Regency Romance: An Intriguing Invitation (Historical Billionaire Military Romance) (19th Century Victorian Romance)

by Sarah Thorn

  Her face must have betrayed her thoughts because the look on his changed and he leaned forward a little. “The clerk has already verified that Henry really did send for you. I would just like to see the letter he sent you because, as I said, we were all surprised to hear that he did this.”

  He opened the letter and read it quickly. She couldn’t tell what he thought by the look on his face. Then he refolded it and handed it back to her without a word about it.

  “I will take you to the family house so we can decide what to do.”

  It was Olive’s turn to look surprised. She tilted her head and bunched her skirt up in one hand. “What to do? I don’t understand. I was supposed to be picked up and taken back to the home where I would be married and stay with Henry. What is going on?”

  Eric looked down, pressing his cheek out with his tongue and then licking his lips, nervously. “I’m afraid there’s been an accident.”

  Olive frowned and tilted her head to the side. “An accident? What kind of accident? What do you mean? Is Henry all right?”

  He hesitated before answering, glancing over her shoulder and out the window. She wondered what he was thinking and what had happened.

  “I’m afraid not,” Eric answered, finally, dropping his eyes back to her face. “He’s been killed.”

  Chapter Two

  Olive didn’t know how to feel. She followed Eric to the wagon in silence. She hadn’t known Henry other than from the letters. He’d sounded like a decent man, a good man. But Eric didn’t seem too broken up about the loss of his brother. He was, in fact, quite complacent, helping her into the wagon and snapping the horses into action with a whistle and a flick of the reins.

  “I’m sorry you’ve been shocked by this, Olive,” Eric said once they were on the road. “I am afraid he didn’t tell anyone that you were coming.”

  “Why would he do that? Why didn’t he tell you? You’re his brother.”

  Eric nodded. She looked at him with narrow eyes, scanning his face closely. He had a strong profile, and she thought he was very good-looking. She wondered what Henry had looked like and if they had shared any traits.

  “Yes, but we aren’t a close family. We don’t have a lot of time we spend together. We all do our own thing.”

  “How many of you are there?”

  “Henry is the oldest brother. Then there’s me. We have a younger brother and three younger sisters.”

  Olive’s heart sank. “You have a big family.”

  Eric shrugged. “Not too big. It’s about regular size, I’d say.”

  Olive thought about her family back in Virginia. There were too many people in that house. No matter how big the house got, there still seemed to be too many people in it. She wondered if that’s what it would be like where she was going, too. It made her want to jump out of the wagon and throw herself in front of the horses.

  She realized Eric was looking at her and lowered her head, blushing.

  “Don’t look so horrified, Olive,” Eric said, gently. “We are good people. You don’t have to worry about not being accepted.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not that. My family in Virginia was large, as well. I was praying to get away from that.”

  Looking at her, Eric was surprised that she mentioned praying. She didn’t look like the type that would consult God to help her. She looked like she relied on herself more than anything else. “What is your family in Virginia like? Do you have a lot of brothers and sisters?”

  She nodded. “I have four brothers older than me and three sisters younger. Not to mention my aunt and uncle moved in last year and brought their four children with them. They are all hellions. Little ones, 6, 8, 10 and 12.”

  Eric raised his eyebrows and whistled. “That’s a lot of people in the house.”

  “Yes,” Olive said simply, her voice cold. “It was.”

  “Our family isn’t that big.” Eric consoled her. “And we don’t have any little children around anymore. We’re all grown.”

  “Your sisters don’t have children?”

  “Not yet.”

  “So they are married?”

  “My sister Helen is. My other sister Jane isn’t, and we don’t expect that any time soon. My youngest sister is only sixteen and not ready for those thoughts.”

  “They don’t live in the family home anymore?”

  “Helen and Matthew have a home. My brother William and his wife Cynthia also have a home. But neither have children.”

