Riverbreeze: Part 1 by Ellen E. Johnson Read Free Book Online Page A

his wife, he had seen no point in socializing or visiting
friends. All they ever did was smother him, making noises of
sympathy and looking at him with pity in their eyes. And then the
match-making had begun, a mere month after Kathleen’s death!
    First it was suggested he should marry
Abigail. She had moved in with them after the tragic death of her
husband and three-month old baby, but she had made it perfectly
clear she did not want another man ever touching her again. Then
Daphne Dixon had been paraded in front of him, but my God, she had
only been fourteen! Then there was Susie Somebody and Wilhemina
What’shername and Joanie with the green eyes and on and on the
busybodies went. He became fed up with it all, no matter their good
intentions. So it had just been easier for him to stay at home and
fill his days with mindless work or when he did take a day off,
sneak away to the nearby Indian village.
    But he couldn’t say no to Tyler this time; it
would be rather rude of him to purposely refuse the invitation and
not welcome his cousins to the colony. And he knew how much Jamie
wanted to go and needed to go. Jamie was young and vibrant and was
so handsome with his big blue eyes and thick blond hair that Robert
was surprised he didn’t have a special lady already. The same women
who had been pushed on him had been introduced to Jamie, but Jamie
was younger and didn’t feel comfortable with some of the older
women who had already been married and widowed or with Daphne
Dixon, the fourteen-year-old. And at that time Jamie was just
getting established, he had only been given one hundred acres of
land at the time of his release and had no house or income. He was
living with his brother, the recluse , and
no time to devote to a wife. So he had stayed single as well.
    And Robert hadn’t felt bad for any of those
women who they had rejected. They had all found husbands among the
scores of single men in the colony in mere days or weeks of being
introduced to them.
    So Robert would go and make the best of it
for Jamie’s sake. Jamie was quite a catch now. It made Robert smile
to see him so grown up. He realized he was going to have to stop
thinking of Jamie as his little brother. Even though Jamie had
grown to be quite a tall man, it wasn’t only Jamie’s height that
had made him the man he was today.
    Over the past two years his brother had
matured significantly in body and in mind. Being released from his
contract of indenture at seventeen and being sent to live with a
grieving brother had been more than difficult for Jamie. Robert
knew he had not been in the best of moods after the death of his
wife; and poor Jamie had had to put up with an awful lot of his
anger and despair. Robert couldn’t have been more grateful for
Jamie’s company. Jamie had always been patient; he had always been
helpful and even if his shoulders had been a little bit skinny,
they had born the brunt of Robert’s sobs time and time again.
    By this time, Jamie had fitted the mare with
her snaffle bridle and single set of reins and was now putting the
saddle on her, tightening and securing the girth strap. Robert
noticed she was a little calmer than the male and knew he would be
riding her. He couldn’t take any chances, since he would be riding
with his two-year-old son, and he also thought that Jamie should
have the privilege of arriving at the party atop his mighty
stallion.
    But in the back of his mind, he was
remembering several years back when he and Jamie would ride and
race Tyler’s horses and how the wind felt on his face, and how it
whipped his own blond hair back, and the feel of the horse’s
powerful muscular body beneath his thighs. How they would laugh and
whoop with abandon, feeling carefree, invincible and secure in
their new world. It had been a time of regained innocence, a time
to put the horrors of their lost childhoods behind them. Tyler had
allowed that behavior, encouraged it, in fact, to make them whole
again and to allow