The Salk Island West Legacy, Gen. 3, Ch. 4

Chapter 4
Patrick hadn’t been boasting when he said he could turn his hand to just about anything. Pretty soon, Brigit and Joshua didn’t know how they’d managed without him.
Then, one day, another labour, another baby on the way.
And the inevitable oh-my-word-what-is-happening-now husband. Looked like there were some things Patrick couldn’t do after all!
He’d turned his hand to making a crib though – Sal was still using the other two! And Bella laid Morag down in the crib Patrick had made, and looked through the fine windows with glass in them, and thought what a lucky day it had been for her when Patrick came to the island.
It was little Sarah’s turn to learn to walk, and Anders watched proudly as Sal helped Sarah take her first steps.
Meanwhile, Rachel’s grandfather was making the most of his time with her. She was a quiet little child until something struck her as funny, and then she would giggle for ages.
Astrid had been right – tending the vineyard was much simpler with three sons to help her.
“Hey,” Jon said. “Do you realise there are twenty-one people on the island now?”
“It’ll be twenty-two soon,” Toby said drily. “Bella’s pregnant again.”
“Already?” Astrid said, standing up in her surprise. “That was quick!”
“Yes, well.” Toby straightened up too, and came over to talk to his mother, glad of an excuse to pause for a moment. “You know Patrick and Bella – they’re all over each other all the time. It’s not really very surprising.”
“So how come you heard about this before I did?”
“I bumped into Cecelia – she’d dropped by to see Brigit and heard Bella throwing up. Cecelia wasn’t too happy about it either!”
“I can imagine,” Astrid said ruefully.
“Jake! I wasn’t expecting you for another week at least!”
“We had fair winds.”
The two brothers embraced each other.
“And besides, I’ve news for you all that I wanted to bring myself. Sautach and Istria have stopped fighting!”
“The war is over?”
Astrid came over to hear the news. “I almost can’t believe this! It’s been going on for so long.!”
She turned and hugged Jake.
“It’s so good to see you Jake. So what does this all mean?”
Jake grinned back at her.
“It’s good to see you as well, Astrid. Well, for one thing, it means that the seas are a lot safer. I wouldn’t have suggested this before, but now I can – how about Jon, Toby and Barnabas taking it in turns to do a voyage on Waverider?”
Ben’s face was split by a huge smile as well, and Astrid could tell how delighted her husband was at the prospect of his sons sailing on the ship he’d sailed on himself!
“Hannah!” Astrid ran over to greet her even as Ben was thanking Jake for his offer.
“Do you really want to take one of our total novices with you as crew? And is it safe enough now?”
Astrid had a great respect for Hannah’s shrewdness. She listened carefully to her.
“Safe enough. I think the two countries have just worn themselves out. They can’t afford to fight any longer. I’m not sure how long the peace will last – there’s been a lot of blood spilt on both sides – but not for some years at least. We’ve got your new windows by the way – we met up with the Windrunner crew, and they passed them on to us.”
Toby came running out to greet his uncle, and was thrilled at the prospect of a trip on Waverider. Ben looked at the two of them together, and thought that there was a definite family likeness as far as looks went – it remained to be seen how alike they were out at sea!
Hannah thought the same – that there was a lot of Waverider blood in the boys – as the twins came over to her to thank her for the chance.

“Who would you want to take first?”
“That depends on who’s interested in what. We trade with Kerhuon – that’s mostly agricultural, so we take raw metal for tools, and also jewellery and ornaments, and leave with plants, seeds, herbs, medicines and linen and wool – you get the idea? Jiong is where we pick up the decorative stuff and sell the linen and wool. Al-Targa is semi desert – we buy raw metal and precious stones, we sell plants to the wealthy for their gardens. And wooden goods sell well there – not much wood around, but the abundant metal means that even the poorer have a little to spend.”
“So that’s three quite different routes?”
“Yes. So I’d like you each to go on a route that interested you.”
“Tobias,if you came on Waverider with us, what would you most like to see? We’ve got these three very different routes - which one appeals to you?”.”
“I’d just like to see new people, new places. A different way of living. I mean, here is fine, but some new ideas would be good too.”
Jake was asking Jon the same question, but got a very different answer. “New plants. I’d like to find new plants to try and grow here. And new grapes maybe – we could improve the wine yet further. And I’d like to learn more about wine-making too.”
And Barnabas wanted to see somewhere old.
“And to see if being part of Waverider’s crew is as exciting as Ben always said it was.”
Hannah laughed. “You’ve all three of you got the sea in your blood to some extent. I think you’ll like it.”
The three boys went fishing for that night’s meal. They’d met their Aunt Ingrid at the fishing hole, and passed on their exciting news to her. They were just heading home when a sudden strange noise made them look upwards.

