by P. Creeden
Sunday, at church, Oliver sat with Mayor Mathew and his family while listening to the sermon. Occasionally he found his gaze wandering over toward the Walsh family. Hannah and Missy sat with Jake Wheeler and his wife, one of Hannah’s sisters. Their mother sat with the younger brother, Noah, and another of Hannah’s sisters, the one who was engaged to Fritz Brokken. Hannah had already mentioned to Oliver about the invitation to come for supper later that evening after church, and he could feel his stomach twist with excitement. He wanted to see if he might get the chance to speak to the family during the bit of fellowship after the service as well. Hannah’s profile flashed to him on occasion, and he couldn’t help but have his heart race each time in hopes she might glance back toward him—which she didn’t. And part of Oliver’s conscience pricked at him for having such scandalous thoughts during the pastor’s sermon.
It had been several years since he’d felt this way about a girl, since before he’d lost his leg in the war. Before he’d even heard there was a war to run off to. Even then, the girls he’d had interest in had been little more than schoolboy fancies. Women weren’t trustworthy—at least no woman in his past had ever been. They’d pretend to like him to get what they wanted. His mother often lied to his father. He’d yet to have a woman in his life not betray him. What made matters worse was the way they’d all do it behind a smile—a mask of beauty to hide the ugliness underneath. And then there was Hannah. Her every thought, every feeling was as plain as the expression on her face.
He let out a slow breath as the congregation stood for the last hymn. He strained to see if he could make out Hannah’s voice among the others, but the off-key, overloud singing of one of her sisters overpowered any other singing he attempted to fix his ear upon. The gaudy woman smiled proudly, as though she were the best among the singers in the congregation, but instead she only puffed herself up like a cock, strutting around the hens. Oliver’s jaw tensed. He hated that he thought that way about one of Hannah’s sisters, but she was exactly the kind of woman he avoided, and completely contrary to Hannah.
Unfortunately, the moment the song ended, Hannah and Missy ducked out of the rectory before Oliver could make it to the end of the pew. So many of the townspeople wanted to have a word with Mathew, and they blocked the only way Oliver could get past and try to catch her before she left. He let out a long sigh, but it quickly turned to a smile as Jake Wheeler spotted him and headed over his direction with Hannah’s family alongside him. They slid down the pew in front of Oliver to avoid the mayor and his constituents.
Jake offered Oliver a hand to shake as soon as he drew near enough. “Mr. Holt, I’d like to introduce you to my wife. This is Rebecca.”
The pleasant woman bobbed her head and offered a hand toward him. He shook it. “A pleasure, Mrs. Wheeler.”
Jake smiled and gestured to the others. “This young man is Noah Walsh, my brother-in-law. Their sister, Lydia, and of course my beautiful mother-in-law, Ora Walsh.”
“It’s so wonderful to meet you all. I’ve been hoping to have met with you sooner, but the activities with the children...” Oliver started.
“I hear my sister, Hannah Beth, has invited you for dinner. She’s making it special, herself,” the gaudy one, Lydia, said, hiding her sneer with a demure smile.
He fought a frown at her demeanor, which wasn’t hard since the news she offered him made his heart soar. “She is?”
“She doesn’t cook often,” said Noah. “But she’s a good cook when she does.”
“It’s not often she gets a gentleman caller, either,” the elder Mrs. Walsh said, studying him with a lifted brow.
Heat rushed to his cheeks. He cleared his throat but was unable to confirm nor deny the woman’s statement. In truth, he supposed he was a gentleman caller, but he didn’t think that Hannah would think that of him. At least not yet. Finally, he said, “I’m sure whatever Hannah makes, it will be delicious.”
The gaudy sister giggled behind her hand. He didn’t know how much of her presence he would be able to take. He supposed he’d have to swallow the bitter medicine with a spoonful of sugar. He’d need to get used to Lydia’s presence at least on occasion if he’d be joining the Walsh family.
What was he thinking?
