Evelyn (Orlan Orphans Book 5) Read online

  “Tell me about his kisses,” Penny insisted.

  Evelyn shook her head. “What makes you think he’s kissed me?”

  “Edna Petunia saw you kissing on Saturday when he dropped you off. She told Cletus, loudly, so the whole house knows.”

  Evelyn chuckled softly. “Why does this not surprise me?”

  “Because you’ve lived in this house for four years. You know as well as I do that there are no secrets here.”

  “Of course, there aren’t.” Evelyn sighed. “His kisses…I don’t even know what to say to that. When he kisses me, all coherent thoughts leave my head. It’s like he reduces me to something that has no ability to think or feel anything for herself. I love him.”

  “Of course you do,” Penny said as if it was common knowledge. “I know you, and you wouldn’t be allowing a man to kiss you in full view of the house if you didn’t.”

  “So if I didn’t love a man, I’d kiss him in the woods?” Evelyn asked, a grin on her face.

  “Well, I didn’t say that, but you sure wouldn’t risk any of us seeing you kiss him.” Penny shrugged. “I’m glad he’s good to you.”

  “He is.” Evelyn talked about what she’d learned from Daniel about Frank’s first wife. “I feel quite lacking when compared with someone like that.”

  “Obviously Frank doesn’t think so, or he wouldn’t be kissing you or taking you to the church social. He wouldn’t be getting Daniel’s hopes up about a potential marriage between you.”

  “Does Daniel have his hopes up?” Evelyn asked, surprised. Daniel seemed to take everything in stride, but he didn’t seem to want to anything to happen between them.

  “He told Katie and Hattie that they were too pretty for him to call either of them ‘aunt’ but he’d be happy to get to spend more time with them.”

  Evelyn laughed. “That boy is so interested in girls. I told Frank we were going to have to chain him to the wall in the barn.”

  Penny laughed. “He’ll make some girl a fine husband someday. Just not for several more years. How old is he? Thirteen?”

  “Yes. I think that was his biggest problem in school as well. He wanted to kiss all the girls, and if they didn’t want to kiss him back, he played pranks on them.”

  “Well, I for one am glad he caused so many problems. It forced you to get to know his father better.”

  “Yeah, but is that good for me?”

  “It sure seems to be!” Penny tucked the last pin into Evelyn’s coiffure, before she grew serious. “Abner told everyone he was going to take you to the social tonight.”

  “What? I hope you told him I’m going with a real man and not a boy like him.” Evelyn wrinkled her nose. Abner was a pain in the behind, and she was sick of his games.

  Penny laughed. “No, I didn’t tell him that, but maybe I should have. I told him you were going with someone else, and he said that you wouldn’t leave with whomever it was.”

  Evelyn groaned. “How does he think he’s going to get me to not leave with the man escorting me? Is he insane?”

  “You know he is. I don’t know why he’s fixating on you this week. He took Eliza and Sally both out this week, but for the last couple of days, he’s spoken of no one but you. Have you seen him at all?”

  “No, now that I’m not in town every day, I don’t see anyone but family. I don’t think I saw him when I was in town on Monday for supplies either. Of course, I was concentrating on the man I was with, and that was not Abner.”

  “Well, do the same tonight, and maybe he’ll get the hint and leave you alone from now on.”

  Evelyn got to her feet and took one last peek in the mirror. “Thank you for all your help tonight, Penny.”

  Penny smiled. “You should make sure to stop and speak with Edna Petunia and Cletus on your way out.”

  “Of course, I will.” Evelyn picked up her small handbag and clutched it in one hand. Cletus said his girls were never to leave the house without a few dollars to their name. That way if something happened on the date, they’d be able to pay for a way home.

  She walked to the parlor and found them sitting there together, on the sofa, holding hands. “I’m ready to go.”

  Cletus looked her up and down, eyeing the shawl she had draped around her shoulders. “If you’re wearing that to hide the fact that your dress is cut too low, don’t bother. I’m not blind, you know.”

  “My dress isn’t too low,” Evelyn said, pulling the shawl away from the front of her dress for him to see. “No cleavage showing at all.”

  Cletus grumbled. “There’d better not be. You are not to show your bosoms to any man until you’ve been married for at least five years.”

  Evelyn laughed, watching Edna Petunia as she got to her feet. The older woman draped a pearl necklace around her throat and fastened it for her. “There. Now you look perfect.”

  Evelyn smiled, reaching out to hug her mother. “Thank you. I feel like a princess.”

  “You look like one too.” Edna Petunia had tears in her eyes. “Go and have a wonderful time! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  Cletus snorted at that. “Edna Petunia, there’s little you won’t do, so I don’t think that’s an admonition you should be giving our girls.”

  “Oh, hush up, you old goat.”

  Evelyn shook her head, walking away to answer the front door. They were starting to use their own special endearments with each other again, which meant it was time for her to go.

  Chapter 9

  Frank stood at the door waiting for her, wearing a black suit with his black cowboy hat. Evelyn stared at him for a moment, never having seen him dress so nicely. “Hi.”

  Frank smiled. “Hi. Are you ready?”

