She rested her head on his shoulder. “I know. I also love you,” she confessed and grinned when his hug grew tighter for a bit and he kissed her neck, “but, just like you, cannot decide which part of the country to live in. Your hills sound lovely, as does your large family, but I also love the oceanside and my large family. But then I get to pondering silly things like how it is always the woman who follows the husband.” She glanced towards Bennet’s home. “I could do with new neighbors though.”
He chuckled. “Aye, ye could, but I cannae say all of ours are much better, and there is that lingering friction about what side you were on in the war. I think we should just allow that decision to ride for a while.”
“But you were going home with Robbie when he is ready to travel.”
“I am, and ye are coming with us, to meet my family and have a good look around. Breathe in the air, meet the neighbors, all that sort of thing. Then come back here and see if ye can give up this to go stay with me there, or I can decide if I want to give up the hills to live here.”
“Okay. A deal. I will go and see your hills and you will come back here after being well reminded of them, so we can both make a better decision.”
He kissed her again and then, hand in hand, they went back into the house. “Ye do realize that all we have decided means we should get married, dinnae ye?”
“Maybe,” she said and skipped off into the kitchen.
After a moment of stunned surprise, Geordie growled and hurried after her.
* * *
Geordie having caught her in the kitchen and dragged her up the stairs, it was much later in the day before Belle got a chance to sit with her aunt. The woman had spent a lot of time talking to Mr. Hobbs. Belle was curious about what she had found out. Judging by the happy tune her aunt was humming as she mended some of Abel’s clothes, Belle suspected, and hoped, her aunt had received some good news.
Sitting down on the porch swing next to her aunt, Belle nudged the woman with her elbow. “Did you and Mr. Hobbs have a good talk?”
“Harold did answer a lot of questions for me.”
“Harold, is it?”
“Hush. Yes, it is Harold.”
“But was there good news in those answers?”
“Good possibilities.”
“Did he need to see all the papers we found?”
“He asked, and I handed them right over.”
A little annoyed at how her aunt was answering the questions so curtly, with absolutely no embellishment or even hopeful talk of possibilities, Belle wanted to scream. A narrow-eyed look at her aunt’s face told her the woman knew it, too.
Then Belle noticed a faint blush on her aunt’s cheeks. Was there a hint of romance in the air? she thought. Then she thought about the men who had attempted to court her aunt after her husband died. Harold was nothing like any of them. Harold was a bit overweight, with thinning hair, and might even go bald in the near future, quiet, somewhat studious, and just a bit shy.
Then she thought on it a bit more and realized her aunt had never shown much interest in those men. Belle could recall how insulted they had been by her disinterest. She would never have called any of them studious and certainly not shy. In truth, Belle’s late uncle, Mary’s husband, had been the complete opposite of those men as well.
“Huh.”
“Huh, what?” asked Mary.
“Nothing. I was just waiting to see if you found out anything useful in all the talk you shared with Harold.”
“The only thing that might be useful is if he finds anything in all those papers I had.”
“No hint that he thought he might?”
“Not really, because he said he really needs to see the papers, as they are what judges go by when it all ends in court. I so want it to end in court.” Then Mary turned to stare at Belle. “So, what have you and Geordie decided, now that you are parents?”
“We aren’t. We are like an uncle and aunt.”
“I doubt that was what that poor woman was trying to find for her girl. She wanted a family for young Morgan. I suspect the child spoke of Geordie and even Robbie a lot after they got to Boston. Morgan’s mother decided after hearing about his family and all, and seeing how he watched over his brother, that he would be a perfect parent for her child if ever needed.”
“Well, we have her and we will keep her. Now we just have to decide where.” She eyed her aunt closely, but the woman just calmly kept sewing. “What? No opinion on that?”
