Riverbreeze: Part 2 (28 page)

“Je t’aime aussi, mon mari
.” She whispered against his ear.

* * *

That night Evelyn had her dream of the future. It was both frightening and wondrous.

Jamie was dying and Evelyn’s heart was breaking.

In their darkened bedchamber, she sat beside her husband of nineteen years, holding his limp hand and listening to his rattling breaths. Because of his lifelong battle with malaria, Evelyn had always known this time would come sooner than she had wanted but she was grateful for the time they did have together.

And except for a few difficult times at the beginning of their marriage, the years had been full of peace, joy and prosperity. They had five healthy children: the twins, a boy and a girl were eighteen, another boy was sixteen, then two girls, fourteen and eleven. They had truly been blessed. All their children had lived, a rare occurrence among their peers and all continued to thrive.

Evelyn shouldn’t ask for more but she prayed to God to spare Jamie, to heal him and bring him back to her.

“Maman
?”

Evelyn turned to see her oldest daughter at the door. She smiled lovingly at her and held out her hand.

The young woman was delicate and petite like her mother and her Auntie Bess, and the apple of her father’s eye. She came forward silently on small, dainty feet. “How is he?”

“The same.”

“I’ll sit with him for a spell. Do get something to eat,
Maman
.”

Evelyn allowed herself to be raised from the chair and after taking a lingering look at Jamie and exchanging kisses with her daughter, she went downstairs to the kitchen.

An hour later, after sitting with her sister and eating a small amount of dinner prepared by her, Evelyn said good night to her and her own four children. She returned to Jamie’s bedside to find her daughter looking especially tired. Her shoulders sagged and her head drooped and she could barely keep her eyes open.

Evelyn was alarmed by her daughter’s appearance. “Do go to bed, dear.” She said and the girl dragged herself out of the room.

Much to Evelyn’s disbelief, Jamie seemed to be better. He was sleeping easier and his breathing was normal. Nevertheless she lay down beside him, realizing this could be the last time, but with hope in her heart. Praying silently, she drifted off to sleep.

The next morning she was awakened by warm lips pressing kisses on her eyelids, her cheeks, her nose and finally her lips. Her eyes popped open and she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Jamie, awake and well, healthy color returned to his face, grinning like a small boy who had just caught his first fish.

Her heart soared. Glory be to God in the highest! Her prayers had been answered!

* * *

The next morning, Evelyn tiptoed out of her bedchamber so as not to waken Jamie and crept across the hall. Moving very quietly, not knowing if Robert and Elizabeth were still asleep, she peeked into their room. But they weren’t asleep; Robert wasn’t even in the room and Elizabeth was sponging a spot on the sheet.

“Good morning, Bess.” Evelyn whispered, silently slipping into the room.

Elizabeth looked up from her chore. “Oh, good morning, Evie.”

Evelyn nodded her head in the direction of the sheet. “I guess this means we’re not pregnant.”

The expression on Elizabeth’s face turned rueful. “Maybe next month.” She finished sponging the stain and slipped a candle under the sheet as both the girls had been taught by their governess to raise it up from the feather mattress so the wet spot could dry. Laundry day wasn’t for another four days and this was the most practical way to take care of the soiled sheet without stripping the entire bed.

“Where is Robert?” Evelyn asked.

“He got up really early. I guess he’s outside. He even took the dogs with him.”

“I’m just glad Jamie stayed asleep while I cleaned myself up and took care of matters. We do not even have a screen in our room.”

“As you can see, we do not have one either. So far it hasn’t been a problem, but we will need one soon.” Elizabeth eyed her sister. “Are you all right?”

Evelyn nodded, but her fingers twisted her handkerchief into a wrinkled mess. “I had my dream.” Evelyn announced. “It was the strangest thing.”

“I know. Your daughter will be a healer.”

Chapter Twenty-six: Arrested

Elizabeth and Evelyn made their way downstairs together, leaving Jamie still asleep in his bed. They had talked some more about Evelyn’s dream and had found it very exciting. Now they knew that Evelyn’s marriage to Jamie would endure through the years and that their daughter would be a lay-on hands healer. Evelyn didn’t know yet if she should tell Jamie about the dream, but Elizabeth encouraged her to do it. She reminded Evelyn of her mistake in not telling Jamie about the dreams from the very beginning and in order to regain Jamie’s trust, Elizabeth felt it was imperative that Evelyn tell him of this dream straightaway. Evelyn finally agreed and assured her sister that she would talk to Jamie as soon as he awakened.

Evelyn had also shown Elizabeth the ring that Jamie had given to her last night. Elizabeth agreed that the ring was beautiful and shared Evelyn’s happiness. Again they lamented the fact that the rings were too large for them to wear on their ring fingers, but at least they still had their plain gold bands to represent their marriages. And they could always wear the fancy rings on their middle fingers when going out visiting or going to church.

The girls arrived at the kitchen and Evelyn went in to help Abigail with breakfast while Elizabeth grabbed her shawl from the hall tree and went outside, looking for Robert. He had certainly gotten up early; she had woken up for only enough time to hear him tell her to go back to sleep and that he would take the dogs out. She wondered what had been on his mind to wake him earlier than normal.

He had probably been thinking about what he and Jamie had just learned about her and Evelyn. It was a remarkable phenomenon. Even Elizabeth and Evelyn were still amazed by it. She wondered how it would affect their lovemaking, but now that her woman’s cycle had started, they wouldn’t have to worry about any lovemaking for the next week anyway. She wondered how Robert would feel about that! No baby and no relations; and they hadn’t even been married a whole week yet!

