Martha did not understand why Thomas had suddenly asked about the money they had saved over the years, but she did as he asked.
First, she soaked a clean cloth in cold water and held it against her swollen cheek.
Then she crossed the room to the old wooden cabinet in the corner.
The cabinet had been there for years.
The edges of the dark brown wood had been worn smooth, and one of the handles had begun to loosen.
Martha crouched down, removed several neatly folded pieces of old clothing from the bottom shelf, then reached all the way to the back and pulled out a small metal box.
Elena watched from nearby.
So this was where her parents kept their private savings.
Martha placed the box on the table, took a small key from her apron pocket, and opened the lock.
There was not much inside.
A few carefully folded banknotes lay among a much larger collection of coins.
Some of the money had come from occasional work Thomas had done for neighboring farms.
Some had been saved little by little from the eggs, cheese, and butter Martha sold whenever their own household had enough to spare.
Now and then, she also earned a few coins by mending clothes for neighbors.
None of those jobs brought in much on their own.
But over the years, the small amounts had gradually accumulated into the little bit of money that truly belonged to the two of them.
Martha emptied the box onto the table and counted everything twice.
Elena did not interrupt her.
Thomas remained quiet as well, resting against the pillows at the head of the bed.
After a while, Martha finally looked up and told him the amount.
“That’s all we have.”
She sounded slightly uneasy.
“There used to be a little more, but we took some out when Noah was sick two years ago.
And last winter, when you needed new work boots…”
Thomas nodded.
He did not complain that it was too little.
Instead, he looked at the money spread across the table and remained silent for a moment.
“If we stopped depending on the farm’s shared income and supplies, how long do you think this would last?”
Martha froze.
“What?”
Elena looked up as well.
She had already suspected at the end of their earlier conversation that Thomas was considering some kind of change.
Even so, hearing him say it so plainly still surprised her.
Martha, on the other hand, had clearly never considered the possibility at all.
“What did you just say?”
“I said we should establish our own household properly.”
This time Thomas made himself perfectly clear.
“We already have our own home in the old orchard cottage, but most of what we live on still comes through Miller Farm.
The grain, livestock, fields, and much of the farm income are still managed by Father and Mother.”
He looked at the small pile of money on the table.
“I think that needs to change.”
Martha stared at her husband.
The room remained silent for several seconds before she finally reacted.
“You mean…
separate our expenses from the farm?”
“Yes.”
Thomas nodded.
“Our food, our money, our work.”
“You, me, and the children.”
“If we can continue living in the old orchard cottage, we’ll pay our own way and stop expecting the farm to provide for us.”
“And if Father and Mother don’t agree to let us stay there once we separate our finances, then we’ll find somewhere else.”
Martha’s expression immediately became uneasy.
“But your legs…”
“My legs don’t move now.
That doesn’t mean they’ll never move again.”
Thomas lowered his gaze toward the legs hidden beneath the blanket.
Dr.
Brown had never said that he was certain to remain unable to walk.
The problem was that no one could promise how much he would recover.
Perhaps, after enough rest, he would eventually stand again.
Or perhaps he would never again be able to spend long days doing heavy work in the fields.
Thomas had considered both possibilities.
That was precisely why he knew he could not simply lie there and wait for someone else to decide what happened to his family.
“Even if I can’t do the same farm work I used to, my hands still work.”
“I know how to mend fences and repair simple tools.
Father taught me some carpentry when I was younger too.”
“I can’t make fine furniture, but I can repair chairs, tables, doors, stalls, and sheds.”
“Once I’m well enough, I’ll find something I can do.”
Martha opened her mouth but did not immediately answer.
She knew he was telling the truth.
Thomas had spent years doing more than working the Miller fields.
He often repaired the barn, chicken coop, and fences.
When wooden tools broke, the brothers usually fixed them themselves rather than paying someone else.
Knowing that was one thing.
Actually separating their family’s livelihood from Miller Farm was another.
“We’ve depended on the farm for so many years.”
Martha’s voice was quiet.
“The children grew up here.
Ethan and Noah are used to everyone being close by.”
Thomas looked at her.
“They’ll still be our children whether we’re part of the shared farm economy or not.”
“You, me, Elena, Ethan, and Noah.”
“The five of us are a family.”
Elena remained silent.
