Emma sat there, with her hands nervously wringing a linen and lace handkerchief. Jebediah gently clasped his hands over hers to still their movement. “Is what you need to tell me so horrible that you fear to say it? Anything you have to say, it could never change the love I feel for you, Emma, my dear.” He leaned over and gently kissed her cheek. “You can tell me.”

“Oh, Jeb, darling,” she cried, before looking up from their joined hands to his face, unshed tears sparkling in her eyes. “I am deliriously happy, but unbelievably frightened at the same time. I fear that Archibald knows,” she said, as tears began trickling down her cheeks. “Lately, whenever I turn around, he is there staring at me with an eerie look on his face.” Emma paused while she dabbed her eyes with a lacy corner of the handkerchief.

“Emma darling,” he began, “it won’t be much longer. I have almost saved enough money for us to leave.” He smiled at her, trying to ease her troubled mind.

“Jeb, you don’t understand,” she whimpered, panic beginning to edge her words. “I will not be able to hide the evidence of our relationship for much longer.” She looked down at their clasped hands and moved them to lie against her abdomen, before lifting her gaze to meet his. “I’m pregnant, Jeb,” she whispered.

His jaw dropped and his eyes widened in disbelief. Slowly, a sheepish grin spread across his face. “Pregnant? We’re pregnant!” Jebediah jumped to his feet, pulled Emma off the bench and began spinning her around the greenhouse in wide circles, laughing and yelling like a fool, “We’re pregnant, we’re pregnant! We’re having a baby, a baby!”

Susan, still watching from the sidelines, noticed a shadow move across one of the walls. Pivoting for a better look, she saw that the shadow belonged to Archibald, who was moving silently along the wall toward the door and he carried a shovel in his hands. Jebediah and Emma were still spinning around in joyous oblivion when Archibald exploded into the building, fury contorting his face. “You whore! Did you think that I wouldn’t figure out?!” He stalked toward the couple, countering every move they made, blocking their escape. “Did you think to leave me?! I told you, you are mine!”

Jebediah pushed Emma behind him, using his body to shield her as Archibald started swinging the shovel in wide arches. The couple continued retreating, but Archibald was unrelenting in his pursuit. Suddenly, Emma tripped over the bricks lining the crushed shell walkway, falling to the soft ground of the tilled bed. When Jebediah turned to assist her, Archibald made his attack, swinging the shovel up over his head and then bringing it in a vicious downward arc. The air within the greenhouse echoed with the horrific crunch of shattering bone, mixed with Emma’s bloody-curdling scream as Jebediah’s unconscious form slammed down on top of her, pinning her to the ground.