For Thorold too, this, the first of his grandchildren, was very precious. Like Perdita, he was very aware of time slipping away from between his fingers. The life they had led here had been hard, physically, and his body was beginning to tell him so. Quite loudly on occasions!
Astrid had been right – Ben did enjoy treading the grapes! He also liked the feeling of trying something new, liked the thought that this might well turn out to be a way of bringing more prosperity to the island. And it would be something to hand on to his son as well, when he could no longer manage to do this himself.
When he’d finished, he stood back and admired the juice ready to be turned into wine. They’d need to make a decent amount (and of decent wine too!) to make it a worthwhile cargo, but this was the beginning.
Jon was going to have a baby brother or sister – though Ben was adamant that it would be a boy. In a way, Astrid wasn’t sorry that she’d got pregnant so quickly after Jon’s birth, though she did intend to make sure that it didn’t become a habit. She’d had a very interesting conversation with her mother on the subject.
It wasn’t another boy. It was two boys! Twins were not really part of the plan! But despite the shock, Tobias and Barnabas were very welcome additions to the family. And a big surprise to everyone else as well!
Thorold was teaching little Jon to walk.
“My father must have felt like this with Anders,” he thought to himself. “Creaky joints and all, probably.” It was nice to think of Lars enjoying the son of his old age, just as he was enjoying his grandson. And now there were two more!
Ben was just as delighted.
“This is my son,” he thought, as he lifted Jon out of his cot one morning. “We’ve named him for his great grandfather, and he might grow up like him. Or he might not. Who knows how the three of them will turn out? But we will do our best to bring them up strong, healthy, honest and happy.”
Thorold had turned out to be a surprisingly good cook. Ben pointed out to Astrid that she was going to have to master the new stove at some point. She made a face at him – Astrid much preferred being outside in the garden to being inside cooking! Ben laughed at her, and they sat at the breakfast table, enjoying a rare quiet moment together.
But in real life, happy times are always balanced by sad ones. Anders stood in the graveyard, and wept for the loss of his mother, even though he was nearly a man grown now.
“I wish Sal was here,” he thought, but Waverider was far away at the moment.
They buried Penny next to Lars, the husband with whom she’d had such a happy time, even though it had been short compared to her parents’ time together.
Janet and Petranella wept too – they had loved their oldest sister dearly. Anders was glad that he still had them, could still keep the home Penny and Lars had built together – he’d never have managed it on his own.
Perdita was making the long journey from their home, up round the head of the river and to the graveyard.
“I used to be able to do this so easily,” she thought, as she paused to catch her breath once again.
It took her most of the day to get there, but eventually she arrived. She wanted to say goodbye to Penny properly.
Memories of the two of them filled her head – Penny and herself exploring the island, in the basic clothes that Nell had made for them out her precious store of fabric. And the easy friendship that the two of them had always shared.
She remembered talking to Penny about her fears for the future, with only their family on the island – and then the Svensons had arrived, swept up onto the shore in another great storm. But she and Penny hadn’t known that would happen, hadn’t known what joys – and sorrows too – lay in store for them both.
“You were the best of sisters,” Perdita thought, looking back down the years.
Perdita was very tired the next day from her long walk, but not too tired to pick up Barnabas and marvel again at the joy these three boys had brought to her. And once again, she was so glad that Penny had known the joy of having a child of her own.
Astrid was thinning out the vines, keeping only the best stock and propagating from that. Ben asked her why – after all, fewer grapes meant less wine here and now.
“Yes, but better grapes means better wine later on. If we’re going to trade with it, we need quality more than quantity: we haven’t got the market for large amounts of medium-quality wine. We need to grow and make a really good wine.”
Ben saw her point, and she continued her careful tending of the vineyard. The children were growing almost as fast as the vines, she thought, working out there one sunny day.
Thorold was teaching his eldest grandson to fish – and telling him stories about his namesake as well. Jon was very proud to be learning from his grandfather. He was beginning to look very like his uncle Jake – it was the curly hair, Ben said!
