Kitty shrugged, "They will do it anyway."

She smiled a little as she answered Ruth, "Oh yes, this entire house was a project straight from his heart. You should see what he did in the bathroom. The tilin' is so fancy and pretty. " She wished he was here but she was certainly capable of handling anyone. If not with words, a punch to the jaw tended to work alright. But Ruth had been just fine so far, it almost made her wonder if she was adopted.

"Oh must have been excitin. I love a little traveling, and will take train almost any day. But I swear, bein on a boat for days was maddening. Just water everywhere." She shook her head. "Got bored of the boat in two days. Maybe one day I'll look around the other countries." Of course she didn't speak French or most other places, but that wouldn't stop her.

Kitty shrugged. "I'd actually been born in Liverpool, not that I remember much." She laughed softly as she rocked in her chair and sipped the lemonade. " But there's lots of tiny places in the states. But this place is.. " She thought on the perfect word. "Wilderness." She didn't mean the kind that was open spaces full of trees and dangerous animals. It was the wilderness you found in compact cities where things festered in the surface. But this wasn't a crowded city that trapped someone. She liked the challenge of Whitby.

Ruth nodded. Exactly.

Ruth fought back the urge to go with an even longer “Really?” And raised her eyebrows. “All on his own? We have a potential architect in the family. I never knew Uriel had such passion for this type of planning. I wonder how the idea came to him” And she immediately proceeded to drown her smirk in the lemonade. She wasn’t going to offend Kitty and at least part of her was genuinely impressed by the idea of her brother thinking about construction material and floor planning. She thought he’d rather stick to things that had already been done.”

“It is indeed damp.” She agreed, not managing to keep the Ruth in. Ruth smiled a little and shook her head “It is a pity this is what works for you, if you could have been on the continent, you could have gone really far without ever seeing a boat. And you could have absolutely found anything to your taste: mountains, forest, planes, flat shores, rocky shores, lakes, if *some* water is to your liking.” It was to her liking, the tone implied. She drank a little more lemonade.

Ruth raised her eyebrows. “Really?” Now, that was something. Something that would definitely come up in later conversations with her family. Ruth smiled when Kitty mentioned the “wilderness” and was surprised to find herself associating that to Kitty less than she had expected. But then, again, the woman had to be able to live with Uriel *somehow*. “And that doesn’t scare you.” She remarked.

Kitty either didn't notice or ignored the subtle implications in Ruth's words. She just smiled and shrugged as she rocked. "He has decided he likes doin things with his hands. I honestly don't know. I was livin quite happy in my own house by the graveyard." She said but looked away. "Uriel knew I didn't like the location, but a new place was so much." The wind as relaxing and she focused on it.

She rose her brow and glanced towards the other woman. "I had to go over the Atlantic ta get here. When I had my accident, my mom wanted ta care for me until I recovered well. After that, I thought I had a callin..' She stared hard at a dog that was sniffing around the yard at nothing in particular. "It was a little bit half tryin my hand at bein good, and half rebellin. Then I came here, and I met Uriel. So I hadn't the chance really. But I still have my whole life ahead of me. And I've seen loads of that other stuff before elsewhere."

At the question of it scaring her, Kitty laughed. "Every place can be scary if ya worry about the things ya don't see. I can be scared, but it doesn't control me. " She rocked for only a second and sipped her lemonade again. "You ever seen a buffalo before?" She glanced over though she was quite certain this woman hadn't spent her time around large beasts outside of a zoo.

Ruth didn’t trust herself to rock much. Despite her agility, in new environment she tended to have the stability of a stupid parrot and didn’t want to lose face just yet. She shrugged “My brother has many talents and is good at surprising people. It’s one of his best quality, really.” She said, trying to not sound sarcastic. She didn’t mean to diss Uriel, really, she was honestly being complimentary, she just had a natural tendency to sound sarcastic and flippant, especially when it came to her family in general. She wondered why. She also forcibly lowered her tone of voice.

Kitty took her too seriously, maybe, so Ruth tried to make herself look more serious. It was a hard task, considering her hat. Ruth turned to the dog, trying to imagine Kitty and her call. Ruth was tempted to inquire more, but they didn’t know each other well enough for her to ask about he calling. It was very foreign to her as a concept and as with most unknown things, it made her terribly curious. She nodded “You will get the chance to travel if you decide so, eventually. And plus, your husband has put together idyllic corner of the world for you, so there is no need to rush to better things.”

