finished with, "Irresponsible, that's what it is."

"Then tend yer responsibilities."

"This sort of thing is not my responsibility, not given the sort of relations.h.i.+p she and I have, which is no relations.h.i.+p at all."

"Coward."

"Don't be absurd. It wouldn't bother me to discuss the subject with her. The concern here is how she will feel if I do."

Maddy folded her arms beneath her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "Then have her mama come talk to her. The way I see it, 'twas Mrs. Trimble's duty to educate the la.s.s in the first place, and seein' as how she failed in that, it's her mess to tidy."

"Over my dead body."

"Well, then?"

Alex threw up his hands. "All right, fine! But if she gets upset, the blame for it will be on your doorstep, not mine. A subject of this nature would best be handled by a kindly older woman, someone she trusts."

Feigning a confidence he was far from feeling, he took Annie by the hand, led her over to the table, pushed her gently down onto a chair, and sat across from her. Resting his folded arms on the table, he leaned forward, holding her bewildered gaze with his. "Annie, honey, there are a couple of things you need to understand." Listening from the sidelines, Maddy harrumphed and clicked her tongue. Alex chose to ignore her sarcasm. He would do this, and with a minimum of fuss.

"Babies and chicks-well, there are a few basic differences in the way they're born."

Those eyes of hers. Alex looked into them and felt as if he were shriveling inside. How could he possibly enlighten her about something so ... He couldn't even think of a word. Base?