A Friendships Love - Settler series book 1 (Wattpad version, first draft)

Farewells

Farewells

For the next week, Charlie had made it a habit of walking me to, and from the Manor. I knew it was mainly due, to mama, wanting him to take it easy, and he had nothing, much better to do. I still had no idea, how he was managing to deal with his mother’s death, and father’s cruelty. Maybe this was his way, silently.

 As the days wore on, I noticed that I found it was easy for me to talk to Charlie. We hadn’t actually had much opportunity just to talk over the years, due to age, or the fact that Nash was always around. There isn’t much opportunity to speak when you’re making beds, or cleaning out fire places. When I was asked to assist in the kitchen, I would over hear conversations. Some times, I was asked for my opinion on something. But in the habit of Cook, who was generally the one addressing me; she would always answer her own questions, not giving me a chance to respond. Even when I was with Ash, she did most of the talking. Her life, was more eventful, and I liked hearing about it. I didn’t think she would be particularly interested, in hearing about how I had to scrub the floor, under a table in the kitchen, because a bird decided to fly in and leave his business behind. I’m pretty sure it did it, because mama was frightening the poor thing with a broom, trying to get it out. Well maybe she might have found it funny. Especially because the birds business, only just missed, landing on cooks head, while she was taking her morning tea. Well, anyway, I saved  those kinds’ stories for Charlie. When I did tell him about the bird, we both laughed so hard, we had to stop to catch our breaths. When I was with Charlie, I quickly realized, that he was more of a listener. And that actually worked out well for me. So hence, I looked forward to our time together, so I could actually speak my thoughts to someone.

I’m not sure when Pa spoke to mama about going away, for more than the previously planned time, or even if he did. But things at home became rather busy for our family. Mama would spend her evenings, putting the last minute things together, Pa would need for while he was away. This mostly included, preparing what clothing he needed, and a few personal things. The fact that she was including miniatures of us, gave me the clue, that she knew more, than she was letting on.

Pa spent his time when he was at home, seeing to things around the cottage. He was making sure that our smoke house was full, and the store house was stocked to busting. He knew Nash would see to it that things didn’t run down too low.  I noticed, that Pa was adding enough chopped wood to the pile that was there, to last a year. He would have Charlie stack the freshly chopped pieces, neatly by the back of the cottage, with the rest.  Nash had his work cut out for him too. He spent his days with Pa and Lord Townshend, along with Will, and Charlie, when he was able, and a few of the other tenants. They were preparing some of the finer horses Lord Townshend owned, and all the things they needed for them, for a long voyage. Other cargo, needed to be stored into barrels and sealed, including food. It was fresher to take produce from the farm, than bring it in from somewhere else. Wagons were being loaded and were transporting goods all week to London, where the ship was. With The Lord and Stewart gone, they both had to make sure, that, they had everything in order. So things would run smoothly while they were away.

Pa wanted to make sure that both boys knew what was expected of them. Since Charlie had declared to, never return to is Pa, it was naturally assumed he would stay with us, and he never said otherwise. Right before bed, we would all sit about the fire and talk for a while. Although these sorts of journeys were regularly made, eight months," or so", was a long time. Anything could happen. I could see the sadness radiating from mama. She sat closer to Pa on the lounge than she normally would, and I noticed that she was always reaching for him. Running her hand down his arm, pressing down a wayward strand of hair, or just laying a kiss on his cheek. As for Pa, I could tell he was trying to be strong for us. We had never been separated for longer than a couple of weeks at a time. This was going to be trying for us. All Pa would say was that Lord Townshend had presented him with an opportunity, which would see our family, independent from servitude. He was our Pa, the head of our house, so we trusted him. Even me, even when Charlie and myself, might have been the only ones to have known anything more.