Greenbriar Manor

Loose Ends and Long Gone Proposals

Salem woke early and made her son and granddaughter breakfast. She saw the stuffed rabbit she had kept close long ago. Inside its stuffing was something that subtly wore at her but she trusted that everything would end up alright. Nothing could harm them now. There had been many ups and downs that made her question her decision to come back. But her granddaughter had been through so many things just this year alone. Brittany was strong and she would do well here as long as her son put in the work to rebuild. Greene's had more at stake than a long held home where Daniel and the rest of them went to chase old ghost. She would reclaim the space where it all began  long ago. Chessie had been wrong about their place in the legacy story. Salem had been created a path of her own.  Sure, the old Vermont Manor brought shadows on their family but she trusted Myrna. Everyone thought of her as a dark cloud blowing in when people least expected it. But she had a habit of taking secrets and making them strengths. Vera had agreed to joint ownership and pass this house along due to her mother's careful care of her cousin. Salem had always been different. Salem and Myrna were the same kind of  different. Strong but distantly they helped others. Salem watched as Brittany read another narwhal story. Her sister had written such bright and happy stories of fairies and butterflies. There was no peril. No real risk. She believed that the way to become anything meant clawing at it and doing the hard work others could not stomach. Ballet was often bloody. She worked her way up through the company by training through the pain. She believed that Brittany was also that way. She and Mabel had been friends. Mabel a kind child but not silly like Chessie. She had thought of Mari and her dolls. The only Grey that had ever given Salem room to be herself turned so inward when the horses left. She hoped this place would bring out the strength in her granddaughter and not the skulking habits sore little girls show when lonely. It had been the main reason she had come and set this all in motion from the very beginning. 

When Salem left home everyone thought she had immediately gone to France and continued dancing but that was not so. She arrived in Vermont in the middle of the night. The Grey's had been given a place at Greenbriar that was ironclad.  She had never seen eye to eye with her father or their attachment to the family. As Lorna took over the meadow house and began to hide secrets of her own with her sister she felt she must go away.  She had remembered teh rumors whirling around about Aunt Myrna's famous tea cakes and she wanted to prove the truth for herself. So, she came to her lost and broken. It was the first of many blunders. Bad men and broken hearts. Fortune favored the brave but eventually Salem had to leave. She took her son and put him in careful capable hands and left for somewhere cold. It would be fifteen years before she would see her son on this very land with a woman and a guitar and later a baby. Her family name was here and she would give Myrna anything to keep them safe. She had no idea that Myrna had already made a deal with Brittany's father that Salem herself could not undo. 

Much less begin to know  what was changing far away. 

At Briar Wood things were shifting more every day. 

Ruth had forgotten how Susan could be when faced with new suroundings. She often froze and asked alot of unecessary questions. But this time it was worse. She had never been to Greenbriar just heard stories. Vera had been strange to say the least but this house with its old ambiance and cellar and attics of secrets was not something she bargained for. Ruth had neglected to tell her about the strange woman with the rolling pen, creaking behind the walls on the third floor or the way that sometimes you swear you see someone looking at you in thr mirror or even when you walk by the piano room. How there is a solitary loneliness to this place that had come after Brttany came and just had not left yet. She hoped the longer Mabel was here to spend time with Mack that it could reverse all the darkness. The children needed each other not space to sulk. Mack had warmly welcomed his cousin but noticed Brooklyn hung back wandering and forcing his baseball into the leather glove he wore like he was angry. No doubt he missed the trainer who ensured his job and the animal he so dearly loved. Very few knew that Brooklyn put himself in the same narrative a second time. Ingrim grew stronger and wanted to make the horse a winner. He began to walk him in circles but he noticed that even he seemed different. He longingly looked at the Brooklyn and the thicket like he wanted to break free. He started sleeping in the loft against his mother's wishes. He so hoped that the trainer would be home soon. Greene's protect Grey's surely something here would be better for that man by now he thought as he snuck a message to the hospital in one of Fern's weekly deliveries.