Regency Romance: An Intriguing Invitation (Historical Billionaire Military Romance) (19th Century Victorian Romance) (33 page)

Chapter Three

The rest of the ride back was quiet as Joyce thought about her options. She certainly didn’t have to stay. But she felt obligated to do so. This child had
been left
without her
mother,
and her father didn’t seem to be in any condition to take care of her. How could she possibly let the child grow up in an atmosphere like that?
At least,
she had her parents until she was 12. She’d gotten to experience a family. How could she not ensure this innocent child had the same thing?

She tried to reassure herself but still felt resentful. Everyone had problems. Surely Tom could muster up the courage to let go at some point. She had moved on from the death of her parents. It hadn’t been
easy,
but it had been necessary.

She was once again in awe when they pulled into the long dirt drive that led up to the biggest house Joyce had ever seen. She leaned slightly out the window and scanned the landscape. There was a row of trees lining the dirt drive that reached up into the sky and bent
over the path
to
make
a natural shelter. The leaves were in full bloom. Coming from the drab exterior of the town she’d left behind, she was highly impressed.

Beyond the
trees,
she could see fields stretching out, tall grass waving in the breeze. She moved her eyes to the house they were approaching. It was three stories high and made
from
what looked like solid red bricks. The porch roof was held up by two opposing
huge
round stone pillars.
There were six long steps that formed
a “c” in front of the porch. They
were also made
of the same light colored stone as the pillars.

“
Oh,
my.” She breathed.

Anne and Gary didn’t respond.

When the carriage pulled up to the steps, Gary got out first and held out his hand to help the ladies down the small steps. A woman dressed in a frock and apron came out of the house to greet them. She was carrying a
very small
baby girl. Eliza was dressed to meet her new mother. She had on a bright yellow sundress with a large blue ribbon around the waist that brought out the
blue
in the little girl’s eyes. Her
yellow
hair almost matched her dress but gave off a more gold-colored shine. She had one tiny finger in her mouth, where Joyce could see three teeth on the top and three on the bottom.

“Hello, Eliza!” Anne said, going up the stairs quickly and taking the little girl in her arms. She turned to Joyce. “This is Eliza. Say
hello
, Eliza, this is Miss Joyce come to take care of you.” She looked at Joyce. “I don’t know if we should introduce mama to her until
papa
says it’s okay to do so. He would not be happy if he thought we were trying to take the remembrance of Lizzie away. Especially in his current state of mind.”

Joyce nodded. “I
completely
understand.” When Anne made to hand Eliza to her, she took a step back, shaking her head. Anne gave her a slightly frightened look and then recovered herself quickly. “Let’s go in, shall we? I’ll show you around some of the
areas
that you will be occupying the most.
This is
Mattie. She takes care of the housekeeping.”

“For the entire house?” Joyce gave her a sympathetic look. Mattie just smiled.

“
There are many rooms that only have
one piece of furniture in them and some that have none at all. They don’t require much cleaning.”

“Why does he keep adding rooms?” Joyce asked
quietly
as if he might hear her and be angry.

Anne shrugged, moving the baby to her hip and stopping when Joyce did. She looked up to see Joyce staring all around her.

The front entrance led to a long wide foyer with a polished mahogany round table directly in front of them. It
was adorned
with a huge bouquet of roses. She went to them and breathed in the scent. “These are beautiful.” She murmured. She looked up and around. “It’s all beautiful.”

The floor under her feet
was made
of stone tile. On the other side of the table, a carpeted staircase led up to the second floor. From the second, a staircase led up to the third floor, one to the left and one to the right, depending on which side you were
going from
. Each door looked like the others, with hand-carved designs in only the best woods available.

“You’ll want to see this.” Anne led her into one of the side rooms on the bottom floor. Joyce sucked in a breath, taking it all in. It
was furnished
with soft looking
couches;
high hard-backed cushioned chairs that
looked
less comfortable and an area rug that must have been bought for at least a hundred dollars if not much more. Her green eyes widened as she stared
around
her.

The most notable thing about the room was the portraits that hung all around them. They were expensive paintings, from the look of them. Joyce couldn’t imagine having enough money for one of them, much less all of them.
Even if they weren’t real.

“Here is
Sir
William Henry Huffman.” Anne stopped by one of the portraits. She looked up at it proudly, as if she had known the man. “He was the first in line for this family to have a lot of money. They say that he got it all trading with other countries. I don’t know much about the family
business,
but Gary and Tom are both widely known
with
the governments both here and in England.”

