The Salk Island West Legacy, Gen. 5, Ch. 4

Jacob was sitting down peacefully in the Waverider house, waiting for Brede to return, show him some more of the city and discuss books for the library with him. He was a week off the ship now, and the floor had stopped moving under his feet. The journey had been long – hard at times, but also exciting – and now he had a few months here before he went home. He’d be an uncle agin by the time he returned – Nell had been pregnant before he left.
The door opened, and he got to his feet as one of the loveliest girls he’d ever seen in his life came into the room. Came into the room and pitched straight into him! Although, as the tirade went on (fists clenched, eyes flashing, foot stamping) it turned out that it was Thorold she was really angry with. Because of her best friend, who was here and missing him. Jacob thought about how much Thorold had been hurt by her best friend, and grew angry in his turn. She’d stopped and was looking at him, waiting for a reaction. Soft, delicate, expensively dressed – she was obviously the pampered daughter of a rich man. Thorold had mentioned one or two, hardly able to believe that some women did no work worth mentioning. And her friend was probably another such.
“I’m so sorry,” Jacob said, oozing sarcasm, “that my brother didn’t want to leave his friends, his family and the place where he grew up in exchange for a cramped smelly city life. But she turned him down – and broke his heart. So you and your friend can just go back to your nice silk-cushioned existence…”
And why didn’t one of his cousins come and rescue him? Next instant, she was slapping him across the face. Well, if she thought he was going to take that lying down, she had another think coming! Jacob was an island boy, used to the rough and tumble of island life. And as the youngest, he’d always had to stand up for himself. Next moment, she found that she’d been dumped outside the window – and that the ground was hard! Then they both stood there, glaring at each other, until she suddenly registered something that Jacob had said.
“Wait a minute. You said that Jeanine turned Thorold down and broke his heart. But he led her on, let her believe he loved her – and then just went without a word. And broke her heart.”
“But Thorold said…” And the Jacob paused. What exactly had Thorold said? “This doesn’t make sense.” Laura – she’d finally introduced herself – had listened carefully (this time!) to what Jacob had to tell her.
“Jeanine would have gone with him. And she’s not some rich man’s spoilt darling by the way. Her parents have a little small-holding outside the city. We get our honey from them. But she is my best friend, and the nicest, kindest girl I know. And you say Thorold’s unhappy?”
“Yes. Dreadfully. I don’t think he’s smiled since he came back.”
“So – what are we going to do about this?”
“We?”
“Yes. Your brother, my best friend. We.” Laura said firmly. “We,” Jacob said, three months later. “What about we? I’m going back – and I would ask you to come too, but it would be a much harder life than the one you’ve been used to. And what about your father?”
“He will let me go if I really want to. He won’t be happy – but I’m not his only child. And he’ll say I have to do this on my own: he won’t smooth my path for me. Jacob – do you think I can? Jeanine’s so practical, so capable, but I know so little, compared to her or your sisters or cousins.”
“Everyone will help you. No, they won’t look down on you or despise you, don’t be silly. But will you look down on them?”
“Never! I will be the one who doesn’t know what to do!” Thorold was sitting alone inside Brede’s old cottage – his home now, but he still thought of it as “Brede’s cottage” – sketching. It was his one solace: he’d forgotten how much he like drawing and painting. Presently, he heard a voice outside – his brother, calling his name. Reluctantly, he got up and went outside to meet him. And was greeted by a furious slap in the face from a very angry Jeanine, followed by a rather wholesale indictment of his behaviour. “You never even asked me if I would come to the island with you! You never gave me a chance to say yes or no! You made us both unbelievably miserable for ages! Why?” And them she threw herself into his arms and held on as though she would never let him go. All Thorold’s loneliness and unhappiness melted away like frost under sunshine. And, a month later, the cottage was transformed, Jeanine’s bees were buzzing in their hive, and the two of them were working together to harvest food for the winter ahead. Bianca’s dark hair was streaked with grey now, but her personality was as warm and vivid as ever.
“Jacob, your Laura has so much to learn. She’ll never cope on her own, just the two of you in a little cottage with all to do from the beginning. Come and live with your Uncle Barnabas and myself. Marco. Pietro, David – they’ve all moved out and we are alone. Come here, and I will help your Laura learn what she needs to know to be an island girl.” “Look! We did it! Ben’s dream has finally come true!” Carla hugged her husband happily. "We've built his library!" Three bookshelves! Marco and David had made them in their spare time, and now they were full of books. And next time there was spare money from the wine sales, they could buy more books to add to the collection. Jon and Carla felt hugely proud of what their family - and the rest of the islanders - had achieved.
