The Prodigal Son (48 page)

“We stole,” she said.

“Stole?” The elder girl spat. “I didn’t steal. I took payment.”

“Payment?” Alex echoed.

The girl gave her a condescending look. “He helped himself.”

“Ah.” Alex was somewhat taken aback. She’d never have taken Peter Leslie for the lecherous type. “And now you’re planning to do what?”

“Walk,” the eldest girl said.

“To Providence?” Alex shook her head. That was well over a week’s walk, and the two girls seemed to have no sense of direction as they’d walked north from the Leslie settlement, rather than south.

“No; to St.Mary’s City,” the younger girl said. Good luck to them; that was almost twice as far.

“You’re Catholic,” Alex said. No other reason to go that far – unless they’d done more than steal. The elder girl glared at her, an arm coming up protectively around the younger’s shoulder.

“And what if we are?”

“I couldn’t care less,” Alex told her with a little smile. “But it’s a very long walk – that way.” She pointed south. “How are you to survive, all on your own?”

“I have a knife,” the elder said.

“Whoopee,” Alex muttered. She should send them straight back to the Leslies’, but she already knew she wouldn’t. Matthew wouldn’t like it, but on the other hand, why tell him? She gnawed her lip. “I’ll see what I can find for you,” she said. “You’ll need food and a blanket or two.” The youngest girl burst into tears and clutched at Alex’ skirts. “Yes, yes,” Alex said, rather embarrassed by all this. She gestured into the deeper forest to their right. “Hide in there, somewhere. You’ll have to stay put until you hear me whistle for you. ” She shooed them off, admonished them to keep well out of sight and set off up the incline.

She was almost back at the house when her three youngest children ambushed her.

“Ouff!” Alex said when Sarah barrelled into her. Her daughter grabbed at her legs and rubbed her head against her skirts, dislodging what little remained of her night braid. The fair hair fell in soft waves around her face, making her look like a sweet angel – which she definitely was not.

“Where have you been?” Matthew said from behind her.

“I went for a swim,” Alex said.

“A swim?” Sarah’s reproachful blue eyes stared up at her. “Without us?”

“Aye, why didn’t you say?” Ruth asked.

Because I wanted to go alone, Alex thought, smiling at her little redhead. Ruth smiled back, the hazel eyes she shared with her father and most of her siblings shifting into a light greyish green.

“We can go later,” Alex said. “I probably need to give all three of you a proper scrub.”

“Not me,” Daniel muttered, shoving his dark hair off his brow, “I’m clean, very clean.”

Alex looked at the trio; three children in three years, but since then Matthew and she had been very careful, even if at times both of them were left extremely frustrated by this. Her eyes slid over to rest on her man. Alex fluffed at her hair, catching Matthew’s interested look. As far as Alex was concerned, five children – six, counting Ian – were quite enough, but she wasn’t sure Matthew agreed. What the hell; she wanted to have wild and uninhibited sex with him, and damn the consequences. She saw his mouth curve and felt the blood rush up her cheeks, making him smile even wider.

“Right, you,” she said to her children. “You all have chores to do.”

Daniel made a face, but at Matthew’s nod he and Ruth hurried off. Sarah loitered, throwing Alex a hopeful look. You wish, Alex thought, handing her three year old the egg basket.

“You look thoroughly,” she said, “now that they’re back to laying properly, I want them all.”

Sarah set her mouth in a sulk and dragged her feet on her way to the stables.

Matthew took Alex’ hand and squeezed it. She knew exactly what he was thinking. This their youngest daughter was in many ways a throwback to their eldest girl, Rachel, and both of them were very relieved that in looks Sarah did not take after their dead daughter – that would have been a bit too much.

“She’ll drive her future husband to the edge of despair,” Matthew said in an undertone.

She chortled. “Let’s hope she calms down a bit.”

They walked across the yard, him shortening his stride to match hers.

“I don’t like it, that you go about alone,” he said.

“I was just down there,” Alex said, gesturing in the direction of the river.

“Still, I don’t like it.”

Alex chose not to reply, studying her house – well, cabin – instead. Two chimneys, one sticking up from the new extension, and several windows, four with horribly expensive glass panes in them that Matthew had transported up here piece by careful piece, swaddled as if they were priceless porcelain.

