Finding Bliss (3 page)

But the boy who grew up thinking he was Ollie Terry, cast
off by-blow, was actually Oliver Porter, future Count of Varenne. Due to some
familial espionage, Ollie had been smuggled from his home by his title hungry
paternal uncle in the dead of night.

Lord Oliver Varenne, Sr. had died a few months after young
Oliver was betrothed to Lord Donovan’s daughter. Ollie was barely six and
unable to know what was wrong when Mr. Sherman Porter kidnapped him from his
bed. Sherman put his only nephew into the care of Lord Captain Shrift, a
desperate man who owed too many debts.

Sherman told the captain to tell Ollie anything he liked,
but to keep him out of England until someone sent for him if he wanted his
debts relieved. It was hardly a consolation that Sherman set aside additional funds
to manage the boy comfortably as a sailor, giving him a paid naval education by
commission. His title was to be kept a secret.

Ollie grew up living exactly the sort of life Sherman Porter
was supposed to have gotten as a second son, except he’d been too cowardly.
Sherman was a simpering, feminine fellow with no true character to speak of who
wouldn’t have survived a month at sea.

In addition to avoiding his destined life at sea, Sherman
wanted to hold the hereditary title for a few years professedly until Ollie
gained his majority. He wanted to do it as the true count, not a stand-in
substitute. Even if when the boy returned his holding of it would go away,
while the boy was gone he’d be respected in parliament and the ton.

He intended to continue the ruse only until Ollie was
eighteen. But due to a mishap in communication, and the death of the indebted sailor,
Sherman was unable to locate Lord Oliver when the year of the boy’s majority arrived.
Forced to keep up the deception until the situation could be resolved, Sherman
continued without saying a word to anyone.

Due to his indulgent weakness and his shame, Sherman carried
out the injustice nearly twenty nine years. And most unfortunately he died
before he was able to fully rectify his wrongdoing. He was almost too late to
beg for forgiveness of his kind sister-in-law, who by his greedy hand had lost both
her husband and only child within the same year. His deathbed confession was
the last hope she had of ever seeing her missing son again.

Luxie was also an unfortunate victim of Sherman’s treachery.
Lord Donovan, stubborn all the way to his Irish roots, vowed never to give up
on his promise to his deceased best friend. While the fate of Lord Oliver was still
unknown, he kept Luxie quite literally set aside and off limits to any other
proposals for nine seasons out, still hoping with Lady Varenne that the young
count would someday be discovered one way or another.

Some might have said this was a tragedy, and indeed for the
agony of the Countess of Varenne it was. But this twist of fate made Ollie a
man among men. At age eleven, he’d been entrusted to the care of another man, Captain
Russell Nieland, upon the death of Lord Captain Shrift.

Ollie became like a son to the childless Captain Nieland—who
in reality was not who he was thought to be or claimed to be either. Nieland
was actually the heir to the dukedom of Penwood, a man who had loved the sea so
much he avoided his place in society to be a sailor.

Owing to Nieland’s influence with his lesser known, yet
noble acquaintances, he was able to send Ollie to the finest naval academy even
without a noble parentage. Afterward Ollie served in the Royal British Merchant
Navy to high distinction, which wouldn’t have been possible for an untitled man
in the King’s Royal Navy. No officers were untitled in the Royal Navy at the
time.

And as it turned out, Captain Nieland was heir to a grand
fortune and even a private shipping company. Ollie inherited everything when
Captain Nieland died unexpectedly due to a mysterious ailment contracted in the
tropics during the rescue of fellow sailors whose ship had sunken off the coast
of a hostile port.

Unable to inherit Captain Nieland’s title, Ollie was advised
by a clever steward to be generous to the King’s needs by donating a couple of
ships. As a result Ollie was granted the hereditary title and became the Duke
of Penwood, with all of its hereditary distinction—one of the last conferments of
the kind ever to be made by the ailing king before madness enacted the regency.

