By the time I had finally gotten around to worrying about making it look like the old woman had rushed through the backyard on the way out, the light of the rising sun was dangerously close to cresting over the horizon. Nevertheless, I was going to make it in time and all that was left to do was to drag the overloaded suitcase in my hand along the ground from the back door, to the door of the shack, then back towards the road. Then I could pick it up, get rid of it somewhere safe, and no one would question why the drag marks suddenly stopped. With all the ruts and carts that crisscrossed the road it would be hard to make sense of if the tracks had continued or not and besides, I did not think anyone was going to look into her disappearance this deeply anyway. I was only going this far out of an abundance of caution. I had spent the rest of the night since returning from the bishop’s estate ransacking the old woman’s house in a way to make it look like she had made a hasty decision to leave and tossing all of her most valuable things into a case. It was quite convenient to have her memories and opinions on what she valued so nothing that seemed like it might be important to her according to any friends or family would be left behind and suspicious. I even removed her journal and other evidence of what she had been doing under the pressure of the Church, though those did not go in the suitcase, I was planning on keeping those for my own records.

Once satisfied that the inside looked as convincing as possible, I began to drag the heavy bag towards the shack, going slow as to not accidentally wake the sleeping family, turned when I got close to the door towards the well to make it seem like after all her flurry of activity she had needed a deep drink before continuing, then dragged the bag all the way to the road then hefted it up. What to do with it was kind of a problem. I could not just leave it somewhere in the woods nearby or I risked people finding it and realizing that it was filled with very personal items that someone might miss. A lot of people might just take it as finders keepers and be happy to find a nice little boon with some more expensive tat, but since it was a smaller community chances were they might figure out who it belonged to and then the rumors and gossip would stir. The only idea that seemed like it might work and I had time to do before sunrise was throwing it down the well in the backyard. It was a very rough solution to the problem and might cause other problems later, but like many things about this plan I had thrown together in less than a day, it would have to do for now. Perhaps luck would be on my side and it would stay hidden for long enough to no longer be a problem if anything did come floating to the top. It was difficult getting the suitcase up high enough to get over the top of the well with one hand, but with much of a struggle I managed and the bag tumbled down into the water below with a loud splash.

Last piece completed for my plan, I snuck back into the shack, carefully not to disturb where the letter lay on the floor, and silently crawled back onto the floor and returned to the position I had been in when I had fallen asleep sitting against the wall. My body complained with dull aches that I was daring to get back in the same position after it had made me so stiff before, but luckily it was only perhaps a quarter of an hour with my eyes closed before I heard one of the couple rise and start shuffling around the room. I determined that it must have been the wife because she stopped to soothe the fussy baby and a soft glow of the fire being coaxed back to life illuminated my eyelids as she started to warm the pot of meat and broth for the day. After a few moments of her nursing, I heard her quietly wake her husband to tend to the baby while she went out to relieve herself and then there was a soft sound of surprise as she kicked the envelope left by the door.

I used that sound as my excuse to have woken up and I made a show of waking with a groan, popping my neck loudly and unfurling my limbs like I was in great pain from being in the same position for most of the day and all night. I rubbed my eyes and looked up, they were both not paying attention to me and instead were both devouring the letter with their eyes. The man had stopped bouncing the baby boy to keep him calm and the little boy was having known of it, he whimpered and scowled at the world around him. It was a good sign, he was already perking up and gaining strength and for that alone everything I had done would be worth it.

“Is this for real?” Franny said, her hands shaking as she held the letter. “This cannot be real, can it?”

Marcus looked stunned, mouth slightly open and his face paled as he pulled the deed free from being tucked in with the letter. “Our name is on the deed,” he said barely above a whisper.

Gingerly turning over the letter in his hands, the man inspected it closely, with a stunned wary eye like he would discover some obvious sign that it was a fake or that it might crumble to dust and their proof would blow away with some errant gust of wind.

“This fixes everything,” his wife said excitedly. She reached for the infant at her husband’s hip so he had both hands free to inspect the documents more closely. Bouncing the child up and down soothed him and brought a smile to her face, dawning hope was clearly evident in her expression.

“This looks… as valid as any other document I have ever seen and I had to deal with many for the shop.” The man looked like he was on the cusp of accepting that this was real and not some cruel joke being played on them. He turned to me and held out the letter. “Do you have any experience with legal matters or deeds my friend? I would love it if you would take a look at the letter and document and tell me if you think this is all valid. I want to believe, I hope… but I cannot just take it at face value, I do not want to have my hopes dashed.”

“Of course I will look at it,” I replied as I rose to my feet. “I have some experience in this sort of thing, though I rather think with your business background you may have had more. Though, I should be proficient enough to spot any major issues.”

I took the papers from him and moved to where the light was better from the glow of the fire. Of course I knew exactly what they said and did not need to read them again, but I wanted the pair of them to think I was taking this very seriously and studying it hard for anything out of place.

“Hmm, I see…” I murmured, flipping the deed over to inspect the back for the seal I knew was already there. With a nod I indicated for him to take the deed from me so that I could focus on the letter. “Very interesting,” I commented as I pretended to read through the letter slowly and carefully.”

