Judith explained that the horse had fallen during an enthusiastic attempt to make it jump over a book.

Daniel promised to repair it before supper.

He sat at the kitchen table with his tools while Eleanor watched from a safe distance.

He shaped a replacement leg from a scrap of maple and checked that the edges were smooth.

She asked why the new wood was a different color from the old wood.

Daniel told her that a repaired object sometimes kept a visible reminder of its history.

He added that the reminder did not make the horse less useful or less worthy of care.

Judith listened from the stove and understood that Daniel was speaking partly to himself.

She did not turn the moment into a lesson about suffering.

She simply brought them bread and asked Eleanor whether the horse might now be ready for another race.

The child laughed and shook her head.

She said the horse should rest because he had been hurt.

Daniel smiled and agreed.

After Eleanor went outside with Samuel, Judith asked Daniel whether he wanted to discuss a more permanent arrangement for visits.

She said the household could continue caring for Eleanor, but the child was becoming old enough to notice when people arrived and disappeared without explanation.

Daniel had been thinking about that question for months.

He wanted to visit regularly without exposing the family to Richard’s agents or placing an obligation on the Hearns that they had not chosen.

Judith suggested keeping a predictable schedule whenever travel was safe.

Daniel could write between visits, and she would read the letters aloud as Eleanor grew older.

If danger returned, they would explain the change without telling the child she had been abandoned.

Daniel agreed.

He asked that every person involved retain the right to raise concerns, because he had learned how quickly a good intention could become another form of control when nobody was permitted to object.

They discussed Eleanor’s future education.

Judith wanted her to learn reading and arithmetic without being told that some questions were improper for a girl.

Daniel offered to build a desk when she became large enough to use it.

He said his mother had taught him letters with flour on a table because paper was scarce.

He wanted Eleanor to have books, but he also wanted her to know that learning could begin wherever somebody chose to teach with patience.

That afternoon Mary arrived carrying a parcel wrapped in brown paper.