The Uncharted Series Omnibus

by Keely Brooke Keith

  Lydia stood still at the threshold of her doorway. Everyone became quiet when Doris walked toward her husband. Doris smiled at Mark and took both of his hands in hers as she whispered something to him. His face lit up. He looked over his wife’s shoulder to Lydia for confirmation, and Lydia nodded.

  “We are going to have another baby!” Mark announced. He laughed and wrapped his arms around his wife. Then he pulled away and put his hand on her belly. John and Levi stepped forward to congratulate Mark. Bethany beamed and started chatting with Doris about the exciting news. Lydia looked through the happy crowd and saw Connor watching her. His whiskers were longer and he looked tired, but his eyes were still warm. A faint smile curved his lips. With the crowd between them, Connor simply mouthed hi.

  Lydia felt warmth in her cheeks and returned his gesture. “Hi.” She blinked and looked away before anyone else could notice.

  Levi scooped Lydia up with one arm and swung her in a circle. He set her back down and she smiled up at him. “I am so glad you’re home!”

  “I’m glad to be back.” Levi grinned and reached into his coat pocket. “I got you something in Southpoint.”

  Bethany overheard him and furled both arms around Levi’s chest. “What about me?” She pretended to pout. “Did you bring me something too?”

  “Yes, you too.” Levi chuckled and drew a small package from his pocket. He opened it and removed two bracelets made of delicate silver links. He handed one to Lydia and one to Bethany. Lydia wrapped the silver bracelet around her wrist and clasped it securely. Bethany did the same, giggling all the while.

  “That’s not all.” Levi emptied the contents of the paper into his hand. “This one is for Bethany.” He placed a small silver charm in her hand.

  Bethany examined the charm closely. “It’s a little vase—like the ones I made when I was first learning to make pottery. Oh, thank you, Levi!”

  Levi took the other charm and placed it in Lydia’s palm. Her eyes widened as she studied it, and she closed her hand over the tiny charm. “It’s shaped like a gray leaf! How thoughtful! Thank you!”

  Levi secured the charm to Lydia’s bracelet and did the same for Bethany. The sisters admired each other’s bracelets. The Cotters waved goodbye as they pulled away. Lydia glanced up from her bracelet to see Connor lift his satchel from the wagon. He smiled at her and followed John and Levi into the house.

  Elated to set six places for dinner, Lydia hummed as she carried a stack of plates to the table. She felt the little silver charm dangling at her wrist and was happy her brother and Connor were safely home.

  * * *

  Connor awoke at first light. He did not need a clock to tell him what time it was. He rolled out of bed and onto the floor, where he counted off fifty push-ups. After getting dressed, he left the guestroom and walked through the hallway, taking great care not to make a sound near Isabella’s door. Though the Colburn house was not his home, he felt relieved to be someplace familiar. He passed through the kitchen and walked out the back door, closing it behind him.

  Connor followed the dirt path from the house to the gravel road in front of the property. He stopped to stretch his calf muscles and began to run. His breath streamed out in visible puffs in the cold morning air as his stride settled into a good rhythm. Since it was no longer a secret that he was from another land, Connor felt free to run. Though he considered it impossible that he would ever be able to return to military service, he intended to stay in shape no matter the expressions his running drew from the occasional onlooker.

  As his feet pounded the road, he was relieved finally to have a pair of shoes that fit well. They may not have been designed with advanced athletic technology, but the shoemaker Lydia bartered with had crafted something far more comfortable than Connor expected. His feet had calloused from the borrowed shoes, and he was pleased to see the new shoes waiting for him when he returned from his trip to the southern villages.

  Connor only had one more day to break in the new shoes before he would have to leave Good Springs again—which meant only one more day to see Lydia. He wanted to talk to John about her, but after Levi’s display of disapproval, Connor thought it was best to give it some time. He did not expect the same opposition from John, but he did not want any more misunderstandings before he had to leave again.

