Brielle rose early, before the settlement roosters crowed, and left Titus asleep in the cottage. Stepping off the porch, she walked through the orchard to Bleu’s unfinished house, her hem dew-drenched by the time she reached it. The view drew her. She wanted to see the sunrise and ponder a life spent beholding those mountains and valleys in future. Mornings along the Rivanna when all was silent except for birdsong seemed especially hallowed.
She sat on the bottom step of the partial front porch, a warm wind toying with her carefully pinned cap and the edges of her apron. Bending her head, she breathed a prayer into the stillness, hoping to quell the unrest inside her. A short prayer, childlike in its simplicity, but encompassing so many of her unspoken womanly yearnings.
Heavenly Father, help me savor the goodness of the present rather than fret about the unknown future. Amen.
She opened her eyes, the sunrise spreading across the horizon like melted butter. Her stomach growled in response. She must be hungry if the sun resembled an egg and she craved toast and tea.
Would Bleu be at breakfast?
The thought nearly sent her down the hill but in truth it was too early to break one’s fast nor had the bell rung summoning the settlement to the kitchen house. After breakfast she would spend her hours in the day nursery next to the stillroom, tending to other’s children when what she wanted was a houseful of her own.
As she thought it, a noise in the orchard turned her head. Several Acadians carrying tools cleared the rows of apple trees and began climbing the hill. Before she could leap from her perch into the grass and disappear, she spied Bleu coming behind the other men, most of them settlement carpenters, a ladder across one sturdy shoulder. Her desire to disappear fled.
When he saw her, he set his burden down, stopping just shy of the steps. His eyes were smiling. “Bonjour,MademoiselleFarrow.”
When he said it he seemed to speak with the respect granted royalty. It left her flushed and joyous all at once. “I had to come up the hill again to see the sunrise.”
“Perhaps one day we’ll watch it together,” he told her before he hefted the ladder again and resumed walking around the side of the house.
“You’re finishing your work here?” she called after him.
He looked over his shoulder. “Now is the time,oui.I should have finished long ago.”
Elated, she nearly skipped down the hill when the breakfast bell sounded only he caught up with her on the riverside path, the men following, obviously intent on a hearty meal before a day’s work.
“And what did you make of the sunrise?” he asked.
“As splendid as the sunset.”
“Should I build a granderporchewith posts so we can better take it in?”
She didn’t miss thewenor would she let herself dwell on its implications—or the lack of them. A slip of the tongue? Or a heartfelt hope?
“What will you name it?” she asked him.
“The house?”
“Sylvie named Orchard Rest. Surely you can think of something.”
His smile held mischief. “Perhaps that task is best left to you.”
Her mind went blank at the delightful prospect.
“There’s to be afête, did Sylvie tell you?”
“Nay—non.” Her head nearly spun as she swerved between Anglais and Français. “What sort offête?”
“Dancing. Feasting. Much music and merriment.”
A qualm beset her that she’d be on the outside again. Not Acadian. Not even a Virginian. “I’ve quite forgotten how to dance though I had a dancing master long ago in Philadelphia.”
He gave her another long look. “Then meet me in the orchard at dusk.”
Their eyes locked, his in warm invitation, hers clouded with uncertainty though a tingling anticipation coursed through her.
Dusk couldn’t come soon enough.
Brielle arrived in the orchard before Bleu. She could still hear hammering up the hill. Was he still at work? She’d seen him only briefly at supper when he’d come in late to the kitchen house once she’d finished her meal and rose from the table. She and Titus took turns eating at Orchard Rest and then with the settlement though Sabine’s presence continued to unsettle her. But lately the fiery-haired Acadian who spent her days in the stillroom hadn’t sought her out like at first.