  Evelyn nodded, suddenly feeling out of her element. What was she doing going to a dance with a man ten years older than she was? Had she lost her mind? And more importantly, how on earth had she fallen in love with him? She sighed. He looked wonderful.

  He offered her his arm, and she called out, “We’re leaving, Edna Petunia. I’ll be back before it’s too late!”

  “Don’t have too much fun!” came the response from across the house.

  Evelyn grinned. She could always count on Edna Petunia to say something ridiculous when she needed it most. Turning back to Frank she said, “I need to get the dish I made for the potluck.” She hurried into the kitchen and came back with a basket over one arm. “Is Daniel in the wagon?”

  Frank shook his head. “I left him with one of his school friends this evening.”

  “Oh?”

  “I wanted it to be just the two of us.”

  Evelyn swallowed hard at that. “Sounds nice.” And it did. Oh, did it ever. She hadn’t felt so much for a man in her entire life, and this one was making her feel like she was someone special. Something that had never really happened for her. Oh, Cassie Hayes, the matron of the orphanage where she’d grown up had tried, but there had been over thirty orphans living under one roof. How could she make just one feel special?

  Cletus and Edna Petunia tried to make all the girls feel special, but again, all of them couldn’t be special, at least not in Evelyn’s mind. So to be a favorite of this handsome man made her feel extraordinary.

  “Are you nervous?” he asked as he took her hand to help her up into the buggy.

  She nodded. “I’m not sure why. We’ve spent lots of time together, but it just feels different tonight.”

  He nodded. “It does to me too.”

  “But why?”

  He shrugged. “Probably because we made plans to spend time together, so we’ve been anticipating this.” He glanced at her as he climbed onto the buckboard beside her. “And I’m guessing you want the night to be special as much as I do.”

  “I do.”

  With a flick of the reins, he started the horses moving toward town. “I’ve never been to a church social before. What are they like?”

  “I haven’t been to one since I was a little girl in New York. They only let us go wh
en it was a fundraiser for the orphanage. Basically, it’s a pot luck supper with dancing and lots of talking and having fun.”

  “Dancing?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. He loved the idea of getting to hold her close with no complaints from anyone.

  She nodded. “Do you dance?”

  “Of course, I do. I love to dance.”

  “You do?”

  “Definitely. Where I’m from, there were a lot of house parties, and I’d go to them. I proposed to my wife at one of those dances.”

  “Tell me about her?”

  “Rebekah? She was sweet. The daughter of one of my neighbors. I knew her from the time I was old enough to know what a girl was. We played together when we were small, and then we danced together when we were teenagers. We got married as soon as I turned eighteen.”

  “Eighteen? That’s so young!” She certainly hadn’t been ready to marry at eighteen.

  He nodded. “It is young. Much too young to marry, if you want my honest opinion.”

  “But you didn’t feel that way then?”

  He shook his head. “No, I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my wife with everything inside me, but we weren’t ready for marriage, and we certainly weren’t ready for the responsibility of children.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  He shrugged. “We were still going to parties and staying out all night when we found out she was expecting. We lived with my father, and I helped out around the estate, but really I didn’t do much.”

  “What does that mean?”

  He sighed. “I just wasn’t much interested in the responsibilities of life. Oh, I enjoyed being married, but only because I didn’t have to deal with the responsibilities of really providing for my wife and child. My father died three years ago, and everything changed.”

  “In what way?”

  “I had to become the man I’d avoided being up until then.” He parked the wagon on the church’s lawn and turned to her, so he could explain more fully. “After my father died, I had to take on the responsibility of overseeing the men who worked for my family. I had to learn what it meant to actually work for a living.”

  “And did you like it?”

  He nodded. “Rebekah didn’t like it, because we didn’t get to see each other much. My family’s holdings were vast, and I was needed a great deal. Father had been ill his last couple of years, and I had no idea how far he’d let things go until I took over myself.”

  “Was your mother still alive?”

  He shook his head. “She died before I married.” He took her hand, rubbing his thumb over her palm as he spoke. “After Father died, I really wanted to sell it all and head West. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life working the farm, because I didn’t enjoy farming at all. I wanted to go somewhere and do something on my very own.”

  “And you finally did.”

  He nodded. “Rebekah got pregnant a couple of years ago. I asked her to go West, so we could raise our children away from the parties and wild ways that were so common among our peers. She thought I’d lost my mind. She loved it there. Even pregnant, she thought we should go to every party we were invited to. But I was working too many hours to spend all night dancing. So she started to go to the parties without me.”

  “Did that bother you?”

  He shrugged. “It didn’t really. I knew it was what she wanted, and I wasn’t surprised. She died having a little girl. As soon as she died, I knew I had to leave. I put my home up for sale within a week.”

  “How did Daniel react?”

  “He didn’t complain. He was very upset at losing his mother. I thought it would be better for both of us to get out of that house with all the painful memories. I think it has been.” He brought her hand to his lips. “Besides, if we hadn’t come here, I’d never have met you.”

  She smiled at that. “Well, I’m glad you came here then.”

  “What about you? How did you end up in Texas?”