Did he have designs on marrying Hannah? He hadn’t thought that far ahead yet, only that he wanted to win her heart. But to what end? He hadn’t considered it. But now that he did, he supposed that marriage was the logical step. It would solve many of their problems and keep him from having to move back east at the end of the semester. Now, how would he convince Hannah?
Chapter 9
Though supper had been a tense occasion at first for Hannah, Oliver actually got on well with her family and made her fall into a comfortable conversation along with the rest of them. It had been the right move to make sure Lydia wasn’t there, so that Hannah didn’t have to deal with Oliver falling for her older sister, and also because Lydia had a way of dominating the discussion and would have likely steered the course back to her favorite topic of late—the wedding.
Even Mama had laughed and enjoyed their time together, and because it was just Hannah, Missy, Noah, Mama, and Oliver, Hannah began to imagine that life wouldn’t be so bad, wouldn’t be so lonely, even after Jake and Rebecca rarely came by or when Lydia finally moved to the Broken Arrow Ranch.
After they’d sat for a long while over their empty bowls of cobbler, Oliver finally stood. “Thank you all for an absolutely wonderful supper. Hannah truly is an excellent cook and will make a fine wife.”
Heat rushed to Hannah’s cheeks and her gaze darted from him. She swallowed. Not that marriage was likely to happen for her, but for Oliver to say it, himself, made her feel a bit lightheaded. Hannah and Missy both stood to collect the bowls when Missy rested a hand on top of Hannah’s. “I can start cleaning up. Don’t worry about it, Miss Walsh. You have company.”
Hannah started to protest with a shake of her head.
“I’ll help her, Hannah Beth.” Noah stood and rushed into the kitchen area with Missy, leaving Hannah just blinking after him.
Mama stood, moving toward her rocker and her quilt. “They’re right, Hannah Beth. See to your company.”
Hannah began to feel even more flushed at everyone pushing her toward Oliver. She wasn’t sure how to do what they said, but she followed him toward the door. They stepped out onto the back porch together, and she shut the door behind her. A cool breeze had picked up when the sun went down. Across the way, a light shone in the upstairs of the livery, where Jake and Rebecca had made their own space a short distance from the family. When Hannah reached the bottom step, she pulled her shawl tighter around her and peered up at the stars.
“There’s something about looking up at the sky and seeing familiar constellations, like Orion. It helps me remember that no matter where I travel, there are things that remain the same.” Oliver stood next to her, pointing toward the same constellation where she’d been looking.
She nodded. “Have you traveled much?”
“Mostly I’ve just stayed in Virginia and Maryland. This is the farthest from my hometown of Richmond that I’ve ever been. But when I’d sat in the trenches of war, those few short months, it had felt like a different world entirely.” His voice was wistful and a little melancholic.
Hannah could hardly imagine. She didn’t really want to imagine. The two brothers she’d said goodbye to... and their father... never returned from the war. In some ways, she’d been jealous that Deborah Brokken’s brothers had all made it back, but she admonished herself. Deborah had lost her father, too. And at least Hannah had her sisters and Noah and Mama. She pulled her gaze from the sky and landed upon Oliver, who looked at her with a heated expression she didn’t recognize. Her eyes went wide before she blinked and yanked her gaze from his.
He cleared his throat. “You truly are a lovely cook, and I think you for inviting me over and cooking for me. I hope you might consider doing it again.”
Her heart
fluttered in her chest as she looked back up to see if he was just being kind. His smile told her that it was more than that... at least she hoped it did. “I’d like to.”
“Tomorrow, the children will be starting their last week of classes at the hotel. Jake said something about the desks being complete by the end of the week and the town having a school raising party next weekend.”
A wide smile played on her lips as she thought about how the children were going to get their school back. “That’s right.”
“You look lovely when you smile. You should do that more often.” His husky voice and his words set her heart aflame in her chest.
Even the cool breeze did nothing to quench the heat in her face. She wanted to believe his words, but she still feared that he just toyed with her feelings because he had another agenda. Everything in her wished his words were true, wished she could take them as they were spoken, but could she?
“Hannah Beth!” Lydia cried out, making Hannah jump from her position immediately next to Oliver.
