Work never stopped here at the Brambles Orchard. With their first harvest over, there had still been the work of setting the orchards and fields to rights, replanting and weeding in preparation for the winter ahead. The leaves had fallen, leaving the apple and pear trees bare and stark against the winter sky, just waiting for a healthy fall of snow to complete the pretty picture of a landscape lying in wait for spring to come again.
With the ciders and perries brewed and mostly sold, attention had turned over the months following the autumn to setting the house and grounds to rights. Every day, Evan and Bill, with the small but hardy group of laborers who had returned to the estate, disappeared off to the furthest reaches of the perimeter, intent upon making fast the long neglected boundary walls with the fallen stone from years past, leaving the women to turn their own attention to the house and garden. There were shutters to fix, curtains to hang, walls and floors to clean, fresh rugs to lay ....any myriad number of little jobs that had to be done to make Brambles House a real home, just as it had been during the summer of Marin's childhood. And all while making sure to provide fresh, hot food for the men when they came wandering back in the growing darkness of sunset each day.
Not that Marin was allowed to take part in most of this, of course. These days, it seemed as though everyone had their eye on her, watchful of the diminutive woman in their midst and the precious swell of her ever-growing bump. Between them, Jodie and Carla had taken over control of the house, corralling the small number of other wives who had come to live on the estate with their own husbands into a small army to do battle with the ravages of time. Marin was often lucky if she was allowed to sit in the kitchen and peel potatoes, these days.
She wasn't sure she was happy with this state of affairs. She wanted to be in the thick of things, like Evan, working with her own hands to set her home to rights, but everyone seemed to think that lifting something heavier than her own plate at mealtimes was going to do some catastrophic damage to her or the baby. It didn't help that she felt in the way all the time now, constantly apologising for the prominence of the baby bump as she settled into the final couple of weeks of her pregnancy. A small woman anyway, however generous her curves had been before she'd conceived, now she felt like a small whale, especially when it came to getting out of any of the low-slung chairs without assistance.
But despite her irritation with the people she was living with, and her impatience to simply give birth and get it over with, she was, on the whole, very happy with her place in life. She had a home, a successful business, a family, a child soon to come. The only blots on her otherwise picture-perfect horizon were the constant concern over what Sidney Rogier was planning to do next ....and Evan.
As the time drew nearer for the baby to be born, she could feel him pulling away from her, knowing his thoughts were turning with more and more frequency to the daughter he had left behind him, and worrying over the birth itself. She had tried to reassure him, to make him understand that there was very little for him to worry about when it came to the birth, but even if he believed her, it didn't detract from the fact that their family wasn't complete. Maggie was in another time and place, with her mother's sister, in a world where Evan was an outlaw, and any law-man or bounty-hunter could shoot him on sight if he were to venture back, even to visit. Marin would dearly have loved to have sent Bill and Daniel through a portal to gather up the whole of that little family and bring them here, but Evan wouldn't hear of it. Stubborn man; he wanted Maggie to grow up happy and safe, and seemed to have decided that having that meant never seeing his little girl again.
And yet, in the dark of the night, when the baby was restless beneath her heart and Marin couldn't sleep, he would cling to her as though she were his only lifeline, one large hand resting protectively over the swell of their child in her womb. She didn't understand, and he couldn't make her understand. Though she had lived on Earth, it had not been in the time he was born, and he was not yet trustful enough of the magic of Rhy'Din to risk his daughter to the Nexus.
But Marin couldn't help being worried in herself. She knew Rhy'Din, and she knew the way people thought. Sidney Rogier had failed to intimidate her into standing up to the letter of an unwitnessed agreement made with him by her mother, an agreement she refused to believe had any basis in fact. But that didn't mean he had given up. Nathaniel Hayes, the family lawyer, was aware that certain questions had been asked concerning Evan in town; Chad Dobson, Rogier's odious thug, had been investigating her husband's past and background, and Marin knew that eventually he would find a way through the portal to threaten Emma and Maggie.
