The two women stared at him like they were watching a ghost draw near. He wore an expression like he'd never left, though Tillie could hardly recognize this man as her brother. She'd been eight when he left.  Ada was pale as a sheet. Her little Ewan turned into the phantom of her deceased husband. It was startling. Did he realize how similar the set of his jaw was to his father? Those two had been so alike, in ways neither of them had been willing to see.<br/><br/>Her lips parted in modest distress when he took his young sister up into his arms. Matilda, who was never one to be on the back foot, seemed equally as startled. The girl made a small sound, shock and confusion, when Ewan stole her kiss. She went stiff in his arms, a hot flush rising to her pretty cheeks, and a muffled protest that died when he insisted on a deeper taste of her virginal mouth. Tillie had never kissed a man. When she'd gotten old enough to develop immoral curiosities, Tillie had explored them in ways that left her with a sense of control. Blushing girls who'd been willingly confused by Matilda's sweet-smelling hair and sun-gold eyes. It had left her with the poor assumption that she was experienced. The taste of her brother's lips was something altogether different. She was unsteady when he set her aside, wide-eyed and gasping. She had a hand to her chest, to still its rapid rise and fall.<br/><br/>"Ewan," Ada had the sense to reprimand him, as a mother ought. It was unthinkable for him to return home and behave so brashly. She was about to scold him, to tell him to be kind to his sister, when he came to loom over her as well. She had still been at his eye-level when he'd left home. Now, she was staring up at him like she was struggling to understand the change. He was being unfair to the women, holding firmly the upper-hand in this encounter. His family had not had the chance to understand what it was to have Ewan returning home. They'd not had the chance to consider the changes time and experience had offered the man in the last decade and the ways in which it had changed them, as well. He kissed her the way Henley would kiss her when he came home from work and business had been good. It felt like the worst sort of nostalgia, the better parts of a flawed man unearthed and brought to the tip of her tongue, like a tune she'd forgotten she cared for.<br/><br/>Matilda was still recovering when he took both their hands. "Papers?" she said, shaking her head because she didn't totally understand. The Bradshaw Supply company had been running under the care of Willem Maynard, who had been a director under her father. He'd felt a great deal of fealty toward the late Bradford patriarch and made it his business to keep the departed man's estate and kin in monetary comfort through dutiful administration of the company--now ostensibly held by Mrs. Bradford in a strict sense. Tillie had taken it upon herself to remain apprised of those things, modern sort of girl that she fancied she was. "What do you mean papers?" She asked, and she sounded a bit awed. This was what it was to be a man, she supposed, that Ewan could simply reappear and take the family crown as his birthright. She touched her lips absently. How fascinating.<br/><br/>Ada followed Tillie's wonder, if with less of a dazzled espression. "Plans for our family? I..." Ada stood straight then, adjusting the high collar of her dress in a smart motion. "Tell you what happened?" she was staring at him in the incredulous way she'd been prone to when he was young, and would ask her unreasonable things as children were wont to do. "Your father passed away nearly five years ago. You haven't seen Matilda since she was a child. How dare you come into this house so casually." Ada snapped. Her son might be a man now, but he was still her wayward boy. The small woman balled her hands into irate fists. "I believe it's you that owe us an explanation, Ewan. Not the other way around."<br/><br/>"Mother..." Tille started, a more timid voice than the cheeky girl would ever both to use for anyone else. Ada's gaze shifted, and Tillie shrank back. "Ah... I... it's good to see you again, Brother. I missed you." She mumbled, turning her face away from the other two.<br/><br/>Abraham was shooing Josephina back inside the house, a little urgent in his surprise. It felt wrong to intrude on this reunion. He took the bag he'd dropped on the way. "Let's leave the Bradshaws to their privacy," he said quietly. He said it out of respect, but it sounded a little like discomfort. Josephina, who had not stopped blushing, nodded dumbly. Ewan Bradshaw had turned into such a handsome man, and she had the good sense to feel a little guilty about being jealous of the lady Bradshaws and their kisses.