The thought pattern is that charge alters space affects charge. We then talk of the electric field exerting forces on charges placed in that environing space. Mathematically, this is a trivial notion, amounting to factoring, but it's a huge heuristic physically. Numerically, the electric field is equal to the force which would act on a charge of 1 Coulomb if it were placed at the field point. But the units are not those of force, but of force divided by charge, i.e., Newtons per Coulomb.
Lines of force are a convenient way of representing electric fields.
The electric lines of force have some interesting properties. At any point in the space around a source distribution, the electric field vector is tangent to the line of force through the point. The magnitude of the electric field is proportional to the number of lines of force per unit transverse area at any point. Forces point in a unique direction at any point so the electric field vector must have a unique direction. Notice the lack of the subscript.