Riverbreeze: Part 3 (6 page)

Now she didn’t want to see her husband participating in anything remotely similar to war. She turned her attention to soothing Robin and the dogs. Thankfully the dogs were inured to loud noises of all kinds and didn’t react with out-of-control barking or panic. Instead, they reacted to their empty stomachs and as Elizabeth rummaged around their sacks of food looking for the dried apples and corncakes for Robin and a bowl to pour water in, they crowded in close to her, pushing their noses into the sacks next to her hands. She laughed, pushing them back. Evelyn noticed and moved to kneel beside her sister and offer help.

While Evelyn held the dogs back, Elizabeth settled Robin on the quilt next to her and gave him a napkin full of dried apples slices, a handful of walnuts and two corncakes. Then she pulled out some venison jerky and started breaking off small pieces to feed the dogs. They gobbled them up like they had never eaten before.

“I’m going to have to use the new bowl to give them water.” Elizabeth sighed, sitting back on her heels.

“Oh no. Did we forget to bring one?” Evelyn asked.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Robert won’t like that.”

“What choice do I have?” Elizabeth cried. “Anyway, I’ll hold on to it while they drink, then I’ll dry it and put it safely away until the next time we give them a drink. Hopefully, Robert will never see.”

“Hopefully.” Evelyn repeated.

As it was, Robert never did see the bowl being used by the dogs and the bowl made it through the afternoon with nary a scratch or chip.

Nibbling on an apple slice of her own, Elizabeth finally asked Evelyn about inviting Helen Boyle to join them. Evelyn was reluctant at first, but after watching Helen for a minute or two all by herself and being reminded that they were brought up to be generous and kind people, she finally agreed.

It turned out that Helen was a very interesting person with a tragic story that was all too familiar these days. She joined Elizabeth and Evelyn on their quilt, still wrapped in her own quilt, grateful for the company, and soon she was sitting in a circle with Abigail, Emily, Alison, Nicole and the twins.

“I do so appreciate your inviting me to join you.” Helen said, dabbing her face with a soggy handkerchief. Four of the women offered her theirs. She accepted Abigail’s who happened to be sitting the closest. “Thank you ever so much. You are all so kind.” More tears spilled down her blotchy face.

Abigail leaned over to give her a hug.
And why not
? Elizabeth thought. The young woman was beautiful and of course Abigail would be attracted to her.
Oh, I am so bad
!

“You’re new to the colony, aren’t you?” Abigail asked her. When Helen nodded her head, Abigail continued, “How long have you been here? I haven’t seen you in church yet.”

Abigail would know that
, Elizabeth thought.

“My husband and I have only arrived three days ago. We bought the Newton farm on Kamiges Creek—“

“Oh, my husband was interested in that place,” Elizabeth interrupted, “but he didn’t buy it.” She ended weakly when Helen glared at her for interrupting.

“And this is the first social event we’ve been to.”

“Welcome, Helen.” Nicole said kindly. “I understand you’ve had a bit of a rough time since arriving here, and ‘twill take some time for you to adapt, but I’m sure you’ll do fine. We’ve all dealt with difficult situations…” She smiled warmly, chuckled a little even, as she looked at all the women, including all of them, “but we all survived, haven’t we, ladies?”

There was a chorus of nods and yeses. Elizabeth murmured her own yes while studying Nicole. How had she known that Helen had had a rough time since arriving? Unless, Robert Boyle had told Roger all about their situation when he had gone to record the transfer of deed with Roger. That must be how she knew.

“Do you ever miss your homes in England?” Helen asked.

“Of course we do.” Alison answered. “But most of us have lost our homes for one reason or another.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that about most people here.” Helen wiped another tear at the corner of her eye. “That’s what happened to me.”

“Tell us about it.” Abigail gently encouraged her. “’Tis best to talk about it, I believe.”

“Oh yes.” Emily agreed. “Do tell us what happened. Was your home raided by the Roundheads?”

