“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.