Summerhaven by Tiffany Odekirk

Author:Tiffany Odekirk [Odekirk, Tiffany]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Covenant Communications, Inc.
Published: 2022-02-13T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

I made the mistake of looking back.

Ollie stood on the front steps, watching Damon and me go, his shoulders drooped, his hat fisted in his hands.

I trained my gaze on the barren road before me again. What would become of me? Without Ollie, I didn’t know. I’d placed all my hopes for the future in marrying him, but those hopes had been in vain. I had nothing now. No dowry, no name, no prospects.

The curricle bumped along the road, and I gripped the edge of my seat to steady myself. I breathed in the crisp country air, inhaling in short staccato bursts.

Damon shifted the reins into one hand and produced a handkerchief from the inner pocket of his great coat.

“Will you tell me what happened?” Damon said in a gentle voice.

I dabbed the moisture from my cheeks. “I would not know where to start.”

“The beginning is generally advisable,” he said with a small smile.

“That is the problem. I don’t know the beginning of my and Ollie’s story, only the end. And to recount that would be much too humiliating.”

“Would you have me guess what’s transpired?”

I shook my head. “It is best we both forget the entire scene.”

Damon ably maneuvered our conveyance around a large mud puddle. “I’m afraid you ask the impossible. You ran from the drawing room crying with my brother in full pursuit. Seeing as he thinks we are in the prelude to a relationship, I have half a mind to call him out.”

Ollie did not think Damon and I were in a relationship anymore, but I did not have the capacity to handle Damon’s ire just now. I would tell him everything later when my emotions had settled. I lifted my gaze to him. “You would not call out your own brother.”

“As a gentleman, I don’t rightly have a choice. Unless you tell me otherwise.”

He was only trying to make me smile, but I wasn’t in the mood to be teased. “I will tell you what happened. But from this day henceforth, we will never speak of this again.” I took my time folding Damon’s handkerchief, considering my words. But there was no way to make this story any less mortifying.

“Yesterday, after what you said about Ollie’s circumstance, I thought perhaps you might be wrong. I hoped that if he knew he had another choice in life, if he knew that I loved him, then he wouldn’t wish to marry Miss Digby. I thought—” My voice wavered. “It doesn’t matter what I thought. This morning I confessed my feelings to Ollie, and he informed me he does not feel the same. You were correct.” I paused. “He is determined to marry Miss Digby even though he’s admitted he does not love her. I shouldn’t have doubted you. I must apologize.”

“Please don’t.” Damon glanced away from the road to look at me. “You must know I take no delight in your pain.” Damon spoke with sincerity, but I heard only pity.

How silly I must seem to him.

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