Wars at Home

Chapter 7

Within the hour, John's parents arrived. Not long after they'd said hello to everyone, I was surprised and elated when Andrew's sister, Rachel showed up with her family.

Rachel and I had been close, growing up, but she'd moved away years ago with her parents and then had gotten married. Since her parents died, she spent practically every holiday with her husband's family. Of course, Andrew and I were always visiting Julia and Daniel, so we hadn't seen Rachel in nearly three years.

Judging by Andrew's happy but not terribly surprised expression, he'd known she was coming and just hadn't told me. I attempted to scowl at him for his secrecy, but I was so happy to see Rachel that I couldn't hold onto it. Instead I answered his smile with one of my own before I threw my arms around Rachel and hugged her again, laughing.

After introducing Rachel's husband, Charles and their daughter, Elanor to everyone, and reacquainting them with Victoria who had been too young to remember anyone very much, we all made our way to the dining room.

Heading in, I wondered how in the world we would all fit. It was always a tight squeeze at the table, and now we were adding three more people. But as usual, Julia was prepared. She had a small table that could be pulled out easily for the younger children. It was still a little tight at the main table, since it wasn't meant to seat twelve adults, but it wasn't too uncomfortable.

I did feel bad for poor James though. He clearly wasn't thrilled about being placed at the children's table. Especially considering that the other children were all girls. He didn't complain, but I noticed him send several longing looks toward Thomas and Matthew.

I spent the majority of dinner catching up with Rachel. We wrote letters, but not as often as either of us would have liked. We were both busy, and there were so many things you couldn't put in a letter. Things that didn't sound right unless you were actually talking to someone.

Once Rachel was engaged in a discussion with John's mother, I found myself watching Thomas with John at the other end of the table. It was so rare that they got to spend time together, but I loved it when they did.

As far as Thomas knew, John was his uncle. I'd never seen the need to tell him anything different. For all practical purposes, Andrew was his father, and he was a good one. But sometimes I wondered how Thomas didn't instinctively know the truth.

John was good to all of my children, but with Thomas it was just a little different. There was a natural bond between them that I hadn't noticed with any of the others. Not even as strongly with Matthew, Emily, or Ruby.

I don't think either of them really tried for that closeness. They'd just always had it. Although maybe it was partially because John was aware of how valuable his limited time with Thomas was.

To my knowledge though, Thomas didn't have any reason to think there was anything exceptional in his relationship with John. If he ever noticed the similarity in their eyes, he hadn't said anything about it. Which was another thing that I wondered how he could miss. My eyes were deep brown, and Andrew's were blue. Thomas and John shared the same light brown, almost golden eyes that couldn't be found in either Andrew's family or mine. Of course, my family was mostly gone now, so I suppose Thomas would have no way of knowing what attributes he could have inherited from them.

Thomas had always been easygoing and amiable, just as John was. He made friends easily, but he didn't truly open up to many of them. It always took time for him to really trust people, but I couldn't remember him ever displaying that sort of reservation with John. Thomas had never enjoyed being the center of attention, but with John, he hardly stopped talking. He was like a different person around John.