Five people.
Since arriving in this world, she had barely had a chance to spend time with her two younger brothers.
It was harvest season, and almost everyone capable of helping left early each morning.
Ethan sometimes followed the adults to the edge of the fields and helped with small tasks suitable for an eight-year-old, while Noah, at only three, usually remained close to Martha or whichever relative was watching the younger children.
But from the scattered memories left behind by the original Elena, neither boy had ever treated their sister badly.
At the very least, they had never bullied her the way some of the village children had.
Martha still hesitated. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
“But will Father and Mother agree?”
“We aren’t children.”
Thomas looked at her.
“We’ve been married for years.
We have three children of our own.”
“If we want to manage our own household, we can’t spend the rest of our lives too afraid of upsetting someone to even say it.”
Martha fell silent.
Thomas knew exactly what she was worried about.
“I understand.”
“We have a roof over our heads in the old orchard cottage.
Miller Farm has fields, stored grain, livestock, and family all around us.”
“Even when money is tight, we’ve never had to wonder whether there would be food on the table.”
He paused.
“But you saw what happened today.”
His gaze settled on the swelling across Martha’s cheek.
“I can’t pretend it didn’t happen.”
Martha instinctively touched her face.
“Mother was just angry…”
“What about next time?”
Thomas asked.
Martha had no answer.
“Today it was Elena’s marriage.”
“Next time it could be something else.”
Thomas rested against the pillows.
His voice remained weak, but every word was clear.
“I used to think that because all of us depended on the same farm, sometimes you just had to endure things and let them pass.”
“But lying here now, I’ve realized that not everything should be endured forever.”
“You’re my wife.”
“Elena, Ethan, and Noah are our children.”
“At the very least, you should be able to live in your own home without worrying every day that one wrong sentence will anger someone.”
Martha’s eyes gradually reddened.
She quickly lowered her head and wiped at the corner of one eye with the cloth in her hand.
“When did I ever say I couldn’t bear living here?”
“You didn’t.”
Thomas looked at her.
“That’s exactly the problem.”
“You never say anything, so I kept thinking everything was fine.”
Martha went completely quiet.
Elena stood to the side and did not interrupt.
She could tell that Thomas had truly thought about this.
At least, this was not a decision he had made simply because he had argued with Agnes that morning.
He was already considering what he might do for work if they became financially independent.
He had even taken into account the possibility that his legs might never fully recover.
Still, there were practical problems that could not be ignored.
“Dad.”
Thomas looked toward Elena.
“What is it?”
“If we separate our household from the farm’s shared income, what happens with the land we work now?”
Thomas paused, apparently not expecting that question from her.
“This land belongs to Grandfather’s farm.”
Elena continued, “So if we become independent, we can’t expect to keep living from its harvest unless Grandfather specifically gives or rents some land to us, can we?”
Thomas was silent for a moment before nodding.
“Of course not.”
“Father and Mother built Miller Farm up over the years, and all of us have worked it together.”
“If we establish a fully independent household, we can’t keep taking grain, supplies, livestock, and money from the farm as though nothing has changed.”
That was one of his greatest concerns.
Their savings were small.
Even if George and Agnes allowed them to remain in the old orchard cottage, there would still be food, firewood, clothing, household supplies, and countless other expenses.
And that was before considering Thomas’s medicine.
If George and Agnes refused to let them keep using the cottage after separating their finances, rent would become another expense as well.
If Thomas took a long time to recover, the pressure would only grow.
“That’s why we can’t do this immediately.”
Thomas looked toward the money on the table.
“First, we need to know whether Father and Mother will let us continue living in the old orchard cottage.”
“Then we need to work out how we’re going to support ourselves without depending on the farm’s shared income.”
“If we can’t stay in the cottage, only then do we start asking around Oakridge for somewhere else to live.”
Elena nodded.
That made sense.
She did not want them to storm away from Miller Farm tomorrow with nothing but a few clothes and wounded pride.
That would not be independence.
It would be five people going hungry together.
“I can help.”
Thomas looked at her and smiled despite himself.
“You?”
“Mm.”
“And how are you planning to help?”
Elena paused.
That was a fair question.
She did not have a specific plan yet.
This place was still unfamiliar to her.
