Dominion

“Why don’t you sit with me?” he asked.

Sa

When the younger woman admitted she had been, Sa

Adelia had not believed her, as she had already given him what she thought was all the time anyone could need, until she began to consider herself unwanted and ruined. When he asked her to sit with him that morning, though, she accepted his invitation so easily he thought she had been waiting for it, and that perhaps Sa

Adelia sat down across from him, and the two of them had breakfast together that morning, and every morning in the future, from that day forward.

ten

The inland roads of the southern colonies were as strange to Re

It was five days through the wilderness, with the trail sometimes becoming nothing more than a footpath in the woodlands. How coaches came that way, if any ever ventured out there, one would be hard pressed to say. When the boy grew too tired to continue, Re

Nights they made camp in the naked air, and in the morning both were stiff from the cold and did not want to move from their pallet. Re

All the while the boy did not object, and when they finally entered Berkeley he did not mention his aching stomach that felt as if a timeless hunger had settled there, until Re

After ordering food, they asked the serving girl for directions to a place called Stonehouses and were happy to see it was well known. “Who are you?” Content asked him, coming over to their table after the girl had given them directions, for he still minded the bar himself some days.

“I am a stranger here and at your mercy,” is all Re

“You say you and your boy walked from the fort?”

“Aye.”

“Well, no need of paying for the supper. I’ll see if someone can take you on the rest of the way.”

Content then sent for a young man who worked for him and told him to hitch a wagon and drive the strangers out to Merian’s place.

The boy had been quiet since the ship docked, asking few questions, not even where they were going. He had hoped they were meeting his parents, but now he could not contain himself and asked Re

It was not.

When they pulled up in the wagon, Jasper Merian sat in the cold air on the porch as if he had been waiting on a visitor, and Re

Re

“You are welcome to stay for di

“I would be happy to stay on for di

The boy was pleased to hear this response, for he did not understand yet that he was to stay there and was glad to have time in one place instead of moving on immediately.

“Hello, Caleum,” Magnus said, going to greet the latest Merian to make his way onto the land. “I’m Magnus, your uncle, and this is your grandpa.” The boy shook hands with his uncle very precisely, then did the same with his grandfather.

Adelia, who had come from the back by now, gave the boy a great hug when he came to greet her. He was comforted by this warmness but also confused by all the attention he was receiving. “You must be tired from your trip,” she said. “You’ll feel better after a rest.”

Indeed, both Re

Adelia had water raised from the well and heated in the kitchen, then poured into the laundry basin in the basement. When she took Caleum’s shoes off, she was shocked to see the condition his feet were in and nearly went off in search of the man who had let him walk such a way. Instead, she put ointment on his wounds and commended Caleum for being so brave.

When Magnus returned from showing Re

“No more madness than when you walked here,” Merian reminded him. “Or when I did.”

“Both of us grown men who knew our own ambition and limits,” Magnus replied. “Not a six-year-old barely out of swaddling.”

“Well, it pleased the Lord to bring both of you,” Merian said, “just as it pleased Him to call Sa

Magnus at first thought to argue with his father but checked himself, not wanting to excite Merian into one of his more unpredictable moods. He saw the good wisdom of this when he looked at Merian and realized clearly his advancing age, as if he had all of a sudden willed the years to hurry on their course with him.

“Sa