She put the single sheet and its envelope directly into the letter box and then scrubbed the bean pot thoroughly. Later, when Mr. Deverell came in from the pottery to write two terse letters and a telegram, which he insisted on doing himself, she tried to help by taking Bernard out back. Aurie thanked her when she returned but said nothing about the letter, nor did they discuss it on Saturday.

On Monday and Tuesday of the following week she hardly saw either of them; Mr. Deverell was loading the kiln and needed Aurie’s help, leaving Bernard entirely in Henrietta’s care. She sang to him and gave him a wooden spoon and a bowl to bang while she made biscuits. On Wednesday Aurie left three letters on the table without indicating when they’d arrived or in what order. “We don’t know what they mean yet,” Aurie said. Pale, drawn, as distant as if she’d never hugged Henrietta. “So if you could not say anything at school, or in town—?”

“Of course,” Henrietta said, setting the sheets of paper under the dictionary to flatten while she washed the floor. The first one she read came from a rebel stretcher-bearer who’d been ferrying his regiment’s wounded back behind the Confederate lines.

Your brother Isidore has asked me to write this, and although we are enemies I could not deny him. I found him May 4 near a stream where many were lying hurt and all mixed together. Two Yanks who staid back when the rest ran layed your boys on the banks so ours wouldn’t trample them as they advanced. Isidore was shot twice. He fears he may die and directs me to write that he and his brother were separated but that if Rick has survived, he should have his share of the family property. I have no supplies or medicines to share with him but have done what I could to help. Will send this north with prisoners who are to be exchanged.

Next she read the one from the assistant surgeon of Vic and Izzy’s regiment:

I write with the painful duty of saying that your brother Izidore Daverall is presumed dead. He was separated from his company during the rapid retreat of Friday night and while we have reports of him falling while fighting with another regiment on Saturday we can’t confirm this. Since our return to camp we’ve been compiling our lists of the killed and wounded and I know he has not returned to the regiment; he is not to be found in our hospital; he has not been reported captured. Many were left on the field after our final retreat on Saturday. We have not been allowed to retrieve or bury our dead but fear the worst.