The Way Back Home: A 1917 Fanfic

Chapter 32: Let's Call a Heart a Heart

Joseph Blake crossed over the threshold of his and Tom's old room when he heard the sound of his mother's voice down in the living parlor. They had an unexpected visitor and he'd barely had a chance to unpack his belongings from his kit.

"Joe? Darling, you have a friend here for you!" Catherine's voice echoed upstairs as she alerted him to the mysterious presence at their front door.

"Mum, who could be showing up now? I just got back." Joe yelled down the staircase as he stood at the top, apprehensive of this mysterious person arriving at their doorstep. A note of irritation and disbelief carried on his voice. Joseph flinched as he reminded himself of how he sounded as a little boy, whining whenever his mother told him to do something.

Catherine immediately detected Joseph's tone of voice being that of an impatient adolescent and her motherly instinct rose as she turned away from the girl on her front porch holding her deceased younger son's rings. Her hand clutched onto the stairway railing as she gave an uncertain glance back toward the Blonde young woman who hesitated by the front door.

"Joseph Daniel Blake, you get your arse down here right this instant! you know better than to keep a young Beautiful lady waiting. you oughta be ashamed of yourself." Catherine yelled back up toward her only remaining child, deep down feeling guilty at speaking to him in such a manner after they had just been reunited.

So much was happening at once and she wasn't sure how to process all of it...

The American girl identifying herself as Amelia spoke up again. "Is it alright if I come inside Miss? I don't want to intrude on you, but I need to sit down after the long walk I've had today."

The young woman's eyes glistened with a green shine that gave Catherine a warm feeling of trust and goodwill toward this visitor, yet still with some suspicion as to how she had acquired her dear Thomas' rings and her connection with the soldier who had written the letter to her about his death, William Schofield of the 8th Devonshire Regiment.

"Yes...please, come in. I must apologize for the way my son is acting towards you. He's only just arrived home. He'll be down in two shakes of a lamb tail." Catherine said in her Irish tongue and opened the door wider for the young woman to enter the house, there dog Myrtle following closely at Catherine's heels. "Your name is Amelia? What a beautiful English name. Your name is very popular here in these parts of England."

The young woman stepped over the threshold and Catherine closed the door behind her. "Thank you, Mrs. Blake. Again, I hope I'm not imposing. I didn't know when Joseph was supposed to be back in Surrey. I only just arrived yesterday with William and we're staying with his sister Madeleine."

As Amelia spoke she heard footsteps coming down the stairs and both women looked up to see Joseph, clad in his normal attire instead of his uniform, his dark ebony hair curled around his head where he nearly looked younger than his 32 years of age. He was stopped in the middle of the stairs when he saw Amelia standing by his mother, her cheeks flushed an apple red and her evergreen eyes met his blue ones right away and everything stood still as though time had frozen.

Joe looked her up and down as though his brain was processing the sight of her and deciphering if she was real. Her purple skirt was caked at the hem with mud and what little he could see of her heeled shoes was also covered with blades of grass and more mud, her white blouse was wrinkled and her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows. Her glorious locks of Blonde hair kept curling into her face as she bent down and shook all those stubborn wild tresses behind her back like she was rolling up her hair into a towel to dry after a bath.

Disheveled as she was, Joseph had never seen a more gorgeous vision in his life.

Catherine noticed how her son had stopped in his tracks at the sight of this Amelia Hunterson, like a nervous schoolboy seeing a pretty girl for the first time. And usually, she had seen Joe act more confidently around the village ladies, yet still with all the gentlemanly tendencies she had instilled in him as his mother. She had thought he had found the woman he was going to marry once or twice...