“And there’s even some books for children. Nell and Andre can bring little Hazel and Jay here to read with them.” “Do you realise there are thirty-nine people on this island now? And more on the way,” Jon added, glancing fondly at Maria’s expanding waistline. Michael came into the room, his daughter trotting behind him, in time to hear Jon’s comment.
“Not from Nell and Andre though – I saw them today. They’re stopping at two, and can’t wait to get back into their beloved woods again!”
“One boy and one girl was very organised of Nell,” Carla added. “What do you think this one’s going to be?”
“Who knows? It would be nice if it was a girl: Nell and I were so close as children.” Maria was watching Nell playing on her xylophone as the rest of them ate breakfast together.
“Aunt Luisa says she needs more fabric if she’s to make more clothes. Next wine sale, can we use some of the profit for that?”
“Of course,” Jon said, surprised that she’d asked him. “And what do you think about spending some of it on something for this house? Now we’ve built the library?”
“Some softer seats for in front of the fire would be nice,” Carla agreed. “My bones are beginning to feel their age now.” At least when she went in to labour this time, Maria wasn’t in among the grapes! Michael still went inot panic mode though.
“Go and get my mother!” Maria yelled at him. Anna came over a few days later, to see her brother, admire her new niece, little Rose – “We were thinking of flower names too if this one’s another girl!” – and generally ask Michael and Maria if having two was very different from having one! “She’s so sweet,” Jeanine said, as Fleur headed past them with a purposeful look on her face. The three new arrivals to the island had so much in common in some ways – though not others! – and, if they could, they met together sometimes. Laura sighed deeply. “I daren’t even think about having a baby yet! I still have so much to learn. Bianca is so kind and so helpful, but I feel as though I am all at sea, all the time.!”
“It’ll come. Give yourself a bit longer. I hear your bread is actually edible these days!”
That got a smile from Laura.
“What about you then, Jeanine?” “We have to build on to the cottage first. And then, yes, children, I hope.”
For Jeanine, the transition to island life had been seamless, easy. She missed her parents, but she’d missed Thorold much more. Practical, capable, hard-working – she took it all in her stride.
“What about you, Lucie?” “Like you also, we need more space. And the garden, too, is not ready yet. But by the end of the summer, perhaps…”
Jeanine nodded. “I want to get a hedge round this garden, to protect the plants from the sea breezes. I think it will make it much more productive. I’ve got the plants I need already started off in the woods – Nell and Andre helped me – and I’m going to move them as soon as the ground’s a little warmer.”
Laura sighed inwardly. They were both so capable, so able, and she seemed to bring nothing to the island. Except she made Jacob happy. That was worth something, she supposed. The family didn’t need another repeat of Thorold’s experiences! The growing season wasn’t in full swing yet: spring had been late that year. Maria took advantage of that fact, left Rose with Michael and took herself and Nell off to the library, where they sat down together on the mat Luisa had made from left over scraps of material and read one of the new books together.
“You’re the first child in our family to do this,” Maria told Nell – who didn’t understand how momentous this was at all! Thorold’s Jeanine came in and Maria greeted her with pleasure.
“So – how are things with you both?”
The answer was quite lengthy – they’d achieved an impressive number of things – and ended with “…And so, I think we could think about having children now.”
Maria beamed. “I’ll be an aunt again! What about Laura? How is she getting on?”
Jeanine’s face clouded over. “It’s hard for her. She’s got so much to learn – things you and I learnt at our mother’s knee. But I think what she’s finding hardest is that feeling that she brings nothing to the island.”
Maria’s face grew grave. “That’s not good for her. We’ll have to see what we can do to change that. Tell me more about Laura – you’re one of her best friends…”

“This is so nice, getting to sit down.” Maria had gone to see Laura and was talking clothes. “And thank you for showing me them – it’s given me ideas for next time I have some spare time!”
“Luisa’s planning to copy them when she’s next got some fabrics. And isn’t busy making clothes for children!”
“Yes – everything seems to have worn out all at once. We need a few more people who can sew – Luisa’s going to have to start teaching some of the young ones.”
“My father said he’d give me a new wardrobe more suited to my life now – and there’s clothes for any children we might have too. She won’t have to make any for us.”
