Refuge on Leebrick (The Hills of Burlington Book 4) Read online

  “How old?” Court asked from where he stood with Carrie near the window that looked out over the alley towards the Marshall Street house.

  “The book itself dates to the mid 1500’s,” Beth said softly. Then she went on to answer what she knew he was really asking. “It doesn’t really specifically state when Jonas of Vilina lived but it gives a brief genealogy of that time. From that I worked backwards. I think it’s safe to say he lived somewhere in the mid 1300’s.”

  “We were close,” Casey said. “From what we could find in those old volumes at the other house, Carrie and I were guessing the 1500’s, give or take a hundred years or so.”

  “I’m not even certain about this but I think it’s within a couple of decades or so,” Beth paused as another thought came to her. “Assuming that what I found in the tome is accurate.”

  “Anything else?”

  “There’s actually quite a bit about Jonas. I’m going to print it off later and I’ll put a copy of it over on the desk in the room at the Summer Street house.” She paused because she knew what they were all waiting for. She took a long breath and shared what little she knew. With luck they would be able to learn more. “It seems that Ingryth suffered much the same fate her mother did. She loved a man who for similar reasons as her father wasn’t able to marry her. She wasn’t royal. At least not in the way that would have been required for them to marry. And though he married another woman, from all written accounts he and Ingryth had children during that time. I couldn’t tell how many because the focus of this was her father. The mentions of her were almost like an afterthought. I’m not even certain if she would have been mentioned at all if it weren’t for the fact her children, like her, were descendants of a king.” She looked around the kitchen. Everyone was quiet, absorbing what she’d already passed on. Waiting for what remained.

  “I don’t know for certain when, but later in her life, after her children were grown, the man who she obviously loved renounced his title. For the last years of her life they lived together. I don’t know if they married. I’ll research that more to see what can be found. But they were together. He died months after her own death.” There was more but Beth just wasn’t certain she could get through it. Better they read it for themselves.

  “That’s so sad,” Mallie said eventually into the deep quiet that held the room hostage after Beth stopped talking.

  “Did it give any of their names?” Tom asked quietly. He could tell just from looking at the young woman there was more to be told and figured if she didn’t want to be the one doing it there were reasons. Probably grim ones. He figured asking for their names wouldn’t be anything that would be of any real consequence. He was wrong.

  Beth let out a sigh and was grateful when Wes reached down to take her hand. She had called him late the night before to tell him what she’d learned. “His name was Thomas. For generations that name continued through their children. His and Ingryth’s children.”

  “Interesting.”

  Jake looked over at his friend. Couldn’t stop the burst of laughter that escaped at what could only be described as an understatement from the man upon finding out he shared a name with one of their long ago ancestors. “Slightly,” he said wryly when he could talk again.

  Tom studied Beth thoughtfully. It didn’t escape him that she had a hard time meeting his eyes. Anyone in the room for that matter. There was more. More that she didn’t care to get into. Knowing Beth as he did it was probably as tragically depressing as much of the rest of their history from that era. Just about from any time in their history for that matter he thought to himself grimly. “Beth, would you send the rest of us the link to what you found. That way we can help you out in researching from there.”

  “I’ll do it as soon as I get home,” she said quietly with a small smile of gratitude in his direction.

  “At least we have a name,” Mary said hoping like Tom to draw the attention away from Beth.

  “A couple of them,” Carrie agreed thinking about what, if anything, any of it meant. She knew without a doubt her husband was running all the information around in his head. Rob and Addie were likely doing the same. She also had no doubt what would be the topic of their dinner time discussion that night.

  “Indeed,” Mary agreed. “Now we’re going to have a celebration.” She pushed herself away from the doorframe she’d been leaning against. “I’ve got wine and grape juice for those who can’t or shouldn’t indulge.” She aimed her comment towards Casey deciding the decisions on what the younger ones could drink were up to others rather than herself.

  “Sounds like a deal,” Pete agreed with a broad smile. “Casey can have a sip of mine,” he said with a quick teasing look at his wife. He knew better than anyone how much she missed her nightly glass of the sweet red wine she favored. Knew too she wouldn’t change anything for the world at the moment including missing that glass of wine.