And then what would happen" Evan would go tearing off through the portal himself, risking his life to save that of his daughter, and Marin wouldn't stop him. But she also knew that the moment he was gone, she would be vulnerable. Rogier would make his move in Evan's absence, and if he timed it right, she wouldn't be able to fight back effectively, a new mother afraid for her husband and unable to protect the land her horrible neighbor wanted so badly. She refused to believe that she was a part of the rewards of patience Rogier crowed about, no matter how often Evan told her to be wary of him. What possible gain could come from Rogier's taking her along with everything else? But if he managed to out-think Nathaniel Hayes, he would be able to take the Brambles right out from under her while Dobson dealt unkindly with Evan in another time and place, leaving her a widowed mother without a home, and the well-being of all those who lived and worked her land on her conscience.
It was a chilling prospect, and not one to dwell on in the days leading up to the Christmas season. She was determined to keep such thoughts out of her mind whenever Evan was around, determined to make it a true Christmas, their first together, however near the birth would fall. She was not due until a couple of days after the Holy Day, but she had a feeling she was going to be banned from attending church in the cold winter weather for the festive holiday. Not that she minded, too much. She wasn't a particularly religious person, anyway.
But Christmas ....that she could throw herself into. One thing she had insisted upon being allowed to do - and Jodie had only relented after three days of almost non-stop whining - was decorate the house. Garlands of evergreen and red festooned the windows, the mantle over the chimney, the rail of the open stairs that led up to the bedrooms. A tree, chosen by Bill and cut himself, had been given pride of place in the corner of the main room beside the piano, dripping with tinsel and her mother's prized painted glass baubles. The candles they burned in the evening to preserve the lifespan of a generator that would definitely need replacing in the new year were set in nests of evergreen and pine cones littered with brightly varnished holly berries.
Every day, someone added something new to the small pile of gifts beneath the tree. Every day, someone added something hopeful to the list hung in the kitchen, a little suggestion of what had made Christmas for them as a child. Marin was determined to observe as many of these little rituals as possible. No one should feel as though the season had passed them by. The goose had already been decided upon, living like a king on the lion's share of the grain for the next week, until it was time to hang it in preparation for the day itself. Every night, the house sat quiet and companionable, the eight or so people who lived there settled into their smaller groups, each making some preparation of their own for the family holiday that was right on their doorstep.
It felt as though Christmas had come to the Brambles, and with it, a fresh breeze of proper family life had returned, with all the bustle and promise of years to come. Exactly as Marin remembered it being, in the summer of her childhood.
With the ciders and perries brewed and mostly sold, attention had turned over the months following the autumn to setting the house and grounds to rights. Every day, Evan and Bill, with the small but hardy group of laborers who had returned to the estate, disappeared off to the furthest reaches of the perimeter, intent upon making fast the long neglected boundary walls with the fallen stone from years past, leaving the women to turn their own attention to the house and garden. There were shutters to fix, curtains to hang, walls and floors to clean, fresh rugs to lay ....any myriad number of little jobs that had to be done to make Brambles House a real home, just as it had been during the summer of Marin's childhood. And all while making sure to provide fresh, hot food for the men when they came wandering back in the growing darkness of sunset each day.
Not that Marin was allowed to take part in most of this, of course. These days, it seemed as though everyone had their eye on her, watchful of the diminutive woman in their midst and the precious swell of her ever-growing bump. Between them, Jodie and Carla had taken over control of the house, corralling the small number of other wives who had come to live on the estate with their own husbands into a small army to do battle with the ravages of time. Marin was often lucky if she was allowed to sit in the kitchen and peel potatoes, these days.
She wasn't sure she was happy with this state of affairs. She wanted to be in the thick of things, like Evan, working with her own hands to set her home to rights, but everyone seemed to think that lifting something heavier than her own plate at mealtimes was going to do some catastrophic damage to her or the baby. It didn't help that she felt in the way all the time now, constantly apologising for the prominence of the baby bump as she settled into the final couple of weeks of her pregnancy. A small woman anyway, however generous her curves had been before she'd conceived, now she felt like a small whale, especially when it came to getting out of any of the low-slung chairs without assistance.
But despite her irritation with the people she was living with, and her impatience to simply give birth and get it over with, she was, on the whole, very happy with her place in life. She had a home, a successful business, a family, a child soon to come. The only blots on her otherwise picture-perfect horizon were the constant concern over what Sidney Rogier was planning to do next ....and Evan.