  Evelyn sighed. “I know I told you pieces of it. When I was seventeen, the orphanage where I grew up was taken over by a new church. The church didn’t think girls and boys should be living under the same roof.” She shook her head at the ridiculousness of the situation. “So they sent us here to live in a house they’d purchased for us to live in. They hired a bus driver, and the matron of the orphanage came with us.”

  “Really? That’s crazy!”

  “It was awful. Everything we’d ever known was gone. They found homes for the younger girls, but there were fifteen of us who were put on that bus and sent away. I was the third oldest.” She got a faraway look in her eyes as she remembered. “When we got here, we were told no one knew we were coming. There was no house waiting for us. There was nothing. The matron, Cassie Hayes, went to the pastor of the church. It wasn’t Micah back then. Anyway, while she was explaining our situation, this old lady came out of the church, demanding to know if we were all bastards. Next thing I knew, she had us all under her roof.”

  “Edna Petunia. It’s great she was willing to take all of you in.”

  “She’s certainly changed my life. I don’t know what would have happened to us without her.”

  “I’m glad you have her then.” He sighed. “Someone is going to notice us sitting out here in the dark, and it’s going to get back to Cletus. We’d better get inside.”

  He got down and helped her, grabbing the basket from the back of the wagon. “What did you bring?”

  “Just some dinner rolls. I know there will be plenty for everyone, so I made something simple.”

  “Well, you don’t have to impress me with your cooking. I’ve already tried it,” he told her with a wink.

  She blushed, taking the arm he offered and walking toward the church with him. When they entered, she smiled as she watched Sarah Jane standing close to Micah, holding his arm and greeting the different couples that came in.

  “Evelyn! I didn’t know you were coming with Mr. Keifer.” Sarah Jane pulled Evelyn into a hug and whispered, “You have got to tell me everything. I heard you’re working for him. Are you also courting?”

  Evelyn shrugged. “I’m really not sure. He’s kissed me a few times, and this is the first time we’ve had an actual date.”

  “No chaperone?” Sarah Jane asked.

  “You’re the only one of us who ever felt the need to be constantly chaperoned. I know how to control myself.”

  Sarah Jane wrinkled her nose. “As an old married woman, I can tell you, it’s hard to control yourself when you’re alone. You do what you want, but I think you’d do much better if you had a chaperone with you.”

  “Duly noted.” Evelyn pulled away and smiled at Micah, who had been making small talk with Frank. “Hi, Micah.” She looked around. “Where’s Chrissy?”

  “She stayed with Ruby this evening. I knew it would be easier for us to perform our duties as host and hostess of the party without having to constantly worry about what she’s doing.”

  “That actually makes a lot of sense to me.” Evelyn held up her basket. “I’m going to go and add this to the food table.”

  Sarah Jane nodded. “I expect Micah will bless the food within the next fifteen minutes or so.”

  Evelyn walked off to put the bread on the table and was startled when she turned around to find Abner directly behind her. “Dance with me.”

  Evelyn shook her head. “No.” There wasn’t even any music yet, so she wasn’t certain why he was trying to get her to dance.

  “Why are you here with that Keifer man? You should have come with me.”

  “I didn’t want to come with you. I wanted to come with Mr. Keifer. He’s a good man.”

  “If you say so.” Abner didn’t look convinced.

  “I do.” Evelyn tried to walk around Abner, but the man sidestepped, blocking her path. “What exactly do you want from me?”

  Abner smiled. “Do I need to spell it out in detail?”

  “I’m not interested in whatever you have in mind. Please, just leav
e me alone.”

  Abner caught her hand and pulled her to him. “Dance with me.”

  “There’s no music.” Evelyn refused to give him the satisfaction of squirming against him. “Let go of me, or I will scream and everyone will know you are pestering me.”

  “Are you calling me a pest?” he asked, obviously shocked by her words.

  “Yes, I am. Let go.”

  When he didn’t immediately do as she said, she lifted her foot and ground her booted heel into the top of his foot. “Ouch!” He dropped his hands, and she stepped away.

  “Have yourself a nice evening, Abner.” She turned to walk away from him, a satisfied grin on her face. She was pleased that she’d been able to get him to let go of her without asking for help. She liked being independent too much to ask anyone to help her with bullies like Abner.

  She ran smack into Frank’s chest. “Was this man bothering you Evelyn?”

  “He was trying to,” she said honestly.

  Frank put his hands on her shoulders and moved her from between him and Abner. “Do you have a problem with my girl?”

  Abner glared at Frank, who was a good six inches taller than him. Evelyn shook her head, wondering why the boy didn’t have more sense than that. “I saw her first.”

  Frank stared in shock at the younger man. “You saw her first, so you have a right to grab her? She’s with me. Don’t touch her again.”

  “Or what? What do you think you can do to me, old man?”

  Frank shook his head in disbelief. “Really? Look, I’m not going to start a fight with you at the church social. It would embarrass Evelyn and she’s worth a great deal more than that.”

  Abner looked back and forth between Frank and Evelyn. “I want to marry her.”

  Evelyn rolled her eyes. “Abner, you’ve dated everything in a skirt who would say yes.”