  Olive thought for a moment, her heart calming down a bit. That eliminated a lot of her grievance. “Where are you taking me?”

  “I will take you back to the family home, where me and my brothers and sisters grew up. You can stay in one of the rooms until we…” He stopped. He’d been about to say “figure out what to do with you” but that sounded rude and harsh. His heart was soft for Olive. He felt sorry for her because she was in a strange place with people she didn’t know very far away from her home. But he also felt a little relief for her. Henry had not been the best character in the world. It didn’t come as much of a surprise to find he had ordered a bride from the East. It was more of a surprise that anyone had responded.

  The letter he’d written to Olive didn’t sound like him at all. Eric had been taken aback by the letter but hadn’t mentioned it to her. Best to let her think his brother had been a good man than to reveal the truth, even if she realized how closely she had dodged a bullet. Plus, she was a beautiful woman and in his heart, he knew Henry would never have treated her well, even with her beauty. He was impressed by her long black hair and smooth pale skin. Her lips were small but full and stood out in her features. She had light green eyes, another aspect that had surprised him. Dark hair and light green eyes were a rare combination that Eric wasn’t sure he’d ever seen before. He liked it.

  “I know you must be nervous and upset about this but please don’t be. We will make things all right for you. We won’t ship you back to your…huge family.” He smiled at her, and she felt a wash of warmth flow through her when she looked at him. He was being so nice to her. How could she stay in a sour mood?

  “I appreciate you not sending me back.” She jostled into him when the wagon went over a hole in the road. “Oh! I’m so sorry!” She looked up at him fearfully, righting herself in the seat and pressing her hands together in her lap as if that would keep her steady.

  He laughed. “You nearly knocked me off the wagon, woman!” He said in a teasing tone.

  She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling.

  “It’s okay, Olive.” He continued to smile at her.

  She pulled in a silent breath and held it for a moment, letting it out slowly. She was trying very hard not to be nervous. She was truly surrounded by strangers now. Henry was her only contact, and he was apparently dead.

  “So what happened to Henry?” She asked and then was terrified she had overstepped by asking the question.

  “He was thrown from his horse this afternoon and landed in the creek behind the house. Hit his head on a rock. He was gone before anyone got to him.”

  “I hope he didn’t suffer much.”

  Eric shook his head. “Not likely. From the size of that rock and the way he was…laying there, I don’t think he was conscious at all. Probably went like that.” He snapped his fingers. He looked at her again with worried eyes, his smile gone. He didn’t want to frighten her any more than she already was. “How long did you correspond with him?” He asked the question to distract from the current topic. He didn’t want to see his brother in his mind lying in the creek bed any more than he wanted to talk about it.

  “We exchanged letters for several months. I wrote four to him, the first being the initial response to his ad.”

  “So he put an ad in a newspaper in the East? Where exactly are you from again?”

  “I was living in a little town in Virginia.”

  “Virginia is a long way from here. You must not be used to the scenery or the weather here
at all.”

  “No.”

  “You will find that things are very different here, where that’s concerned. Most of the women who are here dress…” He eyed her. “Very differently. I see you have a lot of…clothes on. You must be hot.”

  “I am surprised you could not already see that.” Once the words were out, she regretted them. It seemed she was just putting her foot in her mouth every time it opened. She would have to learn to keep quiet and not burst out with her comments willy-nilly. It was inappropriate for her to speak to him that way and she knew it. All he had to do was turn around and take her back to the train station and send her back.

  When she looked up at him, however, she didn’t think he would do that. He didn’t seem at all bothered by her constant verbal flubs. Back home, she’d had to blurt out what was on her mind if she expected ever to be heard from. If one person wasn’t talking, someone else usually was. She’d never been the girl to stand in the back of the room, pressed up against the wall with her mouth shut. She tried to be polite and respectful the way her parents had trained her to be. But typically she failed at that and just spoke whenever she thought someone might be listening.

