Blessed Assurance by Lyn Cote

Author:Lyn Cote
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

The rosy spring dawn radiated over the green hills of San Francisco. Cecy perched on the front seat of Linc’s Pierce Arrow as they drove out of the city to her mother’s sanitarium. Cecy’s nervous stomach objected to the wide turning Linc made around a mountain curve.

“Cecilia, what did the doctor tell you over the phone?”

“He said that Mother could see me if she felt up to it.” Her voice betrayed her by quavering on the last phrase.

“If she is able to come home, Susan said she’ll come and stay with you until you hire a nurse for your mother.”

Cecy cleared her thick throat. “That’s very thoughtful.”

“Susan is angry with your aunt. She says family stands by family—no matter what.”

Cecy gave a mirthless laugh. She’d thought her aunt had been the only one in her family who wouldn’t disappoint her. Tears threatened, but she steeled herself against them. What if my mother can’t come home?

Glancing sideways, Linc confounded her again by saying, “I’m sure your mother will wish to help. But she might not be well enough.”

“I know.” I have to try. Something, a little like hysteria, ignited in the pit of her stomach. What if her mother wouldn’t come? Having to hire a stranger as a chaperone—humiliating. I won’t do it. I’ll defy convention and live alone.

Linc’s even voice called her out of the vortex of emotion. “Did your mother ever visit you in Boston?”

An arrow of pain pierced her. “My father wouldn’t let her at first. He said I should adjust to school before she visited me.” Adjust to being abandoned.

“And then?”

“And then she was too sick to come.” Desperate in her loneliness, Cecy had written many times over the years, inviting her mother to school events, begging to come home for the summer. In all those years, no one but Auntie had ever come. Her father had paid her school, clothing, music, and summer camp fees, but she’d only received civil replies from his lawyer. Why had her father hated her so? She closed her eyes trying to block out all she’d endured.

“The sanitarium’s just around this bend.”

She opened her eyes, forcing the past back, driving it back into its cage. “Yes, I recognize where we are now.”

After they drove through the gate, the gatekeeper swung the black wrought iron gate closed behind them. Its clang resonated through Cecy’s every fiber.

Linc looked uneasy. “I take it this is one of those exclusive hospitals for the very wealthy?”

“Yes, the security is very good here…Auntie said.” For a fleeting second, she yearned to rest her aching head on Linc’s broad shoulder. Would her mother even see her?

At the impressive carved, double oak door, a staff doctor welcomed them. He led them down an empty corridor to his office, their careful footsteps echoing. They sat down by his desk and he faced them.

Cecy drew herself up, clutching at the shreds of her tattered courage. “Is my mother well enough to see me?”

“Yes, I think she is.” The doctor, an earnest-looking young man, steepled his fingers and gazed at her over them.

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.