Return to Alastair (47 page)

Tiarra didn’t know what to expect as they left the church behind them. She knew it couldn’t be much farther before they saw the Trilett estate. Netta had told her of her home, but Tiarra still couldn’t picture it in her mind. She’d never seen the baron’s estate. She’d never seen any home richer than the Ovnys’.

It was the wall she saw first, as Tahn had told her. It seemed to go on an unreasonably long length before turning to claim land in yet another direction. But not till they approached the gate could she see the grounds and the grand home within. And she sat speechless for a moment, though the street children were affected in an entirely different way.

“We’re going to live there?” Jori shouted. “It’s big as heaven!”

“I’ll bet it has stairs,” little Jeramathe announced. “Lots of stairs. Like mountains. I’ve heard about stairs.”

“Do you think we’ll have our own beds?” Rae was asking someone.

Ansley answered her. “We might have anything we want. There’s room enough for the moon to bed down here.”

“And look,” Micah said in awe. “There’s a garden on the roof!”

Tiarra watched her brother break away from the group. Netta’s eyes turned to him for a fleeting moment of renewed concern. Tiarra wondered if there might be some secret between them that only such a homecoming might call to mind. But Netta said nothing. Tahn only rode ahead of them to the gate. And Netta’s eyes brightened when she heard him announce their arrival with a happy voice.

The gate swung wide. They were not all through it before children ran at them from the yard, and more children came dashing from the house, followed by a tall young man and a plump older woman with a generously sized apron.

Ansley jumped from the wagon before it stopped moving, and Micah followed him. To Tiarra’s surprise, her brother jumped from his horse to greet the first running child with an embrace that lifted the little girl clear off her feet.

“Temas!” he exclaimed. “It’s good to be home.”

“We missed you,” the little girl said. And then she was joined by the crowd of other children gathering around. Tahn embraced them all. Except the biggest, who stood apart from the rest, waiting. When Tahn stood again, the big boy still held back, looking at him far more seriously than the others had.

“Are you all right, Tahn?” the boy asked. “I can see the pain in your stance.”

“It’s nothing, Vari.”

But Vari seemed not so sure, until Tahn hugged him anyway and told him that the worries were past. The big boy finally smiled and turned his attention quickly to helping Netta from the wagon, though the lady scarcely waited for help.

Tiarra smiled to see her just as eager to hug at these children as Tahn had been. And she was quick to introduce Ansley and the others. But then the tall young man from the house took her arm.

“Netta,” he said almost severely, “it is a relief to see you return home safely.”

“I’ll have a word to speak with you about letting her go, Jarel,” Benn told him immediately, though his voice was kind.

“It was not by my choice,” Jarel answered him. “You’ve raised a hardheaded daughter. Whatever will you do with her?”

“Confine her to Onath for her own safety, I suppose,” Benn answered with a smile. “Until the wedding. And then let her husband figure it out.”

Jarel’s eyes went wide. “Wedding?” He laughed. “Netta! You get what you want, don’t you?”

“You’re getting married!” the boy Vari exclaimed. “You asked her? Oh Tahn! You really did?”

All sorts of commotion followed, but Tiarra noticed only part of it as Lorne came to her side and helped her gently down from the horse. “Welcome home,” he said simply. His eyes seemed the color of the sky.

Vari was looking at her, and Tahn introduced her to him in a way she couldn’t have expected.

“This is the baby from my dream.”

“She looks like you,” the little girl called Temas observed.

“Only prettier,” added a little boy with a scar on his face and an endearing giggle.

“Well! Quite a crew we make!” the old woman with the apron exclaimed. “Just when I think I know everybody, there comes some more. Well, the more the merrier, Benn Trilett! I’ve got food aplenty. Come on, now. I’ll learn your names later. Let me feed you.”

But she dished out a hug to Netta first, and then a nod in Tahn’s direction with a gently teasing smile. “Are you coming to the dining room with your guests today, sir? Or will I be sending food to you out here beneath a tree?”

Tahn returned the smile almost shyly. His reluctance to join the Trilett table had vexed Hildy for some time. “I’ll come to the dining room, Hildy. With my family.”

