Winter’s end and soon it would be spring. The three youngest were doing their homework in the kitchen because the room was warm and cosy.Why did Henrietta think that doing her schoolwork was a waste of time? Tesni wondered, as she cantered through her own homework in her normal good-enough way. Henrietta was the brightest of all of them, by miles. She won every prize going at school. Charlie, now, he did fine because he worked hard – like Desmond, Uiara, Eugenio and herself – but Henrietta was in a different league. She must ask her – when she’d got a spare moment and some time alone with Henrietta!
Spare moments were rare in Tesni’s life. There was the time spent baking cakes to sell, and now she was learning to make bread as well, because people were coming in and asking for it. Eugenio was proving to be a good salesman – people liked his easy happy charm.
And she was also learning to make jam! They had loads more produce than they could eat now, and more than they needed to sell to make ends meet. They had spare food! Queen’s Hope’s winnings (again!) had fitted out the utility room and they had space to make jams, jellies, preserves…”You’re a throwback!” Reggie had said to Tesni, laughing. “You’d have made a brilliant pioneer wife, or a mediaeval housewife, running the household, preserving, baking, brewing, spinning, weaving…”“Better than sitting in school by far,” Tesni had agreed with her.
Spring (just) and a young man’s fancy turns lightly to thoughts of love…Eugenio’s thoughts were obviously heading that way!
And judging from what she could see through the sitting room window, Regina could tell that Therese Rao felt the same way about Eugenio. He’d always been so uncomplicated, she thought, not like his oldest brother.
She turned her mind away from thoughts of Viriato, and looked round the sitting room instead, enjoying it, loving the contrast between this and what she’d arrived at all those years ago. Desmond’s trophies, Eugenio’s painting – they all told a story of a family doing well together.
The kitchen too – it was so different. Simple still, but colourful, welcoming, a homely place. They’d just finished updating it, with a new cooker at last, and a new fridge (ditto). Henrietta’s paintings were in here – maybe she’d like to sell stuff in Tesni’s bakery too? Did she want to be an artist as well?
She thought back to how she’d felt, walking in to that first kitchen, how it had looked, and shuddered.
This, she thought, was much more like it!
Early Spring, and Viriato gazing at her with happy, unshadowed eyes at last. His hurts were no longer buried. He had wept, sometimes daily, though the long snowy winter, but with his griefs finally acknowledged, finally felt, freedom had come with the springtime. Freedom to think clearly at last, see the story of his life for what it had really been.
“I’ve realised something,” Viriato said a little hesitantly, a bit like a shame-faced boy confessing to stealing the jam.“What?” Fern asked tenderly. She was loving what she saw happening in Viriato and loving him all the more too.
“I was awful to Regina. Not at the beginning, when I was just so scared she would walk out on all of us, let us be scattered to the four winds, but afterwards when she was working so hard all the time. And I didn’t work with her. I worked against her.”
She reached out and touched him, and Viriato closed his eyes, her touch as always a lifeline for him.“So what are you going to do with this realisation? What do you want to do with it?” Because he was right. And she’d found Regina’s blog, read it and read between the lines, seen what was off-screen in those carefully composed photos.
“If I started with saying sorry? Do you think that would help?”“Both of you. I think it would help both of you enormously.”
Out at the library (for a change of scene as much as anything else) Regina fired up her laptop – and found the email from Viriato.“Dear Regina, I feel that I really owe you an apology for…”
She couldn’t believe her eyes! But she was the one who owed Viriato the apology – and had never known how to say it, never been able to get near enough to him to say it. She read it through and then began her reply.
“No, it was me. I was so unfair, so selfish…” The rift between them had begun to be healed.
“You’ll be in trouble if you’re caught painting in your school uniform,” Tesni observed mildly.“I’ll risk it,” said Henrietta, somewhat curtly for her. “Anyway, you’re leaving soon. I’ll inherit all yours too.”
“You’ll have a lot of altering to do! My skirts will drop off you. Henrietta, what’s with this homework is a waste of time thing?”
“What’s the point of it?” And Henrietta’s pretty face was set in an unusually stern expression.
Tesni thought about the question as she watched Henrietta paint. Like Eugenio, she had a style of her own.“To help you do what you want to do next,” she said in the end.
“Well, I can’t do what I want to do next,” Henrietta said shortly. “So there’s no point to it.”
“What do you want to do next?” Tesni asked, and when Henrietta said nothing, she asked again. Several times.
“I want to go to university, don’t I? And I can’t, can I? Because there’s no money! There’s never any money!” Henrietta was nearly in tears. “You could have gone – Viriato would have made the others support you. But I don’t have any older brothers and sisters. I’m just going to have to get a job, and I so want…” Her anger dissolved into tears, and Tesni’s warm heart went out to her unhappy little cousin.