  It didn’t take long for glasses of juice and wine to be distributed. Mary looked to Jake for what came next.

  “A toast,” Jake started knowing exactly what he wanted to say. He sent his sister a shared look of remembrance. “To the upcoming arrival of my new niece or nephew. The grandchild of our parents who will know them through our stories of them. We can do no less.” He lifted his glass knowing from the tears running unchecked down his sister’s cheeks that she understood…and agreed.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Mary picked up the phone receiver and lifted it in place to her ear. She felt the slightest hint of concern as she did so. She easily recognized the number but it wasn’t one her husband normally called her from. Like her, his cell phone was something kept charged primarily for emergencies.

  “Daniel, are you all right?” she asked immediately not even waiting for him to speak, her first words conveying her very real worry.

  “I’m fine, love. But we have a little bit of a problem.”

  See the excerpts below for the next two books in the Hills of Burlington series.

  EXCERPTS from A Christmas Dinner on Marshall Street.

  “Aunt Charlie, it is so good to be here with you,” Fran said as she clung tight to her aunt. They’d arrived only minutes before to find her aunt sitting on the long porch of the Marshall Street house hat her aunt had grown up in.

  “Sweetie, I’m so glad you’re here,” Charlie McMuerty held her niece close as they walked through the front room of her childhood home towards the kitchen at the back of the house. “I just wish you could have visited sooner but spending Christmas with me makes up for all that.”

  Fran simply drew in the scent of her aunt’s favorite perfume. It was the same lilac scent that she could remember from her earliest childhood days when long visits to her aunt’s home in Burlington had been a summer tradition. Summers, she remembered, that had been filled with family. She could even now remember long days spent with her cousin, Carrie. Days that slid into nights spent whispering in the dark of her cousin’s bedroom long after the lights had been turned off and they’d been told to go to sleep.

  “I can’t wait to see Carrie,” Fran said as they stood at the back window and looked out to the Carriage House that sat at the back of the Marshall Street property. She knew her aunt lived there now with one of her granddaughters. “Are you certain it’s all right for us to stay here?” she asked. She knew that the property, both the house and the Carriage House behind it, was now owned by the daughter of one of her aunt’s sisters. And not just any niece but Mary Lane, an author of numerous novels that she herself had read long before she realized the family connection. As a child she’d played with Mary Elden but hadn’t connected her childhood playmate to the woman who’d become a favorite author of many not to mention the current owner of the house on Marshall Street. And not just this house as she’d learned in a phone conversation with her aunt the night before. Mary Lane was also now the owner of her aunt’s former home on Woodhaven Street. The house was only a couple of blocks away, the very same place she and Carrie h
ad spent all those nights softly whispering in the dark of her bedroom.

  “Of course it is,” Charlie said easily. She gave her niece another quick hug before moving to the refrigerator to find them something to drink. “Mary can’t wait to see you again. She knew exactly who I was talking about when I called to tell her you were visiting over the Christmas holiday. She well remembers the summers you spent with me.” She gave her niece a quiet smile. “She also remembers how much better you were than she was at the fancy footwork during your jump-rope years.”

  Fran smiled at the memory. “Carrie was better than I was,” she said with the smile spilling over into her voice.

  “At times,” Charlie agreed softly. “But you had your own style, Fran.” She gave the woman a quiet smile as she led her over to the table. “Sit with me and drink your juice. When Carrie gets here I’ll make some coffee for all of us.”

  See excerpts below for Maple May Connections.

  EXCERPTS from Maple May Connections, the next in the Hills of Burlington books.

  “Rob, I’ve made some hot chocolate for both of us,” Carrie wished she wasn’t nervous. She knew there was no real reason to be. “Why don’t you sit down with me for a few minutes?”

  “Sure,” he set the books that he’d just checked out of the library on the chair next to the one he pulled out and sat down in. He wondered what was up. It wasn’t unusual for Carrie to invite him to sit with her. But he’d been living here long enough to recognize when she was nervous. A sudden though hit him and he would wonder later at how much and how hard it hit him. “Has something happened to my Dad?”

  “No,” she turned away from the stove immediately at the anxiety she heard in his young voice. “No, Nick is fine, Rob. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to alarm you.”

