Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen

Author:Anna Godbersen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Social Issues, Love & Romance, Conduct of life, Wealth, Adolescence, 20th Century, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Fiction, United States, Humorous Stories, Historical, New York (N.Y.) - History - 1898-1951, Emotions & Feelings, Social Classes, Friendship, Juvenile Fiction, Social Science
ISBN: 9780061962660
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-10-12T06:27:10.393000+00:00

16

“YOU‧LL NEVER GUESS WHAT THE NEW GIRL DID LAST night!”

Letty had just stepped out of her bedroom, wearing a charcoal-colored dress she had borrowed and was thus a little long for her. She looked even more petite than usual and was feeling rather delicate for reasons she could not yet quite pinpoint.

“What did the new girl do last night?” Fay asked as she walked out of the kitchenette and over to the plum couch, where she sunk down next to Paulette. A black silk eye mask was pushed up on her forehead, beneath the curve of her pale blond hair, and she was still wearing the usual knee-length kimono.

“She jumped onstage and sang an impromptu song with the band!” Paulette announced, as though she still couldn‧t believe it. “The crowd loved it. Amory Glenn was there, and later she found a way to flirt with him.”

Fay‧s lower lip fell and her eyes glistened. “Good girl!” she exclaimed. “It‧s those big innocent blues.”

“Amory Glenn?” Kate exclaimed, emerging from her bedroom. Her frizzy dark hair was tucked under the folds of a white turban, and her long, slender features were already made up. “You brilliant little dog!”

But her roommates’ glee at her conquest only made Letty feel embarrassed. Last night, it had seemed very grand, but she‧d woken up this morning in a different mood. In her dreams, Cordelia had been a kind of princess, and she had mocked Letty from a passing carriage, and when Letty had opened her eyes and heard Paulette‧s noisy breathing beside her in the bed they shared, her life hadn‧t seemed quite so bright as it had before. If she retold the story of jumping on the stage at Seventh Heaven, then she would soon arrive at the part where the song ended and she realized that Cordelia was gone again. The memory made her throat tight.

“I‧ll tell you all about it later.” She mustered a small, brave smile. “It‧s just that it‧s such a beautiful day, I can‧t bear to be inside …,” Letty offered, a bit lamely, as an excuse.

“Oh!”

“But—”

“Tell us,” chorused her roommates, as they pushed themselves up and inclined themselves toward her. But she was already hurriedly crossing the alcove by the entry. She pulled a cocoa-colored felt cloche over her bob and pulled open the door.

“I‧ll be back later!” she called with a frantic wave of the hand, and then she went out of the dim basement and into the day.

As she came up onto the sidewalk, her embarrassment and sorrow began to ebb, and with it her desperate need to flee. She paused there on that narrow, curving street, in the kindly shadow of the two-and three-story brick townhouses and the tall trees in full leaf overhead.

That was when she saw Grady Lodge across the street, leaning against his black roadster, with his hands in his pockets.

A floppy cap created a wedge of shadow on his face, but it could not hide the patient yearning in his deep-set gray eyes.

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