Emerald Star by Jacqueline Wilson

Author:Jacqueline Wilson [Wilson, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Children, Family, Fiction, Historical, Young Adult
ISBN: 9781446479810
Publisher: RHCP Digital
Published: 2012-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

13

THE FUNERAL FEAST back in the cottage was an absolute triumph. It seems dreadful to describe it thus. Of course we were all very sad. Father was much mourned and Mother totally pitied. Most of the mourners were in tears when Father was taken out into the graveyard and buried in the newly dug grave. All his true kin children threw specially ordered hothouse roses – from the gardener up at the manor – onto the coffin as a mark of respect.

There was no rose left over for me, so I scattered a handful of Michaelmas daisies instead. Yes, that was a time of great weeping – but within an hour we had all had a glass or two of cowslip wine and felt considerably cheered. It was the first time I’d ever tried wine. I didn’t care for the taste at all. It was much too syrupy, with a dark flavour that made me shudder – but I liked the effect it had. The tight clench in my chest eased and I felt as good and welcome as anyone under that thatched roof – more so, in fact, because folk gathered round me in little clusters and praised my eulogy, saying how much it had moved them.

‘You said it all so perfectly, Hetty. It was truly poetic,’ said dear kind Janet. ‘And you spoke out so clearly too, in front of everyone. I could never have done such a thing. Jem was clearly grateful to you, when he was so choked with emotion he couldn’t get the words out.’

Jem was recovered enough to speak up for himself now. ‘You said such splendid things, Hetty, simple yet so true, picturing it all so beautifully. I am glad now I couldn’t read out my own words. They weren’t a patch on yours, even though I had days to write down all my thoughts. You’re a little star.’

‘Oh, Jem, remember! Madame Adeline called me that the day the circus came,’ I said.

‘Because I’d bought you a gingerbread and stuck the star to your forehead,’ said Jem.

‘Oh, you do remember!’

‘I remember everything about you, Hetty. You’re my own dear sister,’ he said, so warmly.

Jem’s real sisters were perhaps a little put out that everyone was making such a fuss of me. They whispered amongst themselves, looking at me meaningfully, but they did not say anything unkind aloud. I was careful to make myself useful, taking my turn watching over Mother, who was now resting upstairs. She was calmer, but still murmuring ‘Gi-gi-gi’ as she fell soundly asleep. When my foster sisters took their turn with Mother, I handed round the wine and food downstairs.

I’d never seen such a display of food in all my life. It would have fed every child in the Foundling Hospital for an entire month. Every woman in the village had brought several platefuls, not just dear Mrs Maple. There were rabbit pies and chicken pies, and egg and bacon lattice tarts, and little pork pies, and slices of pink ham.

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