Olivia, Mourning (Olivia Series Book #1)

Five Rocks, Pennsylvania
January 21, 1841In 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 tobe the only ugly patch of ground in all of Pennsylvania. The few trees were gnarled and bent over, and not even weeds thrivedin 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 bathesome 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 she listened to him complain.
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