Thief of My Heart (Watty Awards Finalist 2012)

Chapter 28

The boys had slept later than usual.  Probably catching up on  lost sleep from the night before.   They could already smell the bacon cooking as they headed towards the back door that led to the kitchen of the McCreedy home.  Supper was always in the big dining room.  Lunch was usually outside or in the bunkhouse.  Breakfast was always in the kitchen.

"'Bout time you two was gettin' up.  Can't be gettin' anything done around here sleepin' all day."  Georgia placed two heaping plates full of bacon, eggs, fried potatoes and biscuits on the large wooden rustic table that stood in the center of the spacious kitchen.

"Mornin' boys.  Ready for another day of horse breaking?"  Mr. McCreedy asked cheerfully as he smoked his cigar and sipped his coffee.

"Yep.  Hoping to get a saddle on that painted pony today.  And I'm gonna ride that big black today if it kills me.  I think he's gonna be a real good horse if he'll just let me stay on more than ten minutes,"  Heyes said as he stuffed his mouth with potatoes.

"Good, good.  I've got two more buyers lined up and I'm meeting with another potential buyer today in town.  Everyone who's bought from us so far has been mighty pleased.  You boys missed your calling the first time out.  You should have been horse wrangling the whole time." 

The boys smiled at each other, pleased with themselves.  "The ladies up yet?"  Kid asked around a mouthful of eggs.

"They having breakfast in the parlor,"  Georgia explained as she poured the boys mugs of coffee.  "Ms. Livvy said she had a whole bunch of family heirlooms and photographs to show Miss Vangeline.  Now you boys can stop in there and say mornin' to 'em, but don't be hangin' around distracting 'em  all day.  Them young ladies is the only kin each other have left to depend on.  They need time to get to know one another.  So you two just tend to your horses and leave 'em be.   I'll put a picnic basket together later for your lunch.  I'll leave it by the back door.  I'll be busy gettin' the laundry boiled and then Mr. McCreedy'll be taking me into town to do some shopping."

"I thought Olivia had another sister,"  Heyes said between bites.

"She has a sister, but the poor thing suffered from a terrible fever some years ago and it left her with the mind of a child,"  Georgia said shaking he head.

"How do you know that?"  Heyes inquired.

"She told us all about it this morning while she helped me make breakfast.  Um um.  That poor child.  Been through so much."

"Olivia helped you make breakfast?"  Kid asked as he buttered his biscuit.

"Made them biscuits you been chompin' on.  You know everything ain't always what it seem on the outside, Mr. Jones.  That child may have money but she had her share of heart ache too."

The boy's exchanged looks then shrugged and continued to devour their breakfast.     ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Good morning, ladies." The boys offered their most generous smiles to the two women when they stopped by the parlor on their way out to the corral. 

They sat on a sofa their heads together bent over what looked like a scrapbook full of newspaper clippings and photographs.  Olivia was in the process of explaining the Sanders family tree to her niece.  They both looked up briefly when the boys said good morning.    Olivia smiled, nodded, said "Good morning"  and returned without a breath to her explanation of the family tree.  Evie just gave them a slight smile and a wave before returning her full attention to the scrapbook.

The boys looked at each other, puzzled.  Heyes had expected at least a good morning peck on the cheek.  And after the flirting that he and Olivia had engaged in last night,  Kid had expected more than the obligatory 'good morning' he'd received. 

 "Let's go, Kid.  The horses are waiting."

"Yeah, maybe they'll be glad to see us."   

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Father insisted on having a photograph made of the family whenever a photographer came into town.  This is the last one we made before Libby went off to finishing school.  Lilly and I clung to her and cried like babies."

Underneath the photograph in perfect penmanship was written, "The Sanders Family -Charles Oliver, Virginia Rose,  Elizabeth Grace, Olivia Hope, Lillian Faith - Autumn 1851."

"Charles Oliver Sanders and Jenny Rose Gregory - Sanders are your grandparents,"  Olivia announced with pride in her voice.  She obviously loved her parents very much. "Lilly was daddy's favorite.  He never said so and he loved us all, but there was always a special bond between the two of them.  It broke his heart when she refused to come home after she married your father."

"Refused?  I thought he wouldn't allow her to come home.  That's what Mama always told me."