“Well, what do you think about it? Is it real?” the wife asked eagerly, bouncing the baby even higher on her hip than she probably meant to with her excess nerves.

“Give him a moment, Franny, he might need some time to make extra sure. We do not want him to make a rash judgment and have it be wrong.” Marcus sounded like he was being reasonable, but his voice was higher pitched than normal and it was a dead give away that he was internally chomping at the bit in his head for me to put him at ease by telling them it was real and they were saved.

I wanted just a moment longer, staring hard at the letter, then looked up and my face broke out into a wide grin. “See, I did say I thought your luck was turning around and things would start to look up.”

The couple both let out happy gasps and embraced each other, their poor baby squished between them and he let out a grumpy yell. The woman laughed and hiked the baby up higher on her chest and planted wet, happy kisses all over the infant’s face while she laughed, cried, and began to excitedly chat about how she could not believe this was all happening and that they were going to be living in a house again.

“I just do not understand,” Marcus said to me with a big, happy grin on his face, “Patty seemed like she wanted nothing to do with helping us. I had assumed she was just some grumpy old poor woman with not much to give and she felt bad she could not help us more so she made it seem like she was just some old miserly woman.”

“Maybe there was something else going on,” I said with a shrug, “she seemed a bit distracted and out of sorts. She was rather rude to me yesterday when she saw me, which makes little sense considering there was no reason for her to act that way to a friendly stranger. She must have had this plan on her mind and it was distracting her. Maybe she’s been considering this for a long while and that is why she was acting so strange with you. She was just not certain of her next actions and it was making her act irrationally.”

The man nodded his head eagerly, happy to have some sort of explanation other than the old woman had just been nasty to them on purpose. I could not blame him for wanting to be naive about the truth of the situation and choosing to easily accept an alternative solution. No one wanted to think there were rotten people in the world who took advantage of people for profit or just because they got an inflated sense of ego and power for doing so.

“That does make a lot of sense for her actions and how cold and distant she seemed sometimes,” he said with a small laugh that gave away that perhaps he was not totally buying this explanation either, but it made him feel a bit better anyway. “I could not see what she would have against us or why it would be hard for her to feed us, but if she was otherwise mentally occupied then I could see how she might have just been overlooking everything in her life.” He looked down to the deed in his hands, then over to the letter in mine. “Still, this seems far too fortuitous to be true.”

“Guilt can do many strange things to people,” I replied with a shrug. “Maybe she realized how awful she was to you and wanted to make it up somehow.”

“She has a daughter though,” the wife said quietly, like saying the information out loud might invalidate the happy occasion. “Surely she would think to leave it to her instead.”

Marcus frowned and nodded his head. “That is true, I remember her talking about her before.”

“The girl must already own a home though, surely?” I ventured. I was really wishing they would make this whole thing easy on me and just accept that it was legal and the truth of what had happened. “The woman was old enough for any of her children to be of adult age, likely already married and with homes of their own. If her daughter did not need a home, why not give it to a family in need with a young baby?”

“Still…”

I held up my hand with the letter to signal him to stop that line of thought. “Do not try to look a gift horse in the mouth about this. You have the legal document in your hand that names it as yours. You cannot have it taken away from you with that.”

“They did before,” he said with bitterness in his voice. “I thought I owned our house before and it turned out there was a mysterious debt on it no one knew about.”

I let out a long sigh, I had not taken into consideration just how much that had affected him and how much he might doubt everything based on that. I could not blame him, he had been badly burned before and it ended up with his family homeless and starving. I would be untrusting and suspicious in his shoes.

“For now though, it puts a rood over the heads of your wife and child, we can sort anything else out as it happens. As long as that deed is in your hand, it should be yours free and clear, a debt owned by the woman who owned it before you should not transfer over to you,” I assured him.

I had a feeling that the Church might make up something else to make them homeless again to align with whatever cruel plan they were trying to orchestrate by taking away their home in the first place, but I would deal with that when it happened. I just wanted them to have a little bit of joy and relief for now, even if it would not last.

“You are considering staying with us, my friend?” The man’s smile had returned. “While you were sleeping my wife and I discussed the idea of you staying with us as help, we could sorely use it since we have no idea how to make a go of this living off the land and our own two hands, but you surely do.” He let out an awkward laugh and flush, his eyes trailing down to the lack of my left arm. “Sorry for the poor choice of words.”

“No offense taken,” I said with a laugh of my own. “I was not considering staying when I first came across you, but I may since it seems like I could be of help. I had no timelines or deadlines on what I was doing or where I needed to be, so it would not be asking any of me to stay.”

The couple looked relieved and the wife stepped forward and planted a gentle kiss on my cheek.

“Thank you very much,” she said with true gratitude in her voice, “you have only been here such a short time and yet you have done so much to help.”