According to dear Elizabeth Leslie, window glass was an unnecessary luxury, but Alex didn’t care about her opinion, thrilled to have light streaming into her kitchen and parlour, and now into her bedroom as well. Elizabeth… Alex threw Matthew a look. She should tell him about the girls, he didn’t like it when she kept things from him. On the other hand, it made her shudder just to imagine how Elizabeth would punish her two servants for running away. Bread and water for a month, and no doubt a severe beating with that cane Elizabeth always kept close at hand.

“What is it?” Matthew said.

“Nothing.”

He turned her to face him. “What?”

Alex sighed. This man of hers read her like an open book, no matter how much she tried to dissimulate. Briefly she told him of her encounter with the girls, shifting on her feet under his eyes.

“But I don’t want to force them to go back,” she finished. “Can you imagine how angry they’ll be?”

“Escaped servants must be returned. You know I don’t much hold with it,” he said, swinging her hand as they covered the last few yards to the door. “It sticks in my craw, it does, to hold a fellow man as a slave, however temporarily. But that’s how things are ordained here, and Peter Leslie paid good money for them. Besides, two lasses on their own in all that …” He waved a hand at the woods.

“So what do we do?”

Matthew opened the door for her and gave Fiona, their maid, a curt nod before replying.

“For now we do nowt.” He leaned close enough that his breath tickled her ear. “But if they come looking we tell them.”

Alex nodded; a fair compromise and hopefully Peter would expend his efforts to the south.

The small kitchen filled with people. Mark and Jacob came from the direction of the stable, Sarah danced in to show them just how many eggs she’d found, and Daniel and Ruth were sent off to wash when they appeared dirty at the door. Eggs, ham, porridge and thick slices of rye bread were set down on the table. From the yard came Jonah, their second indenture, and after a hastily said grace everyone threw themselves at the food.

“And Ian?” Alex looked at Mark.

“I don’t know,” Mark said, “he may have gone hunting.”

“Or fishing,” Jacob suggested through his full mouth. Alex smoothed at his thick blond hair.

“Maybe,” she shrugged. Ian was old enough to take care of himself.

No sooner was the table cleared than Fiona begged to be excused, whispering something about her monthlies. Alex just nodded. The last few weeks, Fiona was forever begging to be let off for one reason or the other, and this her latest excuse was wearing a bit thin. Still; mostly she did what she was told to do, and if Fiona found some sort of relief by wandering the nearby woods, so be it.

Matthew sat for a while longer at the table, conversing her as Alex went about the dinner preparations. She still had days when it shocked her just how much time she spent on something as simple as cooking. In the here and now there were no electric cookers, no microwaves, it was all open fire and heavy pots. Alex wiped her hands on her apron and leaned against the work bench.

She rarely thought about the life she’d left behind – given the circumstances she preferred not to – but every now and then she was swept with a wave of longing for her people, lost somewhere in the future. Isaac, her son; he’d be sixteen by now, and she wondered if he’d be taller than her and if he still wore his hair short. And Magnus, now pushing seventy… she couldn’t quite see her father as old – to her he was an eternally middle-aged tall blond man with eyes as blue as hers.

She counted in her head; it was 2016 there in the future. Almost fourteen years ago since fate and a gigantic bolt of lightning combined to throw her more than three hundred years backwards to land stunned at Matthew’s feet. Alex twisted at her wedding ring; should she ever be yanked back she was certain she’d die, of something as hackneyed as a broken heart.

She started when Matthew covered her hands with his.

“Alright?” he asked, kissing her brow.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just had one of those flashbacks.”

“Ah,” he nodded. She eyed him from under her lashes. Matthew was never comfortable discussing her strange – impossible – fall from one time to the other. Heck; neither was she, it made her hair bristle. Just as she’d expected, he changed the subject.

“This afternoon I’ll finish the house, tomorrow I start with the barn,” Matthew said in a resigned tone, looking at what was presently a roof on stilts. He studied his callused hands and muttered that he was always one step behind, whether in the building or in the tilling. But at least there was a stable, and an assorted number of small sheds, including a well sized laundry shed, complete with a large wooden bathtub.