"Of course that's what she told you.  Lilly was one of the most pig headed, grudge bearing people I ever knew.  I loved her dearly,  but she was not perfect.   Daddy did tell her if she stayed married to your father that she would never be welcome in his house again.  But he only said that because he was angry and hurt.  Your father had come in and stolen his baby girl away.   But he regretted his words of course and he sent her a letter asking her to come home.   But she sent him a letter back telling him she was washing her hands of the lot of us if we couldn't accept the man she loved.   Daddy and mother both sent her letters of apology  for the things they had said.  They begged and pleaded with her to come home.  They told her that she and Nathaniel were both welcome and that Daddy would even give him a position at the bank.  Her short response was that she would consider it.  We all wrote to her many times after that but she never replied.  Then about a year later, we received word from her that she had given birth to a daughter and she was coming home for Christmas.  She arrived on Christmas Eve with you.  You were only three months old.  You were so tiny and perfect.  So, you see, we've met before.  Your grandparents fell instantly in love with you."    A sad smile touched her lips as she remembered days long past.  "But on Christmas day,  Lilly and Daddy had a terrible argument and she snatched you out of mother's arms and marched out the door with you, and we never heard from her again.  Well, not until the day mother and I went to Arkansas to tell her about Daddy's death.  I think many times that he might have lived longer  if Lilly would have come home.  Even just to visit.  But when he became ill and Lilly returned every letter unopened, he just gave up."

Evie could not believe what she was hearing.  Her mother had told her all her life that her family had refused to let her be a part of their lives because she had chosen her father over them.  But if being in love with a wanted outlaw had taught her one thing, it was that there are always two sides to every story.  And now she knew the other side of her mother's story.  Evie loved her mother.  There would never be another person in the world like her and nothing would ever make her stop loving her mother.  But right now, she was feeling a little angry at her.  Evie and Gabe had lived their entire life without grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins.  They had lived without them because Lilly Webb had been too stubborn and begrudging to forgive her mother and father.  She recalled times now when she was younger that she could hear her parents argue about letters that had not been opened.  Evangeline had been too young to really know what they had been talking about, but now she knew.  Her father had tried to get her mother to at least read the letters, but her mother had always refused.  Why, Mama, why?

"And my grandmother?  What happened to her?   Is she still alive?"

"No.  Mother died about a year and a half after Daddy.  The stress of Daddy's death and taking care of Libby wore her down.  She became ill the winter of '64 and she died the following spring."

"Why did Libby have to be taken care of?"

"Libby miscarried three times before she finally carried a child to term.  The baby was very big and Libby was very small.  She suffered in labor for thirty-six hours.   At one point the doctor told us neither of them was going to make it.  But  finally,  David Gregory Kensington was born.  Libby suffered so much damage from the birth that she almost bled to death.  Then she developed an infection and had a high fever for three days.  When the fever broke her brain had been damaged and she was left with the mind of a five year old.  She had to be tended to like a child.  She is never left unattended."

"So I have a cousin named David?"  Evie managed after a few moments of digesting all the information.

"David also suffered from the difficult birth.   His little head had been partially crushed during the delivery and he only lived for 48 hours.  Libby never even knew he had been born let alone that he had died.  We buried him next to Daddy.  They had died exactly one month apart.  Daddy died November 7th,  David was born December 5th and died the 7th.  We had hoped that the promise of a new grandchild would help Daddy regain strength and heal, but after what happened to Libby and David, we were glad he wasn't there to see it."

Evangeline felt horrible.  So many tragic things had happened in her mother's family.  Her family.  And her mother never even knew it. 

"Mama's Bible says that Libby was married to Stuart Kensington?"

"Yes."

"So I have an Uncle Stuart?"

"You did.   Stuart was never the same after David died and Libby's mind was altered.  Mother, Geoffrey and I came home from church one Sunday in April, just months after the baby had died, and he had gone.  He had taken all of his things, had left a note that he just couldn't stay and watch his beloved Libby waste away in a child's world.  A few years later divorce papers were delivered to the house.  We had heard he had remarried and now had several children.  His father owns several hotels on the east coast and he  manages one of them.  Father had planned on Stuart and Geoffrey running the banks and newspaper.  But that didn't happen."

"Who is Geoffrey?"

"Geoffrey was my husband."

"Was?"

"Yes.   After Stuart left, Geoffrey felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.  He was responsible now for the entire family.  And Daddy had never really been able to teach him all he wanted to about running the family business.  We married in August of '62 and Daddy started getting ill that winter and only lived another year.  Geoffrey tried very hard, but he just couldn't manage the three banks and the newspaper by himself.  I offered to help, but I think he thought it made him look weak, so he refused.  But one afternoon he had been particularly stressed and he decided to go riding.  It was late and all the stable hands had gone home.  He was saddling one of the more spirited horses and it kicked him and then stomped him.  Of course we assumed he was out riding and it was hours before we came looking for him.  He lived for a few hours after that, but he died in the early morning of June 16, 1864."

