Wars at Home

Chapter 10

My Dearest Kathryn,
I know that it would be pointless to ask you not to worry, and so I won't bother. Just know that I love you and that I will be thinking of you every moment we are apart.
Everyone here is confident that it won't be long before we are able to beat the Germans for good. And when we do, I will be able to hold you in my arms once again. I know you understand that I can't tell you any specifics, but I can tell you that Thomas and I will be joining Samuel when we ship out. I hope that is some comfort to you.
Give the children my love. I'm sorry that this letter has to be so short, but they have us going non-stop on drills and training, and my time for writing is nearly up. I promise to write as often as I can, but I fear that it won't be as often as I would like. However, we've survived on letters once before, and it seems that we must to do it again.
All my love,
Andrew

Andrew's letter arrived a week after we were settled at Julia's. I read it over and over, until I had it memorized. And then I read it over and over, just to see Andrew's handwriting and to hold something that he held in his hands not too long ago.

He was right. It was impossible not to worry, but I was glad that, at least my boys were together. They would be able to look out for one another, and wouldn't have to be alone so far from home.

I had hoped that with his promise to write often would bring frequent letters. I didn't think looking for one a week was too greedy, but apparently it was unrealistic. It had been over two weeks since that first letter arrived, and I was still waiting for a second.

I was relieved to have gotten one letter each from Samuel and Thomas, but I needed to hear from Andrew again.

I had to keep telling myself that he was busy, and most likely didn't have a say in how often mail went out. And of course, he was in Europe, so I shouldn't worry that it was taking so long. Samuel's letters always took several weeks.

That had to be it. I wouldn't allow myself to think about any other possibility.

While I waited, I occupied myself with cleaning every inch of the house and playing peacemaker between Victoria and Ruby.

Poor Victoria was having such a hard time adjusting. She'd always been the baby of the family by four years, and the only girl. She rarely had to share anything, and when she did, James was good about it. Along with his brothers, he had always treated her like a princess more or less. So she never truly had a taste of sibling rivalry before now.

Ruby, however, supplied plenty of rivalry. Watching them made me think of my own childhood with Jenny.

I wasn't so blinded by my love for Victoria to think that she was perfect, but she wasn't a trouble-maker. More often than not she truly was only defending herself.

Still, the constant fighting was enough to drive me mad, and I could have kicked myself for wishing for it before.

I tried to have patience with Ruby. After all, it wasn't her fault that she was spoiled. But sometimes I seriously worried I might smack her for her impertinence. I'd never felt that way about a child before and the urge surprised me. When my children were very young, they'd all gotten their share of spankings, but it had been a long while since anything like that was necessary.

Samuel was the one to require the majority of the discipline in our family. James and Victoria had gotten punished plenty of times too, but they were always so sensitive that a stern look would do the trick most of the time.

Needless to say, I was out of practice when it came to that, and Ruby definitely needed more than a stern look. But I still didn't feel as if it was my place to take her in hand that way. Andrew was right. She was John's daughter, not mine.