A screaming, ripping noise filled the air, and something was trailing fire and smoke across the sky.
“What’s that?”
Then there was a huge bang, and a brilliant light filled the sky for a moment – from the direction of the fishing hole!
“Ingrid’s still there!”
They ran back to find a very dirty, scorched and shaken Ingrid. Barnabas hugged her, feeling how she was shaking in his arms. They took her home with them, and let Astrid wash her sister clean and put her into bed and sit with her until she fell asleep.
Everyone on the island heard the noise and felt the force of the meteor’s landing. Bella however was unmoved by it. She was supremely happy – she had one baby, another one was on the way, she was head over heels in love with her husband – who was busy making another cot as fast as he could! Bella found being pregnant suited her – she felt energetic and glowed with health. She could still garden easily, though bending too far down got a bit difficult as the bump got bigger.
“I can’t understand why Cecelia wanted to move out. She could have stayed here and shared in all of this with us.”
Brigit said nothing – for the moment.
Not long afterwards, Bella was cuddling Siobhan, and Patrick’s second cot was in the room.
“I’m so happy,” she thought. “And Cecelia is missing out on so much with the children. Oh well, I suppose it’s her loss. But I just don’t understand her any more.”
Astrid and her three sons were – as usual – busy in the vineyard. Jon looked over at his mother, who was unusually quiet.
“You’re worried about us going on Waverider, aren’t you?”
“A bit.” Astrid blushed slightly. “But I’m not going to stop you – in fact, I want you to go!”
“Don’t be worried. We’ll go. We’ll return. And we’ll each bring something new back with us.”

Heir poll time! I can’t send the boys off on their voyages until I know who’s going to be the next heir. So here they are.
Jon. He’s the oldest, he loves the outdoors, he’s got a good sense of humour and a green thumb, and he’s brave.
Tobias is one of the twins. He loves the outdoors, he’s good, family-oriented and an angler.
Barnabas is the other twin. He loves the outdoors, he’s brave, athletic and a virtuoso. Poll here: do please vote! http://poll.pollcode.com/7g2tb6

