"Is it bag pipes?" Elizabeth pulled her to the window then quickly grabbed a shawl off the nearby chair to wrap around her sister's shoulders.

"Mister Cook comes back from war," Mary smiled. "How wonderful."

"Can you see anything, my dear?" Caleb yelled, looking up at his wife.

Elizabeth squinted her eyes against the sun and looked beyond the fences to the tree-lined road until she spotted movement. "I can see a man . . . no two men," she yelled, before the figures disappeared behind the trees again.

"Is it Mister Cook?" Caleb shouted.

"I cannot quite make it out," One by one, other windows opened and three sets of twins, the Henderson's and two servants stuck their heads out.

The music grew louder. "Why, I do believe . . . Mary, I believe it is John," Elizabeth whispered. "Do you see him, Mary?" She turned to watch the joy on Mary's face, but Mary had shed the shawl and was out the door.

Mary raced down the stairs, through the kitchen, out the back door and up the lane with tears running down her cheeks.

"It is John," Elizabeth shouted, watching the rest of the family fly out the back door after Mary.

"Girls, let his Mother greet him first," Caleb yelled, racing after all three sets of twins.

"I see they have all anticipated me," Elizabeth mumbled, closing the window and wrapping Mary's discarded shawl around her own shoulders. "He has come at last."