In the midst of all this news and good fortune, Ollie had
met and fallen in love with the most beautiful spinster in England. He stole
her away with the help of her brother and sisters and married her in Scotland
while his mother and her late husband’s best friend searched frantically for
the missing count.

When they arrived at his new estate, both Ollie and Luxie
had been nearly overwhelmed at the extravagance. The Penwood Manor Estate was
an elaborately modernized castle that boasted more square footage, two large
grandiose ballrooms, four sitting rooms, and an indoor tennis court that would
have made the monarchy jealous!

A large ceramic lined basin, styled like a hedonistic Roman
Bath and big enough for several bodies to fit comfortably, was the most unusual
jewel on the lowest level. There were pleasure gardens, stables for over at
least a couple hundred horses and a wonderful view of the sea port from the
tallest tower window!

When it was later revealed that Ollie had been the lost
Count of Varenne all along, that the girl he’d stolen to be his bride was in
fact his long-waiting fiancée, it became the sensational story everyone talked
about for over a decade!

Ollie, being reared away from his noble birth, came into his
dukedom with a sense of honor and understanding for the common man. And his
family echoed his beliefs in the way they treated the staff of the estate.

The large house, nearly rivaling the monastic holdings in
the number of rooms and the curious amenities it boasted, was nearly as
unbelievable without the additions of industrial progress that Ollie and his
bride had made after the addition of children. It was one of the grandest
estates of the nobility.

Having common-man ideals and philosophies, Ollie also
managed his private shipping company himself in partnership with his best
friend, Lord Daniel “Ozzie” Osterburg. He was a wonderful employer— everyone in
his employ from his household staff to his lowest sailor was treated fairly, paid
good wages and allowed benefits most people of the gentry and ton thought were
downright absurd on such levels.

As a result, the common people of Cardiff were eager to have
a job at Penwood Manor Estate. It wasn’t hard to believe that there was an
ample amount of jealousy over what the Penwood’s had as a family either.

Ollie lived by a personal code, rather than succumb to the
pressure of the gentry. He built a gigantic replica of a sailing vessel on the
shore of the estate’s lake for all of the children to play on and have
adventures. He believed in education for anyone with a desire to learn and
employed nursery and nanny employees enough to satisfy his workers’ youngest children
and any he and his prolific wife might be further blessed with.

There were always monies available to anyone wishing to
further their education. The result was a loyalty among former employees when
they returned to seek advice and received glowing recommendations from the influential
family after their schooling ended and their life improved.

People who worked for the Penwood’s enjoyed advantages above
and beyond most of their class. They rotated schedules, were given time off if
they were sick and a little time off for the major holidays, and received fair pay
for their hard work. All of these things were simply unheard of in the realm
until Ollie’s example began to set the new standards.

His workers, called “employees” rather than the slave-like
“servants”, were allowed to marry if they wanted, and they were given the
option to lease properties on the estate to raise their families and still have
the convenience of their work being nearby. Anyone who worked for the Penwood
dukedom could have a decently comfortable life so long as they did their job,
respected the working guidelines and didn’t cause problems.

Luxie was a generous countess and duchess with more than
enough to share with those around her. They were the most beloved landlords in every
corner of Wales and England where they owned properties. And yet despite their well-liked
status, the Penwood family was still a most unusual bunch even without the
peculiarity of their intuitive, knowing middle child.

Their eldest son was commissioned as a sailor, even though
he was heir to a dukedom and already a count by birth! Lord Russell Varenne
lived up to his namesake in that he shirked society and lived for the open
ocean and the challenges of a very physical career! It was scandalously flippant
and spat in the eye of custom, but the Lord and Lady Penwood did not seem to
mind.

