Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier

Author:Tracy Chevalier
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2007-09-19T04:00:00+00:00

3

Jem did not tell his parents or Maisie where he was going. Anne Kellaway would forbid him to go so far into London; Maisie would want to come along. Normally Jem didn’t mind if his sister was with him and Maggie. Today, however, he was nervous, and didn’t want to be responsible for Maisie too. So he simply said he was going out, and though he didn’t meet Maisie’s eye, he could feel her pleading gaze.

Perhaps it was because she’d had extra sleep the previous day, but Maggie was more sparkling than she had been for many a Sunday. She had washed herself, hair as well, so that, except for the creases in her hands, her skin was a more normal color. She had put on a clean shift over her gown, tied a light blue neckerchief around her neck, and even wore a slightly crumpled straw hat with a broad brim, trimmed with a navy blue ribbon. Her shape was different too—her waist and chest sharper, more defined—and Jem realized she was wearing stays for the first time.

She took Jem’s arm with a laugh. “Shall we step into town, then?” she said, sticking her nose up in the air.

“You look nice.”

Maggie smiled and smoothed her shift over her stays, a gesture Maisie often made but that clearly was new to Maggie, as it had little effect on the wrinkles and bunches under her arms and at her waist. Jem suppressed an urge to run his own hands down her sides and squeeze her waist.

He glanced down at his patched, dusty breeches, coarse shirt, and plain brown coat that had once been his brother Sam’s. It hadn’t occurred to him to keep on his good church clothes for going into London; apart from worrying that they would be damaged or get dirty in the city, he would have had to explain to his family why he was wearing them. “Should I put on a better coat?” he asked.

“Don’t matter. I just like to dress up when I get the chance. Neighbors’d make fun of me if I wore this round here. C’mon, we’d best get back to the Blakes’. I been keeping an eye on the house but no one’s come out yet.”

They set themselves up to wait across from no. 13 Hercules Buildings, behind the low hedge that separated the field across the road from the road itself. It was not as sunny as the day before; still warm, but hazy and close. They lay in the grass, and now and then one of them would pop up to look over and see if there was any sign of Mr. Blake. They saw Miss Pelham leave with a friend, heading for the Apollo Gardens on Westminster Bridge Road, as she often did on a Sunday afternoon, to drink barley water and look at the flower displays. They saw John Astley ride out on his horse. They saw Thomas and Anne Kellaway and Maisie leave no. 12 and walk past them on their way down to the Thames.

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.