I was a bit confused on what exactly I had done that they knew anything about besides butchering a deer for them and showing them how to preserve it. They could have come across many people who would have been able to show them that, I assumed for many of the common folk it was necessary common knowledge. I suppose the fact they thought it was such a big deal really spoke to how little help they had been offered and how isolated and alone they had been feeling. It made me all the more happy for the decisions I had made and the path I had taken. Even if none of this had been at all what I intended to do by coming to the human realm, still it felt right, like I was put in the path of these people on purpose. I was not sure if I believed in anything like fate or destiny, but I could see how it could be a convincing idea when situations like these arose.

“It is no bother to me, truly.” I gave the woman a warm smile and looked towards the food on the fire. “The food should be warm, shall we eat and then have a look at your new home?”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea!” Franny exclaimed and handed me her child to hold for a moment while she took the lid off the pot and gave it a stir.

It was awkward to hold him with one hand and still be holding the letter at the same time, but the child apparently thought all the wriggling was a fun experience because it laughed with glee and reached up to tug at my earlobe. The tiny infant had a strong grip and I winced as it innocently attempted to pull my earlobe clean off my head.

“I can get him,” Marcus chuckled.

“Oh you know it is okay,” I said and held out the letter for him to take instead. “Been a long while since I held a baby, it is actually kind of nice.”

I could not place it, but there was a warm spot deep in my heart that had come alive when the baby was thrust into my arms. There was a sense that I had done this before, though I could vaguely recall the child was bigger and more muscular. Though I had no image of a memory in my mind to confirm, it was just a feeling. As soon as that feeling appeared, it disappeared again, but the nice, warm feeling of fatherly love remained. It pained me to think that somewhere out there was a child that I could not remember and I had no idea if this was a recent or a distant memory. I did not feel like I was very old, perhaps my mid to upper thirties, so the child could either be still young or perhaps in their teen years. If I did have a child out there somewhere, was there a wife or a partner of some kind waiting on me to return to our family? The idea of that being a possibility pulled at my heartstrings. That was an awful idea and if it was somehow true I sincerely hoped that I would regain my memories soon and I could return to them.

“It is hot enough I think or I’m just impatient to want to get into my new house,” Franny said with a laugh, taking her baby from my hip.

We ate in relative silence, each of us eating quickly so we could go inside sooner. It did seem silly to me that we were eating out in the shack still while the house was open for us to use, but it seemed like the couple needed a moment to think through all the big changes that were happening and begin to digest them. They would need time to adjust and realize that they were in a much better off and safer position now than they had been when they went to sleep last night. Big shocks, even good ones, needed processing before making any rash decisions. Once we were done, we cleaned our hands and set off across the yard to the house. It was a beautiful sight to see the family happily rushing to the house with the sun rising over the top of the roof, illuminating the hope they held in their hearts that this would be their new start and that everything would be okay from here on out.

Three fat chickens clucked as we walked by the coop area, they seemed annoyed by our presence and I rolled my eyes at the idea that anyone was in any way fooled that the old woman had been a chicken farmer with three chickens to her name. They also looked old, at least past their prime and not all that well cared for. It was a ridiculous idea to think that she even got more than a single egg a day between the three old hens. At least all the equipment and housing for the animals was there, if a new chick or two was purchased, they could easily start fresh with a younger flock and work up towards buying more and having eggs and the occasional chicken dinner ready in their backyard. I made a mental note to discuss the possibility with them later when they were ready to plan out just how exactly they were going to make their way in the world.

While they explored the inside of the house, I went through the woman’s pantry, looking to see what exactly she had stock piled away and found that there was more than enough of everything to keep the family’s stomachs filled for a while as long as they didn’t mind mostly bread and grains. It would work nicely with all the meat drying in the shack to last them quite a while, plenty long enough for them to wait for potatoes to come in and in the meantime I would work with them about getting chickens and teaching Marcus how to hunt as a backup food source.

“It does look like she left in a hurry,” Marcus said as he entered the kitchen. He stepped behind me and looked into the pantry over my shoulder. “She left a lot of food and took the things that would travel well. I guess she really did just decide to leave and start over somewhere else. Seems like she is a bit old to be going off and doing that, but she did not seem happy so I suppose it makes some sort of sense.”

“Never too late to break off and pursue your own happiness,” I said in agreement.

“I suppose that is true.” He nodded and looked around the kitchen, fully taking in that this was his place now. “So this is it, this is ours now.”

“It is,” I echoed, “you have the deed and no one can argue that.”

A thin smile came to his lips, but he did not say anything to argue, it was a start. Together we went through the other rooms of the house and I watched in pleasure at how happy they were to own actual furniture and household items again. It was the little things that made people feel secure and they were just as happy about the idea of having a set of towels for washing their face than they did to have an actual bed to sleep in.

My smile faltered when there was a knock at the front door, but I quickly replaced it with an encouraging smile as the couple turned to me to look for reassurance.

“I will go get that, you keep looking around at your new home,” I offered.

My heart was pounding as I made my way to the door. I knew there was probably one of two options of who I was going to see on the other side and both of them I was dreading for different reasons. I took a deep breath in, then let it out slowly and swung the door open, fully expecting to have to fend off the indignant wrath of an angry bishop. I was not expecting to come face to face with over a dozen excited, but tired looking women and young girls all dressed in white.