Gallows Hill by Lois Duncan

Author:Lois Duncan [Duncan, Lois]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9781453263389
Publisher: Open Road
Published: 2012-07-26T03:30:00+00:00

Chapter

TWELVE

SARAH WAITED UNTIL AFTER dinner to tell them about it, in order to spare Rosemary, who set great store by a pleasant dinner hour. It was as if it had been so long since she had had a man to please that she took what Sarah considered an inappropriate amount of delight in doing everything up perfectly, including a cloth and linen napkins and candles on the table.

Sarah thought this obsession might also have something to do with the fact that her mother had to be bored out of her mind with nothing to do all day but look at the walls. In the beginning, the move and unpacking, the painting of the rooms and arrangement of furniture, had kept her occupied. Now, however, these initial challenges were over. Her busy career and assortment of cultural interests lay behind her, along with all the friends she had left back in Ventura, and she had little to do all day except cook and count the hours until Ted and Sarah got home.

Even the “romantic” evenings appeared deadly to Sarah, as Ted seemed perfectly content to spend the after-dinner hours reading, grading student papers, or watching football on television.

So because of its importance to her mother, Sarah had honored the sanctity of the dinner hour. Now, however, as Ted settled himself on the sofa and reached for the TV section of the paper, she said, “Before you flick on the boob tube, Ted, I have something to show you.”

She handed him the sketch of the gallows.

“What’s this?” Ted asked, glancing at it without much interest.

“What does it look like to you?”

“A gallows.”

“That’s what it looks like to me too,” Sarah said. “Do you know where I found it? Stuck in the crack of my locker.”

“Who put it there?” Rosemary asked, coming to stand where she could look over Ted’s shoulder.

“Who do you think?”

“You’re getting into a very annoying habit of answering a question with a question, Sarah,” Ted said. “If you know who put it there, say so. If you don’t, say you don’t. Which is it?”

“I don’t know for a fact,” Sarah admitted, “but I think it’s ninety-nine to one that it’s a message from your darling daughter that she and her mother wish Rosemary and I were dead.”

“What a terrible thing to say!” her mother exclaimed.

“I’m saying it because it’s true.”

“Kyra is not that kind of person,” Ted said, struggling to control his anger. “Admittedly she is having some problems adjusting to my relationship with Rosemary, but you at least should understand that. You’ve made it very clear that you would like to see our relationship fail so that you and your mother can regress to the interdependent life the two of you led before I came on the scene. And Kyra is worried about her own mother’s feelings, which is admirable, under the circumstances, since Sheila appears to be hurting. But Kyra would never send anybody a mean-spirited cartoon.”

“You have no idea what Kyra would do,” Sarah said.

“I know my daughter,” Ted said tersely.

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