Nora had heard several stories of how people had ended up in the castle by now, but none of them had hit her quite like Leann's. That might be because it sounded similar to what Audrey could have experienced, if she had been in the car with the rest of the family. And how her parents had tossed her aside afterwards! She wondered if the whole family felt that way though. Leann hadn't mentioned her last name, maybe she didn't even know it, but would it be a way for Nora to find out? Or would that be intruding into Leann's life? She considered the woman a friend, one of the few who had genuinely tried to get to know her. She had noticed that most of the younger people listened to her as if she was their mother. And she treated many of them like they were her daughters. Well, she had been there when this was still fresh, for most of them. Just like Audrey, she had adapted to her new surroundings because she had to.
How would she be able to find the details about a car accident from so far back though? And she didn't even know what part of the country Leann was from! Any accent she may have had had been removed to sound more like the pretend British accent they had all used at the castle. Though they had probably never traveled that far away from the castle, especially not that long ago.
Before Nora could explore that idea further, a few of the ones that had gone down to meet their families came back. Some of them had huge smiles on their faces, though also bore signs of tears. Others were more mixed.
"How did it go?" Leann asked, getting over to them at once.
"Do you want to know, or would you rather not hear about it?"
"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to hear about it."
"Well, at least for me, it started very awkwardly. If it wasn't for the DNA result, they wouldn't have recognized me. I didn't recognize myself either, from the picture they brought. But when they started talking about our family and things we had done together, it all came back to me. Turns out, I've been missing for over 15 years. They apologized for giving up on me, but I don't blame them for that."
"I was much the same," one of the others said. "Though I've only been gone for 6 years. They had been working on getting me declared dead, but they are relieved that it hadn't gone through yet."
"Lucky you. I am legally dead, that's going to be a nightmare to fix."
"How about you, Eadgifu? How did it go with you?" Leann asked. Eadgifu had been among the ones that weren't smiling.
"I… don't know how to describe it. They all seemed convinced that I am their missing family member, but I don't remember them, and I don't dare to hope until we get the result of the DNA test. The woman especially seemed to want to hug me, but I managed to hold her off. I'm not sure what I will do, if the result is what we suspect. Why can't I remember anything, even with my family right in front of me?" She was crying as she said that. Leann gave her a hug. Nora felt horrible for her. She clearly wanted this to be her family but was also scared to get her hopes up.
For the rest of the day, the main focus was on consoling those that came back from meeting potential relatives. Nora was more worried about Audrey. She doubted anyone else noticed, but she was stressed. Probably because so many of them would be leaving. But that had been inevitable, hadn't it? She must have known that most of them wouldn't want to stay with this group, when they could be home with their family. Maybe it was because she was reminded of her own family. Nora had been surprised when Audrey actually told the full story to Leann. But Leann had just been very honest and vulnerable with them. And their stories were rather similar, despite being a generation apart. Leann really was old enough to be their mother. And she acted more and more like it. Hearing that she had lost a child in the accident made sense. She had never had a chance to be a mother, and then she had a lot of young people in a very vulnerable situation. It made sense that she tried to do her best to comfort them. But why had someone like Leann, and Audrey, continued to be theows? Was there no other way to become a churl than to be willing to hurt or restrain people? Nora didn't dare to ask such a question.
Nora hoped that Audrey wouldn't collapse again after most of the others had left. She suspected at least half, if not more, had somebody that missed them out there, even if they didn't know about it yet. For now, she went over to help Audrey make dinner. She hated feeling inadequate, but that was pretty much all she had felt, since she had seen Audrey again. She hadn't been enough to calm her down on the train and she wasn't always able to relate to what they had gone through. All she had done was cause her friend distress.
She mentally shook herself. Without her, Audrey wouldn't have recovered her memories, and she definitely wouldn't have been able to go to the FBI and get this place shut down. But why did that feel almost insignificant, compared to the helplessness of seeing her best friend cry over the death of a man she had barely even known? And her idea to go back to the castle! Would such a thing even be possible? Where would they get the money for such a thing?