Page 114 of Eleanor’s Earrings

“Help build. Farm. Use my quartermaster experience to organize freight or supplies. Complain about apple trees if you insist upon planting them.”

“I do not particularly like apples.”

“Then our marriage is already more promising than my first.”

Eleanor blinked.

Nathaniel smiled. “That was a poor joke.”

“A very poor joke.”

“Abigail would have laughed.”

“Then I will try.” She gave an exaggerated laugh.

“That is worse.”

This time her real laughter came.

Nathaniel took her hands. “I am not asking to become the head of eight women who do not want one.”

“Good, because Rebecca would probably shoot you.”

“I am asking whether I may join the home you are building.”

The answer in Eleanor's heart was yes. The word frightened her too much to speak.

“I need time,” she said.

“I know.”

“My sisters still depend upon me.”

“They crossed a ravine today under Caroline's direction while you stood with me.”

Eleanor looked back. Caroline and Charlotte were discussing the next day's route with Thomas. Rebecca checked the teams. Martha organized supper. The younger girls gathered fuel.

They were not helpless.

They never had been.

“I have made them depend upon me,” she said softly.

“You kept them together after your father died. That is not the same thing.”

“It became the same thing.”

Nathaniel touched her cheek. “Then give them room to grow.”

“And what will I do?”

“Grow with them.”

Eleanor leaned into his hand. Hope was far more frightening than impossibility. Impossibility required nothing from her. Hope asked her to change.

“Give me until I can believe they will be safe without my hand on every rein,” she said.

Nathaniel nodded. “I will.”