Ewan embraced them in a giant hug and then turned his attention to Rose. “I am so glad you are safe, and we are together again. I’ve been lonely without the three of you.”
Rose stepped forward and embraced her brother. “I have missed you, as well. Trying to keep these two in my sight and out of trouble during the journey was enough to make me wish we had traveled with the rest of the family.”
Ewan gave the twins a mock frown. “Did I not tell you in my letter that you were to mind your sister and not give her any trouble?”
The girls’ long braids bounced up and down as they bobbed their heads. “Aye, and we did our best,” one of the twins replied. She turned her gaze on Laura. “Are you Miss Woodfield? The lady Ewan has written about?”
Laura tipped her head to one side. “Yes, I’m Laura Woodfield. And you are either Ainslee or Adaira, correct?”
The girl smiled. “I’m Ainslee.” She gestured to her sister’s head. “Adaira is a tiny bit taller. That’s how you can tell us apart.”
Adaira giggled. “Unless Ainslee grows a wee bit. Then you’ll have more trouble.”
The girls were every bit as enchanting as Ewan had described. “Perhaps I should find some other ways to tell you apart in case that should happen.”
Adaira drew close to Laura. “You’re as pretty as Ewan said, and I like your dress.”
“Adaira!” Ewan’s face was a bright shade of red. “Not everything is meant to be repeated.”
Her eyebrows dipped low. “I didn’t tell anything bad.” She looked up at Laura. “You didn’t mind me saying that Ewan thinks you’re pretty, did you?”
Laura bit back a grin. “I always enjoy hearing a lovely compliment, Adaira. However, I believe you’ve embarrassed your brother, so perhaps you shouldn’t repeat anything else unless you first gain his permission.”
She gave a quick nod. “Can we come and visit at your house? Ewan says it’s quite beautiful.”
A look of defeat shone in Ewan’s eyes as he stepped forward and gently tapped his sister’s shoulder. “I’m wondering if you’re having a problem with your ears, Adaira. Did you hear what I said only a minute ago? You’re behaving like you’ve never been taught any manners.”
“No need to chastise her on my account, Ewan. I’d be delighted to have the girls come visit as often as they’d like. If I’m at the orphanage or helping at the brickyard, I know Mother will enjoy their company.”
“You work at the brickyard? What do you do? I know you’re not strong enough to truck off.” Adaira narrowed her eyes. “One time Ewan let me try to push a barrow of molded bricks from the machine to the dumpers, but it was too heavy and he had to help.” She twisted the end of her braid and appeared to be deep in thought. “You don’t edge or hack the bricks, do you?”
Laura was impressed by the girl’s knowledge. She’d either spent her share of time at a brickyard or listened when her brother discussed his work. Perhaps women helped in the brickyards in Ireland. Laura had never asked Ewan, though she couldn’t imagine a woman working alongside the men. “No. I help your brother with some of the office work, keeping the books and timekeeping—that sort of thing. My father never permitted children or women to work in the yard when we owned it, but a few of the children did bring lunch to their brothers and fathers who worked for us.”
“After I begged and begged, Ewan took me to see the brickyard that he supervised back home. That’s how I learned so much.”
“That and asking lots of questions,” Ewan added.
The girl’s inquisitive nature reminded Laura of her own childhood behavior. During her youth, she’d been curious about everything, too. Her father had once accused Laura of having a secret machine that helped her dream up the many questions she posed each day. Young Adaira’s questions might prove to be an even greater challenge, especially for Ewan.
“I want to know about the orphanage. What do you do there?” Ainslee stepped alongside Laura.
The girl’s eyes shown with interest as Laura explained her volunteer work. “Perhaps you could come with me sometime and help with the little children. They love to play outdoors, but it takes many eyes to watch over them.”
“Oh, I want to come, too,” Adaira said, her lower lip protruding in a slight pout.
Ewan tapped Adaira on the shoulder. “We don’t need to begin pouting about who is going to be doing what. For right now, you both need to get settled. If Miss Woodfield has time to take you to the orphanage sometime in the future, there will be time enough to discuss who goes with her.”