  While Connor ran, he thought of how fast his time between trips seemed to be going. He had spent Saturday evening giving John a report of their journey and had spent Sunday at church, where he sat on the back pew in the chapel and listened while John preached. Connor thought of when Lydia had come into the church halfway through the sermon. She had sat in the seat next to him and he automatically slipped his arm over the pew behind her shoulders. She had not seemed to mind, so he left it there. He thought about how it felt like the most natural thing in the world to sit there next to her. He wondered if she thought anything of it at all.

  Connor instinctively turned around on the road where he calculated a mile and a half and ran back. He jogged the last few yards of the road, turned toward the Colburn house and walked from there. The kitchen door was open when he returned. John was making coffee and Bethany was sitting at the table with a well-worn schoolbook open in front of her. Connor poured himself a glass of water. He drank it standing at the sink, then he refilled the glass and turned to the table.

  “This is dreadful, absolutely dreadful,” Bethany huffed as she slammed her pencil into her book. The pencil bounced to the floor. With exaggerated gestures she pretended to collapse onto her school papers and heaved a sigh. Her long lashes fluttered from the edges of her twitching eyelids while she faked a dramatic death.

  Connor watched the teenager’s shameless performance and bent to the floor to pick up the pencil. Bethany cracked one eye open and peeked at him. Connor used the pencil to point at the book. “What are you studying?”

  Bethany came back to life and blew out a breath. “Algebra. I will never understand it. Schoolwork is just dreadful and absolutely useless.” She straightened in her chair and looked at her father. “Must I go to class today? After my apprenticeship at the pottery yard, I will never need math again.”

  John eyed his fifteen-year-old daughter as he brought the coffee pot to the table. He exuded the unsympathetic calm of a man who had raised five children, four of them girls. “You must finish your schooling, Bethany. You know that.”

  “Oh, but it’s utterly useless. I never use what I learn in class when I’m at the potter’s wheel,” she inveighed.

  Connor sat at the table beside her and turned the book where he could see it. He scanned the page and turned the book back to Bethany. Pointing to the section where her frustration had resulted in a deep pencil groove through the page, Connor got her attention. “Okay, see the parenthesis here? They mean you should treat these terms as a group. So you first add these two numbers, then you multiply the sum by this factor here.” He glanced up at her and she appeared to follow what he was saying. He offered her the pencil. She took it and worked the equation on a piece of gray leaf paper. The kitchen was silent except for the sound of the pencil scratching on the paper. When she was finished, Connor took the pencil and wrote a similar equation with different numbers. “Now try this one.”

  Connor glanced at John and saw he was watching Bethany. Connor checked her work and was pleased she had the correct answer. He took the pencil and scribbled out another equation then handed the pencil back to her again.

  John drummed his fingers on the table in light, rapid thumps. “The teacher of our secondary students hopes to return to his family home in Riverside soon, but we have been unable to find another teacher to fill the position.”

  “That’s too bad.” Connor glanced at John then looked back at the page.

  “Connor, have you ever thought of teaching?”

  The idea took Connor by surprise. He leaned back in the chair and looked at John. “Teach what—high school? No, sir.”

  “It might be something to consider.”
<
br />   “Oh, I don’t think I could teach.”

  Bethany lifted her page and showed them another correct answer. John gave half a smile then he looked at Connor. “It looks like you just did.”

  * * *

  Lydia tidied her office and was ready to leave when she remembered her gloves. She climbed the stairs to her bedroom and retrieved a pair of leather gloves from the top of her dresser. Then she hurried back down the stairs and to the door. She opened it and saw Connor standing on the other side with his knuckles raised.

  He smiled. “Oh, hi. I was about to knock.”

  Lydia stepped out of her cottage and closed the door behind her. “I was just leaving. Do you need something?”

  Connor held up a book. “No, I came to return this.”