  Eric was watching her face change as she thought to herself. She was quite the mystery. One moment, she looked serene and at peace. The next, her brow was furrowed, and she looked like she might become sick. He wished he could read her mind, just for a moment.

  Instead, he prayed quickly for guidance. She’s a nervous sort, it seems, Lord, he thought, and I don’t want to frighten her. Let me speak the right words to comfort her and relieve her of her nervousness.

  “Do you want me to tell you about my family?” He asked, keeping his voice as gentle as possible.

  “That would be nice, thank you,” Olive responded.

  “Well…” He began. “I was born in a stable because my ma and pa didn’t…”

  He stopped when Olive started giggling and looked down at her with wide eyes. “What did I say?”

  “You don’t have to go that far back.” She couldn’t help giggling while she said it and she wondered if he even understood her.

  “Oh.” He started to laugh with her. “I thought you wanted the complete story.”

  They both laughed.

  “But seriously…” Eric finally continued when she was reduced to giggling again. “My brothers and sisters and I never had a lot when growing up, just the house we lived in. We have had to work for a long time, real hard, on the farm and in the shops to keep food on the table. My ma stayed home and taught us all to read and write. My pa worked in the grain mill for as long as I can remember. He still works there. He’s a strong, healthy man and I hope to be that way when I’m his age. In the last ten years, though, he started adding on to the family house. You would think we were wealthy.” He looked down at her. “But we’re not really.”

  “Wealth means very little if you aren’t leading a good healthy life,” she responded without thinking first. “That’s good to hear, your pa is a strong man. My papa is an engineer. He works for North Eastern Trains. He develops new techniques for making trains safer for passengers and to transport goods across America.”

  “That sounds like a very prestigious job. He must make a lot of money doing that.”

  “He does.” Olive said bluntly. “But the rest of my family doesn’t do anything. So he’s supporting everyone.”

  “Your uncle doesn’t work?”

  “No. He was injured in the war and can’t walk. My aunt pushes him around in a rolling chair, and he complains almost constantly. It’s not fun to listen to him nor to be around him any more than necessary.”

  Eric saw her good mood vanishing. He began to regale her with a tale of a time when he, his brothers and sisters had all gone swimming in the creek behind their house in one of the deepest holes and how a frog had jumped up on his sister’s back, scaring her so badly she screamed and almost drowned.

  The way he told the story made it much funnier than it would have been. Helen had been surrounded by her siblings so there wouldn’t have been a way for her to drown.

  “Unless we all turned our backs,” he concluded and looked down at her. “And we never would have done that. We may not be that close now, but when we were young, we were much closer.”

  “How many years are between you?”

  “Somewhat like stepping stones,” Eric responded. “There’s about a year and a half between each of us, except Amy. She was our surprise miracle.”

  “Your mother must have been very happy about that.” Olive snorted. Once again, she felt her cheeks flush when the words came out.

  Eric chuckled. “I’m not too sure she enjoyed those years, to tell you the honest truth. I’m sure she would have lost her mind if my pa hadn’t been there to help and Aunt Helen, too. One of my sisters is Helen, named after her. It was Henry, then me, then Helen, then Jane and then my younger brother, William and our little sister, Amy. She’s sixteen, so that’s the youngest we go. Henry has his own land and…he had his own house and property. I guess that will be sold to pay…his debts.”

  Olive frowned. “Was he in debt?”

  Eric shrugged. “He had some debts, yes. He was a businessman. He had debts.”

  Olive didn’t say anything more about that. It was pointless to dwell on information about a man she would never meet. Since she had not married him, she was not entitled to inherit anything from him. “And where do you reside?”

  “I keep a loft in town over one of the shops. Usually…” He hesitated, whistled at the horses and pulled the reins so that they would miss another large hole in the road. “Usually, I just stay at the family home. I like to be there for ma when I need to be.”

  “She isn’t sick, is she?”