“Did he mind you coming here?”
“Yes and no. He liked Jacob – and the Waverider name is a respected one, even if they’re not my father’s match for wealth. And I have other sisters who can make useful marriages.” They went outside, where Bianca and Jacob were hard at work in the garden, and Maria picked up the lute she had oh-so-casually brought with her, and began to play.
“I wish I had someone else who could play with me though. We’ve so few musicians on the island.” “Oh! Really? Wait a moment.” And Laura went back into the house and returned soon after.
“Let me tune myself to you…”
And presently she was playing a lively accompaniment to Maria’s song.
“Laura! I had no idea you were so talented! Why haven’t you played for us before?”
“Well, there was so much else to do,” Laura said apologetically to Bianca.
“But this is beautiful. We must make sure you have time for this. Laura – no-one else on the island can do this! Only you.”
And Maria smiled inwardly as she watched Laura finally realise that she had brought something special to the island.

The Salk Island West Legacy, Gen. 5, Chapter 3

Bianca and Luisa had put their heads together and made a wedding present for their niece – a bed! Luisa had embroidered a bedspread and Biance had built the bed, Marco, Pietro and David learning some useful skills along the way. And before Pietro and Thorold sailed off on Waverider, Marco married Anna. Three newly married couples on the island now – and who knew, maybe Pietro and Thorold would come back ready to be married as well. Michael had left the family to live with Maria – but Marco had taken his place! Hannah still had five people sitting round her table. Callum remembered a large family as a place where he was left out, but for Hannah a large family was a place where you felt included – and slowly, her warmth and enjoyment of everyone in the family was laying Callum’s ghosts, wiping away the memory of his mother’s neglect. “You and Andre have done amazingly well here!” With Thorold off on Waverider, Marias was missing her family.
“I can’t believe the difference!”
Nell and Andre were pleased and flattered. “It is looking better, isn’t it?” Nell said. “I think we’re ready to move on to another area and start work there. Before I end up pregnant! What about you? No babies on the way yet?”
Only from Nell could Maria have taken this kind of frankness – but coming from Nell, it merely made her laugh! “The cots are out from the loft space, and cleaned up all ready! That wasn’t me – that was our parents. And they’ve given us their bedroom, with the room off it for the babies. But there aren’t any on the way yet. When Thorold’s back, maybe – I don’t think we’d be able to cope with everything if I was pregnant. What about you?”
“It’ll make doing everything harder – and slower – here, once we have children,” Nell admitted. “But these are trees, not vines – we’ve time and enough to go on planting. And to bring up our children to know how to do this as well. Once they’re old enough to come and camp in the woods with us all spring and summer, we’ll have more help, and get on faster. We can take the long view.” Jon had chosen to go fishing – just for once, he wanted a little time on his own. He hoped Thorold was enjoying his voyage on Waverider – and his time with the Waverider cousins. Maria and Nell were happily settled, but he worried about Thorold sometimes. Mostly because Thorold was such a worrier himself, forever seeing problems. That was why Jon and Carla hadn’t left the vineyard to him: the responsibility would have crushed all the joy out of his life. Now if he could only find a nice cheerful young woman to lighten his life a little…Jon drifted off into a daydream. Michael hadn’t quite realised what he was letting himself in for, marrying Maria! He hadn’t realised it would involve squishing things with his bare feet for instance! Still, he didn’t mind…this all came with Maria, and she was so worth having! And there was so much more to come as well… “You know,” he said to Maria the next morning, as they made the bed together. “I’d quite like a family of our own. If you’d like to have babies now – I’m sure I could manage to do your work as well as mine.”
Maria went round to his side of the bed, and put her arms round him.
“I would like babies! Very much indeed. But, Michael – thank you so much, but we both know it’s taking all of our time and energy to get everything dome at the moment. We’ll have to wait a bit longer. When Thorold gets back, and there’s another full-grown man about the place, then maybe…” Spring was moving into summer, and love seemed to be blossoming all over the island. David Waverider was trying to work out how to tell Katherine Bouleau that he thought she was rather wonderful. Katherine’s brother, Pierre, had no problems telling Beatrice how her felt about her, but they both knew that her parents would say that she was too young to get married yet, no matter how mature Pierre was. They’d have to wait at least another year. Andre and Nell had moved to another site and were just beginning to clear and plant it. Mostly clearing, first, Andre reflected, though Nell was busy putting in a symbolic first plant. Seeing as it was just coming on the rain though, Andre had a better idea. One that didn’t involve getting wet! Nell had to admit he might have a point about not getting any wetter! Though she had a definite feeling they weren’t going to be able to put off having a family for much longer! Maybe one more planting season… “Thorold should be back very soon now,” Jon said, pleased. “And Pietro: I hope they enjoyed themselves, learnt something, widened their horizons…”
“Found a wife,” Carla interposed. “That’s what Bianca’s hoping for, that Pietro will find a wife.” She knew her sister!
