Amelia remembered the last time she'd seen Royal. It had been when he'd left the ranch where he lived with his family raising horses and cattle. He'd grown up like the rest of them, riding from the time he could walk and working hard from sunrise to sunset like all of them. They all sat around the table in the morning when darkness still ruled outside after a night's sleep eating their first meal and long after sunset, they returned all eating together.
But Royal hadn't been satisfied with having his life defined by the ranch, one of many spread out edging the Outback in Australia. He'd wanted so much more than a life spent working hard in the dirt that turned to mud during the flooding season, and he wanted to see the world outside where he grew up. His wanderlust turned to restlessness and soon enough when he hit his teens, Royal started getting into trouble and the local lawmen picked him up more than once when he slipped away with a gang of other young men who shared his restlessness.
Amelia wasn't yet out of childhood, though she worked alongside her siblings including Royal every day and had even gone on drives herding cattle or horses to sale. Riding hard all day including through treacherous territory and sleeping under the stars at night, those were the best times at all.
They just weren't nearly enough for Royal and she knew it. The disagreements which turned to arguments between Royal and her father drifted over to where she sat looking at faded books and teaching herself to read the letters. Her parents knew how to read and write but hadn't much time to teach her and the others, just enough to get her started and she'd done the rest.
But finally when Royal had vandalized a store with a group of others his father made the decision that he wanted him to leave Australia and go live with a family who'd sponsor him in America. So that's what happened, Royal had left by horseback with his father and older brother to head to the big city to take a steamer ship across the wide expanse of ocean to America. Where he'd work hard enough to not have enough time or energy to get into trouble…and when he was leaving, Amelia had just hugged him goodbye.
She didn't know she'd be making the same trip herself several years later for different reasons. But she'd never seen her brother since he'd left their home country. She didn't know what had happened to him or even if he was still alive. A faded photo that she'd kept in a frame wherever she lived was all that she had to remember him.
After Lucy had fallen asleep, Ethan and Amelia had fallen asleep themselves but Lucy had woken up and started fussing. She wasn't use to sleeping in this strange place so Amelia had taken her out of the bassinet and gone to a rocking chair that she'd picked up some place while married to Pierce. It served its purpose now and soon Lucy quieted down as Amelia found herself thinking of Royal.
She couldn't help it because she knew that Lucy shared his blood just as she did hers and Ethan's. Two different familial lines merging together and Ethan didn't know much about his own family being practically an orphan from a young age.
Lucy has darker hair already which she shared with both of her parents and she had her daddy's eyes. But when Amelia looked at her daughter she thought so often of the family she'd left behind. She knew she'd likely never go back to Australia which meant never seeing her own family again.
Except…one of them lived here too. She just hadn't seen him in many years…and she hoped he was healthy, that he'd built his own life in the new land just as she had done.
Maybe he had a wife and a family of his own some place. Sometimes she had thought about finding him but knew it'd be like a needle in a haystack. But now that she had a child of her own, she felt a desire to reconnect with family and Royal was her only chance.
"You have been awake long?"
She looked up and saw that Ethan had stirred and sat on the bed. His hair tousled and his eyes sleepy.
"No…Lucy's just not used to a strange place," she said, "wanted some company…"
The shadows danced inside the room and she knew under this roof she had everything and everyone she needed. It'd started to rain at some point during the night, hitting the roof but they'd grown so used to that the past several months.
"You ever think about your family," She asked, "I mean besides Lucy?"
Ethan paused and she knew it was a difficult question. His childhood had been traumatic in ways she only understood after he shared his past with her.
"I don't know much besides I had parents," he said, "I know my mama's long dead but my father, I don't know. I never knew him."
She knew that must have been hard on him even just remembering. Although she hadn't seen her parents in ages the memories had been good.
"My parents…most of my family that's alive is back in Australia," she said, "but I have a brother here…and sometimes I wonder what happened to him."
"Royal…"
She had told her husband a bit about her brother from time to time.
"I know he's out there somewhere if he's still alive," she said, "I also know I'd probably never find him."
"You want to look for him?"
Amelia had thought about that a lot.
"I don't know…his whole life might be different," she said, "Maybe he's with people or has a family of his own and they don't know about us. Sometimes immigrants change into different people when they first come here to erase their pasts."
To better assimilate, she meant and Ethan understood that.
"I didn't do that myself but when I met Pierce I wanted to be someone else," she said, "and not just the hired help. I think that's why I married him."
At a pretty young age but then she'd been desperate to leave where she'd been living, to go out and see the world with this dashing young man with the rich storytelling and the gleam of an adventurous spirit in his eyes.
Reality of a life with him caught up much later.
"Maybe he's not too far away Amelia."
She'd considered that too, wondering if he could be just one town, one valley or even one state away. Not likely how big the country was but possible.
"He was always smart Ethan," she said, "I think that's why he got into trouble so much. Nothing real serious but he was always looking for something more than where he grew up. I hope he's found it here."
Lucy had relaxed in her arms and Amelia got up to put her back in the bassinet before joining her husband who wrapped his arms around her.
"It's raining outside, does it ever stop?"
Ethan sighed.
"It will soon enough," he said, "It never lasts forever."
She nodded.
"Then they can clear the roads so the stage and wagons can use them," she said, "then we can head on back and the town can get back to normal."
They settled back in bed together and she rest her head against his chest thinking there was no place she'd rather be. Life had taken them through some harsh twists and turns the past couple years but it seemed that it had started settling down.
A group of men took shelter under makeshift tents. It had been pouring down after a day or so of sunlit reprieve. Their horses stood in it herded together and they hunkered down after failing to keep a fire lit.
"It's getting pretty rough in these parts," one man said, "Why'd we even head out this way?"
"The getting is good," another said, "We got to pick our next target."
"Hard to pick with the roads closed up everywhere."
"Won't matter," another said, "That'll give us the element of surprise…they won't know who hit them."