The Resurrections of Rosalind Mull

Into the Ashes

March 18, 1670, the Mull family arrives on the Lady Cordelia, a ship that has finally docked in Virginia, a ship that has travelled across the sea from Scotland. William Mull and his wife, Margaret, accompanied by their three children, step onto solid land for the first time in two months. The children (Agnes, David, and Rosalind, in order from eldest to youngest) look around in utter awe, mouths agape and eyes open wide.

"Mam," says David. "This is where we're going to build our house?"

His accent is thick and slurred with the lisp indicative of a child, though he is fourteen and almost a man in his own right.

"Aye, we are, boy," his mother answers. "A little bit down the way and to the right."

David nods seriously. He knows he'll help his father build the house. He's excited to be building a home for his family, taking the role he should be. Agnes clutches the cross around her neck, whispering prayers, eyes alight as if she were still a little girl. She was promised a husband in the new land; she is almost seventeen, after all. Besides them, Rosalind stares up at the grey-blue sky, watching the clouds drift across. She purses her tiny mouth, then turns to her sister and latches onto her hand. She will never admit she is afraid and by looking at the head of messy brown hair and steel grey eyes, one would never think her to be.

The Mull family heads by wagon to the plot of land promised to them. William's brother, Donovan, watches them come up the drive and greets them heartily. He pursues conversation with his younger brother and the two proceed to go over house plans, walking off to move around planks of wood. Donovan had arranged for his brother and his family to come to America and start a new life in the land of opportunity. With a few acres to themselves right next to William's brother's, all of the Mulls are in high spirits, feeling optimistic for the future.

Rosalind makes daisy chains and stoically weaves them into Agnes' hair. Agnes sings a lilting song in the tongues of old.

'Her voice will make it easy for her to find a husband.' Rosalind thinks to herself as she plucks another daisy from the grass. 'No man can resist a lady such as she. She will marry a rich man and get us money. Then, we will live in a nice house and wear fancy clothes and eat meats rich with spices from foreign lands and drink wines that have aged for centuries.'

Rosalind has always loved her sister's thick, waist-length cord of hair. If they were rich and could afford the correct products, her hair would be silky smooth as well. Agnes yawns, pressing a milk-pale hand to her mouth delicately.

"This is brilliant, Ros," Agnes says to her.

Rosalind nods, thinking of all the sweet foods she will be able to eat when she is as wealthy as those that live in the pretty mansions she can see that loom up on the hilltops. Perhaps, if she were as comely as her sister, she would be able to find a rich husband, too. Rosalind thinks not much of it, for the allure of sweets and lacy dresses consumes her mind rather than the desire for a husband.

To her side, a lanky cat strolls into her field of view. Smiling, Rosalind scoops the cat into her arms, pressing a kiss to its ear. The cat grunts, squirms out of her arms and leaps onto the ground, winding around her skirt.

"I haven't any food for you," she says and the cat leaves as swiftly as it'd come.

Rosalind shields her eyes and looks to the sky, squinting, then, she gets to work with helping her family do the necessary deeds. There is much to do and no time to waste. They'll stay at her uncle's until their house is finished, but she reckons that they won't be welcome forever. They're lucky it's spring; they will surely have assembled a house by the time winter hits.