Hannah’s heart sank and her stomach twisted. No. Lydia wasn’t supposed to come home yet. Why was she here? Then Hannah saw the distraught look in Lydia’s eyes and the way tears streamed down her sister’s face and felt guilty for her selfishness. “Lydia? What’s the matter?”
Lydia wailed and threw herself at Hannah, forcing Hannah to hold her sister’s weight while she cried. Oliver met eyes with Hannah over her sister’s form. He blinked. “Is everything all right? Is there anything I can do?”
His eyes never left Hannah’s for more than a moment. They brushed over Lydia but didn’t linger the way Hannah had seen other men’s gazes do. Lydia pulled back, barely looking Oliver’s direction while she wailed again. “It’s Fritz. He claims he’s in love… with another woman,” she said between sobs. “He’s called the wedding off.”
Then she collapsed into Hannah’s arms again. Oliver’s eyes went wide. “Forgive me. This seems like a family matter. I should go.”
Hannah nodded to him. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Yes,” he said as he stepped away, looking reluctant to go. “In the morning.”
Hannah rubbed her sister’s back while she continued to wail and sob, her cries loud enough, that Rebecca came down from the hayloft in the livery, a shawl pulled over her night clothes. “What’s going on?”
“Becca!” Lydia pulled away and rushed toward the eldest sister, collapsing in Rebecca’s arms.
With hands clasped in front of her, Hannah stood, not knowing what she should do to help her sister. Rebecca made cooing sounds while rubbing Lydia’s back, trying to tell her everything was going to be all right. For a long while, the three of them stood, just like that, as the full moon waded higher into the sky. When Lydia finally settled and pulled back, she collapsed on the second step of the porch. Her red-rimmed eyes shined in the faded light. “He broke my heart again. I didn’t think he’d do it a third time. I thought he’d never leave me again. But he left me... and for another woman. He wouldn’t even tell me who she is.”
Fresh sobs racked her body while she buried her face in her hands. Rebecca sat next to her on one side of the step while Hannah sat on the other. Jake showed up, looking roughly like he’d just woken up. He peered their direction, saw the state Lydia was in, and stopped several yards away. Rebecca gestured toward him with her hands, and he left, returning to their hay loft. Lydia continued to cry while the sisters sat with her silently. They waited again until Lydia raised her face once more.
“How could he do it? How? I thought we were in love. I thought we’d finally be happy. How could I be so wrong?”
Rebecca set a hand on Lydia’s knee. “Sometimes we can be blind to the problems in our relationships because we see only what we want to see.”
Lydia shook her head. “I’ve been such a fool.”
Hannah also set a hand on her other knee. “You’ve never been a fool. You’ve always been loyal to a fault—that doesn’t make you a fool. He made you wait for him, and each time, you did. Your heart is pure, and you were loyal. Those are good things, not bad.”
“But I feel so stupid. I shouldn’t have waited. He never asked me to. I should have known better if he never asked. I did things for my own selfish reasons. I just didn’t want to let go.” Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes.
“Don’t hold tight to regret. These things aren’t your fault. Fritz shouldn’t have strung you along like he did. If he had another woman, he should have said so instead of asking him to marry you.” Rebecca’s hands fisted as she showed a bit of her anger.
Lydia’s eyes went wide. “I guess... I guess he never really did quite ask me to marry him. I think I jumped ahead and assumed we would get married. I think I started to make plans, and he never stopped me, so I thought he agreed with me. But all along, he was just being kind. He let me run ahead stupidly because he didn’t want to hurt me.”
“Absolutely not.” Rebecca’s voice took on a chastising tone. “This isn’t kindness. Letting you get your hopes up more, letting you believe a falsehood isn’t kindness at all. It’s cruelty.”
Hannah nodded, but her lips remained tightly sealed. Isn’t that what she was afraid of doing with Oliver. She didn’t want to hope she saw something that wasn’t there. She didn’t want to think he meant something he didn’t mean. She didn’t want to run ahead of herself and think that Oliver was being anything more than kind to her. In Hannah’s situation, she knew that the cruelty she’d suffer would be self-inflicted, not Oliver’s fault. But in this case, she agreed with Rebecca, it was all Fritz’s fault. And they were all mad about it.