“I thought Aunt Margaret and Kathleen might come to meet us.” Rose turned away from the baggage car long enough to glance at her brother.
“I told them it was not necessary. Besides, it would have taken me longer to fetch them since I came here from the brickyard.”
“If you were at the brickyard, how come you’re not dirty?” This time it was Ainslee who posed the question.
Ewan chuckled. “Because I was working in the office.”
“With Miss Woodfield?” Adaira’s lips curved in a teasing grin.
Rose gestured to one of the wooden baggage carts. “I see our trunks. I worried they might not make it onto the train. We had very little time when we changed trains in Wheeling.” She sighed. “I’m surely happy we’ve come to the end of our journey.
“The other relatives are eager to leave Ireland. Uncle Darach said their ship would sail two weeks after ours, so it won’t be too long before they arrive. The whole lot of them are worried about where they’ll be living. Aunt Margaret wrote Aunt Elspeth and said Uncle Hugh would try to locate enough housing for all of them but they might have to share living quarters for a time. Is that right? Will we be living with Aunt Elspeth and Uncle Darach once they arrive?”
Ewan grasped Rose by the hand. “Nay, of course not. You’ll be staying with me at Uncle Hugh’s house.”
Ainslee wrinkled her nose. “I’d rather stay with Aunt Elspeth. She’s much nicer. You know Aunt Margaret doesn’t like having us around. She thinks we’re a bother.” The girl ignored her brother’s warning look. “Kathleen wrote and said Aunt Margaret wants her to marry you.”
“What?” Ewan ducked his head when several people turned around. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shout, but it seems Adaira isn’t the only one who has forgotten her manners.”
Ainslee frowned and folded her arms across her chest. “You should be angry with Kathleen instead of me. I’m only repeating what she wrote in her letter. I told Rose I didn’t believe a word of it. Didn’t I, Rose?” Ainslee nudged her older sister.
“Aye, she did. Truth is, none of us thought you’d consider taking Kathleen as a wife.” Rose winked at her brother. “We know the two of you would be a terrible match, but I don’t think Kathleen would ever defy her sister. I think she’s afraid of Aunt Margaret’s temper.”
Ewan raked his fingers through his thick brown hair and gave a shrug. “If these three continue jabbering, you’re going to hear all of the family secrets before we ever get out of the train station.”
On the ride home, the girls peppered Ewan and Laura with a multitude of questions. Laura didn’t mind their inquiries, but Ewan grew increasingly tense.
Laura touched the sleeve of Ewan’s jacket as they neared the turnoff to the house. “Perhaps you should take me home first. I’m sure your family would like some time to get reacquainted in private. Besides, I promised Mother I’d write out invitations for a tea she is hosting in a few weeks.”
The twins objected to Laura’s departure, but she held fast to her decision. Hearing Margaret Crothers was devising plans for Ewan to wed Kathleen had sealed her decision. Laura had been around Margaret enough to know that an unwanted guest on her doorstep could bring out the worst in the woman, and Laura didn’t intend to be that unwanted visitor.
The girls begged to come inside when they arrived at Woodfield Manor, but Ewan refused. “We have to get home. I don’t want Aunt Margaret to send Uncle Hugh looking for u
s.”
“You’re all three welcome to come over tomorrow afternoon, but only if you have your brother’s permission. There’s a shortcut through the woods he can show you.” She smiled at the girls. “I’m delighted to meet each of you and pleased you’re going to make your home in West Virginia. I hope we’ll become good friends.”
As the girls’ chattering voices followed Laura up the front steps of the house, a repressed longing for family washed over her like a giant wave that threatened to drown her. Her heart ached for what she could never have.
Once inside, she leaned against the cool wood of the front door and forced herself to inhale slow, steady breaths. This feeling would pass—it always did. It had to.
