The Whittaker Saga

 As summer starts, it's Nash's time to be reached by the news of a death as his aunt, Emelie's mother, is dead. While he cannot make it in time for the funeral, Nash still wants to makes the trip to pay his respect to his uncle and cousins. After all, for a good many years, until well after the death of his father and the remarriage of his mother, Nash grew up in the same house as his cousins and aunt. It wouldn't feel right not to visit, so leaving the rest of the family at home, Nash makes the trip across the country and knocks on his old front door. He is well received by the family, but the house is very different from what it used to be. Of his aunt he sees very little in the decor, more of the new lady of the house. "Elisabeth was very inspired when we visited Paris," his cousin James tells him. "She decorated accordingly after mother got sick." Nash does not ask what Victoria felt about that, though he is a bit worried about his cousin not re...

After a week on the road, the family returns home to Chestnut ridge. While Anna and Josephine are heartbroken at the loss of their father, family life still calls as its time to Barbara to start school! They keep her birthday simple and just for the family, feeling it is inappropriate to celebrate too soon. Yet celebrating at all wouldn't be right either, especially as Arthur and Barbara don't really understand the severity. Arthur remembers his grandfather a bit, Barbara not at all. She's only met him once in her life, after all. For her sake, the entire family puts on a brave face. They eat dinner, she blows out the cake, and Grace spends hours playing with her in a tent she's helped her build outside. For Anna recovery comes in the form of her horses, and especially in riding in Bronco as he's now old enough. She starts training his endurance with a rider, then obstacles, and as he is a fast learner it's not too long before she can start him on beginner l...