Tobias had turned out to be as fair as Astrid herself – the two younger ones were definitely not identical.
And Perdita, getting down to Barnabas’ level with great difficulty (and privately wondering how she was ever going to get up again) thought how like his great-aunt Brigit he was.
Thorold had taught his first grandson to walk, but by the time Tobias was taking his first steps, Thorold wasn’t around to see it. Jon, fishing alone now, missed him quite dreadfully, and for Astrid too, life had a shadow on it.
Ben, encouraging a rather wobbly Barnabas to take his first steps, could see that Perdita wasn’t going to last long without Thorold there. Much as she loved the rest of her family, the deaths of Thorold and Penny had hit her hard.
And not long afterwards, there were two more graves in the graveyard, and Astrid went there and wept over them alone one day.
But life goes on, and the needs of small children are a great distraction from grief. The light came back into Astrid’s eyes, and Jon stopped crying himself to sleep each night. Astrid finally had to come to terms with the stove!
“These are nearly as good as Thorold’s!”
And now they could mention him without it being so painful.
“And, I’ve got something to show you after breakfast.”
“Look! We’ve finally made enough wine for it to be a worthwhile cargo! Next time Waverider is here, we can ship it. My father said he’d take the first batch for us, but he’d also look out for someone who might be interested in making this a regular run, if the wine’s good enough.”
Life was going on in the other households too. Bella and Cecelia were no longer children – and Ingrid and David were adults grown.
“Joshua, you don’t really need us now at all. Ingrid and I thought we’d try and start up another homestead, take over another of the ruined sites.”
And though Brigit and Joshua were sorry to see them leave (and Bella and Cecelia were more than sorry), they had to admit that David was right. And the house was getting very crowded now.
The site they had chosen was on the edge of the island, looking out along the trade route.
“We’ll be the first ones to spot Waverider when she returns!”
But there was a serious amount of clearing and building to do! The brother and sister set to and made a start.
As they cleared away the rubble (and found a rather nice bench on the way), the rest of the family found time to cut and haul timber for them. It was so much easier with more people on the island.
“I counted,” Jon said proudly. “There are fourteen of us! But I don’t think Toby and Barney should count as two people yet, so there’s only thirteen really.”
David moved more plants from Nell and Jon’s old garden up by The Hut, and they had an instant garden of their own. The house was small at the moment, but they were confident that they could improve and extend it – and it was nice to have a bit more space, both for themselves and for Joshua and Brigit.
Waverider was back! Back and ready for some huge changes. Sal’s huge change was going to be marrying Anders. Both of them had missed each other so much. Time apart hadn’t dimmed their love for each other: it had merely caused it to burn more strongly.
Anders, as he sat at the fire, couldn’t think of anything that would make him happier. His only regret was that neither of his parents were here to see this wedding.
Jacob and Ade were planning changes as well. They were going to make one more voyage in Waverider, to get Ben’s wine trading set up, and then they were going to make their share over to Jake and settle down here on the island.
“We’d like to be near our grandchildren for what’s left of our lives. And with two of you settled here – and it’s a long way from the war here – this seemed like a good idea.”
Jake was going back out to sea though.
“After the wedding,” he said, looking at his twin sister’s serenely happy face. Hannah wasn’t going to settle either – she’d thought about it, but the call of the sea was too strong in her blood. And she had no children or grandchildren to pull her back to the land.
Once again, the whole family was gathered together for a wedding, as Sal and Anders exchanged vows. And once again, they’d managed to make a whole free day to get together and enjoy themselves.
Jon thought that he could almost feel the happiness in the air – if he stretched out his hand, he’d be able to touch it. He’d never seen so many people all in one place before.
Anders held Sal in his arms and knew a contentment that he hadn’t felt since his mother died; a sense of belonging to someone else so closely that nothing could come between them. And for Sal, the knowledge that her parents would be settling here too, and that she’d be near her older brother, if not her twin, crowned her day with glory too.
Another wonderful Chapter! Thank you, really enjoyed it! :-)
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