Standing on the back step, she paused for a moment. What a glorious day it was, full sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. It was chilly, but not freezing cold like the other morning. Still, she tightened her shawl around her.

Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath. The air smelled so fresh, mostly of pine and of wood smoke from the fireplace. It was very different from the fetid air in London. She didn’t miss the soot and odors of coal fires and the rank smells of both animal and human waste in the gutters of the streets at all.

A mourning dove cooed from a nearby tree as she looked out across the property, searching for Robert. She didn’t see him anywhere, but Dolnick was at the well, hauling up a bucket of water. He stopped to bow his head deferentially at her and she nodded her head once in kind. Then he said, “He’s in the garden, Mistress.”

“Thank you, Dolnick.” She responded and then picked up her skirts and headed in that direction. Tiptoeing across the hard-packed earth, feeling the damp and cold seep through the thin soles of her slippers, she reminded herself that she was going to have to speak to Robert about getting her a new pair of shoes. Perhaps he would make her a pair of moccasins! Good gracious, wouldn’t that be fun!

Slipping through the gate, she saw him on his hands and knees among a patch of green vines and some unusual kind of round orange melons. She assumed they were melons; she had never seen this kind of fruit or vegetable before. He had picked three nicely shaped ones and had set them by his knee. There were also small piles of dead leaves and dead foliage scattered along the paths. A basket full of fresh pea pods, parsnips and some other strange-looking yellow vegetable lay by the garden gate.

The dogs were also in the garden, lying on the path close to Robert’s feet. This surprised Elizabeth; she had remembered how adamant he had been the other morning about not allowing the dogs near his garden. Hearing her, they sprang up and ran to her, barking.

She bent to greet them, rubbing their heads and stroking their velvety ears. When she straightened, she saw Robert rise also, using his stick to help himself up, a welcoming expression on his face. He was dressed, as usual, in his buckskin trousers, a linen shirt under his buckskin coat and his moccasins.

She smiled in return and moved to meet him. She remembered with regret that she never did massage his leg for him last night.

“Good morning, sleepyhead!” He called out, limping towards her, an affectionate grin on his face.

“Good morning to you.” She said, meeting him halfway. “You’ve been busy.” She added, looking about.

“I couldn’t sleep so I decided to get up and do some work. I’ve neglected the garden these past few weeks. ‘Twas in dire need of tidying up.” He said, hugging her with one arm and giving her a lingering kiss. He also kissed her neck and took in a deep breath of her scent. “Mmm, you smell good; good enough to eat. What is that lotion again?”

“Almond. Why couldn’t you sleep?” She asked, brushing a smudge of dirt off his forehead. She also picked off a small leaf that had landed on his shoulder.

“Oh, I was thinking about Connelly. What happened yesterday kept playing over and over again in my mind.” He took a deep breath. “I kept thinking, could I have done anything differently? Could I have been bolder or braver? Had I given up too quickly and allowed Opechancanough to win too easily?”

“I’m sure you did your best to free your servant.” She said, wanting to ease his guilt.

“I’m not so sure.” He said, shaking his head slightly. “But I can’t do anything about it now. ‘Tis over; Connelly is dead, the poor lad.” He let out a sigh.

“He shouldn’t have run away.” Elizabeth said, stroking Robert’s arm. “You are not to blame.”

“You’re right, I suppose. He shouldn’t have run away. But now I shall have to send word back to his family. ‘Tis the least I can do.”

“Did he leave any of his possessions?”

“No, he took everything—he didn’t have much—but now that’s all gone. I’ll send a few pounds back to his family with the letter.”

“That’s rather generous of you.”

Robert shrugged his shoulders. “It will make me feel better.”

Elizabeth didn’t agree with Robert about sending the family money, but if it eased his guilt, she wouldn’t argue with him. Changing the subject and looking beyond him, she asked curiously, “What are those orange things you’ve picked?”

Robert turned back to look. “Oh, those are
pumpions
. I got the seeds from…” He stopped short, flushing. He wouldn’t look at her.

Elizabeth touched his hand. “From her?” She said softly.

He finally met her eyes. “Yes. The Powhatans grow their
pumpions
and their
squantersquash
amongst their corn, but I decided to grow this small crop separately.”

“Squantersquash
? What is that?” Elizabeth asked.

“Those yellow vegetables in the basket and there are more in that patch over there.” He pointed to another section of his garden.

She looked but was more interested in the pumpkins. “May I touch one of the
pumpions
?” Elizabeth asked, sounding excited.

“Of course.” Robert said, taking her arm. Together they strolled the short distance to the pumpkin patch. The dogs walked with them, following right at their heels, then flopped down on the walkway when they stopped.

Elizabeth noticed how worn out the dogs seemed, but was more curious about the pumpkins. She bent to pick one up. “Do I grab it by the stem?” It had a rather thick stem and it looked quite sturdy.

“You can pick it up any way you want.” Robert said, grinning at her. “It won’t break unless you drop it.”

“I won’t drop it; I promise.” She said. Eagerly she grabbed the pumpkin by its stem with one hand. “Ooo, ‘tis rough.” She commented, then picked it up and cradled it in her other hand. “But the skin is so smooth and hard!” She smiled with delight at this new vegetable. She slid her hand over the entire pumpkin, feeling the texture of the skin, then she even rapped her knuckle on it. “It sounds hollow!” She commented with wide eyes.