A/N:
I'm so excited for you guys to read this chapter, you don't even know.
The small envelope sat on the polished wood table in front of Winnie, glaring up at her menacingly.
"Well? Aren't you going to open it?" Katherine asked quietly from where she was standing behind Winnie.
Winnie didn't respond, so Katherine slowly reached around her and took the envelope, smiling encouragingly at Winnie.
Winnie watched as Katherine carefully opened the envelope and reached inside, pulling out a few small pieces of paper. She was suddenly glad she had told Katherine about what she was doing, she wasn't sure she could face this alone.
"Well? What does it say?" Winnie demanded after a moment.
"It's his birth certificate, and the death certificates for both of his parents," Katherine explained as she studied the documents.
"Can I see?" Winnie asked. Katherine nodded and carefully handed her the papers.
Winnie frowned in concentration as she deciphered the messy handwriting on Crutchie's birth certificate. Place of birth, date of birth, name of father, name of mother… wait!
Winnie stopped short, looking hard at the maiden name of Crutchie's mother. The ink was smudged and the handwriting wasn't admirable, to begin with, but it definitely said, Tuck.
Winnie's heart began to pound, but she quickly pushed her excitement away. Tuck isn't exactly an uncommon last name, it's probably just a coincidence. It might even be a misprint she told herself sternly.
Still, Winnie's hope was renewed as she put the birth certificate to one side and grabbed Crutchie's mother's death certificate, examining it just as thoroughly as the previous document. Sure enough there it was again, the name Tuck along with… the names of her parents!
Name of mother: Lucy Williams. Name of father: Thomas Tuck.
Winnie blinked then looked again, sure she had misread something. But no, there it was clear as day. Name of father: Thomas Tuck. She looked at the next line. Place of birth of father: Treegap, New Hampshire.
Images flashed through Winnie's head. Her and Miles, sitting at the Tuck's kitchen table.
"Miles? Who's Thomas?" she asked, hesitantly.
"I don't talk about him." Miles' words were hard, definite.
"Then why did you say his name?" Winnie replied, her tone one of honest curiosity.
Miles hesitated before turning and facing Winnie, his eyes filled with sorrow and hurt. "He was my son."
"Is he alive?" Winnie asked quietly.
"I don't know." Miles turned away from her. "My wife took him from me."
"Winnie?" Winnie was jolted back to reality by Katherine placing a gentle hand on her shoulder and softly calling her name. "What's wrong?"
Winnie made her face a mask of neutrality. "Nothing. I was just thinking."
"Okay," Katherine said, taking the documents from Winnie and sliding them back in the envelope. She smiled softly at Winnie. "I have an article to work on. I'll be in my room if you need me."
Winnie nodded mutely as Katherine left. She felt as though she were in a trance, her head spinning with information which hardly seemed possible, yet there it was on paper. Thomas Tuck. Treegap, New Hampshire.
Winnie quickly traced the family tree in her head. The name of Crutchie's mother's father was Thomas Tuck, and he was born in Treegap, New Hampshire. The chance of two Thomas Tucks from Treegap was slim to none, so she supposed he had to be that Thomas. According to the documents, he and his wife had had Crutchie's mother in 1855, and she and Crutchie's father had had him in 1883. That meant that Crutchie was Miles' great-grandson.
Crutchie was Miles' great-grandson.
Winnie sat back in her chair, realization slowly hitting her.
"Well," she murmured to herself. "That explains a lot."
A/N: This is not the end, only the beginning! (But it was a pretty big reveal that I've been building up to for the past 6 chapters, so please review and tell me what you thought!)