“When did they immigrate to America?” Joyce asked.

Eliza seemed to be getting
restless,
so Anne put her on the floor. Joyce watched the child waddling around the room while Anne just stared at the portrait. “Tom was in his teens when they came here. He and Gary are only a year apart and are very close. Gary has become…” Anne gave her a sidelong glance before looking back to the portrait. “…protective of Tom. He’s the older one, you know. So he feels responsible for Tom. And since Lizzie died, Tom has been unreachable.”

Joyce tried to hold back a sigh. It certainly sounded like she had been called to be a nursemaid to baby and father. She kept her face as neutral as possible and listened to Anne when she continued.

“Last year, Tom got an invitation from President Cleveland to visit the White House.”

“Did he go?”

Anne looked at her with a shocked expression. “Did he go?
Of course,
he went! We all did. There could be nothing better!”

“Did he take Eliza?”

Anne glanced back to where Eliza had taken fascination with a large stone sculpture of an elephant. She was running her hand over its head as though it was a live pet. She was talking
to
it, too, but neither of them understood
exactly
what she was saying. They caught a few
phrases,
but it was mostly unintelligible words strung together.
At least,
she knew the word “elephant
.”

“Sadly no. She was too young to travel all the way across the country. And he would not have been in any condition to have her there with him.”

“Why was he invited?”

“President Cleveland was campaigning at the time – to become president, you know. Tom is very influential with many of the
businessmen
on the West Coast, especially here in Colorado. The president knew how much things were changing, are changing out here. He wanted to talk to Tom about it. Plus, he’d heard that Lizzie had died and wanted to give his condolences.”

“That was
nice
of him.”

Anne shrugged. “It was probably politics that drove the president to do that. That seems to be the way government runs.”

Joyce had to admit she knew no more about politics, government and business than Anne. She knew how to work hard to save
money,
and she could work figures in her mind like no boys she knew. She had not had any opportunities to use her figuring skills to help in
business
of any kind. Women weren’t allowed.

She was fine with that. They could remain ignorant of her talent if they wanted to.

They made a slow
circle around
the room, Anne explaining each of the portraits that hung on the walls. “And here are Tom and Gary.” Anne’s voice was much prouder than it had been with any of the other men, even the founding father.

Joyce peered closely at Tom’s face. He was very similar to his brother, with wavy light brown hair, hazel
eyes,
and a strong forehead. His chin was equally
strong,
and
he
had a stern look about him. He
looked
like a man who had fought in a war. He was standing on one side of a tall chair with one hand on the edge. He wore a black tuxedo and had casually shoved one hand in the pocket, making the jacket stick out slightly in the back. Gary was standing on the other side of the chair in the same position reversed. He was also wearing a tuxedo. They both had small smiles on their faces. Joyce marveled at how Tom could look so stern and still be smiling.

“Is this recent?” She asked.

“It was done last
year
while they were visiting the President.”

“How interesting.”

“What do you think?”

“Of Tom?” She gave Anne a quick glance and saw her nod. Her eyes settled on Tom once
more,
and she gave it a thought. “I think he looks like
he’s been
through a war.”

Anne sighed. “It’s so unfortunate that the portrait
was done
after Lizzie’s death. Tom was a different man before, happy and smiling, playful and fun.” She looked at Joyce. “I do hope you can reawaken that in him, Joyce. You are vibrant and full of
energy,
I can tell. You can do it.”

Joyce felt the uncomfortable feeling of mental pressure. Anne was confident in her. She felt she probably could do what
was needed
for Tom. But the fact that she had practically been forced into it and now felt an obligation to a child that wasn’t even hers was unnerving. It disturbed
her,
and she hoped to rid herself of those feelings through prayer and with time.

“I will
try,
” she said.

“I’m so glad to hear that. You are not planning to leave then?”

Joyce shook her head a bit reluctantly. “No. I will stay.”

At that very moment, Eliza started clapping her hands and dancing around the room. Anne and Joyce both turned and watched her, instant smiles on their faces. “I think she likes the idea, Joyce!” Anne laughed.

“I don’t think she understands the situation.” Joyce chuckled at the thought. “But it was certainly good timing!”

Chapter Four

In the three days since her arrival, Joyce had seen much more of Anne and Gary than she had of Tom. Her initial meeting with Tom had been
brief
and he had enough time for her to introduce himself and say hello to his daughter before he was off to work.
He
didn’t come home until late in the evening, usually eating his dinner in a restaurant in the town. He told Joyce that they would speak privately on Saturday, which was still a day away, and that they would make plans to
be married
at that time.

