Cradle Of Secrets by Lisa Mondello

Author:Lisa Mondello
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2007-12-14T05:00:00+00:00

“Let me take the tray to her,” Tammie said, holding out her hands.

Susan stood at the foot of the stairs, a dinner tray filled with food in her hands. Serena’s dinner was being served at nine-thirty, because she’d slept so late.

“It’s my job. I’d appreciate your letting me do it.”

Tammie put her hands down. “Fine. Then I’ll go with you. I’d like to see how Serena is doing.”

“That won’t be necessary. Aurore is already up there.”

Despite the attempted brush-off, Tammie followed Susan up the stairs and into Serena’s room. She didn’t know what to expect after last night’s nightmare. Serena had been distraught the night before, but Tammie was caught off guard when she found that she was worse.

Serena lay lifeless in her bed. Aurore stood next to her, lifting her so that she was sitting almost upright, propping her up with pillows. Her eyes were glazed over, and she appeared almost catatonic, with her head slightly turned to the side.

Aurore turned as Tammie came beside the bed. “You might want to get some dinner yourself, since you didn’t eat when you got home,” Aurore said to Tammie. “Susan is a good cook. She’ll fix you something.”

“Thank you, but I had dinner earlier, in town.”

Aurore sighed. “As you can see, Serena is not up to talking. You’ll be wasting your time if you try.”

“Isn’t that for me to decide?”

“Why don’t you find something else to do?”

“You’re trying to get rid of me again,” Tammie said pointedly.

Aurore gave her a half smile. “Would it work if I were?”

“No.”

“Then it’ll only be a waste of my time if I try.”

Susan put the dinner tray on the space at the foot of the bed, and Aurore cleared a spot there and sat down. “That will be all, Susan. Thank you.”

When she was gone, Tammie pulled a chair closer to the bed, opposite where Aurore was sitting.

“Did you raise her?” she asked.

Aurore gave her attention to feeding Serena. “Serena?

No, her father did.”

“A mother’s love is important, too. She had no step mother?”

“Eleanor was her mother. I made sure she knew what kind of woman her mother was. Her father never remarried.”

An ache settled in the pit of Tammie’s stomach. She knew nothing about any of them. Would she have the opportunity to know what kind of person Eleanor Davco had been, and how she had come to live in someone else’s home? She hoped so.

“You’ll have to tell me about that sometime. If you don’t mind.”

Aurore’s face remained expressionless, but she paused for just a fraction of a second before she continued to spoon-feed Serena.

Food dribbled out of Serena’s mouth, and Aurore quickly scooped it away from her face and wiped her with a soft white cloth, as if she were a baby again. The scene was almost too much for Tammie to bear.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“She hasn’t gotten over the loss of her father.”

“He’s in a nursing home. He’s not dead.”

“He is to Serena. He doesn’t remember her at all. It was a devastating blow to be left alone like that.

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