Elizabeth thought that Emily put on a good show of sympathy, but in truth, she thought Emily was just plain curious. Elizabeth knew that Emily hadn’t lost her home in England. She had just been poor, horribly poor and without any prospects for marriage, when the opportunity came to board a ship bound for Virginia with the purpose of providing wives for the numerous single men, she jumped at the chance. And she had done very well for herself. She and Charles were quite prosperous.

Another volley of shots delayed Helen’s story for a moment, but when all was fairly quiet again, she began.

“Yes, they came early one morning in May without any warning although we knew it was a possibility. My father is a…” She stopped short to correct herself. “was a royalist and he had warned my mother and me. We lived in a small town outside of Bristol, you see, Clevedon, and there had been a lot of activity on both sides. We had already taken some precautions…burying our jewelry and the silver, but there wasn’t much else we could do.”

Everyone nodded, encouraging her to continue.

“‘Twas terribly frightening when they came. They shot out the windows and stormed the front door. My mother was killed very quickly when they charged into the kitchen and started to attack the maids…” Helen started to stumble over her words as she continued…” M..my m…mother…” She sobbed into her borrowed handkerchief. “She tried to save the m…m…maids by standing up to those barbarous men. She was ever so b…b…brave, but they shoved her aside without a care and sh…sh…shot her.” She cried. Abigail hugged her while she composed herself again. “Fortunately, I wasn’t in the kitchen, I was in the buttery and I hid while my father came rushing in with his pistol and sword. He got off one shot and slashed at another, but there were too many for him and they shot him square in the head…”

“You poor dear.” Alison murmured. Elizabeth exchanged a secret look with Evelyn. Yes, it was tragic but like Nicole had said, they had all had to face different tragedies in their lives.

Helen sniffed a few times before continuing. “I ran out the back of the house and to the barn where I hid until Robert found me two days later.

I do not know what I would have done if he hadn’t found me. He took me to his family’s estate for a few days, but his lands were also vulnerable. His family had already left and he said we must leave also. I didn’t want to leave, but he said we must. He said we would travel to Bristol, get married and then sail to Virginia. He had money, enough to buy passage and give us a new start.” She took a deep breath and her expression turned hard. “That is how I came to be here in this godforsaken land, with nothing! Nothing!” She ended angrily.

Some of the women were taken aback by her sudden outburst. Nicole was not. She said, “You have your husband, my dear.”

“And your life.” Emily said.

Helen sniffed as if those two things didn’t matter much.

And then Evelyn shocked them all by saying, rather sharply, “You should be grateful to be here
and
for your husband. Obviously he saved you from Cromwell’s army or you would probably be dead now, or a woman kept for their filthy pleasures. You should get on your knees and thank God you’re here, safe and whole!”

“Evelyn!” Elizabeth gasped. She actually agreed with Evelyn now, but she would have never had the nerve to scold Helen like that.

Everyone else stared at her in shock except for Nicole who looked at Evelyn with approval.

Helen glared at Evelyn. She looked like she would like to scratch Evelyn’s eyes out. “How dare you!”

“I am sorry.” Evelyn said, “I am truly sorry for your losses, but that does not give you the right to complain when all of us have been through similar tragedies. Bess and I do not remember our mother; she died when we were only three and our father died only six months ago. Alison lost her husband in a house fire. Likewise Abigail lost her husband and three-month old baby to fever two years ago…”

As Evelyn continued, Helen looked at each woman in turn, wide-eyed and ashamed. “…Nicole was a servant back in England and Emily was very poor and came here with absolutely nothing to be bought by a man looking for a wife. I’m sorry, ladies…” She added hastily, apologizing to the four women for telling their stories when she didn’t have their permission. They nodded their acceptance of her apology.

“Go on.” Nicole said.

“We all came here with nothing, just the clothes we could bring in a sack. You have your husband and a home already—“

“But I know not what to do!” Helen cried, interrupting. “I’ve never learned how to cook or had to clean a house or do laundry…”

Evelyn exchanged a knowing look with Elizabeth. They could sympathize.

