As she sat up, she modestly put her arm across her bare breasts, and held out her left hand. Kit slipped the ring on her finger.
Olivia couldn’t think of anything to say. This was how it should have been. This was what should have happened. Was supposed to be. If this had happened then a lot of misery would have been avoided.
The sound of a dog and a man telling it to be quiet reached them. “Young Pete!” she said in alarm. “I forgot about him. He has a shotgun.”
Just as he’d done before, Kit reacted immediately. He went into army camouflage mode, slapping mud on his face and across his chest. He put a branch in his hair, then began yelling as he ran. Olivia stood back, laughing at the sight—but then, with a jolt, she remembered Arrieta saying that sometimes people died in the past. Shotguns were serious. She grabbed their clothes, ran across the bridge, and headed for the wall. Just as in the past, Kit was there to pull her up and help her over. They ran through shady forest until they were well out of sight and hearing of Pete and his shotgun. Laughing, they couldn’t help but make love on the grass.
It was later, as they were dressing, that Kit saw that Olivia’s pretty pink bra was missing. “It’s all right.” Smiling, she thought about what Young Pete would do and the repercussions.
She looked back through the trees. They could just see the top of Camden Hall.
A wave of something very like homesickness went through her. Kit had bought the beautiful River House for her as a wedding gift. It was to be their first home together. With a sigh, she said, “I love that place. I think if I could live anywhere in the world, it would be there.”
Kit was buttoning his shirt and he tried to cover his frown, but she saw it. “If that’s what you want,” he said softly.
Olivia’s hair seemed to stand on end and anger ran through her. She did not like his tone! “I wasn’t asking you to buy it for me, if that’s what you think I was hinting at. Here! I think you should take this back.” She was tugging on the ring but it wouldn’t come off. It always did fit tightly.
Kit pulled her into his arms. “I think our lives are going to be bigger than this town. I might be like my family and live all over the world. Think you can handle that? Cairo in January? Wait until you see Bali. And Java. And—”
She pushed away from him, her annoyance showing. “That sounds great. But didn’t your family have a home base in the US?” Before he could answer, she stepped away. “I think we better get back. I need to cook dinner.”
*
Behind her, Kit was frowning. Something was off with Olivia but he didn’t know what it was. She was so odd today that it was as though she were a different person. As she’d run from a man with a shotgun, she’d been laughing. She seemed to think there was no real danger, that it was all a great joke.
And she’d said yes to his hurried marriage proposal. The Olivia he knew and loved would have made him work for it. Would have told him no a dozen times before she said yes. But this Olivia seemed to... Well, she hadn’t seemed surprised at his proposal. And the way she’d said yes sounded as though she was checking something off a list. Marriage seemed to be as equally important as telling the kids to wash their hands.
As for the house, he knew a hint when he heard it. Before, she’d been contemptuous of his background. But today, she seemed to want him to buy her an estate. Did the fact that he could afford such a large place have anything to do with her acceptance of his proposal?
No, not possible, he told himself. There had to be another reason for the way she was acting.
He caught up with her before they reached the broken fence at Tattwell, and he held her arm. “If something were wrong, you’d tell me, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, of course. It’s just that I have a lot of things to do.” I have to get Alan and his mistress together, she thought. I must make up to Kevin for what I did to him as a child! I have to arrange for my future.
With every second, what she must do was becoming stronger in her mind. With a weak smile, she peeled Kit’s hand off her arm.
“Tonight—”
She cut him off. “I think you and I should cool it for a while with the sex. I wouldn’t want to get pregnant.”
Kit was astonished at her words. “You know I always use protection.”
“I really do have to go. I have people to feed.” Turning, she ran ahead of him toward the house.
Kit watched her run. “‘Cool it’?” he whispered. “Who are you? And what did you do with my Olivia?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
When Olivia got to the house, she saw that her mother had cooked dinner for everyone.
She heard a TV on and was glad to be able to escape unnoticed. She went to her room and stretched out on her bed. She needed time to think—and remember. She’d spent a glorious afternoon with Kit and she had a ring on her finger, but had she truly changed the most important thing? Soon after the military came to get Kit, she went back to New York. She’d starred in a few performances of Pride and Prejudice—to excellent reviews—then found out she was pregnant.
Olivia hit the old pillows with her fists. Memories that she had repressed for so many years were coming back to her. Finding out she was expecting had been the low point of her life. To her mind, her life was finished. She’d gone from being on top of the world, to standing at the bottom of a dark pit.
It was Dr. Everett, Ace’s father, who she’d called, crying hard as she told him her predicament. He’d arranged everything. She was to spend the months at a facility for unwed mothers in Jacksonville, Florida. She was to give the child up for adoption. Back then, unmarried mothers were looked down on. Olivia didn’t want to do that to her child or her family. She’d made Dr. Everett swear not to tell her parents. Since he well knew that her father’s heart wasn’t strong, he agreed to tell no one.
During those months at the home, she hadn’t been alive. She’d existed, her belly growing, but she hadn’t felt part of the human race.
The pregnancy had been easy, but the birth was long and difficult. When she woke up from the anesthesia, her child—who she never saw—was gone and a doctor told her that she’d never have any more children. In the ’70s, doctors didn’t tell patients the details of what happened to their bodies. It was considered too complicated for them to understand.
But Dr. Everett didn’t keep his vow of secrecy. Not fully, anyway. He arranged for Estelle Latham, a high school classmate of Olivia’s, to adopt her child. Since Estelle had recently miscarried, she told everyone in Summer Hill that she’d given birth to the pretty little girl.
As soon as Olivia had recovered enough physically, she went home to Summer Hill.
That was when she found out that her entire personality had changed. She no longer had any goals. She felt that she didn’t, well, didn’t deserve them. Her feeling of being invincible, that nothing bad could happen to her, was gone.
For a while she stayed with her parents. They tried to get her to talk to them, but she wouldn’t. They assumed it was a love affair gone wrong. Truthfully, they were so glad to have her back that they didn’t pry too hard. Uncle Freddy offered her a job with him, but Olivia couldn’t bear to see the place or the people.
She got a job at Trumbull Appliances, and soon afterward married Alan and took on the care of his son. Olivia never told him about her baby, just that she couldn’t have children. He’d said that was all right with him, but several times over the years he’d given a great sigh and said he would have liked to have a daughter. Olivia’s response had been to work harder.
She didn’t know that she often saw her daughter. Estelle’s husband, Henry, got a job in a bank in Pennsylvania and they moved, but they returned to Summer Hill at holidays and they attended the same church.