  “Thank you.” She took the book and opened her office door. She set the book on her desk and turned to go back outside, but Connor had stepped inside behind her. “I planned to be at Mark and Doris’s farm by noon, so I really must be going.”

  Connor pressed his lips together and raised a palm. “I’m sorry.”

  “Please, don’t apologize. Actually, if you have the time, maybe you could walk with me.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. “I have the time. I’m just not sure that we should… I mean that I should—”

  Lydia guessed by his response that he did not want to go. She waved a hand. “That’s fine. I just thought an extra pair of hands might be helpful, but I can manage the horses by myself.”

  “Horses?”

  “Mark Cotter is a horse breeder. He originally offered me a four-year-old gelding for my service to Doris during the delivery of their firstborn. But after the news that another baby is on the way, Mark said he would go ahead and make it a pair of horses.” Lydia lowered the volume of her voice. “I thought maybe the new horses would be a pleasant surprise for Levi and he could use them on the trip north tomorrow.”

  Connor looked relieved, though Lydia was not sure why. “So you want me to walk with you to the Cotters’ farm and help you bring the horses back here?”

  Lydia wondered if the chore sounded wearisome to Connor. She shook her head. “Never mind. Your time is probably reserved for less tedious tasks.”

  “No, it sounds great. I’d love to walk with you.” Connor smiled and backed out the door. He held up a finger. “Wait just a second, though. I want to tell your dad where we are going. I’ll be right back. Wait for me, okay?”

  Lydia found his sudden enthusiasm puzzling. She followed him out of the cottage and closed her door. “Okay,” she repeated as she waited on the path in front of her cottage. While he was in the house speaking with her father, Lydia thought about the strange words Connor used and how she liked the things he said.

  Connor came out of the main house a moment later. He smiled and briskly rubbed his hands together. Lydia found it peculiar that he was eager to go to a horse farm. As they walked to the road she used her hand to shield her eyes from the sun and looked at Connor. “Have you always been interested in horses?”

  Connor chuckled. “Not until recently. Tell me: did the founders bring all the animals here?”

  “Yes. They brought horses, cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, dogs, and cats. They also had a team of oxen, but the oxen died at sea. They brought the seed for grain, vegetables, fruit trees, and cotton.”

  “All on one ship?”

  “All on one ship.” Lydia smiled. She loved the history of the founders. “Fifty-seven persons and all those animals.”

  “Where did they get the ship?”

  “Charles Weathermon, a retired shipping tycoon. He was widowed and had no children, and he offered the use of his ship if the founders agreed to take him with them.” Lydia realized she had slowed her pace as they walked. “They planned everything in complete secrecy. Then before they departed America they quarantined themselves for several weeks to ensure no illness was carried to their new settlement.”

  “So no one in the Land has encountered a contagious disease for seven generations?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Good thing I didn’t have a cold when I arrived—that could have wiped out the entire population.”

  Lydia considered the possibility. “I suppose so. I think the founders were more concerned with having to endure illness during the voyage.”

  Connor nodded. “Where did they plan to settle?”

  “We don’t know for sure. My primary school teacher always said he thought they were probably going to South America. All we know is that after nearly four months at sea, the schooner made landfall here. They found no signs of human life ever having been here, so they settled and simply called this place the Land.”

  “Do you know why they left America?”

  “Not for certain. The founders’ journals don’t mention much about life in America before they sailed. But we know they were a highly adventurous group. I believe they simply wanted the challenge of finding a new land and establishing a settlement.”

  “Your dad told me the founders arrived here in March of eighteen sixty-one and they were at sea for four months. That means they left America just before the start of the Civil War.”

  Lydia thought about what Connor said. She glanced at him. “The Civil War—is that when America changed its name?”

  “What do you mean?” Connor reached up and snagged a leaf from the low-hanging branch of a gray leaf tree as they passed it. Lydia watched out of the corner of her eye to see what he was going to do with the leaf. He examined it closely then peeled its flesh from its stem piece by piece and dropped it to the ground.