Their second son Mac, Miles Allen Christopher Porter, was
allowed a full, gentleman’s education, unheard of for a second born male. And
worse even, he was leaning toward becoming a scholar or an artist as a life’s
career. Friends of the Penwood family urged them to direct the boy to a more
acceptable path. Professors were always people without means who lived for
knowledge, not wealthy second sons who should live idle lives and inherit their
livelihood in stocks and percents! And artists were too lowly to even be
mentioned unless they’d done some great work that all could admire.

Their daughters were a bit more gentile by design. Lady
Merryann Destiny, the eldest, was an accomplished horsewoman by age ten. But
due to painful shyness and a speech difficulty, she was woefully reluctant to
participate in society’s remaining rituals like most young ladies her age.

Lady Cordelia Fortunata, or Cori to her family and friends,
was determined to escape the rituals of nobility altogether and blend in with
the worker’s children that seemed to her to have all the freedom. It was
therefore unfortunate for her that she was the most exquisitely beautiful
child. She stood out with her stunning features and was rarely ever mistaken
for anyone except one of the Penwood daughters. She was also unfortunately
clumsy.

The current youngest child was barely four, but already Lady
Andrea Serenity- known to them all as Andre by precocious insistence- was
showing great musical talent and promise. Her skills were already exceeding
expectations, and little Andre’s determination to master any instrument she was
given meant that a music master would soon have to be added as part of the
education offered at Penwood Manor Estate.

Even with all these unusual characters around her, Bliss was
still set apart from the rest of the family as being slightly other-worldly.
She rarely needed scolding and was usually the most helpful and least troublesome
of all the children.

Her unusual ability to know things in advance gave her an
advantage above her siblings in that regard. She was above and beyond the
maturity of most children twice her age, and as such it set her apart from most
of the children who weren’t related to her.

Bliss could claim only a handful of friends outside of
family. And her loyalty to those who trusted her was repaid tenfold. But as she
grew older, her abilities grew. She was forced to accept her lot in life,
simply because to resist fate meant the worst possible outcomes. And why anyone
would avoid the better outcome was beyond her!

When Bliss awoke early one morning
during a mysteriously cool day in June, three things were clear in her mind:

First off, she would see her future husband that day. The
visions on that end were very clear. Scenes of her wearing a billowing gown and
standing with the boy on her arm dressed in a fashionable suit came at regular
intervals that morning.

The groom was no stranger, much to her dismay. She’d
suspected for some time that they were destined to be together, but this day’s
sight confirmed it. For the first time it was obvious in the vision that he
adored Bliss. He even
kissed
her!

The vision of flowers and a festooned carriage waiting for
them made Bliss certain this was the day that she should show him a bit more of
her true self. In spite of her eagerness to share with immediate family and
closest friends, Bliss was secretive about her abilities. Her friend, Dr.
Benchley, warned her that it might be dangerous to share her special talent
with people she didn’t trust.

The second thing she knew was that Dr. Benchley needed to
come to the house. Bliss had a distinct feeling that a medical doctor would be
necessary sometime in the afternoon. It was a sound rather than a visual scene that
alerted her to this.

In her vision, the sound of someone crying out in obvious
pain and the feeling of panic that accompanied it made perfect sense that
something, whether an accident or an illness, would befall someone at Penwood
estate that day. Bliss had a strong feeling that it involved her mother, who
was pregnant again for the seventh time.

And thirdly, Bliss knew without a doubt once again that her
family would not believe her. Despite her father’s claims on the day five years
ago when Russ nearly drowned in the lake, it was still proving difficult to get
her point across.

Adding to her difficulty was the problem that the visions sometimes
didn’t offer clear pictures until the last possible moment. Often she took a
chance and made a mistake with her choices in order to feel comfortable that
she was doing the right thing at the right time.

Sometimes things were perfectly clear, though. And yet even
after she told them specifically and accurately from the beginning that her
mother’s previous pregnancy would produce a girl, Andrea was born, and they
still harbored doubt.

It wasn’t always a horrible thing when her family doubted
her. Many things she shared could easily be written off as coincidence.