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.”