Chapter 15
A few days later, his uncle, aunt, and Kathleen were already seated at the breakfast table when Ewan entered the dining room. The moment he crossed the threshold and sat down, Aunt Margaret rang a small bronze dinner bell she positioned beside her water goblet during each meal. Adaira rushed from the kitchen and hurried to the buffet for the silver teapot his aunt now used at every meal.
Ewan gestured to his sister and pushed away from the table. “The last I looked, my arms and legs were still working just fine, Adaira. I can serve myself. You don’t need to wait on me.”
Aunt Margaret glowered at him. “She has assigned duties, Ewan. As do Rose and Ainslee. You can’t walk in here and change my orders. I run the household, and I want our meals served to us so the family becomes accustomed to formal dining.”
“The family? My sisters are as much your family as I am. I do not object to having them help with the household chores, but I’ll not have them treated different from anyone else in this house. Uncle Hugh has already said he plans to withhold money from my wages to pay for their room and board, so they should be doing less work than Kathleen, who is not paying anything to live here.” He looked at Kathleen. “I’m sorry to bring you into this bit of disagreement, Kathleen, but I do not like what’s happening here.”
“Do I tell you how to run the brickyard?” His aunt’s scowl deepened. “Of course not. And you’ll not be telling me how to run my house.” She leaned forward and turned her frown on her husband. “Tell him, Hugh.”
“Oh, stop with your highfalutin ways, Maggie. We can all pour our own tea and fill our plates with rashers, eggs, and boxty. We do not need the girls rushing about carrying platters and serving us with that fine silver you bought. You’ve gone and started a bit of nonsense.” He leaned back and met his wife’s harsh stare. “You can quit giving me the evil eye, too. By now you should know it has no effect on me.”
Ainslee stepped into the dining room with a plate of boxty and curtsied as she offered the platter to her brother. “‘Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan; if you can’t make boxty, you’ll never get a man.’” She grinned at him. “You’ll have to taste my boxty and tell me if you think it’s good enough to get me a husband one day.”
He smiled and helped himself to several of the potato pancakes. “You’re too young to worry about getting a man, but I already know you make the best boxty in all of West Virginia.”
“Tell your sisters to come in here and join us for breakfast, Ainslee.” Uncle Hugh waved his fork toward the kitchen.
The girl glanced at her aunt, then looked at Ewan. She stepped from foot to foot, her misgivings evident. “Do as your uncle said. Go and tell your sisters to join us for breakfast.”
“Shall we leave Fia in the kitchen alone, then?”
Fia and Melva had been chosen for the two spaces in steerage on a ship sailing a few days after Ewan’s sisters had departed. The two had been selected because Margaret desired a cook and a housemaid as soon as possible. No matter that the women had to sail without their families. If they desired a new life in America, they must do Margaret’s bidding.
“Aye. Fia’s being paid to do the cooking, so let her cook. There’s only four of us at the table. It does not take one person to cook for each of us, now does it?” Uncle Hugh forked a bite of eggs into his mouth while Ainslee scuttled into the kitchen and fetched her sisters.
Rose and Adaira came into the dining room. The kitchen’s heat had heightened the color in their cheeks, and Rose wiped some perspiration from her forehead with the corner of her apron. Uncle Hugh pointed his knife at the empty chairs. “Sit down, girls, and eat your fill. You do not need to work in the kitchen. I pay Fia to cook and Melva to clean, and with your aunt overseeing the two of them, that should be plenty of help.” When Margaret tried to object, he waved away her protests. “Ewan is right. He pays for their room and board. They aren’t here to serve you, Margaret.”
“Very well, but I don’t want to hear complaints if you’re unhappy with your meals or the house isn’t tidy. My time is better spent at the building site, making sure the men do their work. When I’m not there, they dawdle about and nothing gets done.”
Uncle Hugh sighed. “Those men are good workers, Margaret. If St. Peter himself stepped down from heaven to oversee the project, you’d still find fault.”
“There’s no need for your irreverent remarks, Hugh. Maybe if you’d check on them once in a while, you’d see what I’m talking about. From what I’m able to find out, you’re not spending your time at the brickyard, and you’re not overseeing the new house, so where are you all day?”
