Farewell to Freedom by Sara Blaedel

Author:Sara Blaedel [Blaedel, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

29

THERE WERE NO CARS OUTSIDE THE CHURCH WHEN CAMILLA arrived Saturday morning. Louise was supposed to meet her, and she knew that the sexton would arrive at any moment as well. She opened the back hatch of her car where she had the flowers for Kaj’s funeral service; the wreath was in the front seat. When the woman at the flower shop had asked her if she wanted to order a sash and what it should read, Camilla drew a blank at first until she settled on a basic “Rest in Peace,” which was printed in gold. She had thought that would be better than “Forever in Our Hearts” or any of the other standard phrases, but walking out of the flower shop she had of course had second thoughts and regretted not just leaving the sash blank.

Now all the self-recrimination came rushing back. If only she hadn’t sat down on that damn bench with a bag of beer and for once just left a good story alone. Looking at the flowers in her car, she was overcome by tears, even though she didn’t actually think she had any left.

Camilla sniffled and checked her watch, noting that she still had ten minutes until her appointment with the sexton, so she pulled the bucket of small bouquets for the front pew out of the trunk, and after she set it on the ground, she carefully picked up the large bouquet for the altar. With the bouquet under her arm and the bucket of flowers in her hand, she started walking up to the church, the gravel of the drive crunching beneath her high heels.

The sun was shining down on the white church with its red tile roof, and fluffy banks of white clouds slid lazily across the blue sky, but the cheerful spring weather didn’t do anything to raise her spirits. She could sense the deep abyss just below the surface that had been threatening to swallow her up for the last week. Camilla knew that the only things holding it at bay right now were the careful makeup she’d applied that morning and the dark suit, which was so tight. They gave her the sense that she could hold herself together no matter what happened.

She set the bucket down and grabbed the door’s iron handle. The pastor had prepared her, warning her that she would need to push with her shoulder if she had trouble pressing the handle down. But the door opened without any trouble and she walked over to the bench just inside the entrance to set down the altar bouquet. It wasn’t until she turned around to go back and get the bucket that she stumbled over something.

It felt solid and yet soft under the sole of her shoe. She jumped back reflexively and felt her pulse speed up, her heart pounding.

The towel was dark blue, exactly like before, but that wasn’t why she stood frozen, her eyes fixed on the bundle on the stone floor.

She was staring because it was totally silent.

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.