Bill and Jodie St.James had been at the Brambles for the whole of Marin's life. Her childhood was full of Jodie's cooking and the way the woman had ruled the hands, both permanent and seasonal, with an iron fist; decorated with the memory of Bill always at her father's side with a ready grin or a story for her child self. Marin and her brother had grown up with Daniel and Caleb, their sons, all four of them learning the land from their parents without the need for formal educating in agriculture. Unable to afford the cost of supporting the hands, her mother had had to let them go, sending them away from the Brambles in Marin's absence. It had been almost two years since the St.James family had set foot on the farm.

Marin stared at her old nanny, friend, and housekeeper. "Hold on, I'm confused here," she admitted finally, finding it not a little bit unsettling how easily Jodie had slotted straight back into her role of organiser to the household. She jumped as Bill thumped into the kitchen, setting down bags of fresh foods before retreating once again with his familiarly reassuring wink in her direction. "Jodie ....why are you here" You must know I can't pay any of you, not yet."

Jodie smiled as she turned to packing away the food stuffs she and her husband had brought with them. "Oh, we know, sweet girl," she assured the young owner of the Brambles warmly. "Ran into a couple of folks down in the city and thought you might want the company. Besides, you need Bill to get the place back to rights, and you need me to bully your hands into behaving themselves."

"I'm not on my own up here, you know," Marin attempted to get a word in edgewise as Bill clumped through the living room and began to transport the bags and boxes containing his and his wife's belongings up the stairs to their old room.

"Now, you see, that's something I wanted to talk to you about," Jodie said firmly, and Marin almost groaned. She knew that tone of voice a little too well; it had forced any number of awkward explanations out of her as a teenager. "That old busybody Nathaniel Hayes came 'round to see us two days ago, said he'd left you up here all on your own and would we mind dropping in to check on you regular. Like we'd do anything else once we knew you were here," she added with a derisive snort. "And then yesterday afternoon, Bill hears that slimeball Rogier from over Novatsky way talking to his hired thug, Dobson, and he says that you're not alone, that you're married, and you both need running off the land. Well, I had to come make sure, didn't I?"

The pause sharpened until it became incredibly pointed and entirely aimed in Marin's direction. The redhead blinked slowly, summoning a little of her mother's spirit to counter Jodie's prying lack of a question. "Oh, I'm allowed to speak now, am I?"

The older woman's eyes narrowed, an expression that only ten years ago would have sent Marin scrambling to apologise, but now only spurred her on to hold her ground. She sighed lightly, shaking her head. The silence dragged on, growing more and more expectant by the moment.

"You're a nosy old harridan, Jodie St.James," Marin said finally, a faint snicker of laughter escaping as the older woman's face relaxed into a triumphant grin. She knew she'd won.

"So?" Jodie prodded a little deeper, nudging the woman she'd had a hand in raising toward a pile of vegetables that needed peeling and chopping. "Are you wed, or was that a lie" And who's this fella supposed to be, anyway?"

Cursing her blushing cheeks, Marin took up the knife without thinking, turning her hand to peeling vegetables as Jodie attacked a packet of stewing beef with another sharp knife and her unique blend of spices. "His name is Evan Lassiter," she heard herself offer up quietly, unaware that as she spoke of him her face softened tenderly. "And no, we're not married. Yet."

As the morning moved on, Marin found herself telling Jodie everything about what had happened since she had arrived back in Rhy'Din as the two women started the evening meal to stew and put together something simpler for midday, when Daniel and Carla would be joining them to get settled in. She didn't know what Bill was doing, assuming him to be checking over the house, barns, and stables, and hoping he didn't get himself shot when he ran into Evan. It was pretty inevitable that the men would meet one another before Evan got back to the house - during Marin's childhood, no one had entered the house before Bill had approved them on the approach.

Jodie, in turn, explained finally just what they were doing there. She and Bill had decided that, even if Marin couldn't pay them, they weren't going to abandon the Brambles. It was as much their home as it was hers, and there was a spirited argument between the two women when it came out that the older couple had already decided to sink their savings into reviving the place. It was left unresolved as Jodie changed the subject, informing Marin that Daniel was going to move into the old cottage a mile or so down the track with Carla, his wife, so that she could get used to the business of the orchard farm before they moved into the big house with everyone else.

It seemed as though the Brambles was going to be full of life once again, no matter what Marin had to say about it. And despite her misgivings about money, she couldn't help but be glad of the noise of people in her childhood home once again. She just hoped that Evan would be able to cope with the sudden influx of company without deciding she didn't need him any longer. The thought of the Brambles without Evan Lassiter was not one she wanted to entertain, not at all. Hopefully Jodie would be able to keep her big nose out of their business long enough for Marin to convince her lover to stay.