The Salk Island West Legacy, Gen. 3, Ch. 3

Chapter 3
Though they might all have different colour hair, the boys had definitely inherited their Uncle Jake’s curls! Ben quite liked that. As the twins grew up, he had a bit more time on his hands, and he’d made some new furniture for them.
“It’s a bit rough and ready – I’m a carpenter, really, not a joiner – but it’s all right, isn’t it?”
“It’s lovely,” Astrid had said, kissing him.
The wine trading had worked! Jacob had found a ship, the Windrunner, and the captain and crew were prepared to make Salk Island West a regular port of call.
“Once a year,” the captain had said. “But the war’s affected production in both Istria and Sautach, so there’s a market, and we can make Salk Island West a re-watering stop at the same time.” And the first cargo had paid for windows with glass in them – at least on one side of the house. They’d also built an upper storey – the first one on the island.
The actual upstairs room was still pretty bare, and only contained the boys’ beds, and Thorold and Perdita’s old bed, but one day they’d split it up into two rooms – and put some more windows in too!
Jon was teaching his brothers to fish – and remembering Thorold teaching him, with a slight pang.
Sal came round to see her brother – and to tell him that she was pregnant!
Ben was delighted – as well as being a father, he was going to be an uncle. And each new child arriving on the island made their future seem a little brighter, a little more certain. Jon would have to do a re-count soon.
Astrid got the cots out of the roofspace to pass on to Sal.
“You’d better have both of them – after all, you never know!” She laughed as she thought about her own unexpected twins. “The other one’s fallen apart though – even Ben couldn’t mend it. I think Jon bounced in it one too many times.”
But the two cots that Lars had made were still sturdy, and Anders would be so pleased to be putting his child into a cot his father had made.
Sal really appreciated Astrid’s support and advice during her pregnancy too. Jacob and Ade were coming to the island soon, but they had to pack, sort out what they were bringing with them, make Waverider over to Jake – they hoped to be there for the birth, but it wasn’t a certainty. The sisters-in-law grew much closer during that time.
Jon, Toby and Barney loved to explore the island, loved the freedom that they had. Today they’d gone up to the woods near the graveyard.
It was Toby who noticed how the ground was scarred and scraped from all the tree-felling that had been going on recently.
“I like the woods on the other side of the island better. I know it’s further, but shall we go there tomorrow. This is boring – there’s no animals or insects or birds to watch.”
“You were right, Toby,” Jon said the next day. “This is way more fun. Give me a count of a hundred, and I’ll bet you two can’t find me, and that I can sneak back here without you tagging me.”
They ended the day fishing in the same pool where Bella and Cecelia had learnt to fish.
“Bet I catch the most!”
“Bet you don’t, Barney. Toby’s pretty good now, you know!”
“Bet we’ll be popular if we take some fish back home with us.”
Ben and Astrid’s house wasn’t the only one getting glass in its windows! Jacob and Ade had finally arrived on the island, for the last time. They’d brought with them a large and well-planned cargo of useful things.
A by-now-very-pregnant Sal was really happy to have her mother there. She was also pretty pleased with the wood-burning stove – it made a very nice change from cooking outside all the time. Ben had made them some cupboards, and she’d put away the plates that Ade had brought with her, touching each one with a kind of amazement.
Really, really pleased that her mother was there! When she went into labour a few weeks later, at least her mother didn’t panic. Unlike everyone else…
Jacob laid his grand-daughter Rachel down in her crib. Sometimes he missed the lift of Waverider’s deck beneath his feet, the smell of the wind changing, and the cry of the gulls. But this wasn’t too bad an alternative – in fact it had quite a lot to recommend it!
Anders was so grateful to Sal for giving him Rachel as well. Sometimes he felt like everyone he loved was getting old – Janet was beginning to show her age now, and Petranella was complaining about her joints aching. But then he looked at his young and lovely wife, and his even younger daughter, and his hopes for his future were happier than they had been since Penny died.
And the next big surprise was one of Windrunner’s crew falling in love with Bella! Patrick Fletcher wasn’t a seaman born and bred – he’d joined Windrunner to avoid being dragged into the war.
“Fletcher by name, and fletcher by trade. And both armies were going around picking up any armourers, fletchers, blacksmiths or whatever that they could find. So, being neither Sautach nor Istrian, I thought I’d get away from their paths. I could turn my hand to most things, so I turned it to trading. But I can turn it to farming and fishing as well.”
And not long afterwards there was another wedding, another frantic house-building session (the crew of the Windrunner helped!), another two-storey house on the island, and another house with glass in the windows.
And given how hard Bella and Patrick found it to keep their hands off each other, there was probably going to be another baby as well!
Jon was following in his father’s rather squishy footsteps, and enjoying it!
Astrid was finally beginning to get the quality of vines that they needed. The vineyard was looking a bit sparse at the moment, but the vines were producing good wine-making grapes. Ben had to agree with Astrid – they might have a lean year next year, but the wine was improving in quality by leaps and bounds. And Windrunner’s captain agreed too: he was getting a better price for it with each cargo he took for them.
They invested their latest profits in another wine-maker: now Jon was learning from his father, and Ben was still learning from experience! And as soon as Toby and Barney were old enough, they were going to be learning too, from both parents. Astrid wanted the extra help in the vineyard.
Sal was pregnant again – and very happy too! Astrid shared Sal’s pleasure; Sal’s previous pregnancy had brought them so close, and this one was going to be exactly the same, they could both tell.
It seemed no time at all afterwards that Sal was laying little Sarah down in her crib.
And outside, Anders was teaching Rachel to walk, encouraging her to take her first rather doubtful steps towards him. In the background, Janet and Petranella had finished work on the garden for the day, and Janet was earnestly telling Petranella about something she wanted to do.
“Before I get too old to be able to do it and enjoy it.”
Just as everyone had predicted, Bella was pregnant! Apart from Astrid’s twins, there had never been two babies on the island at one time. This was breaking new ground with a vengeance!
“How are you finding things? Better, I suppose, now you’ve stopped being sick!”
“Oh, it’s fine. But…”
“Go on,” Sal said.
“It’s Cecelia – she’s finding it really hard, me being married and pregnant. And we always used to be so close. And the house feels too small, even with the new floor.”

