1348 – Day 2 – Townsend Farm (2/2)
Not long after Gemma’s birthday, on a sunny late afternoon, a visitor approaches the Townsends’ farm with strident steps that belie the fatigue on his face and the dust on his long tunic. In fact, when he spots the house behind a bend in the road, he quickens his pace, energized now that the object of his travels is in sight.
If he had been of a mind to pay attention to anything but his own thoughts, he might have noticed how large the building is, the size of the fields and the order there is to everything, but as it is, he sees none of it. He doesn’t even call out for the farm’s inhabitants, but simply steps through the open gate and makes directly towards the front door.
Which is the moment he is halted by a not unfriendly, but very decided shout.
“Hullo, stranger! May I ask what you are doing on our land?”
Despite his intentions, the visitor can’t ignore so direct a question, and turns towards the voice. An older man, with faded hair that might once have been red, and a slightly bent posture, is walking towards him, far swifter than he expected.
The stranger clears his throat. “Apologies for letting myself in. My name is Gregor Forrester. I was told that my sister Miriam lives here.”
Benjamin can only stare at him, as if he were a revenant risen from the grave. “You’re Miriam’s brother?”, he asks. He supposes that the resemblance between the two should have made it obvious from the first, but Miriam has been with them for so long that he honestly didn’t expect for her to ever see her brother again.
Gregor Forrester furrows his brows. “I take that as confirmation that she is here?”
“Oh. Yes, she is. She’s just inside.” Benjamin clears his throat. “My name is Benjamin Townsend. This is my farm. But we can talk after you’ve seen your sister.”
He nods towards the door then, which is all the invitation Gregor needs. Truly, even if it is rude of him, he doesn’t care about any of these people, or even simple codes of conduct. With only the thought of seeing his sister on his mind, he pushes open the door. The old man can choose to follow him or not – it doesn’t matter a whit.
Miriam, who for that entire time has been sitting at the main table knitting opposite Hugh of course heard the murmur of voices outside. But with how low they were talking, she couldn’t tell who her grandfather-in-law was talking to. All the greater, therefore, is her astonishment when the door opens and she sees her brother, for the first time in years.
Between one heartbeat and the next, she is on her feet and barrelling towards him. “Gregor!”
Strong arms catch her, and as if she were still a little girl, she buries her face in his shoulder while he enfolds her in an embrace so tight it almost hurts. They are both talking, but Miriam honestly can’t make out much. Something about how he thought she was dead and how sorry he is and how she thought he was gone forever and how long it has been. Honestly, holding each other again feels too unreal to pay attention to such trivialities.
It is Gregor who finally draws back, hands still on her arms as if he is afraid of letting go. “You’ve grown taller”, he says hoarsely. She tries to muster a smile.
“You haven’t. But you’re a lot thinner, brother. Have you not been eating well?”
“It must have been all that worrying for you. Or rather, the grief.” He grasps her upper arms tightly. “I honestly thought you were dead, Mira.”
This time, her smile is far more genuine, if still tremulous. “I’m far hardier than you think.”
“Obviously.” He studies her face yet again. “But what happened? Please, tell me everything.”
She does. She tells him about her fall, which makes him blanch, about her injuries, about how she called and tried to get back to the path and couldn’t, and about how she finally decided that she needed to seek shelter somewhere. She is dimly aware of the rest of the Townsends moving in and out of the room and of Hugh nearby, but all she can truly focus on is her brother, who buries his face in his hands when she admits how scared she was of not surviving the night.
“Watcher above, Mira, had I known…”
“I survived”, she interrupts him, before he can devolve into self-recriminations. “I had the good fortune of stumbling – literally – upon Hugh and his sisters, and he and his family kindly took me in. But how did you find out I was here?”
Gregor rakes a hand through his hair before replying. He really does look thinner than before, more drawn. There are dark shadows beneath his eyes that make her wonder when he last had a restful night of sleep. “I looked for you for as long as I could”, he says finally, “but I had to get Elissa and Rickard out of the cold. I even returned the next day, but there was still no trace of you to be found. So we had to move on. We ended up in Lüghaven, only days from here, but we had no idea you had survived. We mourned you. And then John Townsend moved there with his wife, and they told me, after they realized who I was.”
John. Miriam must remember to thank him the next time they meet, whenever that might be. She exchanges a glance with Hugh, who looks just as astonished as she does, but finally clears his throat and steps forward.
“I’m very grateful that he directed you to us”, he says, holding out his hand. “Miriam was worried about you all this time. I’m Hugh Townsend.”
“Ah.” Gregor’s face, wonderstruck before, immediately shutters. He stares at her husband’s outstretched hand without taking it. “You’re the boy who got my sister with child.”
