He felt no desire to return to the manor and witness the empty rooms.
He had spent too many nights imagining the moment when he might leave.
Now that he had left, his future deserved more attention than the building that once held him.
Josephine asked Daniel to visit after Aaron secured a small rented home for the family.
The house stood near a mill, and its porch needed repair.
Aaron could mend tools but knew little about woodwork, so Daniel offered to help during a weekend away from Porter’s shop.
Thomas traveled with him, carrying a set of borrowed chisels and a bundle of nails.
The reunited family welcomed them with a meal cooked on a crowded stove.
Josephine’s younger son showed Daniel how he could walk farther now that his injured foot had received proper attention.
The older boy demonstrated the knot his father had taught him years earlier.
Aaron watched with an expression that moved between pride and grief.
He had missed birthdays, illnesses, and a hundred small changes that no reunion could return.
After supper Aaron walked with Daniel to the porch.
He said people often congratulated him on finding his family as though reunion marked the end of the story.
Daniel answered that the years apart would remain part of their lives.
The future might be good without pretending the past had not happened.
They repaired the porch the next morning.
Josephine brought water while the children carried harmless scraps of wood away from the work area.
Aaron asked Daniel how he had learned the trade.
Daniel described Josiah Bell, the older carpenter at Blackwood who taught him to judge grain with his fingertips.
He had not heard from Josiah since the sale.
The realization made him pause.
Aaron suggested writing through the family-search network Rose had begun helping to maintain.
Daniel agreed.
He wrote Josiah’s name, approximate age, and the last place he had seen him.
He did not know whether the man was alive or whether a letter could reach him.
He decided the uncertainty was no reason to stop trying.
Before Daniel departed, Josephine gave him a small loaf of bread for the road.
She said it was a poor repayment for his help during their escape.
Daniel answered that friendship did not need a ledger of debts.
She smiled and said she would remember that the next time he tried to pay for dinner at her house.
The first reply to Daniel’s search arrived months later.
