Bloody Hell just fall in love already!

A very strange nightmare

"Victoria?" Nellie asked in astonishment, she wasn't expecting Victoria to be here. Not that she wasn't happy to see her, it was just extremely unexpected and out of the blue.

Victoria smiled widely as she stood at the front door. "Nellie! I've missed you so much!" Victoria pulled Nellie into a tight embrace "I'm so sorry to drop in unexpectedly like this. There was a small fire at my house you see, everything is fine except for the wall in the kitchen and some of the furniture. The men I hired to fix the wall said it'll be about five days for them to repair everything, and I understand you're all very busy and it's crowded enough here as it is. I can stay at a hotel if you don't have enough room and..."

Nellie quickly cut her cousin off at the mention of a hotel. "Don't be silly! You're welcome to stay here as long as you need to!" At the sound of Victoria's voice, the three teens came rushing to the front door.

"Victoria!" They beamed and all took turns hugging her, she laughed as she smiled at all of them. She loved these guys so much, the little clever match makers. She turned to the carriage that was sitting just out front of the shop.

"I'll be right back, I just 'ave to get my bags." The coachmen helped Victoria carry her bags inside, and the three kids recognized this man somehow. But how would they know him? Toby kept staring at the man before realizing that this was the coachmen who took Lovett and Todd around in a carriage for hours, pretending to be lost. He even took them to the beach because Anthony asked him to.

"Stephen!" Toby called out and hugged the man, much to everyone else's surprise.

Sweeney eyed the man closely, also recognizing him. He leaned closer to Nellie, "isn't that the bloke who got lost on the way to Victoria's house a few months ago?" He whispered to her so no one else would hear.

Nellie nodded "yes well he certainly figured out how to get there at some point because he brought her here from her house." She whispered back to him, but they didn't understand how Toby would know him.

Johanna and Anthony realized who he was and Johanna hugged him as well, Anthony decided a simple hand shake would be appropriate enough for him. "Stephen! How have you been?!" Johanna beamed.

Nellie furrowed her brows "how do the three of you know him?" Nellie asked, only growing more confused by the second. It was only Sweeney and Nellie stuck on that long carriage ride that day, so how would the kids know him?

The three of them looked at each other and back to Nellie, they couldn't tell her the truth. What were they supposed to say? "Oh yes well you see, that one time you and dad drove around aimlessly for hours and somehow ended up at the beach was actually because we secretly got this man involved in our ongoing schemes to make the two of you fall in love."

Thankfully, Stephen stepped in to cover for the kids. "I give them free rides to the park sometimes." The three of them nodded in agreement, it was far better than any of the horrible excuses they would've come up with.

Nellie placed her hands on her hips "oh guys don't make the poor man drive you around for free. I'm sorry if they've inconvenienced you in any way, sir." Nellie told him, but Stephen shook his head in protest.

"No, not at all ma'am. They're very polite, very bright kids. And they've never asked for a free ride, I just take them to the park sometimes with no charge. It's no trouble at all." Nellie took notice of how Victoria hadn't taken her eyes off of Stephen since he helped her carry her things inside. He was an attractive man, tall with dark brown hair and blue eyes. Nellie smirked to herself, it would appear that miss Victoria has a crush. She got an idea, a way for Victoria and Stephen to see each other again while Victoria would be in town.