She smiled at Titus across the table, his sunburnt cheeks full as he ate. Once again his happiness was her own. She’d long regarded him as a mother might, zealous for his wellbeing and happiness. He was growing before her eyes, an inch taller already.
Supper ended with the older girls washing the dishes and the boys hastening outside for their evening chores. Will and Bleu lingered over cider at the table while Sylvie and Jolie went out onto the humid porch with Brielle. There they sat in cane chairs, their voices hushed in the humid twilight. Yawning, Jolie climbed onto her mother’s lap, her head against her shoulder.
“So, how are you faring in the settlement gardens?” Sylvie asked.
Was Sylvie testing her contentment?
Brielle took out a hand fan and waved it to scatter insects as much as cool her face. “I find the work fulfilling if unending. With so many to feed year round…”
“You’re a huge help,” Sylvie said. “But perhaps a change is needed now that the first of the harvest is finished. I’ve seen you with the settlement children. They follow after you like a hen with chicks.”
“Being with the children is where my heart is.”
“Extra hands are always needed in the day nursery. We’ve nineteen children now, six of thembébésand more on the way. I’vetold Will a bigger building must be had, away from the river. Little ones are so tempted by water…”
“The older children are good at helping keep the littlest ones safe.”
“True. We’ve not had a drowning yet though we’ve come close a time or two.” Sylvie folded hands across her expanding waist. “I’ll be glad of your help come my confinement, too. I’ve not long to wait by my reckoning.”
“Another month or so,” Madeleine said, joining them. “Have you any names in mind?”
“If another girl I may name her after my mother or Will’s though sometimes doing so seems a sore reminder of their passing.”
“You miss your parents very much, like I do mine.”
“Always. Over time the ache lessens but it always lingers. You understand that I’m sure.”
“For a long time I tried not to think of what I lost,” Brielle told her. “Dwelling on the past made the harshness of the present unbearable. But here, away from the tavern, I’m freer to remember.”
“I felt the same when I came here from Williamsburg. So much bustle and fuss there, and so much serenity here. And though we’ve recently met I’m struck by all that we have in common—and how you seem more sister than friend.”
The similarities were striking. Once Sylvie had been without a home, even a house, and husband. Her family had been torn from her. Though she rarely spoke of it, the pensive lines in her face told of her past heartache.
“Someday you’ll have your own home, your own family and you’ll find that the Almighty fills the emptiness with Himself along with countless other blessings.”
Brielle bit her lip lest she confide her stubborn fear of having to leave and return to servitude. That somehow Bleu’s redemptionof them was flawed and she and Titus weren’t free after all. Yet one thing she knew, one truth she held onto—
“God has already shown me great mercy through Bleu.”
“My brother has always been quick to show compassion, to understand the plight of others less fortunate.”
“Most men would have left us to fend for ourselves without another thought.” She nearly shuddered at the memory of Wade Griffiths. “I wish that I could repay your brother in some way. I feel beholden to him though he’s assured me I am not.”
Understanding shone in Sylvie’s eyes. “I felt much the same when Will asked me to marry him. I was a broken, beholden young woman, more girl really, never having been beyond Acadie. He showed me that same mercy though I pushed him away at first.”
“There has been no pushing away of Bleu.” Brielle smiled a bit sheepishly. “My worry is that I might wake up one morning and he’ll be gone.”
Sylvie’s smile became a sigh. “My brother is like the wind, one never knows when or where it will blow.”
Was his shattered past part of his restlessness? Never settling, always seeking?
“He isextraordinaire, turning a hand to nearly anything, it seems.” Brielle couldn’t hide her pride or her pleasure. “Orchardist, farrier, farmer, ferryman. Even a respected guide and interpreter.”
“We tease and say he could turn tinker if he chose, able to do so many things well,” Sylvie agreed, looking down at Jolie. “He’s of great benefit to the settlement and I hope one day he’ll stay. I’ve been holding onto that hope ever since I came here.”
“Perhaps,” Brielle ventured, “he simply needs a reason to remain.”
19