Ruth blinked a few times, forgetting her lemonade for a moment. She shook her head. How could she possibly have? She raise her eyebrows “Do you have one here?” She looked around. Her idea of buffalos included the need for wide open spaces. Did Whitby have that?

Kitty was curious about the tone, but she focused on the words themselves to keep it simple. "I agree. Uriel has shown such a hard working, artistic side I never knew he had in him. Have you ever told him that?" It was really nice to hear someone compliment him, after she'd heard so much of them telling Uriel about the mistakes he was making.

There was a quiet as she rocked and listened to Ruth. She rocked back and forth for a bit before she nodded slightly. "Oh that is so true, I could travel when I am better and Abe isn't so little. Maybe we will. But you are right, this is a wonderful place in the universe. It reminds me of home but I have my new family here." She smiled brightly looking quite content.

Hearing the other, she started to giggle. "Oh, no no! They need a lot of space and they are very big." She stretched out her arms wide. "But I've seen them. I was mentioning it, since you made it sound like I had been lacking something having not seen this continent, but I saw a good bit of another. ' She gave Ruth a small smile. "There is a lot all over to see, and I don't think I'll ever get to see all of it. But I certainly think I've seen plenty. If I became unable to see more of this place, I don't think I missed out so terribly. Perhaps though, if I do travel, you can give me some suggestions?"

Ruth looked a little incredulous “I… don’t think so,” what, openly sharing appreciation for one of her siblings? What was that, a healthy, functioning family? No Ruth, no, best she could do was compliments dressed up as snarky remarks.

Before she could realise what she was doing, Ruth too had started rocking back and forth at the same speed as Kitty. It was really quite an odd feeling and she had no idea why she was doing that, but it was fun. It felt alien yet comforting, like actually complimenting Uriel. She listened to Kitty excitement and quickly understood why she felt so compelled to imitate her: she admired her positivity, the joy she seemed to be able to feel for the life she had built for herself. She had just stopped and savour. “It must be wonderful.” It’s all she managed to say. She had seen very little of Whitby so far and had just peeked the farm and the house. She was curious, but also very sure she was going to get a tour, at some point.

Ruth sighed, a little disappointed, but also reassured she wasn’t about to meet the only buffalo on British soil. Ruth shook her head “Oh no, I am sure there is so much to see in general. I only mentioned it because that’s what I have seen.” Ruth answered “I’d love to see the buffalos. And the Grand Canyon. And the mountains over there.” She shared, with a big smile that made her look almost calm, sort of like a druid or a forest witch. Ruth nodded. She would “Well, this one is your favourite, if you know nothing will compare, I can imagine you might lose interest in seeing it.” It was something hard for her to imagine, but she had a different lot in life and made different choices.

Kitty looked to the other woman without surprise but disappointment. "Ya should. I'm sure he's gotta lot he could say that's nice about you. Yer family seems scared ta love one another and say good things. It might be why yer all stretched out so far apart." Maybe being married has been good for Uriel, he's been seeing more family, even if it hadn't ended well.

As she relaxed and watched over the yard before them, she let the comforting quiet and peace fill her. It was nice here, and she knew she was lucky. She had a good man, and a healthy son, and a beautiful little patch of heaven on earth that Uriel had built for her. "It is. It's more than I could have ever hoped for. I'll give ya a tour in just a little bit. Let you see all that makes this place special. It might not be your sort of thing, but everyone is allowed their personal tastes." She shrugged and sipped her lemonade.

Her fingers tapped at the arm of the chair , "Oh it is beautiful there. I am happy I got to see such wonders. And I hope you get to do the same. I hope I get to see the things here that are nice too." She gave her a warm, welcoming smile. "It might not compare, but this is home. It should be something special to make me wanna come back to it at the end of the day, right? A sort of simple comfort that means safety and peace. That's home ta me. I don't know what's home ta you, but ain't no worries if your heart still feels like wondering. I can relate. I traveled for years."