“…or keep a garden or milk a goat or…or…” She started crying again. “I’m so useless and I’m so afraid.” She finally admitted in a pitiful voice, pressing a hand against her stomach.

Once again Abigail put her arm around Helen’s shoulders and this time Helen leaned into Abigail’s body and cried on her shoulder.

But it was Nicole who had noticed the placement of the girl’s hand. “Helen, are you with child?” She asked gently.

“I think so.” She answered in a tiny voice. “It’s been three months since I’ve…” She trailed off, too embarrassed to continue.

“Come here, dear, and sit by me.” Nicole said, extending a hand. “Let me show you a thing or two about caring for a new baby.”

She did and that was the beginning of a new Helen.

* * *

Elizabeth was amazed. Evelyn had handled the girl beautifully. “How did you do that?” She said to Evelyn on the way to the privy. The men had moved on from shooting in formation to marching with pikes that Captain Neale had provided and everyone was taking this opportunity to get up and stretch their legs or tend to business, like the twins. Robin was between them, each twin holding a hand, his little legs churning to keep up with them.

“I’m not sure, but I was just so angry with her for being so selfish. I should have been more sympathetic.”

“No. No. You were right to scold her. And you see? It worked. Now she’s the center of attention and everyone’s darling.”

Evelyn gaped at Elizabeth, and Elizabeth, realizing what she had just said, gaped back. “Oh
mon Dieu
! That is exactly what she wanted!”

“We played right into her hands.”

They both started laughing at themselves and Robin, not knowing what they were laughing about, laughed along with them anyway.

Elizabeth scooped him up, amused by the whole situtation. “Ah, Robin, look at your daddy.” She said, as they passed the lines of men. Robert was at the end of one line, holding the eighteen-foot-long pike as if it weighed nothing, marching in time with everyone else. “Isn’t he handsome?”

“Uh huh.” Robin agreed, nodding his head enthusiastically.

At that point, Robert turned his head and saw them. Elizabeth smiled and waved and made Robin wave too. Robert smiled back and pretending to be the perfect soldier, straightened his shoulders and lifted his knees a little higher. He continued to watch Elizabeth and Robin instead of watching where he was stepping and just when he was going to wave back, he caught his toe on a stray stone, tripped, and fell flat on his face. Luckily the pike missed the man in front of him by inches.

Immediately Captain Neale started yelling for everyone to halt.

Elizabeth gasped in mortification, but then started giggling after seeing that Robert was unhurt. She grabbed Evelyn’s hand and pulled her towards the privy, jostling poor Robin in the process, although he seemed to love the ride.

“I’ll probably get yelled at for that tonight.” She said once they reached the privy.

“Or get spanked.” Evelyn whispered suggestively.

Elizabeth flipped her hair back. “You’ll never know.” She said with a little smile.

* * *

Of course that wasn’t true. The twins never kept secrets, but it would be several days before Elizabeth told Evelyn anything due to the upcoming emergency.

Nothing happened anyway; Robert was too sore from his fall—for which Elizabeth did apologize—and too exhausted from their full day to do anything. And when he learned about Helen’s past and her transformation, he gave up on his teasing. So much for ‘
Later, my spoiled one’
.

It no longer mattered. The more Elizabeth thought about it, the more she regretted her little act earlier in the day. The idea of getting spanked prior to marital relations may have initially titillated her, but no more. She was ashamed of herself now and hoped that Robert never brought up the subject again. She wouldn’t.

Nevertheless, she had some very strange dreams that night, all involving marching men, Robert one of them, a spoiled girl, herself, Robert catching her and throwing her over his knee, his big, warm hand skimming up her legs under her skirt, she squirming in forbidden carnal desire, and then…a woman screaming. But it wasn’t her. She awoke with a start, her heart pounding. All was quiet; Robert had turned over onto his side and was still sound asleep.