  “Well, the founders referred to your country as the United States of America but you call it the Unified States of America. Did the war cause that change?” Lydia noticed Connor’s demeanor when she mentioned the Unified States. He forcefully blew out a breath and looked away. She guessed that meant he would not answer. She wondered why he found the history of the Land fascinating, yet he seemed uncomfortable when she asked about his country.

  Connor slid his hands into his pockets. “I heard Doctor Ashton passed away. I’m sorry. I know you were close to him.”

  Lydia noticed his change of subject but decided to let it go. “Thank you. I suppose I feel a bit orphaned professionally.”

  “That’s understandable.” Connor looked at her as they walked. “I hope you realize you are a completely competent physician.”

  Lydia appreciated hearing that, especially from Connor. She tucked a wave of hair behind her ear. “Thank you.”

  “Who will take care of Mrs. Ashton?”

  “Her granddaughter came from Woodland just before Doctor Ashton died. She and her husband have moved into the Ashtons’ home. They will care for Mrs. Ashton and inherit the house one day.” Lydia found Connor’s thoughtfulness refreshing. In the midst of all he was going through, he cared what would happen to an elderly woman who he had never met. She glanced at him. “It is very considerate of you to ask.”

  Connor shrugged. “I admire the way you all take care of each other. I feel like I’ve gone back in time since I arrived here. People in my country take care of each other, too. It’s just simpler here. It’s nice.”

  As Lydia and Connor approached the gate to the Cotters’ farm, Lydia pointed to several horses grazing in the distance. Connor looked up. “Yeah, I noticed this place Saturday when Levi and I passed it on our way back to the village. It’s a beautiful property.”

  “It’s been in Mark’s family for generations. Over the years they have cleared over a hundred acres for pasture.” She lifted the latch on the wooden gate and it creaked as Connor pushed it open. “Mark is my mother’s third cousin.”

  Connor closed the gate behind them and followed Lydia into the pasture. She saw Mark wave from the barn. Lydia waved back and then watched the ground as she walked beside Connor through the pasture.

  * * *

  Lydia and Connor were at Mark Cotter’s horse farm for less than an hour. As the
y walked back to the Colburn property, they each held a rope with a horse at the other end. Lydia was glad Connor had gone with her. She liked watching him as he spoke with Mark and the farmhands. She noticed a difference in the way he related to people now that he no longer needed to be secretive. He initiated handshakes and patted backs and looked people in the eye when they spoke. She liked how people responded to him. It made her want to know him more.

  With the sun behind them, Lydia looked up at Connor as they strolled along the road. “I wonder what it was like for you arriving here—being thrown into my family with hardly a choice.” The horses breathed loudly and Lydia glanced at them.

  “It hasn’t been all that bad. In fact, I’m rather fond of your family.”

  “As am I. My father and Bethany adore you. Aunt Isabella does too, but I know Levi has not been very welcoming.”

  “He is only trying to protect his family. I understand. The guy has four sisters—I guess he has his work cut out for him.” Connor rubbed his chin. He had shaved his whiskers. She noticed and decided she missed them.

  Lydia realized she was staring. She tried to peel her eyes away, but it took effort. She was not sure why she felt so drawn to Connor. Levi had said it was just her thirst for knowledge, but she wondered if it were more than that. Lydia felt hopeful when she looked at Connor—hopeful and happy and terribly confused. She told herself not to trust those feelings and willed herself to focus on their conversation. “Since my eldest sisters—Adeline and Maggie—are both married, Levi really only worries over Bethany and me. No matter his motive, he has not shown you the best in himself. But I think you have handled it graciously.” Lydia switched the rope to the other hand. “I believe you and Levi will be great friends once he gets to know you.”

  “I like your optimism.” Connor grinned a little, and Lydia wished she knew what he was thinking.

  “Do you come from a large family?” Lydia asked. They were walking in a slow stride and she wondered who had set the pace.