A True and Faithful Narrative by Katherine Sturtevant

Author:Katherine Sturtevant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 2011-10-17T00:00:00+00:00

2

You were very quick to leave me alone with Mr. Gosse,” I said to Will the next time we were together and without other listeners.

He had been tending the fire, but now straightened and regarded me. “Did you think I would stand about and scowl at him, that he might be discouraged from prosecuting his suit?”

With my finger I followed a long scratch in the oaken counter before me, and with my eyes I followed the finger. “He does not court me. If once he thought of it, he does not think of it now.”

“And yet he is barely at home in London before he seeks you out—on St. Valentine’s Day.”

“He did not know it was the fourteenth.”

“Of course he did not.” Will turned back to the fire.

“I never thought before that you were slow-witted,” I said to his back. “He came to thank me, of course, for my part in his redemption.”

He finished his task, and took up the cloth we kept by the hearth to wipe his hands clean of coal dust. “And did you explain to him all I had done to help?” he asked.

I was taken aback, for I had not thought to do this.

“It does not matter,” Will said with a mocking smile as he came to take my place behind the counter. “No doubt your father will mention it to him when they next meet.”

My father. I liked to think of what he might say when he saw my finished narrative, but I did not like to imagine what would pass if he found me engaged upon the work. I had always known that I was not as dutiful as other daughters, but I had told myself that it was more a matter of ill luck than of willfulness on my part. If I was clumsy with a needle and quick-witted with words, was that my fault? But as I set out to deceive my father in the matter of Edward’s narrative, I could no longer hide my wrongness from myself. What can I say on my own behalf, except that I could not withstand the temptation? There are drunkards and lechers, gluttons and gamesters, who might say the same. Is art a vice, then, like any other? And yet no one will speak for the drunkard, while many will speak for the poet.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.