"So in the span of five years you lost your younger sister, your nephew, your father, your brother-in-law, your husband, your mother and in a sense your older sister as well?"

"Yes.  That's why I am now the president of three banks and a newspaper.  And I hope you understand why I want so desperately to know you Evangeline.  You are all that Libby and I have left.  And if I remember correctly, your father's family were all deceased, so that means we are all the family you have now, too."

"I'm terribly sorry for what you've been through, Olivia."

"Please, call me Livvy.  That's what your mother always called me.  But don't be sorry.  It was a long time ago.  And I have so many matters to attend to that my mind is constantly occupied with either banking or editors or making sure Libby's needs are met.  No time for feeling sorry for myself.   But you, you've been through far worse.  And you haven't had the time to completely heal yet."

"I don't think I could have gotten through any of it if it weren't for Joshua.  He's been like medicine for my soul."

"God certainly must have put him in the right place at the right time.  You care deeply for him don't you?"

"I love him.  Plain and simple."

Livvy reflected on that for a moment as Evie ate a biscuit smeared with butter and honey.  Did the child even know what love really was?  She had said it in such a matter of fact tone that one was forced to believe her.  And she probably did believe it was love. What she felt was probably gratitude mixed with an understandable crush.  Mr. Smith was certainly handsome and charming.  What normal girl wouldn't have a crush on him.  She wouldn't make a big deal of it though.  That would be making the same mistake her father had made when Lilly had declared her love for Nathaniel.  The more he protested the more determined she was to have her way.  This crush would pass.  They always did.  It was probably best to change the subject.

"I hope you don't mind, but I have made arrangements for your mother, brother, and your father to be buried back home with the rest of our family.  Their final resting place is a peaceful spot.  It's very serene and beautiful.  You'll see it when you come back home with me to Nashville.  If you don't mind having them moved of course.  I would never move them if you didn't approve."

Evangeline hadn't really thought about it.  The thought of disturbing them didn't exactly thrill her, but the thought of leaving them out in the wilderness where she could never visit their graves disturbed her as well.   And she hoped her aunt wasn't counting on her coming back to Nashville.  Because Evangeline had no such plans.   "My father, too?" she asked hopefully but with a bit of skepticism.

"Of course.  He was the love of Lilly's life.  I admit at first I  thought Lilly had run off with your father just because our father had been so insistent that she not marry him.  And that in time she would regret her decision and come crying back home.  But when she came home with you that Christmas and we had a chance to talk, I could tell by the way her face lit up and the tone of her voice every time she mentioned Nate that she was desperately in love with him.  I  would never let them be separated.  Even in death. You know there were many times I blamed your mother for everything that happened.  If she would have come home maybe Daddy would have lived longer, and in turn so would Mother.  And Geoffrey wouldn't have gone out that night and gotten killed.  And maybe I would have had a child of my own.  But then I would think about her living happily, being in love  with the man of her dreams and I would envy her."

"Geoffrey wasn't the man of your dreams?"

Livvy laughed slightly.  "I cared for him dearly.  But not in the way your mother loved your father.  It was like being married to your best friend or your brother.  There was no passion and no romance.  But it had been a good match and Daddy had approved.  It was for the best.  Here is a photograph of him.  He was quite handsome.  Not as handsome as Mr. Jones or Mr. Smith, but still not a bad looking fellow."

Evie studied her aunt as she continued to show her photographs and mementos of the family she'd never known.  How lonely she must have been all these years.  No family except a sister who was trapped in a child's world.   And how sad it was that the few years of marriage she had known had obviously been cold and passionless.  And she was such a beautiful woman.  Just like her mother.  A woman so beautiful and smart deserved more from life than being stuck in a man's world, taking on a man's role of running a family business.  She should be loved and pampered.  She should be made to feel like a woman.  Her mother's life had been filled with love and passion and romance.  That's why she wasn't willing to settle for anything less for herself.  She had witnessed what true love and devotion was like.  But it sounded like Livvy had not even experienced any  frivolous passion filled moments.  Maybe a few frivolous passion filled moments were what she needed to loosen her corset, so to speak.   And maybe a distraction in the form of a blond haired, blue eyed ex-outlaw would buy the time needed for Livvy to see that she and Joshua were meant to be together.  Just like her mama and daddy had been.  And once she realized they belonged together, she would give up the idea of taking Evie back east with her.

"Speaking of Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith,  have you ever watched a man try to break a horse to be ridden?"

"No, I can't say that I have."

An impish grin and a mischievous gleam crept onto Evie's face.  A trip to the corral this afternoon might be just what the doctor ordered.

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~