Regency Romance: An Intriguing Invitation (Historical Billionaire Military Romance) (19th Century Victorian Romance) (47 page)

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?”