  He shook his head. “No. Just small and frail.” He gave her another teasing grin. “Like you.”

  Olive smiled at him. She may have looked small and frail on the outside, but she felt like a large wolf inside. She would repress that instinct with everything she had, for fear of losing her new home.

  Chapter Three

  When Eric finally announced they were close to the house and pointed it out to her, she was relieved. It was placed at the back of long path that looked like it had seen many, many wagon wheels. There was some greenery around, long strips of grass along the side of the path and trees of varying shapes and sizes giving them much needed shade. She was glad to see the color because she had been afraid it would be nothing but dirt as far as the eye could see. She had, in fact, pictured something similar to the Sahara Desert, which she had never seen a picture of but was fully aware existed.

  Virginia was covered in green, the mountains, the plains, the trees, bushes and shrubs. There was much vegetation in Virginia. There was very little here.

  She noticed the cacti growing all around her and wondered at the different types there were. Some had round flat sections with tiny needles sticking out of them and others had arms reaching up to the sky with very long, scary-looking needles in them.

  “Try to stay away from the cacti,” Eric said, noticing her staring. She turned her wide green eyes to him, and he felt his heart squeeze. He gave a nervous laugh and looked back toward the house. “Those needles are not our friends.”

  She looked back at the cacti and nodded, murmuring, “I’ll surely stay away from them.”

  They pulled up in front of the house, and Eric called to his mother, who was standing on the porch, waiting for them. She was holding a lantern high up in the air, which for her was about five and a half feet. Eric quickly exited the wagon and came around to the other side to help Olive down. The light from his mother’s lantern lit up the stairs and the porch so they could see.

  “Thank you, ma. I appreciate you waiting out here.”

  “It’s a nice night out, dear.” His mother turned her cheek toward him to receive her kiss. He greeted her by taking her hand, leaning to kiss her cheek and smiling at her.

  “This is Olive Kelsey.” Eric
took a step back to allow his mother to see Olive fully. “She’s the woman Henry sent for.”

  “Yes.”

  Olive took in the older woman with much curiosity. She didn’t look like she could be the mother of such fully grown men. Though her hair was streaked with white, the blond that it had been almost hiding that fact. Her face was nearly wrinkle-free, and her eyes sparkled in the light of the lantern as if she had just thought of a delightful prank she wanted to play on someone.

  Eric took the lantern from her so that she could approach Olive.

  Olive’s heart stopped for a moment, thinking she might not meet Mrs. Lewis’ approval, and she would be sent away.

  Mrs. Lewis reached out to her, taking one of her hands gently. “You must be frightened beyond imagination, my girl. Why don’t you come inside and have some ham biscuits and hot tea? I would bet you haven’t eaten for many, many hours.”

  “You would win that bet, Mrs. Lewis,” Olive said, the mention of food suddenly bringing sharp hunger pains to her stomach. “I would love to have a bite to eat.”

  Mrs. Lewis nodded. “And I’ll bet you are exhausted, too. Ready for a good sleep?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Mrs. Lewis patted her hand softly and nodded again. “I have made up a bed for you in one of the back rooms. You will be safe and warm there. But first, we must get something in that very small stomach of yours.”

  “I’d be ever so grateful for that, Mrs. Lewis.”

  The older woman shook her head. “You mustn’t call me Mrs. Lewis since you will be made part of the family. You may call me Hannah. That is my given name.”

  Olive felt a bit of confusion drape over her. “I…I was coming for…Henry. He’s…gone, isn’t he?”

  She wished she hadn’t brought it up, but she hadn’t understood the woman’s statement and needed clarification that she wasn’t losing her mind. She took a chance and glanced at Eric, who was just standing, staring at them with a peaceful look on his face.

  She wondered what he was thinking.

  Hannah’s face dropped a bit. “Yes, my oldest son was killed in an accident today. We are having a feast tonight to honor him and will bury him tomorrow. You must join us for some food and wine and then off to bed you go.”