“Henrietta, I’d no idea. Look – you might not have older brothers and sisters, but you do have older cousins. If we can make this happen, then we will. And not because someone’s telling us to, but because we love you.”“Really?” asked Henrietta, sniffing and hiccupping.
“Yes. Really. This matters.”
The willow leaves were full out, late spring golden. Fern stood on the narrow stone bridge that ran over the small stream beneath and finally told Viriato about her deepest dreams and desires. He was ready to hear them now, her father had said, as free from the bindings and burdens of his earlier years as he could be. Free to choose at last.
Viriato looked deep into the eyes of the woman he loved so much, and realised that her dreams, her hopes, meant more to him than his own. And listened, with his heart as well as his ears.“Paediatric surgery. I love it. It’s heart-breaking at times, and so amazing at others, but this is what I want to do. With all of me. I need someone who’ll be willing to support me in that job – let me cry when I need to, hold the fort when I have to dash off at a moment’s notice to an urgent case. These aren’t always elective operations: it’s not a nine-to-five and home to cook tea life.” She paused for a moment.
“And it’s not an island life either. I need to be – want to be – in one of the big teaching hospitals on the mainland.” The unspoken there was that Viriato would have to move with her, leave the others behind.“I’d love for us to have a family, but I don’t want to give up work. Nor do I want our children brought up by strangers. Will you be the one who stays home when the children are small, will you do the night feeds, go to the parent-teacher meetings?”
Would he take care of a family? Properly this time, picking up a role that was meant to be his, instead of trying to take on something too big for him out of pride and stubbornness? And did he want this future with Fern, off the island?
He dropped to one knee, then and there on the stone bridge with the water chuckling quietly beneath him.“Fern Annan, will you marry me?”
“Oh yes.” And as Viriato held her in his arms, he knew that he had finally found the home he had been longing for.
Charlie went up the stairs at the library and found his mother hard at work. He sat down quietly opposite, waiting for her to finish her sentence or to say “Give me ten more minutes…” He’d grown up with that, part of the person she was.“Perfect timing,” Regina said. “I was just about to grind to a halt. I need a break.”
She closed her laptop, pushed it to one side and smiled at her son.“Reggie,” Charlie asked. “Is it hard, writing?”
She thought a bit. “You have to make yourself do it some days. Other days it just flows. Charlie, I need to ask you something important. Are you like Henrietta, longing to do something and not daring to say?”
The change in Henrietta had been amazing. Now that she knew she could go to university, she glowed with happiness.
“No. You know me – what you see is what you get! I think I’m like Eugenio quite a lot.” He paused and went on.
“But actually, there is something I want to do – only it’s up to me to make it happen. I think I want to write. In fact I know I do, but I’ll need a job as well. In fact, I’ve written something I’d like you to read – that’s why I came here looking for you.”
“Go on,” Regina said, intrigued. “Tell me about it.”
“Well, it’s called The Way To Her Heart, and it’s about why being able to cook gets you a girl. And stories about how boys feel about girls and dating – I got my friends talking about it. And ten easy recipes as well.”
Regina gazed in amazement at her quietly cheerful son.“That’s fantastic! I’d love to read it, of course. What gave you the idea?”
He shrugged. “Things Tesni said about boys. Listening to people. Thinking for myself. And watching you write, reading your books – and your blog. It’s all about stories, isn’t it, life? And I did think,” he added, a little mischievously, “that being your son would give me a better chance of being published. If the book’s good enough.”
Afterwards, they all called this The Year That Everything Happened.Tesni left school, and hung her diploma in the hall along with all the others. Now, finally, she could start doing the things that she wanted to do.
Viriato got married! Fern, standing in the garden with her sisters as her bridesmaids, felt like a mariner who has successfully sailed through the storm, past the reefs, and finally arrived safe in the harbour. She and Viriato would be setting out on a new adventure together, in a new city, a new place, and they were both looking forward to it.
They were married under the stars on a lovely summer’s night.
Viriato smiled at his beautiful wife and thought how happy he was now. Yes, he wished that his parents could have been here, like Fern’s were, but it didn’t ruin the day or make a mockery of his very real joy. And in Finn and Flora, he had found something that he’d been missing for a long time – someone older than himself who wanted to help him.
They kissed, and Viriato’s family were full of joy for him too.
Eugenio was doubly pleased to see Viriato’s wedding day finally arrive!
With his big brother safely married, he could propose to his Therese, without feeling like he was stealing Viriato’s thunder!
This was it! She was running her shop full-time now, learning the patterns of the days, the week. The early-morning bread-buyers had been, and the next rush would be the lunchtime snack one. It was still a fledgling business, but it was beginning to find its wings. Eugenio’s paintings were selling too, and he was beginning to put larger ones in the shop.Next stop with the shop – a space to bake on the premises, a proper gallery section, aimed at tourists, and then another shop, once this one was running smoothly and she could hire someone to run it.