“Well, that would be good too,” Jon admitted. “And new people bring new ideas, new skills – look at what your grandparents brought to the island when they came here. New ways of cooking, Carlo’s wood-working skills, that Bianca’s learnt, Maria’s embroidery that Luisa does so well…not to mention you, Bianca and Luisa.” “Talking of weddings,” Michael said, as they ate (a recipe that Maria had taught to her grand-daughter) “there’s a flood of them this year! Pierre Bouleau’s marrying Beatrice, Katherine Bouleau’s marrying David - Rachel and Gil will only have Benjamin left at home. And maybe Marco and Thorold as well…” Pietro was back! (So was Thorold…). His voyage on Waverider was over, and he’d loved
“…Most of it! It took me a little while to stop being sea-sick…”
More to the point, he was back with someone else. They all took to lucie. Lively, warm, funny – Bianca could see why her son had been attracted to her. And open too – she’d been very honest about how little she’d brought with her.
“I have what I’m standing up in – and not much more. My parents have eight children, and we are poor. Everything must be handed down. But Pietro – he says that does not matter, there is enough here on this island. And we are young and strong. We will work hard together and be happy.” “Weren’t you nervous about coming somewhere so far away and where you knew no-one?” Barnabas asked her.
Lucie shrugged. “All of life is one big risk, I think. So – we will have an adventure together, Pietro and I. I will make him happy, he will look after me, and together we build a home.” A very weary Lucie had been packed off to bed. (“My own bed? You mean I don’t have to share it with anyone?”), but Bianca and Pietro stayed up a little longer to talk. He valued his mother’s opinion.
“I don’t think we’re in love like you and Barnabas were – still are! But we like each other a lot. I need a wife. Lucie’s family are so poor! She needs a home – and we are happy to do this together. We make each other laugh so much.”
Bianca smiled at him. “I think you’ll both build a good home together. And love has many faces. How about Thorold?”
Pietro frowned.
“He did meet a girl he really liked when we were staying with the Waverider cousins. Really, really liked, I mean. Quiet, a bit shy, and I thought her plain next to Lucie, but she was kind, restful – and all the cousins liked her a lot too. But I think she turned him down, though I never found out why. He was like a bear with a sore head for the whole of the voyage home.”
“Poor Thorold.” Bianca’s eyes were full of sympathy for him. “Well, what do you think? I know it doesn’t look like anything much now, but we can live with my parents until we have our own roof to sleep under.”
“I think we will be very happy here! We will build a small house first, and it can grow as our family grows.”
That suited Pietro just fine. He only wished Thorold could have found a similar happy ending. Jacob had gone over to the far side of the island, right up to the bay where Nell and Jon had been washed ashore all those years ago. They needed fish, it was true – but partly he’d gone so far to get away from Thorold. Thorold had said nothing to him about his time away – nor about the girl who’d refused him – but since his return, he’d been morose and Taciturn. He’d thrown himself inot the work of the vineyard with a ferocious energy. Maria and Michael were expecting their first child, as it was so clear that she could afford to take a bit of a back seat for a while. But Thorold had said nothing: only once, Jacob had come up quietly behind him, as he was gazing out to sea, and heard him mutter,
“Why would anyone want to come to a little island like this? But I couldn’t bear to leave it.”
It had so obviously not been meant for his ears that Jacob had retreated softly, and the approached again, whistling. Maria was excused from picking grapes – it was getting hard for her to bend! In fact, the entire island seemed to be full of pregnant women. Nell was expecting too: Jon and Carla were going to be grandparents twice over. Biance, rather smugly, pointed out to her sister that she was going to be a grandmother three times over. Luisa responded by reminding her sisters that she was going to be a great-aunt five times over!
“So I win.” She’d been busy making maternity clothes in every bit of spare time she had – usually, the clothes were passed around as people needed them, but with so many women all pregnant at once, there just weren’t enough to go round! “How are you doing in there? Nice and snug, I hope.” It made Maria laugh when Michael talked to their baby.
