Darkness

May 22, 1812

Rosy

I wake up to the subtle light of the early dawn filtering in through the window, and Gregor still holding me in his arms. My back is pressed against his chest, but I can tell he is awake, by the way that he is holding me, gently, the way he does when he knows I am asleep.

“Good morning,” he murmurs into my hair, one hand starting to rub along my body, and reach across to my breast.

“Mmmmm,” I respond. What a delicious treat. I really had not expected to see him again last night, and when I woke to find him here with me, doing exactly what I was dreaming about, it was like receiving a most wonderful gift. I reach my hand up and cover his. “Did you sleep?”

“I did,” he says, sounding very contented, “a couple of hours, just what I needed. Now I don’t even need to lie when I get back Under-the-Hill and Samuel asks me the same question!” I hear the smile in his voice.

I roll over, turning in his arms, and give him a kiss. “I’m so glad you came home. It was a very pleasant surprise.”

He chuckles into the kiss. “Wolk told me what you were dreaming about. How could I resist?”

“Pfsh!” Sometimes I don’t know whether I want to smack that wolf for being so nosy, or kiss him for telling Gregor how to give me exactly what I want. Gregor laughs, obviously because his Guardian tattled about that as well.

“Well,” he says, sitting up, “I’m going to head back down the hill. My crew should be getting ready to go. I plan to get the carriage, and bring Sarah up, then we can head out to Homochitto. All right?” He pauses for a moment, and says, “Vernon is awake. I’ll go change him and bring him in.” A brief kiss before he heads out the door.

Soon he has gone, and I’m having a cold pastry for breakfast in the kitchen before our trip to Homochitto. Jake is bringing in some kindling, and he sighs somewhat morosely.

“What’s wrong with you?” I ask. Jake is normally nothing but entirely cheerful.

“Oh, nothing really,” he says, but he sighs again as he is going out the back door.

Nadine has just arrived, and is tying on her apron. I look to her for explanation, I’m sure she’ll know. She says, “I think Jake feels a little left out of the cabin building for Moses.”

Oh! Well, that’s easy to solve. I’m sure Gregor wouldn’t mind. When Jake comes back in with some more firewood I say, “Hey, Jake? How would you like to come along to Homochitto today with Gregor and I? The crew will be finishing up the cabin, maybe you could help out with that. I’m sure Charley will be there.” I know that he likes Sarah’s little brother.

His eyes light up. “Yes!”

I nod. “Great, then. Gregor will be back here in a few minutes with the carriage, you can ride up on top with him.” He rushes to finish his chores and get ready to leave.

“Harriet,” I think silently to my Guardian, knowing that she’s always listening to me. I can’t hear her, but that doesn’t stop me from talking to her, more and more all the time. “Please let Wolk know that Jake is coming with us to Homochitto.”

I’m looking forward to today, to seeing my friends Margaret and Stephen, and Dalila and Moses. Hopefully I’ll get a look at the new cabin too.

Gregor

I slip into the front door of the boarding house infirmary, quietly because Wolk told me that Samuel had such a quiet night that he has fallen asleep on the sofa in the parlor. Good, I’m glad that everybody got some rest here last night. I try to tiptoe past my friend, but he wakes up as soon as I am passing by.

“Mm,” he says, and opens his eyes a bit blearily. Sitting up, he stares around, probably confused and trying to orient himself. “My goodness,” he says, “I must have drifted off.”

“Good morning, Samuel,” I say. “I’m glad you got some rest. It must have been a quiet night here with the patients?”

He rubs his eyes. “It was, there was hardly a peep out of any of them.” He stands and stretches out his back, no doubt stiff from lying on the hard little sofa. He looks back over to me. “I hope you got some sleep too?”

I grin, remembering how I accomplished that, and am able to answer him perfectly honestly, “I did! I feel very refreshed.”

“Great.” He looks back towards the hallway with the patient rooms. “Well, I’m going to check on everyone again, and if everything is as I expect, at least half of the patients will be able to go home this morning.”

I nod. “I’ll leave some crew here with wagons to transport them home. I assume most of them will still be too weak to walk up the hill.”

“Thank you, Gregor,” he tells me sincerely. “You have made this much easier than it would have been otherwise.”

“My pleasure,” I say. My eyes are drawn to one of the patient doors opening, and I see Sarah coming out of Matilda’s room. She looks up and down the hallway, and when she sees us she comes to join us in the parlor.

“Good morning, Sarah,” Samuel tells her. “How was Matilda’s night?”

She smiles. “She ate up her supper and then went right to sleep, and didn’t wake up all night. I think she seems well.”

“Thank you.” Then he dismisses us by saying, “Good morning to you both.” He heads first into his cousin’s room to check on the child.

Sarah turns her eyes to me. “Thank you again, Sarah, for agreeing to help with Matilda.”

She nods. “You are very welcome,” she says, then seems almost like she has something else to say, but falls silent.

“She is grateful to you, beloved, but does not know quite how to express it. I believe she means her service to be the sign of her devotion.”

Well, she need not feel unduly grateful, I’m not treating her any differently than the other people in my employ. I’m glad she works for me, she is very kind and helpful, very good for Vernon.

“Did you get enough sleep?” I ask her. “Do you think you’ll still be able to come to Homochitto with us today?”

“I slept very well,” she says, then with a touch of humor adds, “Matilda sleeps more quietly than my brother. He tosses so much at night it is like he is wrestling alligators.”

“Ha!” I laugh quietly. “I’m heading over to the boarding house, why don’t you come along and you can get ready while I see about assigning today’s duty roster for Doctor Duncan.”

As we are heading out the front door, I look back into the hallway and see Ben poke his head out of his room, looking like he can hardly wait for Sam to give him the go-ahead to leave. I wave at him, then we go.

“Darling,” Wolk tells me as we are walking to the crew boarding house, “Rosalind sends a message. She wants you to know that Jake will be joining us for the trip to Homochitto today. He was feeling left out of the effort to prepare a cabin for Moses.”

Ah, of course. I should have thought of that, I know how much he loves Moses. Well, that will be fine, Jake will probably enjoy spending time with Moses and the crew doing the final finishing touches on the cabin today.

Again I realize how lovely it is to be able to get messages from my beloved wife in this way. I am so lucky.

Wolk looks at me warmly.

Jake

Ben is Under-the-Hill sick, and Moses lives at Homochitto now, and Jack is at school most days. I’m on my own for a lot of the work that I do, but it isn’t hard for me. I wish there was even more I could do to help out Gregor. I know that someone has to bring in the kindling and scrub the dishes and empty the chamber pots and tend the garden, especially with Ben and Moses gone. I am very happy to do those things, and I know how much Gregor and Rosy are relying on me.

But sometimes it feels hard to know that Gregor’s crew is off doing other things, big things like building the cabin for Moses. It seems like my little chores around the house here aren’t as important or useful. Gregor is more than just my boss, or my friend. He is an important person to this whole town, and even to the angels, as we found out a couple of months ago the day that he was whipped. I want to be as important to him as he is to me.

So when he drives up the horse and carriage, with Sarah sitting inside, and I come around the front to tie off the reins to the post, I am so happy when he says, “Hey, Jake. Want to come help out at Homochitto today?”

Rosy didn’t even get the chance to ask him about it! They both thought of it all by themselves!

I feel a warmth in my chest, knowing that Rosy and Gregor each think highly enough of me to want my help with such an important task!

“Yes, sir,” I say, nodding my head vigorously so he knows how much I want to do this for him.

I will do the job, whatever job he needs. I will do the job right. It is how I will show him how much he can count on me. It is how I will show him how much I love him.