The older four were standing outside the stables, listening to Uiara’s idea.“So, I was thinking, what can I give to Reggie to say thank you for all she’s given us? And then I thought: my share of the house! Desmond and I, we’ll have our own place, so he’s up for that. And Eugenio’s moving out too when he gets married, so he’s going to do it. What about you , Tesni?”
“No,” said Tesni, shocking her brothers and her sister briefly.“Because I’m going to stay here. Marcus and I, we want to get married as soon as we can. But we’ll have a lot to learn, marrying so young. We’re going to need help, advice, wisdom, and Reggie’s got lots of that. And then when she’s old, there’ll be Marcus and I, and our children…she won’t be lonely or trying to cope on her own when the garden gets too much for her.”
Tesni had thought it all through, Eugenio reflected. And this gave Henrietta and Charlie the freedom to do what they liked, without worrying about whether Reggie was okay on her own.
Uiara phoned Viriato to explain what they’d decided.“But Tesn’s staying, so you could keep your share, or give it to Tesni if you wanted…”
Viriato’s voice came clear to her ears, despite the three hundred miles that were separating them.
“No. I will give it to Reggie. You’re right – she deserves it for all she’s done for us.”
It was probably a good job he couldn’t see his sister’s jaw drop in amazement! He wouldn’t have been flattered by her surprise. Fern on the other hand, listening in, was so proud of him.
Desmond and Uiara bought their stables. The accommodation was a bit basic – for the humans at least! The actual stables were fine, if a bit shabby. Henrietta had given them one of her paintings to cheer the place up. And Uiara had banged some more nails in the wall for their certificates.
Regina had insisted on a fire alarm! Desmond and Uiara had been quite cheerful about it all.“Hey, this used to sleep up to six stable lads. Okay, they only slept here, and the kitchen was next door. But we’ll be fine! We’ve fixed the roof!”
The next summer, Eugenio and his Therese got married – and bought a tiny house on the cliffs at the end of the island. It took all their money, so they had their honeymoon there, among the old-fashioned furnishings and décor.“Give us a year, and it’ll look lovely,” Eugenio said. “My paintings and Therese’s job earnings – this will be so easy!”
Charlie and Henrietta had finished with school. As she stood on the steps of the Town Hall, waiting for Uiara , Desmond, Eugenio and Therese to arrive, Regina was wistful and proud both at the same time. Henrietta was heading for university, had been for ages, but Charlie had decided he’d like to go as well. His cookery book had been well received, and he’d been doing freelance work for the local paper for the last two years. Journalism appealed to him, and the editor had encouraged him to try for university. He wasn’t quite as confident as Henrietta was about getting in…Tesni and Marcus had been married for eighteen months now, and living in the family home had worked well. The house was big enough (now!) for privacy when they wanted it.
Henrietta graduated with highest honours and was voted Most Artistic. Charlie, to his surprise, was class valedictorian – and voted Most Likely To Write A Best-selling Novel.“Look out world, here we come!” they chorused, as they tossed and caught their diplomas together.
All too soon, it seemed to Regina, Henrietta was furrowing her brow over the university aptitude test. And winning a partial scholarship! She was going for a fine arts degree to begin with. She hadn’t told her family yet that she wanted to do a Masters afterwards. And then a Ph.D. Yep, three degrees was her lifetime ambition!
And then it was Charlie’s turn – and he too gained a partial scholarship.“And you can always earn money at university too,” Fern had told him in a phone call. “But put your studies first – and make time for friendships as well. Viriato and I will send you both an entertainment allowance, so use it for that, okay?”
And that was it – they were leaving for the mainland, sharing a van with a couple of other students from the island. Everyone’s grown up now, thought Regina.
“The house feels empty without them,” Regina said to Tesni, a bit sadly.“I know what you mean,” Tesni agreed. “Just three of us. And we can’t manage this garden either. We need to make some major changes. How about a herb bed and then just soft fruit, for jams, jellies, pies and so on?”
“That would make sense,” Regina agreed.
“And there’s another reason we need to cut back on the gardening,” Tesni went on.
“Yep, I’m pregnant! The house isn’t going to feel empty for long. And if it’s a girl, she’s going to be called Gina. Short for Regina, but different, so we know who we’re talking to. Say hello to your great-aunt, Gina.”
The house downstairs.
Upstairs.
And the back view! Then the twins went off to university and I couldn’t take any more shots!Many thanks to Mama Dragon for her great renovacy!
The kitchen units are by Bonate at TSR and the contents of the kitchen cabinet are by Sandy at ATS3