“Fritz is a cad. He should never have let you believe a falsehood,” Rebecca said firmly.
Hannah nodded. “You deserve better than a gibfaced hornswoggler like him.”
“Hannah Beth!” Lydia gasped, and then she laughed. “I’ve never heard you use such language before.”
It was good to see her sister smile, but Hannah covered her mouth and blushed. Then she said behind her hand, “Well, it’s true, isn’t it?”
The three of them fell into a fit of giggles. It wasn’t long before they began to feel the years strip away from them, and they went inside together to drink a cup of warmed milk to make themselves feel better, like they used to. Then, when Rebecca returned to the livery loft, Hannah and Lydia shared a bed together for comfort and warmth, while Missy continued to sleep on her pallet. For the first time in several months, Hannah felt as though she had her sisters returned to her. Her family felt more whole.
Chapter 10
The week went by quickly. Oliver watched Hannah grow more into herself than she’d been the first day he’d met her. She had become a confident teacher, and the children loved her. She smiled more as she went about the work, and each time her eyes met his, his heartbeat stuttered. He couldn’t fool himself any longer. His feelings for Hannah had become deep and undeniable. He looked forward to seeing her every day and tried to find reasons for them to linger together after the children were gone.
On Friday, the children left with excitement and a new treat. Lavender had made them an additional tart to take home with them, since it was their last day in the kitchen of the hotel. They’d be at their desks in the newly-built school on Monday. Once the last child had left, he stood next to Hannah. “Would you mind helping carry the slates to the school ground? I have an outdoor storage trunk we can keep them in and get them out of Lavender’s way now instead of her waiting until the building party is over.”
Hannah looked up at him, her ready, relaxed smile gracing her face. “That sounds lovely—if you’re sure you can spare the trunk?”
His heart raced again at her nearness. “Of course.”
In fact, he’d already had it ready in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for him since the morning. Mrs. Sophie had given him permission. Together, they each grabbed a handle of the light, but too large to carry alone, trunk, and walked the mile to the school. Once there, they surve
yed the foundation which still remained of the old building, and the materials strewn about, waiting for the building to start the next morning. Oliver ran a hand through his dark hair. “How many people do you think will come?”
Hannah tilted her head, brows furrowed. “Everybody will come. Brokken is a very supportive town, and the school is a place that is necessary for all the citizens, even if they don’t have children yet.”
A bead of sweat had made its way down his temple, and he swiped at it with the sleeve of his jacket. He hated having Hannah take the other side of the trunk, but she had insisted. It wasn’t unusual for Hannah to press forward and do those things that some ladies would refuse to do. It wouldn’t surprise him if, in the morning, she took hold of a hammer and helped the men with building the schoolhouse as well. The thought of it brought a smile to his lips. “Back east, people don’t quite come together as readily to help one another with things like this. Usually you have to hire builders and pay them wages for their work.”
“Brokken is a small town. We would never be able to budget paying a work crew. But if everyone pitches in, the work is diminished for each person. And we make it into a festival of sorts, a celebration with games for the children, and the women bring bushels of food. You’ll see.” Hannah stood with pride, her face practically glowing.
Oliver stood right next to her again. It wouldn’t take much for him to pull her into his arms and kiss her. He shivered at the thought, every muscle in his body tensing with anticipation, but he held back. She’d responded poorly when he’d nearly kissed her before. And he still didn’t know how she might feel about him. He didn’t want to push her. He’d been close to asking her if she would let him court her when her sister had shown up full of tears the week before, after Sunday dinner. He only wondered briefly how Lydia was doing, but he didn’t care quite enough for the girl to ask. It only mattered to him as much as it affected Hannah, and her mood had been nothing if not cheery since that night, so he pushed it out of his mind. If her father was alive, he’d ask him for her hand. He intended to ask her mother. Suddenly, Hannah met eyes with him, and he realized he’d been staring.