It wasn’t the most pleasant way to meet your future husband.

She hadn’t been having an easy time of it with Eliza either. She had to learn everything about caring for a baby from Anne, who had apparently been taking care of Eliza the most. Joyce found herself wondering why Anne and Gary hadn’t
simply
adopted Eliza and taken her care off of Tom’s hands. And mind.

She woke up frustrated that Thursday, hearing Eliza calling from her room. The sun had barely
risen,
and Tom
was already gone
. She threw the covers
from
her legs and sat up, frustrated.
This was
not the life
she
had wanted. She had wanted fun,
adventure,
and new love. Not to be saddled with a baby and a
never-present
husband that she didn’t even know and didn’t consider all that handsome.

The money she had tucked away beckoned her every morning. She sighed
heavily
, deciding once more to ignore its call and
go tend
to the child.

She pulled on a robe and slipped her feet into her slippers. Eliza was awake much earlier than usual. No one would have made any coffee yet.

Joyce went into Eliza’s room and picked her up and out of her crib. “Here you go,
Ellie,
” she said. “Good morning, good morning.” She kept her voice pleasant and forced a smile on her face. There was no way she would let this happy child feel her frustration. That wouldn’t be fair at all. Her unhappiness was her
own,
and she wasn’t going to make a baby feel it too. Besides, her crying would be endless. That was the last thing Joyce wanted at this point.

She set Ellie down
in
a chair and took up a towel to brush her little hands and face with water from the basin. Then she brushed the little girl’s curls and helped her rub a small cloth over her tiny teeth. She had adopted her
own
morning routine for the
child,
and Ellie didn’t seem the least bit bothered by it. She opened her little mouth and displayed her teeth, separating them for Joyce to get the insides of them too.
She
bounced slightly in the chair while Joyce brushed her yellow curls. She sat perfectly still and closed her eyes while Joyce wiped her face with first a wet towel and then a dry one.

When Joyce
was finished
, she was rewarded with a big grin and a hug around the neck. Every time Ellie hugged her, Joyce felt her heart melting a little more. She wished that Ellie was her
own
child and was slowly coming to realize that she might as well be.

“Let’s go exploring today, Ellie, shall we?”

Without having the slightest clue what “exploring” might mean, Eliza jumped up and down and clapped her hands. “Yes, yes, yes!”

Joyce laughed. “All right, let’s go!” She held out her
hand,
but Ellie held up both arms. “
Oh,
you are going to get heavy pretty quickly, little
one,
” Joyce said. “But I’ll carry you for a bit, okay?”

“Up! Please!”

Joyce couldn’t resist her. “Okay, dear.” She leaned down and picked the little girl up in her arms. “I imagine your little legs get tired pretty quickly, don’t they? Although you don’t have nearly as much weight to carry as someone big like me.” She continued chatting, knowing that Ellie wasn’t processing much of what she was saying, if anything. She talked to her as if she was much older than she
really
was. Apparently,
she
was smarter than most. According to Anne, she had learned to walk
early,
and though she didn’t say many words, she was able to read the alphabet and numbers and could understand a few words that were written down on paper, such as “dog” and “cat
.”
At sixteen months, that was an incredible accomplishment.

“Which way should we go, Ellie? This way or that way?” She pointed down the hallway once she’d reached the second floor. Ellie looked as though she were
really
thinking about it, which made Joyce want to burst out laughing. She smiled instead and waited, biting her bottom lip gently.

“Dis way!” Ellie pointed to the left. Joyce was glad. She hadn’t been down that way before and was anxious to see what there was to see. There were three rooms on each side of the house. Most of the new construction was on the bottom floor. The house spread out back over the
land,
and its length couldn’t
be seen
from the front. You had to round the entire house to see that it had
been added
on to extensively.

The first door she opened was to what looked like a spare bedroom. On the other side, a floor to ceiling window was covered by long blue draperies. The furniture consisted of a canopy bed with dusty curtains, a side table, a dresser and an area rug. All
were covered
with a thick layer of dust. She was glad to see that there were no cobwebs. The room was probably only attended to once a month, from the look of it.

She closed the door and gave Ellie a look. “It’s too dusty in there!” She exclaimed. Ellie giggled.

The second door led to a room that looked similar to the first but was slightly less dusty. The furnishings were the same,
with the exception of
the coloring, which was green as opposed to blue in the first room.

She closed the door and looked at Ellie once again. “It’s too dusty in there, too!” She made a
face
and the baby laughed.