As the time drew nearer for the baby to be born, she could feel him pulling away from her, knowing his thoughts were turning with more and more frequency to the daughter he had left behind him, and worrying over the birth itself. She had tried to reassure him, to make him understand that there was very little for him to worry about when it came to the birth, but even if he believed her, it didn't detract from the fact that their family wasn't complete. Maggie was in another time and place, with her mother's sister, in a world where Evan was an outlaw, and any law-man or bounty-hunter could shoot him on sight if he were to venture back, even to visit. Marin would dearly have loved to have sent Bill and Daniel through a portal to gather up the whole of that little family and bring them here, but Evan wouldn't hear of it. Stubborn man; he wanted Maggie to grow up happy and safe, and seemed to have decided that having that meant never seeing his little girl again.
And yet, in the dark of the night, when the baby was restless beneath her heart and Marin couldn't sleep, he would cling to her as though she were his only lifeline, one large hand resting protectively over the swell of their child in her womb. She didn't understand, and he couldn't make her understand. Though she had lived on Earth, it had not been in the time he was born, and he was not yet trustful enough of the magic of Rhy'Din to risk his daughter to the Nexus.
But Marin couldn't help being worried in herself. She knew Rhy'Din, and she knew the way people thought. Sidney Rogier had failed to intimidate her into standing up to the letter of an unwitnessed agreement made with him by her mother, an agreement she refused to believe had any basis in fact. But that didn't mean he had given up. Nathaniel Hayes, the family lawyer, was aware that certain questions had been asked concerning Evan in town; Chad Dobson, Rogier's odious thug, had been investigating her husband's past and background, and Marin knew that eventually he would find a way through the portal to threaten Emma and Maggie.
And then what would happen" Evan would go tearing off through the portal himself, risking his life to save that of his daughter, and Marin wouldn't stop him. But she also knew that the moment he was gone, she would be vulnerable. Rogier would make his move in Evan's absence, and if he timed it right, she wouldn't be able to fight back effectively, a new mother afraid for her husband and unable to protect the land her horrible neighbor wanted so badly. She refused to believe that she was a part of the rewards of patience Rogier crowed about, no matter how often Evan told her to be wary of him. What possible gain could come from Rogier's taking her along with everything else? But if he managed to out-think Nathaniel Hayes, he would be able to take the Brambles right out from under her while Dobson dealt unkindly with Evan in another time and place, leaving her a widowed mother without a home, and the well-being of all those who lived and worked her land on her conscience.
It was a chilling prospect, and not one to dwell on in the days leading up to the Christmas season. She was determined to keep such thoughts out of her mind whenever Evan was around, determined to make it a true Christmas, their first together, however near the birth would fall. She was not due until a couple of days after the Holy Day, but she had a feeling she was going to be banned from attending church in the cold winter weather for the festive holiday. Not that she minded, too much. She wasn't a particularly religious person, anyway.
But Christmas ....that she could throw herself into. One thing she had insisted upon being allowed to do - and Jodie had only relented after three days of almost non-stop whining - was decorate the house. Garlands of evergreen and red festooned the windows, the mantle over the chimney, the rail of the open stairs that led up to the bedrooms. A tree, chosen by Bill and cut himself, had been given pride of place in the corner of the main room beside the piano, dripping with tinsel and her mother's prized painted glass baubles. The candles they burned in the evening to preserve the lifespan of a generator that would definitely need replacing in the new year were set in nests of evergreen and pine cones littered with brightly varnished holly berries.
Every day, someone added something new to the small pile of gifts beneath the tree. Every day, someone added something hopeful to the list hung in the kitchen, a little suggestion of what had made Christmas for them as a child. Marin was determined to observe as many of these little rituals as possible. No one should feel as though the season had passed them by. The goose had already been decided upon, living like a king on the lion's share of the grain for the next week, until it was time to hang it in preparation for the day itself. Every night, the house sat quiet and companionable, the eight or so people who lived there settled into their smaller groups, each making some preparation of their own for the family holiday that was right on their doorstep.
It felt as though Christmas had come to the Brambles, and with it, a fresh breeze of proper family life had returned, with all the bustle and promise of years to come. Exactly as Marin remembered it being, in the summer of her childhood.