Reed placed the knife to the newly exposed surface. A short curl landed on his boot. He looked up with a grin.
Annie grinned back. She knew the feeling. She gazed down at her own stick, a small ledge remained from her last slip of the knife. She lowered the angle of the blade.
“Take it slow and easy, there’s no stage to ketch this day.”
Annie relaxed and plied what she thought was an even tension. Just one long curl like Grandpa. That’s all she wanted. Just one long curl. The knife cleared the end of the stick. Now was the time. Annie laid the knife near the top. She took a deep breath and relaxed it out. The blade steady in her sweating hand, she plied it straight down the edge. One long curl hung at the bottom of her knife. Wift. Done. Laying on her shoe was one long curl. She beamed at Grandpa. From the corner of her eye she noticed Reed grinning back. Maybe he wasn’t so bad.
After an hour of slicing his knife into his piece of wood, Reed claimed he was needed at home and then left. When he hadn’t returned after a month, Annie figured he didn’t have what it took to be a wood carver. And that was all right. She didn’t want to share her grandpa anyway.
1
Archer Hall
Virginia Colony
1740
Reed directed his stallion to the stables.
“Welcome home, Master Reed.”
The sight of the old man warmed his heart. How many times had Randall greeted him the same way? Had he ever thanked him? He put his hand on the old man’s shoulder. “Thank ye, Randall.”
The man’s eyes grew to the size of tea cups.
Reed chuckled; he wouldn’t be the last one.
He swiveled his gaze as he made his way to the house. So quiet after the noise of London and the ship home. The house, the stables, dependencies in a neat row, all still the same as when he’d left five years ago. There must be changes, but from where he stood, he couldn’t see them.
He paused before taking the first step up the porch.
It was good to be home.
The one place where they would believe him.
The one place he could be his real self.
He breathed in a lungful of crisp home-scented air and climbed the first step.
Greenery decked the great hall of the Archer home. A blend of cinnamon and cloves laced the atmosphere.
“Mama! I’m home!”
Ruby made it to the hall first. “Reed!”
He gathered his sister in his arms and swung her around.
“Ye made it for Christmas!”
He noticed his mother silently waiting a short distance down the hall. A mist filled her eyes and threatened her powdery cheeks. He set down his sister. “Mama.”
“How yer father waited for this day. He would be so sorry—”
Reed gathered her into his arms. “Mama, don’t.”
His father had been gone over six months. It pained Reed that he’d missed a final farewell, but he was not fooled into thinking his father had truly missed him. His father had never been anything but a bully. Reed didn’t miss him, but of course, his mother would.
Soon his mother pushed away to look him in the face. “We have much to discuss. Our guests arrive today.”
“So soon?”
Nervous hands twisted the handkerchief he’d never seen her without. “It is Christmas Eve, Reed. It is the same as it has always been. But I think ye will be pleased, ye will find old friends on the guest list.”
Reed’s gut twisted. “So ye haven’t received my latest letters?”
“I really cannot say, my dear.” She ran a trembling hand up to her heart. “I believe I have received them all.”
“Let’s not stand out here in the hall. What I have to say ye should both hear.”
“To the library.” His mother, hair grayer than when he’d last seen her, regally led them down the hall to his father’s library. “It’s yers now, Reed.”
The formal library with its oak paneling and tall windows overlooking the grounds also sported festive holly and evergreen boughs. Reed took a seat on the old burgundy sofa. “What I want to say doesn’t require that desk.”
Ruby sat across from him in an ivory colored chair with hands folded in her lap. His mother sat next to him.
“Have ye shared my letters with Ruby?”
Shaking hands once again twisted her handkerchief. “Ye know yer father. The parts ye requested to be shared, I am sure, were shared.” Gray eyes misted again. “Ye know how he was, Reed.”
