Samuel pushed back his chair and stood up.  “Come with me, child.  I need fresh air.  Can we walk somewhere?”

“Only where everyone else does, out to the meadow.”

Outside the gates, the sky was filled with lowering clouds and a sharp breeze held the icy chill of the north.  Charlotte pulled two shawls close around her, aware that Samuel continually averted his eyes from her form.  She put her arm through his and ignored his discomfort.

“The truth is,” he continued, “General Bascombe’s escorting me this afternoon on the next leg of my journey, to see Tobias in the desert.  I hope it’s obvious to you that I was stricken with grief over all that happened at home.  For that reason, the original purpose of the desert was my own time for reflection.”

“But if you’re with Tobias, who’ll be in charge of the Family?”

“The Council of Elders.  Let them govern themselves for a while.”

“Why do I feel like this isn’t you talking?”

“Maybe it isn’t anymore.  My other intention was to be with you.  And then you didn’t get to the desert, or even to the fort for the longest time, taking several years off my life.  And then out of nowhere you did get to the fort, but you had four children.  And then, poor Tobias, you were having a child of your own with no obvious father or husband in sight, certainly no one from the desert.  And now your husband is very much in sight with ideas about all of this that have turned my whole world upside down.”

“He feels as strongly about his people as you do about yours.”

“I see that and I respect him greatly for it.  It only presents yet another challenge for me.  He’s right about the child being answerable to two different ways of believing.”

“Maybe the child will have its own way of believing and not be answerable to anyone.”

“Considering how you turned out, that’s quite possible.  But should I still just sit out in the desert and reflect?”

“I don’t know.  Should you?  I’m very confused.”

“I decided there was a rather immediate need for a new plan.”

“It seems as if you have one.  I’m afraid to ask what it is.”

“The more I thought about it, the less frightened I was.  I’m still young enough, you know.”

Charlotte had stopped dead in her tracks.  “Young enough for what, Father?”

“To have another family.  If I move quickly perhaps your child and mine wouldn’t be that far apart in age.”

Charlotte stared at him.  “There are so many things wrong with that statement that I can’t even begin to count them.”  She wished she could see Tobias’s face.  “So you’ll be anxious to get home?”

“Maybe I won’t have to go home.  Maybe there’s someone in the desert.”