Olivia, Mourning
Book 1 of the Olivia Series
Yael Politis
Olivia, Mourning
Book 1 of the Olivia Series
Copyright 2013 Yael Politis
All Rights Reserved
Kindle Edition
Cover photo by Yulia Kazansky
Cover design by Tatiana Vila
This book may not be reproduced, copied, or distributed for commercial
purposes.
December, 2013
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Chapter One
Five Rocks, Pennsylvania
January 21, 1841
In the 19th century a wagon couldn’t cross Pennsylvania without
circumventing the worst of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians. Despite the
breathtaking beauty of the lush green mountains, travelers gave a prayer of
thanks when they finally made it past the Allegheny Front. There the plateau fell
to the lowlands, into what some folks still called Westsylvania. Flat ground had
never looked so good.
Some of those wagons later took a wrong turn and clomped across a charming
covered bridge. Thank the good Lord Almighty, those drivers thought. Nice
bridge like that, there must be a town ahead. And there was – Five Rocks. It offered one of everything they needed – Livery, Feed & Grain, General Store, Saloon, Doctor, and Lawyer – along with a choice of three churches. But none of
these accidental visitors (for no stranger came to Five Rocks by design) stayed
for more than a night. On their way out they clucked their tongues and wondered
what on earth had possessed those folks to build their homes on what seemed to
be the only ugly patch of ground in all of Pennsylvania. The few trees were gnarled and bent over, and not even weeds thrived in the hard-scrabble gray dirt.
Olivia Killion’s father, Old Man Seborn Killion, was the owner of Killion’s
General in Five Rocks. She and her two older brothers, Avis and Tobey, lived with him in one of the eight “rich folks’ houses” on Maple Street. Olivia had attended the one-room schoolhouse until she was past fifteen, when her father’s
illness put him in bed for good. She knew it was her place to stay home and care
for Old Seborn.
Since then, for two long years, every morning had been the same – heat up
water and fight past his flailing arms to bathe some part of him, while he hollered that she was trying to give him pneumonia. He was more cooperative
while she fed him his breakfast. Afterwards she sat staring out the window while
