The woman rose to her feet. “Of course I won’t guess,” she said, a tolerant smile on her face. “Who’s come at this time of night to the yard gate, Tabs?”
“Your uncle Ned!” the cook exclaimed triumphantly. “Who wouldever’ve guessed that! Your uncle Ned from the Americas. Large as life and his lad at his side.”
Alys went swiftly past her to the kitchen and then checked as she saw the broad gray-haired man, swinging his satchel to the floor, and behind him, the most beautiful boy she had ever seen, dark-haired, dark-eyed, head up, light on his feet as a deer.
“Uncle Ned?” Alys asked uncertainly. “Tabs said you were my uncle Ned?” and when he looked up and smiled at her, she said with sudden certainty: “Itisyou!”
Alys’s husband, Captain Shore, filled the doorway to the hall. “Ned Ferryman?” he queried.
Alys was in Ned’s arms, hugging him, patting him, pulling back to look into his worn, grooved face. “Uncle Ned, God bless you! We never thought to see you again!”
“I know. I never thought I’d come back. But here I am!”
“Praise God you’re safe, after such travels!”
“Amen, amen. My sister Alinor is well?” He looked around for her.
“Yes—speaking of you only last night. And you know there’s a new king on the throne? Crowned and anointed just last week? King James. Does that mean you’re safe to come home now? And the troubles are all forgotten?”
“They’re not all forgotten,” he said steadily.
“You’ve not come back to rise up again? You’re not for the Protestant duke?” she demanded anxiously, interrogating his face with a frowning gaze.
“Hush,” Captain Shore intervened. “Come into the parlor, sir. I take it you’re my uncle-in-law, and I am your nephew Abel Shore.”
“Congratulations, and I’m glad to meet you at last!” Ned said. “I sent you some buckskins for your marriage bed.”
“I sleep under them every night,” the Captain said. “Coziest bedding I’ve ever had. Much needed this winter gone. We’re grateful. And who’s this?”
“My lad. This is my serving boy: Rowan.”
“Well, come in, both of you,” Captain Shore said. “Have you dined?”
“There’s enough for us all,” Alys assured him. “The maid can runout to the bakehouse and get a chicken pie. Uncle Ned, I must take you upstairs to Ma at once. You know, she was speaking of you only last night. She dreamed of you, at sea on dark tides.”
“Aye, I wondered if she’d know I was on deep waters,” he said. “But you’d better prepare her.”
“We’ll wait for you down here,” Captain Shore said, waving Rowan back to the kitchen. “You get warm in the kitchen, lad. And, Uncle Ned, if Mrs. Reekie wants you to dine upstairs with her, sir, you just say the word. Sometimes she comes down for dinner, sometimes she don’t. It’s always her wish, just as she wants.”
Ned followed his niece up the wooden stairs to the next floor. To his right was the door to his sister’s room, and to his left the bedroom that Alys shared with her husband, and another door to the smaller spare room. The narrow stairs for the servants’ rooms went up into the eaves of the roof.
Alys tapped on the door and went in, leaving it half-open. “Ma,” Ned heard her say. “Be steady, Ma. I have some news.”
“I can tell it’s good news from your face,” he heard his sister reply.
At the sound of her voice he could not make himself wait any longer. He pushed open the door. “It’s me, Alinor. I’m come home.”
Alinor rose up from the sofa, her pale face flushed with joy, her hands outstretched to him. “Ah, Ned! You’ve come home at last.” And in a moment, she was folded in his arms.
Later that night, after a bustle of preparation and dinner and drinking of healths and exchanging news, Ned went to Alinor’s room to say good night and sat on the end of the sofa. “I daren’t keep you late,” he said. “Alys gave me such a scowl. Are you tired?”
She put her hand to her chest where her breath came short. “I’m too happy to be tired. I always thought I’d see you in this life again, Ned. But I never dreamed you’d come home like a merman out of water, without a word of warning.”
“I never thought I’d sit at a table with my family again. I’ve been solitary for so long.”
“But now you’ve got Rowan for company?”
“He’s just with me for the voyage,” he said. “I can’t bear to keep a servant, Sister. You know my feelings. I paid for his passage over, but he’s free.”