“Where you belong,” Netta added softly. And they all crossed the wide yard to enter the grand house together.

360

That evening in a grassy meadow, Tahn carefully laid to rest the remains of his parents in the plot Benn Trilett had given him not far from his own loved ones. Tobas had offered to do the digging and the burying, but this was a task Tahn felt he must do with his own hands. These bones had held the life that gave him life, and even this small connection to them was somehow sacred.

Tiarra knelt beside the grave as he filled it, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. “We should plant flowers here in the spring,” she said. “Do you think they would have liked flowers?”

“I’m sure,” he answered quickly, but it was hard to get the words out, hard to say anything at all right now.

“How can you love someone you’ve never known?” Tiarra asked him. “I feel as if they’re close to me. As if they’re with us today.”

He couldn’t answer. He glanced toward the wagon in the distance, where Netta waited with Lorne, Tobas, and Vari, giving him and his sister this time alone. Perhaps one of them might have answers for her later. But he could provide nothing now. Solemnly, as the sun sank low, he leveled the grave and marked it with the two wooden crosses Tobas had given him until a stone could be made.
Sanlin and Karra Dorn,
it would say.
May they rest in eternal peace.

Tahn laid down his shovel and knelt at his sister’s side. Somehow the dream that had driven him to Alastair swirled over his mind again. She was crying now. But the search was over. There were no pointing fingers or shouting faces. Tenderly, he reached to hold Tiarra, and she cried against his shoulder as the sun set and purple shadows spread across the sky.

As darkness fell, Netta came and touched his shoulder softly. Vari and Lorne stood beside her, ready to help them to the wagon for the short ride home. He stood to his feet and helped Tiarra with him.

But Vari stood so still, so solemn.

“It’s all right, friend,” Tahn told him. “Everything’s finally all right now.” He put his arm around the young man for a moment, as Lorne extended a hand to Tiarra.

A stiff breeze rustled the trees to their west. “If we don’t go soon, brother,” Vari said in a quiet voice, “we’ll all get caught in the rain.”

Tahn smiled. “You like rain.”

“And the world suits my dreams,” Vari recalled the words. “I know. But what about you? Do you dream happy now?”

Tahn glanced again at his sister and Lorne. He thought of all the children at the house, and even of Lucas bravely giving himself to God’s work in Alastair. But then he turned his eyes to Netta as she reached for his hand. “More than that,” he answered. “It’s not just a dream.”

Softly Netta kissed him as the first raindrops fell.

“We’re in for a soaking,” she whispered. And he lifted her into his arms and ran to join the others as they hurried to the wagon.

Vari climbed to the wagon seat with Tobas. Lorne helped Tiarra into the back and climbed up beside her.

But Tahn set Netta down and only held her in his arms for a moment. “The rain isn’t cold,” he said. “Not yet. Do you mind if we walk?”

She smiled. “My father would think I’ve taken leave of my senses.”

“Then you want to ride?”

In answer to that, Netta turned and waved Tobas on. “Go without us,” she told him. “We’ll be all right.”

“Are you sure, lady? Out here alone?”

“We’re on Trilett lands,” she answered. “Close to home. And God is with us.”

Tobas nodded. “We’d be within a shout.” He gave the reins a flick, and the wagon began its slow move away from them.

Netta turned her eyes to Tahn, and he could see that the concern she always carried for him was still there. “Do you need to talk?” she asked. “Are you really all right?”

He put his arms around her and held her close. “I love you, Netta. Don’t worry for me anymore.”

And then he leaned and kissed her as he’d longed to do. She moved her hand across his cheek to his hair, and her touch felt so good.

“I love you too,” she whispered.

“I think I could not have asked for so much,” he told her. “Not in a thousand years.”

“You have no idea the gift you are.” She took his hand, and they began to follow the wagon. Rain soaked over them, and Tahn knew they’d be greeting Benn Trilett at the house with their hair and their clothes dripping. But Netta had no thought for it. She stopped him suddenly and with her hands in his kissed him again. And then her smile was bright as sunshine. “Welcome home.”

L. A. Kelly
is a busy Illinois writer who is active in the ministries of her church. She works at home and enjoys spending time with her husband and two beautiful children.