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Seaton’s General Store looked the same, barrels of pickles and nails and bins of fresh vegetables lining the wide front porch.
A few people were in the store, browsing the aisles or chatting at the high marble counter with Uncle Hamish. He glanced her way and his mouth dropped open.
“Ellen?”
“Hello, Uncle Hamish.”
“But you’ve... we didn’t...” He tugged at his collar, his smile genuine if a bit awkward. “Welcome home, Ellen.”
“Thank you.”
Aunt Ruth came bustling out of the storeroom, also stopping short when she saw Ellen. For a second Ellen thought she was going to come forward and hug her, or perhaps just tell her to straighten her dress or brush her hair. The walk from the station had undone her efforts on the train. Then the moment passed and Ruth folded her arms, nodding in acceptance.
“So, you’re back.”
“I did write,” Ellen said quietly. “You sent the train tickets yourself.” She tried not to sound reproachful, but it was hard. Would it have inconvenienced them so much, she wondered, to meet her at the station?
“Trains aren’t reliable,” Aunt Ruth dismissed. “I wondered if Rose would manage to get you on the train at all, after all that nonsense about needing you with the syruping. You’ve never syruped in your life.”
Ellen inclined her head in acceptance, but her silence seemed to unnerve Ruth. She frowned.
“What’s that dress you’re wearing?”
“It’s one of Aunt Rose’s. I grew out of the navy muslin before Christmas.”
The few people in the store were still staring, and Aunt Ruth seemed to notice the minor spectacle they were creating, for she lifted her chin and walked over to Ellen. For a second her lips seemed almost to tremble, as if she were holding back some deeper emotion, but then her expression ironed out and she placed one cool hand against Ellen’s cheek, the closest, Ellen supposed, she’d come to showing some affection.
“Come back to the house. You must be hungry. No one ever gets a proper meal when traveling.”
Obediently Ellen followed her aunt back to the house. Everything seemed just the same, and she had the curious feeling that while her own life had grown and changed, Seaton and all of its residents had remained exactly as they had been the day she left last September, as if they’d been frozen in time.
She stood by the kitchen table while Ruth moved around, fixing a thick slice of bread richly slathered in butter, some leftover ham and a good wedge of cheese on a plate.
She pushed it in front of Ellen on the table, who set to it with a surprising hunger.
“You liked Amherst Island, then?” Aunt Ruth said after a moment.
Ellen looked up curiously. She swallowed her lump of cheese and bread and said cautiously, “Yes...”
“Rose wouldn’t have wanted to keep you if you were miserable, would she?” Ruth plucked at a loose thread on her perfectly starched apron. “You were a credit to us, I suppose.”
“I hope so.”
“They’re a ragamuffin sort of family anyway. Not a penny to their name, and lacking in common sense, as well. I remember Dyle from Rose’s wedding.”
“Have you not seen him since then?”
Ruth’s expression hardened. “I doubt he’s changed.”
“No one seems to change around here,” Ellen replied, and although her tone was mild there was a certain sharpness to her words. “I’ve been gone eight months and everyone seems exactly the same.”
“Which is as it should be,” Ruth returned. “I suppose you’ll be wanting to go back to school? Finish the year?”
Despite the surprise that rippled through her, Ellen forced herself to meet Ruth’s gaze directly. She’d thought long and hard about her schooling on the train, for she remembered her aunt’s assumption that she would not finish school, since she’d no need to.
Ellen knew she wanted to finish school. She didn’t particularly care to endure Mr. Phillips’ barely concealed contempt, but she wanted to know things. Do things. Perhaps be a teacher one day, or even something else. Professions were slowly opening to women, although perhaps not in places like Seaton. But if she didn’t even get her Year Eight certificate then she’d be good for nothing but sweeping the store.
“Do you need me in the store?” she asked, keeping her tone neutral, and Ruth looked at her in suspicion.