Although it is Hugh who he says this to, who immediately pales and lets his hand drop, Miriam flinches back as if struck. This is what she feared all this time. He obviously disapproves, and obviously knows why she married. Maybe she’ll have to revise her gratitude towards John.
“You know about that?”, she asks, with some difficulty.
“That I have a niece now? Oh yes, I do.”
“I apologize for what happened”, Hugh says, exchanging another look with his wife, who returns it with sympathy. She has never seen her brother’s face that cold or filled with so much disdain. “But I’m sure my uncle told you that I didn’t leave her to fend for herself. She’s my wife now, and I love her.”
Gregor’s face turns even colder. “Marrying her in that situation was the least you could do.” Then, as if to show that he is done with the conversation, he turns away from Hugh, focusing entirely on his sister again. “I’m very glad to see that you’re well. Elissa wishes she could have come with me, but besides Roderick, we have a new little one now.”
Despite her sympathy for her husband, who looks crestfallen at her brother’s cold dismissal, she can’t help the happy gasp that escapes her. “You truly did move on with your life!”, she cries out and laughs. “Do I have another little nephew or a niece?”
“A niece”, he responds mildly. “Her name is Mira.”
Against her will, Miriam feels her eyes fill with tears. “You named her after me?”
They stare at each other for a long moment, both lost for words. Of course he would want to remember her. When he was naming her little niece, he thought she was dead. And judging by how he is still staring at her, he likely hasn’t come to terms with the fact that she isn’t. She is happy to see him again, yes, but that must be nothing compared to what he is feeling.
She throws a surreptitious look at Hugh, who obviously doesn’t know what to do, and then smiles brightly at her brother. “It’s a shame I can’t meet my namesake, but why don’t we go up so you can meet our Hannah? I’m sure she would be delighted to meet her uncle.”
Thankfully, despite his obvious distaste for her marriage, Gregor immediately agrees, and she only asks Hugh to speak to his father and grandparents about her brother staying the night before she leads him upstairs.
Miriam can’t deny a certain pride when she scoops up her daughter, thankfully awake and quiet, and turns around to present the baby to her brother. There is much to be proud of with Hannah – she is such a happy, chubby baby, and sure to grow up well.
“Brother, meet my daughter, Hannah. Hannah, be very good now, this is your Uncle Gregor, who has come a very long way to see you.”
Gregor leans forward, his face softening as he meets Hannah’s huge grey eyes with his own. “She’s blonde”, he says softly.
“Apparently, that was the colour of my husband’s mother’s hair. One of his sisters shares it.”
Her brother nods, barely seeming to hear her, so riveted is he by the sight of the baby before him. He gently reaches out to touch one of her little hands, and makes a strangled sound when she grasps his finger. “She’s beautiful”, he says, and then, finally looking up: “I can’t believe you’re a mother now.”
“Neither can I”, she admits. “But I can’t honestly say I regret it.”
“I wish I had kept looking”, he says, still looking at little Hannah. “If I had only found you sooner, all this could have been avoided, and you would be home now.”
“I am home”, she replies gently and places Hannah down in her crib again. This seems like a conversation for which she shouldn’t have a small person in her arms. “I am happy here, Gregor. I truly am. The Townsends are good people, and I could hardly have found a better-situated husband.” Anyone wealthier wouldn’t have wanted a forester’s daughter for his wife.
Her brother is already shaking his head and grasping her hands. “You are too young to be a wife, Mira.”
“I’m sixteen”, she responds. “Women become wives and mothers younger than that.”
“I don’t have a dowry to pay your new family. Elissa and I have only just begun establishing ourselves here.”
“That doesn’t matter.” She presses his hands, even if they are already holding hers very tightly as it is. “Hugh married me without any promise that we would ever find you. They don’t need a dowry – which is yet further proof how fortunate I am in my marriage, might I add. They won’t pressure you to pay anything now.”
“I still wish I could take you home”, he says softly, and she can tell how much it anguishes him that after finally finding her, they are to be separated again within days at most. Maybe he’ll be able to visit from time to time, but likely not often. Truth be told, it makes her own heart ache; but she has made a family for herself, and much as it pains her that her brother wasn’t part of that transition as he should have been, there is nothing any of them can do about that now.
So she smiles at him and gently removes her hands from his. “I know. But I made a very good marriage, I have a lovely daughter, a husband who adores me, as you’ll see once you let go of that ridiculous resentment, and a very kind-hearted new family. The Watcher really must have guided my steps that day.”
She feels the truth of it at every word – even if she cannot fathom how right she is.
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