She did not know exactly what could be gathered and sold nearby, which goods were valuable, what people in Oakridge regularly bought, or even where most villagers went when they wanted to trade something beyond the village.
Claiming she could suddenly make money would sound ridiculous.
“I don’t know yet.”
She answered honestly.
“But I can look.”
“Once I’m completely recovered, I want to walk around the village and the nearby countryside.
Maybe go into Clearwater too.”
“There might be something I can do.”
Thomas had only been teasing her.
He had not expected Elena to take the question seriously.
“All right.”
“Once you find this great way of making money, you can come tell me.”
Elena could tell that he still regarded her idea as something a child might say.
She did not rush to prove herself.
There would be time for that later.
Martha suddenly remembered something else.
“If we really separate from the farm, what about Elena and Adrian?”
Elena’s expression immediately turned helpless.
“Mom.”
“I’m only asking.”
Martha hurried to explain.
“The two families did talk about it before.”
Thomas thought for a moment.
“Leave it alone.”
“But the Carter family—”
“Elena already said she doesn’t want him.”
Thomas interrupted his wife.
“We can’t exactly send her over there anyway.”
Elena immediately nodded.
“Right.”
Thomas saw how quickly she agreed and finally laughed.
“You were perfectly calm a moment ago.”
“Why do you become so anxious the moment someone mentions Adrian?”
Elena’s expression did not change.
“Because I’m afraid you’ll forget.”
“I won’t.”
Thomas looked at her.
“You don’t want the marriage.
So we’ll leave it alone.”
Only then did Elena seem satisfied.
Martha looked between father and daughter and could not help smiling as well.
For a moment, the room no longer felt quite so heavy.
But once the laughter faded, reality remained.
Martha looked down at the money on the table again.
“These savings won’t support five people for very long.”
“I know.”
Thomas nodded.
“That’s why we don’t rush.”
“Once my condition is more stable, I’ll talk to Father and Mother.”
“First, we’ll settle whether we can remain in the old orchard cottage while running our household separately.”
“If we can, that gives us time to find work and build up more savings.”
“If we can’t, then we’ll ask around Oakridge and the nearby farms for somewhere affordable.”
The more Martha listened, the more she realized that her husband was not speaking on impulse.
He truly intended to become independent from the larger Miller Farm household economy.
She remained quiet for a long time.
Finally, she looked down at her hands.
“What if Father and Mother don’t agree?”
Thomas fell silent too.
A breeze came in from outside.
The half-open window shifted softly in its frame, and beyond it, the hay stacked beside the barn stirred in the autumn wind.
After a while, Thomas answered.
“Then I’ll talk to them myself.”
“We won’t ask for anything that doesn’t belong to us.”
“The main farmhouse, the fields, the livestock, and the stored grain belong to Father and Mother.”
“As for the old orchard cottage, that’s something we’ll have to discuss with them.”
“If they allow us to stay, we’ll take responsibility for our own expenses and stop relying on the farm’s shared supplies.”
“If they want the cottage back, we’ll leave and find somewhere else.”
He looked at Martha.
“All I want is for my wife and children to have a household that is truly our own.”
Martha looked at him.
“You’ve really decided?”
Thomas did not answer immediately.
His gaze went first to the swelling on Martha’s face.
Then to Elena standing nearby.
At last, he nodded.
“I have.”
“Life may be harder than it is now.”
“But at least it’ll be our life.”
The uncertainty had not completely disappeared from Martha’s eyes.
This time, however, she did not object.
After a moment, she reached out and gently took Thomas’s hand.
“Then we’ll figure it out together.”
Thomas’s fingers moved, closing around hers.
“Together.”
Elena stood beside them and watched her parents without speaking.
She had not been in this world for very long.
But only now did she truly realize that before long, the five of them might no longer depend on Miller Farm in the same way they always had.
Perhaps they would remain in the old orchard cottage.
Perhaps they would eventually have to leave it and find another place.
Either way, they would begin building a life that truly belonged to them.
It would not be easy.
They might even be poorer than they were now.
But Elena was not afraid.
As long as they had control over their own lives, the rest could be solved one problem at a time.
As for earning money…
Elena turned toward the window and looked out across the golden autumn fields.
For the first time, she began seriously considering what this unfamiliar countryside might have to offer.
There had to be something she could do.