“Which one are you? Jon or Nell?” For their first-born child was going to be called either Jon or Nell. “You’ve done a good job, you know – taking over the vineyard. Jon and Carla picked the right person.”
Maria was touched by Michael’s words.
“I didn’t think they had at first,” she confessed. “But now – Nell and Andre are doing something they think is really important. And Thorold would just have worried about things all the time. I’ve enjoyed it.”
“Poor Thorold. It’s been a year now since he came back, and he’s no happier. Whoever she was, she did him no favours turning him down.” Nell had come over. Carla watched with pleasure, as her two daughters felt each other’s bumps and talked about how they were feeling. Their simultaneous pregnancies had drawn them even closer together.
Thorold’s voyage on Waverider, on the othr hand, had made a rift between him and the rest of his family. It would be Jacob’s turn next – after the harvest, and after the babies – and she hoped the same wouldn’t happen with him. “Stop panicking, you pair of idiots, and help me get her back inside! She doesn’t want to give birth among the grapes.” Carla had been attracted by the noise – and soon found out what was going on! Jon, meanwhile, was missing all the excitement. He’d gone over to visit his nephew Pietro, with a very pregnant Lucie also in evidence.
“Maria? Oh, it’ll probably be another week or two before she gives birth. And you, my dear, how are you doing?”
“I do very nicely, thank you. Tonight, I go to stay with Bianca until the baby comes – while Pietro here puts the plaster on this wattle and daub! We come back when the cottage has no more draughts.”
“I’ll come and help. And I’m sure we can find a few others too. We’ll have your cottage finished for you Lucie, as soon as we can.” “Hello, Nell,” Maria said happily. “Welcome to the world! Michael, will you go over and tell my sister? I don’t feel up to the walk yet, for some odd reason…”
Michael laughed. “Of course I will!” But when Michael arrived at Nell and Andre’s cottage, he found that he’d become not only a father but also an uncle. Nell had given birth to Hazel that morning.
“Were you all on your own?” Michael asked, slightly worried for her, as he cuddled little Hazel. After all, Maria had had their mother with her, but Carla couldn’t have been in two places at once, even if she’d known Nell was in labour.
“No,” Nell said, laughing. “I had my Aunt Luisa, Andre’s Aunt Sarah and Siobhan all on hand. I was well taken care of.” Jacob had grown up to be the biggest and strongest of her four children, Carla thought. And he was going away on Waverider next. She stifled a little sigh of regret.
“When you see Brede, tell her that we’ve finished her new house. And furnished it for her – a gift from the island to their teacher.”
Brede was also with the Waverider cousins, for an extended stay. There were no children for her to teach at the moment, so she was taking the opportunity to go away to study and learn more. “And I’m to bring back a stove for her house as well?”
“Yes. Let her choose it! And, Jacob – try not to come back like Thorold did?”
Jacob pulled a face. “I know. Do you think he’s any happier now he’s moved into Brede’s old house on his own?”
“It’s hard to tell, isn’t it? He’s still working furiously hard in the vineyard, and I don’t know how he is in the evenings. He’s never cheerful now, is he?” Carla’s voice was sad. “This is the best year we’ve had yet. And so much of it has been down to your hard work, Maria – I’m proud of you.”
Maria blushed faintly. “It wasn’t all me,” she protested.
“No. I know. But you do deserve credit for what you’ve done. We did choose the right heir.”
“Yes. I’ve come to see that. Presently, we’ll have another baby, to make sure I’ve got some choices as well!”
“Nell’s already pregnant again,” Jon remarked thoughtfully.
“Yes – but she wants her family close together – and then they’ll go back into the forest. But trees wait for you. Grapes don’t! We’re going to spread ours out a bit, I think.”
“Well, if this lot fetches the price I think it should, then we can finally build our library!” Jon was eyeing up the building that was going to be the library for the island. Andre and Nell had marked out the trees they could have for the building of it, and the profit from the wine sales was going to pay for windows, books…a chance for all of them to learn a little more now that life wasn’t one long struggle for survival. And in a few weeks, everyon (bar Jacob, who’d be gone by then!) was going to come and help to build it. One plus of timber-framed buildings was that they went up quickly, especially with everyone helping!
“There you are, Ben,” Jon said in his mind to his long-dead father. “You had a dream, and now it’s finally happening.”