The Road Home (Good Intentions collection) by Kristin Harmel

Author:Kristin Harmel [Harmel, Kristin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Published: 2023-04-26T16:00:00+00:00

Goodbye came too quickly. There was no invitation to stay for coffee, for of course there was still none to be had so soon after the war’s end. It was clear that Monsieur Rochefort and I had no place here and that Josiane and her mother had three years of separation to recover from, new fabric to be woven. I had once been a lifeline; now I was an interloper. How quickly I had changed from needed to needing.

“Josiane,” I said, bending to her. She came to me instantly, her eyes wide and frightened, and threw herself into my arms. I held tight to her and said, “I will never forget you, my darling Josiane. And I will love you every moment of every day for the rest of my life. But you are where you belong now, and it is a gift from God that your mother has come home and that you have, too.”

She buried her face in my shoulder. “Do you think Pierre and Jacques will miss me?”

I imagined our devoted chickens in mourning, refusing to lay eggs. “Every day.”

“And Papa, he will miss me, too?”

“Yes, my love. He loves you very much. But he knows you need to go back to your maman now.”

She nodded into my shoulder. “I will miss you the most,” she said. “Forever and ever.”

She pulled away to look at me, and it was all I could do not to shatter before her. “I will miss you forever, too, my Josiane.”

“I love you, Maman.”

And then, with murmurs of gratitude and goodbyes, Josiane’s mother was closing the door behind us, leaving me in the dark hallway, separated from my child forever by the shadow of all the lonely moments looming before me, endless and empty.

“It was a brave thing you did, taking her in,” Monsieur Rochefort said, putting a hand on my back. “But even braver to let her go.”

“It isn’t brave when it is the only thing to do,” I whispered.

“On the contrary, Madame Vachon. The right thing often takes the most courage and the most sacrifice. And you know she will be safe here. She will be loved.”

“But she won’t be mine.”

“Madame Vachon,” he said, his voice as gentle as anything I’d ever heard, “I’m afraid she never was.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.