“No hurry, is there?” Alex said. “After all, there’s nothing to fill it with as yet.”

“There will be,” he said, “this year the crops will be good.” With that very confident statement he grabbed his hat and went outside, telling her that he’d be taking Mark and Jacob with him to clear the new field.

The boys came rushing when he called for them. Mark was already shooting up in height while eight year old Jacob was still very much a child, all downy cheeks and knobbly knees. So young, Alex reflected, watching her sons fall into step beside their father, and already most of their days were spent working side by side with Matthew. Not that they seemed to mind, both of them inflating with pride when Matthew praised them for their hard work – which he did quite often.

Alex packed her basket with some food, found a blanket in the laundry shed, draped it over her arm and made for the woods. Late April in Maryland was like a warm summer day in Scotland and Alex adjusted her straw hat as she went, before beginning her customary scanning of the ground for anything green and edible. She was sick to death of the few sad carrots in the root cellar, she wanted huge salads, ripe tomatoes, and while she was at it, why not a chocolate bar or two… Boy was she in a maudlin mood! She slowed her pace and ducked into the shade of the closest trees.

It was strange that the few times she was truly homesick it wasn’t for her life in the twenty first century, it was for Hillview, the small manor in Ayrshire that they’d left one cold and drizzling March day four years ago. She’d spent weeks saying good bye, walking for hours through the woods, standing silent by the edge of the moss. Worst of all had been the last time she and Matthew had stood together in front of Rachel’s grave, bowing with the pain of forever leaving behind this one tangible reminder of their daughter’s brief time on Earth.

“Rachel,” she said out loud. She did that sometimes; she called her dead daughter, and just by saying her name she was making sure she wasn’t forgotten. Now she closed her eyes and Rachel sprang to the forefront of her mind, her hair a messy tangle down her back – just like she’d been the last day of her life, her little face contorted with fury as she flew to the defence of her beloved Da.

“Mama?” Ian materialised beside her and Alex turned away. “Are you alright?”

Alex nodded, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand before facing him.

“One of those moments.” She suspected Ian had quite a few such moments himself, but he chose to keep them to himself. Alex stood on her toes and pulled out a couple of cockleburs from his hair.

“You’re too tall,” she grumbled, and Ian grinned and sat down, crossing his legs. Alex stood on her knees and extracted her comb from her apron pockets to comb his hair free of debris. “Where have you been? Chasing deer through the undergrowth?”

Ian mumbled something unintelligible in reply.

Alex smiled down at the back of his head and went on with what she was doing. They sank into a companionable silence, broken every now and then by the loud calling of a bird or the rustling of something moving through the forest that surrounded them.

“There.” Alex sank back on her heels and returned her comb to its keeping place. “You’re so like him,” she said, studying her teenaged stepson, who had now gotten to his feet. A younger version of her Matthew, tall and well-built with the same hazel eyes, the same dark hair that went chestnut under the summer sun and the same generous mouth.

“Is that good or bad?” Ian teased, helping her to stand.

“Good, obviously.” She bent to pick up her basket. A flurry of movement made her rear back as something mid-size and grey rushed by her.

“A wolf?” she asked tremulously.

Ian laughed, shaking his head. “Raccoon. Curious as to what’s in yon basket.”

“Nettle shoots,” Alex said, “will make us all a very nice soup.” She was very happy with her find, thinking that she’d poach some eggs to go with it. Ian eyed the contents with a decided lack of enthusiasm.

“Eat nettles? Won’t it blister our mouths?”

“Of course it will. It will make all of you shut up for days and days,” Alex said, elbowing him hard. “Idiot,” she added, making him laugh.

“What happened to your promise to fix the hen coop?” Alex said, accepting Ian’s hand when they clambered over a mossy trunk.

“I’ll do it now,” he said, his cheeks staining a suspicious red. Alex studied him narrowly; grasses and leaves all over his clothes, all that stuff he’d had in his hair… She smiled and hefted her basket higher onto her arm. Apparently young master Graham was discovering the pleasures of the opposite sex. She wondered if it was Jenny he’d met up in the woods – she sincerely hoped it was Jenny Leslie, given that Matthew and the girl’s father were very much in agreement regarding the desirability of such a match.