Glensemais,
Massachusetts, September 29, 1722
A smile spread across my face when
I discovered Padraig among the trees. I had waited for him for what had seemed
like an eternity and had doubted somewhere deep inside me whether he would even
still come. Yet, he was finally here, and my worry changed suddenly to
anticipation.
Almost
silently, he stalked through the sun-flooded brush to our hiding place, a small
clearing surrounded by blackberry and blueberry bushes in the middle of the forest.
And Padraig had noticed me, too. He gave a quick wave, before he prepared to make
a spirited leap over a tree stump that blocked his way.
I
put my basket with rosehips and blackberry leaves aside and ran towards him,
smiling with joy. Padraig opened his arms to catch me.
“I
was afraid you had forgotten me,” I scolded him, feigning severity.
Padraig
set me down carefully, as though a careless movement might cause me to break.
His reddish-blond hair fluttered in the warm breeze which blew around the trees
with their autumn leaves. He merely looked at me tenderly for a while, and then
he shook his head.
“No,
love, you’re wrong there. No matter what happens, I could never forget you...”
His
declaration of love embarrassed me, as it came unexpectedly and was not at all
like Padraig’s generally unromantic nature. I sensed that my cheeks were
getting hot, and probably also turning red.
“Why
do you come so late?” I asked, a little out of curiosity as to why he had been
tardy, but primarily as his forthright confession of love had surprised me
somewhat, and I wanted to change the subject.
“We
were in the fields. We couldn’t have waited much longer with the tilling.”
Padraig looked up at the cloudless blue autumn sky. “It is still warm, but in a
few days we could have the first frost, and then it gets harder and harder to
work the soil.”
I
nodded in agreement, as we had also just prepared our fields for the winter.
Padraig
took hold of my hands. He carried them to his lips and gently kissed the backs
of my hands.
“Now
it’s not even four weeks until our wedding,” he said thoughtfully. “Have you
thought about what our lives will be like afterward?”
I
caressed Padraig’s unshaven cheek with its stubble tenderly.
“Very
often, my dear,” I responded softly. “But how else should it be? I will move in
with you and your grumpy father, keep house for you, and help you in the field
and with the animals and...”
“...and
what?”
“And
one day have our children, who we will bring up together,” I answered,
laughing.
“Does
this thought make you happy? I mean, do you really want to live with my
bad-tempered father under one roof in the coming years?” Padraig asked
seriously.
I
looked at him enquiringly, as his behavior had now surprised me for the second
time within a short period of time. What did he mean by his question? It was
actually the most normal thing in the world that the wife moved in with her
husband, and that Padraig’s father lived there too didn’t change anything. Just
as little as the fact that he was a grumpy chap whom one could almost never
please.
“Do
you have perhaps a better plan?” I enquired in irritated tone.
Padraig’s
grin was as wide as the Kennebec River after the snow melt in spring.
“And
do I ever,” he said in a conspiratorial undertone, while he began to fumble at
his shirt. Seconds later he drew a scroll wrapped in leather from out of his
breast slit.
“Here.”
He pressed the roll into my hand.
“What
is that?” I asked, curious.
“Open it. See for yourself.”
With feverish fingers, I opened the slender
ribbon that held the roll closed and unrolled the leather with a solemn
gesture. In disbelief I marveled at the document that appeared from under the
cover.
“That...that is a deed,” I murmured in
surprise. “And our names are on it...Padraig, does this mean...?”
Clearly, I was being too slow-witted for
Padraig’s liking, in that moment. He took the deed from me, together with its
leather cover.
“Yes, Gwen, that’s exactly what it means,” he
exclaimed in a voice hoarse with excitement. “I have bought some land for us.
We will have our own little farm. A home just for us...and our children,” he
added hastily.Enjoy your read. In the next few days you will find more excerpts on this blog.
If you want to leave a comment your are wellcome, too.