“Well, let’s try the third one then, shall we?”

When she opened the door to the third room, she was surprised and frightened to see that someone was in there, standing at the large window on the opposite side. When her
eyes
adjusted to the light coming through the glass, she saw that it was Tom. He turned and looked at her. His hands
were clasped
behind his
back,
and he stood there rigidly, with a terribly sad look on his face.

“Hello, Tom!” Joyce stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. This room was not dusty. It was immaculate. The furniture was
polished,
and the bed looked as though it may have been slept in the night before. It wasn’t Tom’s room. It
was filled
with flowers,
pretty
pictures on the walls, a red velvet drapery that was pulled back from the window and held in place with a gold tassel and a soft, silk pink curtain around the canopy bed. “You…you scared me. Are you
…
all right?”

Tom looked back out the window, resuming the stance he’d had before she came in.

“Do you see that long patch of grass down there?” He asked, pointing.

Joyce set Eliza down and came to stand next to him.
She
looked through the window to where he was pointing. “I do.”

“Lizzie and I used to picnic in that very spot. She made the best sandwiches I’ve ever eaten. They were always delicious and made just the way I like them. She never forgot anything. She always knew what I liked.”

Joyce pressed her lips together.
His voice was so sad.
His eyes gazed mournfully down to the patch of grass before sliding out over the rest of the land that could
be seen
. “We went for many walks down there in the garden and around the
land
here.”

“How long had you been married to her?”

“I had her for six very short
years,
” he replied.

Joyce suppressed a sigh. The woman had died almost two years previous. Tom’s heart
was stuck
in the past. “Tom, why did you call me here?”

Tom lowered his
head,
and she could see he was ashamed. Her heart ached for him. She put one hand on his shoulder, glancing back to see that Eliza had pulled herself up on the bed and was rolling around on it, pulling the blanket along with her. Tom noticed as well and smiled softly. His love for his daughter
was plainly written
on his face. For Joyce, that was all she needed.

“I’m not angry, Tom. Please tell me why you brought me here.”

“I…I need to make some changes. I need to…let go.”

“I’m glad you feel that way, Tom.” Joyce kept her voice very soft and was glad when he looked down directly into her eyes. “I think you’re right. You’ve been in mourning long enough. You must try to think about your daughter.
If,
for any reason, you should because she is a part of Lizzie. You even gave her a name that would honor her mother. The Bible itself says that we may mourn for a
while,
but that rejoicing comes in the morning. If you look at your little girl, how can you not rejoice in the fact that she is here? God gave you a piece of Lizzie to hold on to and love forever. He called His daughter home, would you
really
want to deny Lizzie of that wonderful blessing? Would you want her back here where there
is
pain, unhappiness and tears? I know you don’t.”

Tom shook his head but said nothing. He was listening to her, so she continued.

“I know you loved her with all your
heart,
and she probably felt the same way about you. If she did, she wouldn’t want you to feel this way forever. She would want you to let go and live your life and be happy. Especially so that you can take good care of Ellie.”

“I like that you call her
‘Ellie.'
It’s fitting for this little light.”

“Yes, I agree. And you don’t want
to really be
reminded each time you call your daughter, at least not until
you
’ve become strong enough to accept the loss of someone you loved so much. You need to show Ellie that through the death of her mother, you have found
a fresh
respect for life. You can’t drag in the mud forever. She needs to see you happy. She needs to see
you
.”

“You are such a good woman, Joyce. I am so glad you came here. God must have sent you to me.”

“Tom, I know it’s going to take you
some time
still to pull out of your grief. But you
can
do it. And I will help you.”

“You are a beautiful woman.”

Joyce blushed. “Thank you.”

“I don’t just mean on the outside, I mean on the inside, too.”

“I must admit I was thinking about leaving and going back to Virginia at first. I was very much contemplating it.”

“It’s natural you would feel that way. I lied to you. Well, I didn’t admit to the truth, did I? I just…I just couldn’t take a chance that the only response I got to my ad would not come because of my sadness and my
little baby
girl.”

Joyce licked her lips and moved closer to him. She put one hand up on his
chest,
and he put his hand over hers. “I will not leave you, Tom, if I can help it. You can’t stay in mourning forever. You
must
pursue happiness. You can’t expect it
to just come
to you.”

He nodded. “In this case, I think it did.
You
have come.
You
will help me feel better. I am blessed to have you. So is Ellie.”

“God has blessed us
both
, Tom. He gave us both what we didn’t know we needed.”

*****

THE END