“That’s really hard. And I’ve no helpful suggestions at all, I’m afraid – it’s never happened to me.”
Janet did what she wanted to do – went up to The Hut for one last time, with Joshua and Petranella.
“Do you remember the night of the great storm?”
“I don’t remember it!” Petranella said.
“You were still a toddler. I’m not surprised you don’t remember it!”
“I do,” said Joshua. “It was really scary. We had everything inside The Hut, didn’t we – the metal fire pit, the tents, everything. It was a bit crowded. I remember Nell hugging me and telling me it would be all right, and not to be scared. But I was. And then when the knocking came on the door…”
“And I stayed in The Hut with you two, while everyone else went out into that windy night. I remember hugging Petranella so close, feeling her little heart beating against mine. And then Brigit and Thorold wer found and we put them to sleep on the floor – but no-one else came back in at all that night.”
“And now Brigit and I have two children, and a grandchild on the way. Such a long time ago, that night…”
The Hut had been well-built, and it was still standing. David had patched up the roof where a tile or two had slipped, when he’d been up – it made no sense to let rain in. Nell’s garden was gone though, apart from the fruit trees – David had taken the last of the plants.
They went down to the beach that Nell, Jon and Penny had been washed up on, all those years ago.
“I remember this so well,” Janet said. “All the time we spent fishing here.”
“Yes,” Joshua said a bit drily, “trying to get enough to eat all the time.” Then he relented. “But you’re right – it was a good childhood, even if it was busy.”
“Is that such a bad thing anyway, being busy?” Petranella asked.
They fished together again, as the sun set, enjoying each other’s company and their shared memories.
Then they lit a fire in the fire pit – there was still plenty of wood around – and roasted their catch, still talking about their past.
“I remember teaching Brigit to fish – she’d not done land fishing before.”
“Brigit was always special to you, wasn’t she? Right from the start, you looked after her.”
“Yes.”

“I remember Perdita’s wedding,” Petranella said. “It was so amazing, so unlike anything else that had ever happened to me.”
“And all that sewing, all that clothes making!”
“They’ve worn well,” Joshua said. “You did a great job on them – we’re still wearing some of them now.”
“Well, when you only wear things for special occasions, they last. And that was special.”
“Nell and Jon would be pleased if they could see us now, wouldn’t they?” Petranella’s voice was thoughtful, but Joshua’s reply was very definite.
“Yes.”
They sat and talked until darkness fell. Eventually they stopped reminiscing and talked of things that were happening now. Joshua told them of their problems with Cecelia, and Petranella did have something useful to suggest.
“Send her to live with David and Ingrid. I know how hard I found it at times, with you and Penny and Perdita all having children – but I had Janet for company.” She smiled very lovingly at her older sister.
“Cecelia’s got no-one. And she’s lost Bella – I don’t want to be mean about her, but Bella and Patrick do practically wear each other at times. No wonder she’s feeling left out.”
“Are you sure about this Cecelia? It’s going to be really hard work, and nowhere near as comfortable as your house.”
Cecelia looked at her cousin.
“Yes. Anything is better than being there, watching Bella get ever bigger, and knowing that it probably won’t ever happen for me. And she won’t miss me – not now she’s got Patrick and the baby coming. And you know I’ve always been so fond of you and Ingrid – all my life. I’d like to help you both.”
“Well, we’ll be glad of the help!”