For Kelkyag‘s Prompt.

Aunt Family have a landing page here.

1802

“Here.” Carrie and Thomas glanced at each other, and then back at the land, and nodded.

“The road’s almost here, it won’t take us much to bring it this far. We’ll put the main house right on the road, and then we can build two more there and there,” Carrie pointed down the road a ways, “and a small place over there.”

“Woah, woah.” Thomas grinned at Carrie. “The small house is for your sister, then? Sarah? What are the others for?”

“This one will be for us, of course. But Elizabeth and William won’t be children forever. And there will be more.”

“Let’s build the big house first.” Thomas smiled indulgently at his wife. “The Bakers will help us, and Robert Gunnerson down the way. We helped them with their places.”

“The big house first.” Carrie set her hands on her still-flat stomach. “We’ll need it. And we can always build on later.”

~~

Twenty-five years later

“You weren’t born yet, of course.” Elizabeth pointed her sisters’ husbands towards a corner of the tiny “Aunt Cottage.” “When we moved into the big house. But by the time you were three months old, Father had already built the cottage. It’s not that Mother had a problem with Aunt Sarah, but it was more that they were much happier separated by a few acres and a few walls.”

“And you think I’ll be happier that way, separated by you by a few walls? More walls,” Harriet teased, “since you have all the men in the family building you a room onto the back of the cottage.”

“That’s for the school.” Elizabeth was, as always, placid, calm, and far too sure of herself. “And, yes. I do believe with your own child on the way, you and John will be happier to have your big sister out of your hair.”

“The house hasn’t been lived in in over a decade, Elizabeth…” Harriet was protesting mostly out of form. She, Elizabeth, their mother, William’s wife June, and their younger sister Emily had scrubbed the house down to bare wood.

“By this point, wherever Aunt Sarah vanished off to, I think it’s safe to say she’s not coming home.” Elizabeth picked up the brown tabby cat who had been ghosting around the family farm, and cuddled it against her chest. “If she does return, well, now we’ll have room for two maiden aunts.”

“You could still marry…?”

“Or I could do this. I think I’ll do this, thank you.” Elizabeth nodded at Harriet’s husband. “Thank you, Jesse. Glad to have the help around the place.”

“It’ll be nice for you to have your own house,” Harriet decided. Nice to have her sister no longer bossing her husband around, too.

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