Ewan looked at his uncle from beneath hooded eyes. Ewan had questioned his uncle regarding his whereabouts on several occasions, but each time Uncle Hugh had told him to tend to his own business. The man had made it explicitly clear: He didn’t want or need a guardian. Ewan wasn’t so sure that was true, and his uncle’s lack of involvement at the brickyard hadn’t helped to ease Ewan’s concerns.
“Taking care of the finances so we don’t sink any further into debt, which is proving to be no easy task, what with all the things you’ve been ordering for the new house. You don’t need to order all of those expensive frills before the foundation is even completed, Maggie.”
Rather than let Aunt Maggie buttonhole him, Uncle Hugh had manipulated the conversation to put his wife on the defensive.
“Mrs. Woodfield said that sometimes it takes a very long time to receive orders from the city, especially when the items have to be custom-made. I was only following her advice. We don’t want to end up with a brand-new house but no furniture or draperies.”
“You can hang bedsheets over the windows as far as I’m concerned. We got by all our lives without special-ordered furniture.” He pushed away from the table and gestured to Ewan. “Time we got down to the brickyard, don’t you think?”
Ewan nodded. The older man had deftly avoided his wife’s question and escaped out the door. His uncle winked as they descended the front steps. “And that, my boy, is how it’s done.” As if by some unexplained foreknowledge, Joe appeared with his uncle’s saddled horse and held the reins while Uncle Hugh mounted. He gathered the reins into his hand and tipped his hat. “Have a good day, Ewan. I’ll see you at supper.”
Joe, the groomsman his uncle had hired, stood beside Ewan and the two of them watched Hugh ride off. “You have any idea where he’s off to, Joe?”
The groomsman shook his head. “Naw, he don’t tell me nothing ’cept what time I’m supposed to have his horse ready for him each morning.” Joe nodded toward the barn. “I got the buggy ready for you. Didn’t think you’d be leaving quite this early or I would have brought it from the barn when I brought Mr. Hugh’s horse.”
“I’m in no big hurry, Joe. I’ll walk down to the barn with you.”
The two men walked in silence, Joe likely thinking about all the chores he needed to accomplish by day’s end, while Ewan thought about Mr. Bruce. On his original visit, the contractor had been pleased with their operation, but he wanted bricks that were a more uniform shade of red and said he’d return when Ewan could show him something more to his liking. Ewan hoped that would happen today. If the brickyard was going to support all of the men and their families, he needed to secur
e additional contracts. Though he had expected his uncle to be present when Mr. Bruce arrived, it didn’t appear that would happen. Once again, full responsibility would fall upon Ewan’s shoulders.
During the many weeks that followed, the entire family had undergone a number of changes. The other relatives had arrived from Ireland, and the men had already begun work. The three single men had taken up residence in local boardinghouses, while the married men and their families had settled in some of the vacant houses near Bartlett. Ewan’s uncle had arranged rental agreements for four houses, but he’d purchased three as well. He’d been clear with all of them: They would be paid wages for their work, but would pay rent and all of their living expenses. Each man also signed an agreement to reimburse Uncle Hugh for their passage, plus interest. For the single men, repayment would be easy, but it would be a burden for each married man with a wife and children.
Ewan had argued against requiring any of the men to pay interest on the money, but to no avail. His uncle was quick to point out that the bank required interest on loans and his relatives needed to know they could not take advantage of him. Ewan had laughed at the comment. No family member had ever succeeded in taking advantage of Uncle Hugh. There’d been a few who’d tried, but Uncle Hugh had always beaten them to the punch.
Before the girls had an opportunity to knock on the front door, Laura heard their laughter and hurried to the hallway. Since their arrival, the three girls had become almost daily visitors to Woodfield Manor. On one of their first visits, the twins had admired some of Mrs. Woodfield’s tatting, and she’d offered to give them lessons. Their attempts were heartfelt, but the girls hadn’t yet conquered the art.
“Good morning!” After opening the door, Laura ushered the threesome inside. “You’re a little earlier than usual.”
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