Sweet Gone South by Alicia Hunter Pace

asked.
    Kathryn smiled “She went upstairs about an hour ago. I believe she’s still there.”
    He ran up the stairs, wondering whether to try Lanie’s apartment or his. He soon got his answer. When he saw that his door was ajar, he hurried in and headed down the hall. The bathroom light was on and there were clothes in the floor — not only Emma’s yellow flowered overalls, but a jellybean-bedazzled chef’s apron and pants.
    And on top of the heap of discarded clothes lay a pink lacy bra and matching panties. He shook his head. This was not the time to think of that — not that it ever would be.
    He started to call out but then he heard voices from Emma’s room.
    “I was bad!” Emma’s voice came out hoarse and gravelly.
    “You were not bad,” Lanie cooed. “You’re a good girl.”
    Luke stopped outside the door where he could see them but they couldn’t see him. Lanie was wearing a bathrobe — his bathrobe, in fact. The thick white terrycloth one Carrie had bought for him to wear when it was his turn to do the 2 A.M. feeding and diaper change. Emma was sitting at her little vanity table where Lanie was brushing her damp hair.
    “Woman said dirty pants are bad!”
    Lanie dropped a kiss on Emma’s head and picked up a hair ribbon. “We don’t like having dirty pants, do we? And using the potty is a good thing. But, sweetheart, you are not bad. You are a good girl — a perfect girl.”
    Emma raised her hand in front of her face and inspected it “Purple?”
    Lanie laughed a watery little laugh. Clearly, everyone had been crying. “Not
purple
.
Perfect
. It means you’re the sweetest, best girl in the in the world.”
    Luke stepped inside the room and Emma caught sight of him in the mirror.
    “Daddy!” She got down off the stool and launched herself at him.
    He swung her into his arms and kissed her. “Hi, honeybee.”
    “Lanie gived me clean pants.”
    “Did she? That was nice of her. You look pretty.”
    She put her hand to her hair. “Lanie ties hair bows!”
    “I see she does. Why don’t you go find Purr Kitty and see if Lanie will tie a hair bow for her? I think she’s in my room.”
    “Yea!” Emma scrambled down and ran down the hall.
    Lanie stood before him, red-eyed and tense. It hadn’t occurred to him that she was naked under the robe until Emma left the room. Something primal stirred in him, as much because she was wearing his robe as her nakedness. He wanted nothing more than to drag her off to his cave and — well, it didn’t matter what.
    “We needed baths.” Lanie put her hand to the collar of the robe. “Sorry about your robe. It was hanging on the back of the door.”
    “I hope you didn’t need baths because you needed to wash away blood.”
    “Very nearly.”
    “What happened? Where is Mrs. Bumpus?”
    “You said you didn’t want to hear.”
    “I changed my mind. Did you call Tolly?”
    “No. I haven’t had time.”
    “Is there a body we need to dispose of?” He was only half kidding.
    “No. But I chased her out of here with an iron skillet. It was not my finest hour.”
    Until then, he hadn’t really believed Lanie had broken the law. “My God! Did you hit her?”
    “No, but I threatened to kill her.”
    Worse and worse.
    “She assured me,” Lanie continued, “that she was going to call the police.”
    Luke sat down heavily on Emma’s bed. “Lanie, what happened?”
    Lanie leaned against the footboard. “I came upstairs a little after three and I heard Emma crying. I knew she was crying hard because I’ve never heard her cry before, or really, any noise out of either of you. I guess I thought she was upset because she was getting used to someone new. But she
kept
crying and I couldn’t stay out of it. I knocked on the door and that demon spawn of a nanny had her barricaded in the kitchen in a wet dirty diaper. Emma was screaming for you.”
    Luke put his head in hands. How could this have happened? Why had he not come home to check on them? Had