She took another long sip of lemonade. "I like ya Ruth, yer not like that brother of yours, Zechariah, or most of those at the wedding. So tell me.. what does the family think about me? I'm sure they've been whisperin all sorts of rumors or ideas." She looked to her for the truth before looking back at the nice scenery.

Ruth did not take the disappointment as an offence. She was used to “strangers” not being used to her family dynamic. Kitty was technically part of the family, but practically she had experienced very little of the internal tension that always dominated Fater’s house and couldn’t understand how they had all turned out like that. But also, she wasn’t wrong. “Might be, yes. We also have our ways, you know,” terrible ones, possibly but she didn’t know any better. Also, with few notable exceptions, they all had… let’s say a lot of personality.

Ruth nodded in a grateful fashion. She was very curious to see what her brother’s idea of paradise looked like. Apparently he was way more invested in this than she had ever imagined. Why she hadn’t imagined she wasn’t sure, considering how much of a scandal his marriage had been. Ruth shrugged “I’ll decide once I’ll see it. Also, I can tell if music is well composed even if I don’t like it,” and there she went, starting with musical metaphors.

Ruth nodded. She hoped that too, even if right now she had to fuck off to the middle of nowhere to avoid scandal, fix her finances and… and all the rest she didn’t want to think about. Ruth blinked a few times. She had lived a very party adjacent life style. For her, home is where music happened, safety and peace had never really been part of her vocabulary nor experience. Even in that case, though, she couldn’t prevent herself from smiling at Kitty’s sympathy. She wasn’t just sweet, she was patient and uncomplicated. Her kindness seemed to demand nothing back.

Ruth finished her lemonade and barely managed not to spat a the mention of her brother. Zech would have had a few choice words on the subject. Or at least a specific expression. Or potentially a long, powerful laugh. And the rest… Ruth widened her eyes “Oh, I’m sure you hear that well enough without me telling you. No one is exactly subtle, I’m afraid.” She massaged her temple, virtually tortured by the reminder of how most of the members of her family talked to each other. Scared to love one another. That was fitting.

"Yeah, I can see you have yer ways. I also haven't seen any of ya seem genuinely happy ta see each other." Kitty offered. It wasn't her place, but it was her business. She'd joined into the family when she married Uriel and she wanted to give him some happiness outside of just what she could personally give.

Kitty shrugged as she sipped her lemonade. "A good home needs more than a solid structure." She said. "And it isn't as ya can't fix it repeatedly. Once you built a building, you haveta hope it doesn't fall and you haveta live with it." She laughed softly as she let the breeze play with some of her loose hair.

Ruth had gone quiet but she nodded and even smiled. That was enough of a response and Kitty smiled back. She did like Ruth more than the others that she'd met. She seemed to listen and consider her words. She relaxed in the chair and let the rocking soothe her spirit. It was probably like being rocked as a baby, and reached some deep dormant nostalgia.

Kitty looked towards the other woman, curiously. "Yeah? I do prefer people ta say things to my face, otherwise I could miss it. I was sure they'd said things I hadn't heard, glad to see it isn't so. I do hate two faced types." She finished her own lemonade and grabbed her cane to get up. "Since we finished, let me put up the glasses and show ya around."

Ruth shrugged. She wanted to say it wasn’t true, that they just weren’t in the habit of letting each other know… but she figured that wasn’t the point. “I would be happy to see Uriel.” She wasn’t lying, but also, she would have not told that to her brother’s face. She didn’t want him to have a stroke.

Ruth smiled slightly, with just part of her mouth “What does it need? Children?” She heard that a lot. And she had been nice enough so far, she needed to behave a little like yourself. Ruth nodded, though the metaphor was lost on her, on multiple levels. She never built much in her life and all she made that she could call her own could be transported in a bag or her head.

Somehow, she felt comfortable staying silent around Kitty. Staying silent in general wasn’t something she enjoyed, so it was all the more special. It was also special that she asked “Would you mind if I hummed something?” She would normally shout her lungs out if she so pleased.

Ruth bent her head to the side and blinked “They disapprove of your age gap with Uriel, of your professional life, probably of your “Americanness” and probably a million and a half small things they won’t care to say clearly because yiddish sounds more offensive to gentile ears.” She put it plainly, since Kitty was worried. She was not going to shy away a second time. Ruth nodded and offered the glass back to Kitty.