  “Okay, that’s okay, I just thought…” he wasn’t certain he even wanted to say out loud what he’d thought in those few moments but he knew it had scared him. He wasn’t at all certain what he thought about that. He took a deep breath and looked back at Carrie. Took the cup of hot chocolate she handed him. He grabbed the bag of marshmallows she must have set on the table earlier and began dumping them liberally into his cup. “So, what’s up?” Since he knew something must be or she wouldn’t be making hot chocolate.

  “It’s about what happened to you the first time you went into that little room upstairs at the Summer Street house,” Carrie said slowly, thinking about how she’d played this conversation out in her head. “Remember when we first talked about it?” she asked him as she sat down at the table with him and did the same with the marshmallows as he had.

  “Yeah,” Rob settled into his chair more easily. Relieved now that he knew what it was all about.

  “Well, I asked Court to check into where you were in the family line,” at his questioning look she elaborated. “If you haven’t already seen the genealogy chart that Jake, Tom, and Court have been working on you need to have them show it to you. It’s pretty detailed because they’ve been trying to go down all the different lines and fill in all the blanks,” she shrugged slightly. She’d seen it and her first thought was it was too big and wieldy to get from point A to point B if that’s all you were trying to do. “Casey’s been working on something similar but hers are more specific.”

  “How so?” Rob asked, he hadn’t seen either. But he knew what she was talking about. He and his cousin Addie spent a lot of time at the online site that allowed you to set them up right there on the site.

  “Hers are just more simple to see the family connection from one person to another one. Like from Julya and her daughter Ingryth to the three of us, Casey, Mary, and I.” She paused, knew she was getting off track from what she wanted to talk with him about. She let out a deep sigh and tried to shift back in that direction. “We could ask her to do one for you, one that goes from you back to your direct ancestors.”

  “That would be cool,” he suddenly realized what she was saying as he spoke. “Do you know how I go back in the family?”

  “Court called a little bit ago,” Carrie edged slightly not answering him directly. “He’d just gotten a call from Tom who’s been really digging into the records trying to fill in a lot of what we didn’t know. Court had asked both him and Jake to help us trace back your side of the family.”

  “Have you talked with Dad about it?” Rob asked thinking it would probably make his father cringe. He wasn’t at all into the family stuff like he and Addie were.

  “Actually, I haven’t,” Carrie said slowly and knew all her pre-planned conversational gambits weren’t the way to go. And in that moment made the decision to simply say it. “You can tell your Dad, Rob. It’s up to you.” She had his attention now as he looked up from his hot chocolate to study her quietly. Knowing him as she did Carrie figured he was already connecting the dots she’d subtly given him. “It’s not Nick that you’re connected to my family through, Rob.” She watched as his eyes slowly narrowed, saw the grief and sorrow he rarely allowed anyone to see. Said what she had suspected all along but was still grappling with now that it was a reality. “Your connection to the family is through your mother.”

  See other books available by the author below.

  Other books available by the author.

  The Last Christmas Ornament

  Cost of Redemption

  Her Letter

  When Words Matter

  The Hope of Hyde Hills

  When We Trust

  How We Love

  Where We Turn…coming soon

  The Andersen Saga

  Betrayal

  Resolute

  Broken

  Found

  Choices

  Regrets

  Remember

  Forgiven

  Truths

  Always

  Expectations

  Decisions

  Disillusioned

  Believe

  Hills of Burlington

  Return to Cedar Hill

  Retreat to Woodhaven

  Summer Street Secrets

  Refuge on Leebrick

  A Christmas Dinner on Marshall Street

  Return to Summit Falls

  Going Home

  Home Again

  Coming Home

  Finding Home

  Sharing Home

  Home to Stay

  Home Again for Christmas

  Home In Madeira Springs

  The Typewriter Playoffs

  The Delahass Legacy

  Family

  Family Unbroken

  Family Shadows

  Family Always

  Family Trust

  Family Promise

  They Will Know You

  The Civil War Connection

  The Seneca Falls Connection

  The French Revolution Connection

  The Wilberforce Connection

  Worlds They Left Behind